John Gourley Quotes
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I've always been into thrifting. I'm a fan of finding unique pieces and having them tailored or altered.
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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.
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Miles Davis and Felonious Monk, they're both great artists who enhance things.
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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.
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Nike is obviously more sporty than Adidas. I always associate Adidas with Beastie Boys and Run-DMC.
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My favourite piece of music is actually 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' as a whole. For me, it's the most perfect and brilliant example of rock song writing.
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You can't just be a rock star by rehashing things you've seen or done before. Bring something new, which is what hip-hop does best.
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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?'
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Growing up, the only acts that came to us in Alaska were the big ones. The Mariah Careys.
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Music is something that you really have to want to do it, and there has to be a reason behind it.
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We're just nerds that play music. Because we get played on the radio and have a Vitaminwater ad with Aaron Paul dancing on a treadmill, people are going to say we sold out. I don't write music for that. I write music for me.
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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.
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My dad builds houses, and, for the earlier portion of my life anyway, we moved around quite a bit. It took us to some just really amazing places.
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When I talk to my mom and dad, and I'm in Paris, I'm like, 'Can you believe it?' It's ridiculous. I have a serious love for what we do. It's not something we take for granted.
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The reason I got into music was obviously because of bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, things like that.
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The whole band is from Alaska. It's like growing up anywhere else.
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You can never predict a hit.
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We pride ourselves on being a touring band. We work very hard to give a great and unique performance.
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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.'
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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.
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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.'