Los Angeles-resident Ramona Gonzalez, AKA Nite Jewel, has a synthpop project that oozes with dreamy synths and blissful washed-out vocals.
Entering the scene in 2009 with her debut release Good Evening, Gonzalez has released multiple projects including 2012’s One Second Of Love, and 2016’s Liquid Cool under the Nite Jewel moniker, even landing a spot on Grand Theft Auto V’s soundtrack.
And now, eight years later, Gonzalez has released yet another chillingly blissful full-length, Real High, with another full-length’s worth of b-sides to-boot.
The personal process of writing this album was cathartic for Gonzalez as she found herself evolving musically from her debut release. “I think I was really embarrassed to really say these things that I found really personal outright. I was younger and I was kind of self-conscious in many ways,” she says.
“My songs also have this sense of more universal messages whether it’s the concept of a real high and a real low. The society that we live in, we’re constantly being thrust into instances in which we feel really good and really bad all the time; the dopamine effect of social media or whatever, just coffee or drugs or sex.
“As a musician, that is constantly being thrust at you. We’re talking right now, yesterday I jumped into a fjord in Norway but the day before that I was hungover and doing airline transfers all day. Everything is constantly going up and down and I think that is personal, but also that isn’t unique to me. The album is my version of those events which could be felt by anyone, musician or not.”
This concept dictates most of her LP, but was an idea that didn’t come to Gonzalez recently, taking her a long time to conceptualise.
“I started ‘Real High’, the song, in 2011 or maybe 2010. I wrote that song back then, all in one piece, and it really didn’t change that much. It was a song that I really felt was a strong piece and I knew that it would be the centrepiece of an album somehow.”
This process of building an album from this original idea had its fair share of setbacks for Gonzalez. “I did actually finish the Real High album in its previous form in 2013. It was differently produced and I decided not to put it out then because I felt like it wasn’t exactly right, so to finally have it out after that much time is unbelievably liberating.”
Gonzalez isn’t alone in the recording process. Her husband Cole M. Greif-Neill assists her in studio to flesh out her tracks and may make a live appearance in her upcoming Australian shows. “I start all the recordings by myself and make the drums, and make the arrangements and sing it and then if needed, I try to get Cole to finalise it, to polish it off with me,” she says.
“In some cases, the songs don’t need his touch but in a lot of cases I like to have his touch on there because we’ve been working together for so long, all the way since my first album. The Nite Jewel sound is partially this collaborative spirit that we have, that’s existed for so long.”
Getting her start as Nite Jewel by experimenting with sound installations in art galleries in Echo Park, Gonzalez is no stranger to shows like the NGV Friday Nights.
“Whether I’m going to play at a nightclub, or a church, it’s more up to the musician to adjust their mood or their demeanour and their sound to whatever environment and really play off the environment. The cool thing about music is that it can be consumed anywhere.”
Excitedly awaiting the NGV’s Dior exhibition, Gonzalez reflected on the similarities between fashion and music and how her fashion sense has changed since she started the project.
“I don’t have very many clothes aside from the ones I perform in. I have a see-through onesie with weird stones on it. I feel more like Nite Jewel in my daily life because of it influencing my style.”
