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.
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.
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 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.
The worst gift I have ever gotten on Christmas is going to see Tim Allen in 'The Santa Clause.'
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.
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.
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.
We grew up in Alaska and will rep The North Face all day long.
I'm just not into the shady side of the music industry. Give credit where credit's due.
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.
Right after we recorded 'Satanic Satanist' and 'American Ghetto' here in Boston, we decided we'd grow our hair out. This is - was - like the Beatles thing. I wanted to see these pictures later in life.
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.
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.
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.'
Some New York bands you'll see rocking Ones or Dunks and things like that, but it is weird that the sneakerhead thing has become so massive. Personally, I think it's really silly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
