Jose Gonzalez checks out Amy’s favorite posts. (photo from Myspace.)

Jose Gonzalez plays tonight, March 5, at the 6th and I Historic Synagogue.

There are some really awful and unnecessary cover songs in this world. I learned this firsthand when my college roommate insisted on playing Gwyneth Paltrow’s version of “Bette Davis Eyes” on loop in our apartment. (He was fond of Alana Davis’ “32 Flavors” too…and he was the straight one!) Swedish musician Jose Gonzalez, however, is particularly adept at taking well-known songs like “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and “Teardrop” and making them completely his own.

Born in Sweden to Argentinean parents, Gonzalez was raised in Gothenburg, the town namechecked in Jens Lekman’s “Maple Leaves.” A completely solo artist — his concerts are just him and a guitar—Gonzalez is probably best known for his cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats.” Haven’t heard it? If you’ve seen the Sony Bravia ad with all the rubber balls bouncing down a hill, you’ve heard it.

His own music, like How Low and Killing for Love, is nothing to scoff at either. Gonzalez has the kind of voice that makes you want to cry and make out at the same time— it’s beautiful enough to simultaneously suit heartbreak and joy. That creates a conundrum for his audience, though. With music this ambiguous, its unclear whether one should throw their panties onstage or just bundles of black roses.

The New Gay Zack: Between you and Jens Lekman, Swedish musicians make Gothenburg seem pretty gloomy. Is it really as dreary as your music would suggest?

Jose Gonzalez: Yeah, its a pretty small town. Its kind of a university industrial town, its gray most of the year.

TNG: Did your background as a biology student there affect your music?

JG: Maybe slightly. I created this topic for the album [In Our Nature, Jose's newest], but its more about human nature and, I guess, my interest for trying to find universal topics, my interest in finding things that have a sense of urgency and seriousness. So I guess its more about human nature and not so much about molecules.

TNG: Do you ever mind being lumped in with the rest of the current Swedish pop invasion?

JG: I have different sound. Most of the Swedish bands that made it abroad are from very different genres, so in a way I’m part of it just because I’m Swedish. We have a lot of support just by the fact that we’re Swedish, it gets attention because of that fact. Much of the Swedish scene has a lot of quality to it, I don’t mind being lumped in there. Its part of a phenomenon that… I don’t know why it is.

TNG: What are your favorite of the Swedish bands currently making it in America?

JG: I really like my girlfriend’s band, Little Dragon.They’re just released their album on the UK label Peacefrog. I don’t think they’ve released anything yet in the U.S., but they’re on it.

TNG: Its actually surprising that you have a girlfriend because your music sounds so heartbroken. Is that just your sound or is it your personality?

JG: Many of the songs on [debut album] Veneer, and the covers I play, are kind of heartbroken songs, they affect me even though I’m in a relationship. Its actually been a topic that I’ve been trying to avoid on the new album. I enjoy humor and I’m not that gloomy a person, but I still have those sides in me.

TNG: Were you in a relationship for the writing of Veneer?

JG: Most of the time. In the music I tend to create a sense of strong feelings, so I bring out events in my life and other people’s lives and make it times ten.

TNG: How do you pick what songs to cover?

JG: I’ve been picking songs that are my favorites and songs that I know pretty well, like “Heartbeats” and “Teardrop” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” but most of the time it comes down to the lyrics. The lyrics need to be something that I can stand for, and that I can like aesthetically, so it was mostly the lyrics and the feeling that i could put it in a different point of view.

TNG: Do you think people know you as just a covers artist?

JG: I think there’s a lot of people that know me more because my covers, but being on tour and playing live people like other songs too. So I think the more hardcore fans like many other songs too, but the people that know me only from a TV commercial in the UK might think its only the covers that are interesting. That’s how it works, I’m not really bothered by it.

TNG: On the same note, do you mind that people might only know you through a TV commercial?

JG: That’s a negative aspect that I’m counting on. I feel like its not an ideal way of presenting my music,but its all about weighing the pros and cons. It doesn’t bother me that much, as long as I’m not really hanging the music for the commercial. In the long run I think the music will stand on its own and people who like the music will think about the music and not so much the commercial.

TNG: Have you heard feedback from any of the original artists about your covers?

JG: The Knife — I knew them personally before the cover. I came over to their studio and gave them a CD with my version to make sure they were OK with it and they gave me the thumbs up.

TNG: What’s next for you?

JG n>: I would like to make new music with Junip, my band that has been on hold for many years now, and then of course I would like to make another album. I’m really slow at writing, it’ll probably take a while. I would like to make at least one more record in this same vein with just guitar, vocals and percussion.

TNG: Do you have any dream songs that you’ve always wanted to cover?

JG: Not exactly, I want to not do too many covers. I feel like I would like to have a fourth or fifth record of only covers, but I’m saving that for later.tng