Top 44 John Gourley Quotes

There’s something about Detroit, man: there’s a serious vibe there. It could be that blue-collar, working-class-mentality person who lives out there. There’s just something about it. It reminds me of Alaska. Texas has the same thing. Detroit is a little heavier than both.

I like work, I like song writing, and I like the history of Atlantic Records. They’ve sat in the studio with so many artists – like Ray Charles, for example – and created something amazing. As a label, they seem to be great at growing bands rather than telling you how to do it.

There are some athletes who I feel like are just looking for likes, and then there are people who are just real.

We’ve always done what we do, and we go out and try and get better with each record we make.

Levis are my go-to. Plain crew necks and jeans.

Whether it be tour posters, album packaging, videos, stage design, etc., the visual aspect of music is very important to us.

It’s silly to me to not be positive about rock advancing and growing. Really, we just want rock n’ roll to be mainstream.

I want to share music that we grew up with for this generation, the music my parents shared with me.

The reason I got into music was obviously because of bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, things like that.

It’s so perfectly Alaska to be like, ‘Dad we’re going to the Grammys,’ and for him to be like, ‘Oh, well that’s great, Johnny. All right, gotta go back to work.’

Portland is where all the fringe groups went to escape. Where the outliers brought that DIY, punk rock attitude and made the city their own.

We lived out in the middle of nowhere – the most random places – because of my father’s work. We spent a lot of time in the car on long drives, just to get anywhere. We listened to oldies rock on the car radio, and the most-played group on oldies rock radio is the Beatles.

As an artist, you can’t expect a producer to just bring you a record. If you walk in and say, ‘I want Kanye West’s ‘Power,’ it just doesn’t work that way.

I think we’re pretty spiritual people, the band in general. We’re not a bunch of hippies or anything like that, but we like to work together and work with people. We believe that positive energy is pretty necessary in life, although it’s not always easy to maintain.

We should be able to write songs for a new album every six months. If you think about it, it’s not a crazy amount of writing.

My dad just left high school in ’69, went to Woodstock, and after half a year of college for architecture, just took off for Alaska. He bought a van and went straight into the mountains and built a cabin.

I like the challenge of writing music without being the coolest guy or band in the room.

It’s funny, because I had no intention of being in a band because I was so shy. But I loved playing music and loved writing songs. I always thought I’d be in the background and, if I did get into a band, be a backup musician.

My first concert was Pantera.

Being robbed is a really great way of editing your belongings.

To me, sci-fi has the most amazing style.

Nike is obviously more sporty than Adidas. I always associate Adidas with Beastie Boys and Run-DMC.

When we were kids, my favorite thing was coming to upstate New York where my family is from and hanging out with my grandparents’ friends pre-Internet and them asking if we had stores or ‘Do you have TV in Alaska?’

The period in the name – huge mistake, I know. We didn’t think about that. We never thought we were going to be written up in magazines. The second we saw it in print, like, what a mistake, man.

I think there are really great movements happening in Portland. It’s nice being in a place that supports itself and stands on its own.

I love running and good running shoes.

It’s really hard to escape where you were brought up. Not that I would ever want to escape it.

I feel like rock n’ roll has become very tame.

Poor Ron Paul. He means well. He really does. But there’s something about him. I don’t know what it is. From falling victim to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno to that old-man shuffle, he just seems like kind of a… like kind of a sissy.

My dad would come to pick me up from high school in a beaver-skin cap, big gloves, his parka and everything. It was so funny to see him show up – his beard all frozen from being out with the dogs.

It’s OK to fail once in awhile.

The worst gift I have ever gotten on Christmas is going to see Tim Allen in ‘The Santa Clause.’

‘Feel It Still’ came around pretty much as organically as you can put a song together.

That’s really important in a producer – a producer that can step up and play a keyboard, play a bass, play a guitar, and help you with things instead of just saying, ‘I think this could be better.’

As much as we love an excuse to dress up, the red carpet is not the place.

We grew up in Alaska and will rep The North Face all day long.

I grew up in Alaska, okay? My dad graduated high school and went straight to the mountains. He had $300 and staked a claim. He didn’t even have enough to put a title on the land: just had the records that he bought before he moved.

I’m just not into the shady side of the music industry. Give credit where credit’s due.

You can never really know what a record’s going to be.

I see a lot of people say you just make the music you wanna make and just love what you do, and that is what we do, but I wanna write the best songs we can.

We started playing music because of the Wu-Tang Clan.

I was a shy kid growing up, and I liked the idea of playing under this alter ego: like, I could be Ziggy Stardust, but I also knew I could never be Ziggy Stardust.

Great musicians need great producers. The Beatles had George Martin.

I’ve never been to a beach party before. We have gravel-pit parties in Alaska.