It's been nearly eight years since Jose Gonzalez released his last solo album, but the Swedish musician has certainly kept busy. Jose and his band stopped by The Current to perform tracks off the album live in-studio and to chat with Jade between his two sold out shows at the Cedar Cultural Center.

"When I toured with my second album [In Our Nature] around 2007/2008, I already had my aim at making a Junip [his side project with Tobias Winterkorn] album," says Gonzalez. During their last few months touring the record, Jose and Tobias thought they'd record a follow-up while they were at it. "That whole time I was thinking of my solo third album," explains Jose.

Once Jose finally got around to writing Vestiges & Claws, though, it came much easier than his two previous albums – mostly because lyrics weren't as much of a struggle. The delicate album has an optimistic feel to it. "I think of 'vestiges' as the past, the luggage, the stuff we carry around, and 'claws' to me had this future type of feeling to it," says Jose. "It's a metaphor of course so thinking of humanity you can think about the tools that we have both mental, ideas, but also technical tools."

Songs Performed

"With the Ink of a Ghost"
"Every Age"
"Leaf Off/The Cave"

All songs off of Jose Gonzalez's latest album, Vestiges & Claws, out now via Mute Records.

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