Her song Suburbia, taken off her 2009 debut LP Good Evening, was a gorgeous gem of transcendental minimalistic melancholia, and the world took notice. Not bad for a self-made bedroom recording that first came to notice on her MySpace page! Now Inertia Records have just released her follow-up, the enchanting and R&B-washed One Second Of Love – and Nite Jewel’s star is rising. Reached by phone at her home in LA, Gonzalez comes across as thoughtful, deliberate and cheerful as she chats with us about the new record, her love of the Kosmische sound, her marriage to legendary producer and engineer Cole MGN (Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Beck) and Inertia’s imminent re-release of Good Evening.
“I’m always learning in the process of recording,” she answers when I ask her about the major differences between recording her two albums. “I recorded [One Second Of Love] in a more warm environment by anyone’s standards, with a lot more musicians and more equipment and whatnot. That kind of situation has more of a learning curve as far as learning to collaborate with people … and to record for a better sound is a totally difference!”
But to say that she came into recording this album with a firm set of ideas in mind would be far off the mark. “I don’t think I really had any ideas, they change with the time,” she murmurs softly. “I think I’m always pretty head-strong about what I want to do, and with this record I wanted to make a high-fidelity recording. Originally I wanted to make an instrumental electronic record, a high-fidelity electronic record!” she laughs.
If one listens to One Second Of Love, the first thing they might notice is how tight and polished it sounds. The synths are crisp and clear, the guitar hooks are elegant and assured, the melodies are focused, yet there’s a sultry jaggedness to the proceedings, with a darkness that permeates everything like a smoky residue. Case in point would be the sombre song In The Dark and the terrifically catchy title track.
When I point out that morose sadness seems to be the general theme, Gonzalez readily agrees – to a point. “I think that [those themes] certainly revolve around melancholy and nostalgia,” she admits. “And the two of them often go hand in hand!” It’s to do, she says, with not only looking at different forms of memories, but also peering warily towards the future in “an apocalyptic way.”
“It’s sort of a critique of how people relate to each other nowadays, but not really a critique of how you’re somehow outside of a situation,” she says in a fashion that seems to be half explanation and half query. Formed partly with the lilt of ‘70s soft rock and the Kosmische sounds of bands like Neu!, Can and – most definitely – Kraftwerk in mind, One Second Of Love is also the product of a loving and fruitful relationship Gonzalez embarked on with husband Cole Marsden Greif Neill, who aided in producing and arranging this delicate yet forceful sophomore album.
It’s the musical language that they’ve managed to create over the years, Gonzalez insists, explaining how “that was really essential, that we were making music before we became an item.”
Surely it must be a wonderful thing, being able to share such an important facet of your life with the one you love? “Absolutely!” she cheerily exclaims. “It’s awesome! It’s great, because we don’t have to have many reservations in the studio. We can just – we don’t even have to speak to each other!” she laughs loudly.
And how does the process of writing work for the two of them? Simple, she says. Cole ends up contributing to the beats, “whereas I write the lyrics and the melodies and the structure of the song. And then [Cole] will come in after and very intuitively understand the music immediately. And he’ll help shape the songs – stacking them and moving them, smoothing out the edges.”
Talk naturally turns to her debut Good Evening, and its re-release through Secretly Canadian/Inertia. Gonzalez is absolutely thrilled. “I’m really happy about it! It’s been a while, and I’m really excited that people are going to be able to get their hands on it! And I’ve included a little artwork, and some poetry as a little bonus to anybody who wants to get their hands on it!”
So is this re-issue going to be re-mastered and remixed? Or has she decided to leave it alone, as is: a time capsule of a spectacular time in her life? Gonzalez pauses for a moment to think.
“You know,” she admits, “over the years I’ve thought a lot about re-mastering it and remixing the record. I totally thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to re-do this, I’m going to re-do this,’ and I really think that this particular rendition … it just doesn’t make sense to change it, you know? I just didn’t think it was appropriate to change it. I really wanted people to hear that original release.” Gonzalez takes a breath and laughs loudly. “As crazy as it sounds, I’ve finally come to terms with it!”
BY THOMAS BAILEY
