Summer Music: How Nature Inspires Musician Jesus Gonzalez

Speaker 1: 00:00 Nature may very well be the origin of music, birds, singing, wind whistling, water flowing. All these sounds create a relaxing symphony that can give us a grand perspective beyond what we see on our tiny screens and relief from the stressful sounds of traffic, blaring TVs and crowds during what seems like a never ending quarantine music and nature are some of the few things that help us feel normal. So let's introduce our next guest. Hazel's Gonzalez whose music draws inspiration from nature and so much more here's his song never been so happy. Speaker 2: 01:14 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 01:40 Here's what's Gonzalez. Thank you so much for joining us on midday edition. Thank you. Speaker 2: 01:43 If you're having me, it's a pleasure. Speaker 1: 01:46 Talk to me a bit about what inspires you. What makes you make music? Speaker 2: 01:51 I love nature. I love poetry. I read a lot of Rumi and BS. I think there are a lot of lessons that we can take from nature and just our human experience in general. A lot of, a lot of my vocals are inspired by blues, sometimes African music, a lot of classical Indian music, but there's also overtone singing, which originated in Mongolia. I believe those are very inspiring elements in my music. Speaker 1: 02:44 It seems like nature is definitely one of your big influences. Has that been the case ever since you began? Speaker 2: 02:50 It was, yeah. I, you know, it's interesting. I'm not religious anymore, but I was reading a lot of stories about angel singing and in the Bible when Speaker 3: 03:00 I was little really mystified to me. And so that was a huge inspiration as well. Um, but nature definitely, um, came through and, and sparked something deeper in me. Speaker 1: 03:11 And what is it that you hear in nature that inspires you to start making music? Speaker 3: 03:17 Just the way the natural elements sound. I mean, there's, there's, there are rivers, there are insects the way the wind blows through trees and it goes much deeper than their sound. It's more, it's more of a feeling Speaker 1: 03:30 We're going to listen to your song. Harmony Grove. Tell us a bit about what inspired this song. Speaker 3: 03:36 So harmony Grove was inspired by a hike. I took in the elephant forest Speaker 1: 03:42 And this of course it's elephant forest right here in San Diego County. Right, Speaker 3: 03:46 Indeed. And, um, it was just the perfect day. There was, it was kind of a rainy hazy day and the sun looked so beautiful behind the haze. And I was just so moved by the whole entire experience that I had to write a song about it. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 04:51 That was harmony Grove by Hazel's Gonzalez. So now a lot of your songs are inspired by, by some of your favorite places in San Diego. Tell us about your song kingdom of God, and then we'll listen to it. Speaker 3: 05:04 So I went to Mount Laguna, which is about maybe 40 minutes away from where I live. It's this beautiful forest. I went there one day, many years ago and just sat with the forest and quietude and, uh, came to this really beautiful realization that if the kingdom of God was anywhere, it's here in this very moment. And so that, that's what inspired the song. Mount Laguna, sitting in that doing, I went up there, recorded the song, recorded the guitar during the daytime and the vocals at night time. So that you get the frogs and the birds to sing together in one summer [inaudible] Speaker 1: 06:48 That was kingdom of God by his was Gonzalez. Now sometimes you do live shows and I want to ask you, what are they like? Speaker 3: 06:56 So in my life shows, I use a, I use a Looper, which allows me to layer lots of sounds in real time, all layer, guitar layer, vocals, shakers, beat boxing. So watching me live is kind of fun because you get to see things just happen spontaneously. Cause I improvise a lot of what I do. Speaker 1: 07:16 Have you always made music? I mean, how old were you when you began? Speaker 3: 07:20 So I started playing music when I was eight years old, very young age. Did you have much formal training? Uh, no. I, I, so I learned by ear. I decided to just pick it up on my own. My mom offered me guitar lessons, vocal lessons, but as a kid, I didn't really want any of those things. Speaker 1: 07:38 Why weren't you interested in informal music lessons? Speaker 3: 07:41 I just, I felt like I felt like lessons would make it more of a, of a knowledge rather than a feeling. And I was a little kid at the time. So it felt natural for me to just play with music and just play with the unknown aspect of it all. Speaker 1: 07:57 It seems to me that your music is particularly helpful at a time like this, where there's so much stress surrounding the pandemic. Are you hoping that in some ways you're able to help people get through, make it through this time? Speaker 3: 08:12 Absolutely. I think music is a strong medicine, especially for times like these. And, uh, I'm hoping that I am contributing in some way to the big, to the bigger picture and helping people relax and relieve a little stress. Maybe not take themselves too seriously. Speaker 1: 08:31 Here's his, what do you hope people will experience while they're listening to your music Speaker 3: 08:38 To inspire others and to inspire myself by constantly acknowledging that we are living in something very special here. This thing that we call life is very miraculous and I hope that my music and my life touches upon that for myself. And Speaker 2: 08:56 We've been speaking with Hazel's Conzalez who is a local San Diego musician. Hazel. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you so much for having to hear the full interview. See a video of his, this comes out as performing and for links to his music, visit kpbs.org/summer music series [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible].