José González in Manchester

About the artist

José Gabriel González (born 31 July 1978) is a Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg, Sweden. González is also a member of the Swedish band Junip, along with Tobias Winterkorn. Early life and education : In 1976, the González family – made up of González's father, a National University of San Luis psychology student, González's mother, a fellow student studying biochemistry, both of whom were politically active, and González's older sister, then an infant – fled Argentina after an ultra-conservative military junta seized power in March 1976, the beginning of the "Dirty War". José was born two years later, in 1978, in a suburb of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has a younger sibling. He commented, "It's a very small town. It has about a half-million people living there. It's a pretty good music city by the ocean. It rains a lot there, but it's beautiful in the summertime." González grew up listening to Latin folk and pop music and has named Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez as a favourite artist. He said the first concert he went to was "The Wailers. I got their autographs and everything. I was about 12 or so. At the time, my favourite music was Bob Marley and Michael Jackson." González was in a PhD program for Biochemistry at the University of Gothenburg. In 2003, González stopped working on the PhD, as his musical career became a new focus.