Photo by Karla Andreasson
Junip: "Line of Fire" on SoundCloud.
Jose Gonzalez is the type of musician you might expect to wax poetic about the limitations of technology and the dangers of ubiquity. A Nick Drake acolyte who works with little more than fingerpicked acoustic guitar and his soft voice, Gonzalez doesn't have much in the way of an online presence. (I'm willing to bet a good portion of his fans don't know what he looks like, or that he's from Sweden.) And he produces new music at at a pace that's positively tectonic; it's been nearly six years since his last solo album, the haunting In Our Nature, with no timetable as to when its follow-up might appear. But there's the more pressing matter of his revitalized, kraut-inspired band Junip, which picked back up after 12 years of dormancy in 2010 for an exquisite EP, Rope & Summit, and a follow-up LP, Fields. By comparison, the three-year wait for their self-titled sophomore album, due out next month via Mute, is a turnaround time worthy of Bob Pollard.
Gonzalez's patience certainly manifests on Junip. Its roomy, slowly unfolding songs, like first single "Line of Fire", subtly expand on Fields, showcasing a band that's figured out what it does best while confidently exploring all it's capable of. Tracks that might otherwise might have been spare Gonzalez songs are bolstered with airy jazz textures, Brazilian rhythms, and German motorik. As Gonzalez took a break from geeking out to Dan Snaith's Daphni project and evaluating cover art options for Junip, we spoke about the new record.
"It can be a bit frustrating to always get the soft-rock stamp."
Pitchfork: From an emotional standpoint, how do your Junip lyrics differ from the ones you write for your own songs?
Jose Gonzalez: I let the music set the tone of the lyrics and, this time, I allowed myself to write more about relationships and emotions, in a girly way almost. [laughs] But it's not always personal; it's about making the music emotional or big.
Pitchfork: What sonic ideas or stylistic tendencies did drummer Elias Araya and keyboardist Tobias Winterkorn bring to this album?
JG: Tobias is really into melodies and more traditional pop songs-- he's the analog-synth nerd, and he likes to play with distortion a lot. Elias has the most patience for moody or weird music-- so he's got the more artistic side. And, with the style of his drumming, he's the one who makes most of our songs so repetitive and he adds a crowded element without too many fills. He hasn't studied music, so whenever he does percussion or keyboards, he just hits the black keys and sees what happens, it's more from an artistic side than an entirely musical side.
Pitchfork: Are the band members more comfortable playing with each other now as compared to the first album?
JG: Yeah, there are a couple of examples of that, like "Line of Fire", which is more orchestrated and traditional-sounding than many of the Fields songs. And with a song like "Baton", we did these additional jam sessions acoustically with one mic, forcing everyone to play very softly. It was us taking a different step in how we work together.
Pitchfork: What about a song like "Villain", which is less than two minutes and pretty loud-- is there ever a temptation to really rock out with Junip in a way that might not be allowed with your solo work?
JG: Yeah, definitely. All three of us have a history in louder music, so when we did that song, we felt like it would be nice to add some of that element. It can be a bit frustrating to always get the soft-rock stamp. [laughs]
Pitchfork: Who are your influences when you're looking to listen to something louder and more aggressive?
JG: We always get back to old soul singers like Nina Simone, and how her recordings sound. Also new music like Tobacco, or people that use a mixture of analog and electronic music.
Pitchfork: What's the influence behind the song "Your Life Your Call", which takes on an unusually synthetic tone?
JG: I guess the 80s, which is sort of a new step for us. We had a version that sounded really different, but then Tobias, who's been listening to a lot of New Order, put some programmed drums on it. Writing lyrics for that one felt a bit like trying on new clothes for me.