John Gourley Quotes

The creative part for me is making songs, and that's what I really love the most, and that's what I've always done for every band I've ever had.

I'm not one of those guys who can just take a guitar into a room and come out with a song. I need all my instruments dotted around.

You're always thinking about making new music.

I don't go into any album with pressing issues. I just try to write songs.

When I graduated high school, I bought a guitar and, at first, didn't really think I'd get into the songwriting thing as much as I did. But after learning a few songs of other people's to play on the guitar, I got bored with that and just started writing songs on my own, and that's kinda how it came about.

I probably wrote three-quarters of the songs without an instrument in my hands.

I'm never too ambitious when I go into the studio. I always know that I'm just going into the studio to work on or try to develop an idea that I have for a song.

I've done a lot of albums and I kinda know when I'm onto something that was inspirational for me to record and create, and this was one of those projects where I really enjoyed making the album.

There is no formula to it. Writing every song is a little journey. The first note has to lift you.

I made my first complete song when I was 9.

I love going into the studio with just an idea of the direction. Like, I want this tempo... I love to start from scratch, and the tracks sort of take on a life of their own.

In my off-time, I do record. Once in a while, I'll just go into the studio if there's a really good song that I have in my head and want to do. I think, as artists, you're constantly in creative motion. If I stopped writing songs, then that's a part of me that would stop in my life, and I need constant motion.

Whether I'm writing solo stuff, electronic stuff, or material for Motley, I just write to write. I come up with it and put things in different piles.

I'm not the sort of chap who can sit down and write music. When it comes, I'm happy.

I'm just writing less of my own music lately - I go in and out of phases a lot. Sometimes there are these accidents that just sort of happen, that are kind of waiting around the corner. I guess Modest Mouse was one of them.

I have this really beautiful Martin guitar, and it just kind of writes songs for me.

I can't legislate a song into being; it just will not happen for me.

I didn't write any music at all, and then, I remember Jon Anderson being very insistent saying that there were two kinds of musicians: the ones who wrote music and the ones who didn't.

I sit down and create atmospheres, start playing guitar or piano and just sing whatever comes out of my mouth.

Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and come out with a piece of music.

Writing music and lyrics, you tend to become a control freak - sitting alone in your room with a bare light bulb over your head, writing communist manifestos.

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

I've already got notebooks full of ideas for new music, so I'm gonna kind of nurture that just like I do all of my ideas and perfect it until it's ready and then I'll just let it go.

I'm not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.

I just start playing music and eventually I sing something, a line of a verse or a B section or a line of a chorus, and the line that I end up singing is related to the music I'm playing, if that makes any sense. And I go from there.