John Gourley

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.

I went to so many sleepovers where these parents were reading the 'Book of Revelation' before bed and things like that. I would listen to that stuff, and I would sit there and say to myself, 'If God is so great and so good, why is there this list of rules?' Like, you go to hell if you don't believe in him and hold him up above everyone else.

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

Portugal. The Man, to me, doesn't have any real ties. We try to change things up with every album, really progress, and let things happen.

The Alaskan summers are one of the most amazing things you can see.

Music is something that you really have to want to do it, and there has to be a reason behind it.

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

Money messes up everything. It ruins art. The second you start putting price tags on this stuff, it's... Art isn't for just the wealthy. It's for everybody to enjoy.

To be an artist that is fully original, it doesn't exist.

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

Basically, great directors know how to combine music with the scenes that they are working on.

Growing up, I just always doodled, which is the worst word for it. I would just draw things in class, get yelled at by my teachers, get my drawings taken away. That stuff happened all the time.

If you don't have negative experiences, you have no way to gauge the positive ones, and you have no way to deal with it.

We tour, we do the distance from friends and family, not really knowing how to connect with people on the same level. I've understood now, as much as we tour, we live day-to-day, so our lives are much different than the people who stay at home and go home every night.

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.'

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.

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

We went to Japan and stayed an extra day just to go shopping. New York is one of those places where we never get that. If we're there, we're working.

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.

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