JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ

José Gabriel González (born 31 July 1978) is an Argentinian-Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg, Sweden. González is also a member of the Swedish band Junip, along with Tobias Winterkorn.

In 1976 the González family, of academic psychologist father, mother, and 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, 1978, in a suburb of Gothenburg, Sweden. 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."