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I recently got a chance to talk to John Baldwin Gourley from Portugal. The Man, and then to go check them out live a few days later at a place called The Loft, in Madison, Wisconsin. Below, you’ll find a transcript of our chat. The show review can be found here, and music-reviewer.com’s review of Church Mouth, the new album from Portugal. The Man, is available in last month’s issue, courtesy of Will Thomas.

As you can see below, it was one of those chats where you jump right in, and get going... and get going we did, because we didn’t wrap things up until about 40 minutes later. I had fun doing the interview, and checking out the show, and I hope you enjoy the recaps!

John Baldwin Gourley (PTM): Hey!

Partha Mukhopadhyay (M-R): How are you?

PTM: Doing well, I’m just sitting in the van

M-R: Where are you guys at right now?

PTM: We’re on our way to Buffalo, we’re going to get some chicken wings.  Gotta get some, for sure.

M-R: That’s what you do in Buffalo, right?

PTM: Shit yeah, that’s what you do. That’s what we do.

M-R: When you get down here to Madison this Sunday, go check out State Street if you haven’t been up here before, cool bars up there.

PTM: Alright.

M-R: Looking forward to the show, I’ve been listening to your disc the last couple of weeks.

PTM: Well, that’s good news.

M-R: Let’s talk about that van. Is that the same one that broke down outside of Jackson, Mississippi… looking through your press notes here, the incident that led to "Children."

PTM: Yeah, we got it fixed. It seems to be running fine now. Pretty good investment, I’d say. I mean, you know, $4000 to just fix it, make it run like new, and then $22000 for a new van. I’d say we made the right investment, at least at this point. It breaks down again though (laughing) shit….

M-R: …that’s it for the van…

PTM: …It’s staying where it dies.

M-R: Hey, at least you got a kick ass song out of it. That’s actually one of my favorites on this disc, something about that line about, "heading down to the river, don’t believe in medicine…"

PTM: Oh, yeah, yeah.

M-R: Of all the moments on the "Church Mouth" CD, that’s the one that sticks with me the most.

PTM: Alright, (laughing) we don’t believe in medicine here.

M-R: So, I’m not going to ask you about the band name, I’ve seen you explain it like 14 times, and still everybody seems to insist on asking about it.

PTM: Oh yeah, that’s always very exciting (laughing).

M-R: But I’m almost compelled to ask you about Alaska, because the state, it… it’s almost a physical presence in the band, the way every reviewer and interview has to mention, "Oh my God, they’re from Alaska."

PTM: Yeah, you know what, I find that really funny because, last album, we were a band from Alaska. (laughing)

M-R: And it didn’t come up?

PTM: I feel pretty good that it’s only being brought up now. If that was the selling point of the band, I don’t know if I’d be too cool on that. That’s where we were brought up, that’s where we were raised. But it really doesn’t make it much different than anywhere else in the world, it’s just…it’s looks nice, and it sounds….uhhh…actually, it doesn’t have many sounds. So that’s definitely a plus, it’s a pretty quiet place, and a really nice place where you can just lay back.

M-R: (laughing) I was going to turn the question on its head a little bit…if you’d grown up in Brooklyn, or freakin’ Idaho or something, do you think you’d be making the same kind of music, or would you be making music at all?

PTM: Oh, I couldn’t even imagine. I imagine that I may be playing music. At the same time, everything that’s happened in my life has led up to me playing in this band, obviously the same way everything in your life has come together and made you do what you’re doing right this second. I couldn’t say whether I’d be doing it, or whether if it’d be the same band. This band definitely came to a lot out of us just like finding ourselves after leaving the state and just realizing how open the world is. We shouldn’t just be so tied down to what we were doing in high school. We were so tied down to a lot of things, and, uh, this band is just completely open to progress and movement. It definitely came out of Alaska, but also out of our families, so had our families brought us up in a different place, we might be in the same position.

M-R: My dad was stoked to hear about your parents doing the Iditarod thing.

PTM: Oh yeah, definitely cool. We got that shit under control.

M-R: (laughing) So you guys, are you still based in Alaska, or you guys based in the lower 48 now?

PTM: Actually, we’re based in Portland, Oregon, that’s where we tour out of and that’s what keeps the band alive. If we were touring out of Alaska, it’d just be so much time and stress…..you know, drive….It’d just be crazy to try and live up there as a band. And I’m not saying that we couldn’t do it now. Now, I feel like we can do it, for we can actually get flown up for shows and flown down for shows. But, to start out there? I mean,we’ve been touring like crazy. I mean, we still don’t get paid, but to get offered flights, you know, to show? That’s amazing.

M-R: Oh yeah, I saw your touring schedule, it seemed like you spent so much time in Germany last year. And you’re going back after this US tour?

PTM: Yeah we’re going back to Germany in a couple of weeks.

M-R: Did you just get a good deal over there or did you just catch on over there for some reason?

PTM: Yeah, for whatever reason it seemed to really well in Germany. We’re really thankful for that, just like we’re really thankful for all the people coming out for the shows here. Its still people and its still appreciated.

M-R: So you caught on in Germany based on the "Waiter! You Vultures" disc, right?

PTM: Yeah, we have both albums out over there.

M-R: I’m just curious as what the reception on tour is after "Church Mouth" has come out, b/c I’ve managed to find about half the previous disc online and listen to that. It seems there’s more synthesizer, more sequenced. A lot more out there, where "Church Mouth" is a little more back to basics, classic rock, groove-laden.

PTM: Yeah, it was a definite thought. We already made "Waiter! You Vultures", that record with the beat based, electronic stuff. I mean I really love using drum machine and all that. But with this record it really felt like we really need to focus with our writing and we just needed to sit down and pull it together and make a record that would be really fun to play live. And that was the whole thought behind it, to make a record that we can play live and have a really good time playing

M-R: So was that decision to write toward the live show, was that made before or after the addition of the live drummer, after Jason came on board?

PTM: It was after Jason came on board. It was actually even later than that, it was after we got a percussionist as well to play all those beats from "Waiter! You Vultures" live. We got like congas and stuff. It just sounded really cool and there was a lot more movement and a lot more soul I guess. And it was a lot more free too. To just let us move around. We really like to jam and just play shit.

M-R: I read that you guys do get musicians up there to fill it out. Anything in store for Madison, or is that something that comes together last minute?

PTM: Uh, that’s kind of a last minute thing. We’ve got a guy from "The Photo Atlas" that’s been coming up and playing conga with us. And we’ve got this band called "Shepherds of Ontario" that’s on tour with us right now. And they’re on tour with us as our band. And they’re playing like guitar and keyboard. There was another guy playing percussion but he got mono, so we had to send him home so he could get better before Germany.

M-R: Yeah, that could be a bit of a drag at a show.

PTM: Yeah, definitely a bum deal.

M-R: Thump thump, cough, it doesn’t really work….I’m looking at the credits here and it says all songs by…you. What are the contributions of the other guys in the band?

PTM: It’s so heavy. I mean, it’s….

M-R: I’m asking this from the point of view that from all the performances on the disc, it’s the bass that sticks out the most form me. Because it’s beautifully produced, it's always coming through perfectly. I’m loving the bassline especially.

PTM: Oh yeah for sure. I mean that’s one thing that’s a focus. I don’t know if a lot of people know that. We’re such a groove-based band. And with any songwriter, with Hendrix, he needed a fucking band that could pull that together, you know? And his band ripped, you know? They may be Hendrix songs, but they wouldn’t be what they are without the group to play it. And it’s very much the same with this band. Zach and I, we went to high school together. We’ve been friends for like 12 years, and we’ve just known each other forever. That’s one thing that such a huge focus, and one thing I’m really thankful for, we’re really good at just playing together. We’ll both sit down and both write basslines…I write on bass before anything, I just love playing bass. And that’s one thing we do together fairly well, you know, I can actually write a bassline, and Zach will say, "Well, fuck, let’s keep that," or, "This is how you play the bass." You know? And he’s really good at that as well, he’s a really ripping bass player. It’s not often you go see a band, even a three piece, where people are like, "Holy fuck, that bass player rips." And Zach’s one of those dudes, it’s really amazing. I love being in a band where people are just like, "Fuck, that dude is good."

M-R: I’m looking forward to it. He’s got some tasty licks going on on the disc, I just want to hear it live.

PTM: Yeah, it’s rolling.

M-R: Speaking of the production, like I said, the bassline, it sticks out, it’s juicy, it’s nice. It seems to me, and tell me if I’m off base here, was there a deliberate attempt to kind of have a live feel to the album? It sounds like the album isn’t overly produced, it sounds like it could have been, instead of you guys separately laying down your tracks in rooms by yourself, it could have been capture, you know, in one take, kind of thing.

PTM: Yeah….it wasn’t wholly intentional. There was intent to make a record that we could produce live. I think a lot of those thoughts went into making it, putting it together, so obviously it came out sounding a bit like that. There wasn’t an exact attempt to do that. We still did layers, and we still put things in, we had guest musicians on the record that were really cool, were really good players, were really great players. Yeah. We had our friends from "Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground" come in and they played on it. They played on just about every song. Kyle O’Quin played all the organs and keyboards on the new album, and Kirk played some drums here and there, and our friend Thomas played guitars. Phil from Kay Kay did arrangement on just one of the songs, but he also did some vocals as well. It was a fun collaboration.

M-R: I have to look those guys up.

PTM: I mean, for sure, a really really great band.

M-R: "Kay Kay and the Underground" you said?

PTM: "Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground."

M-R: Back to your stuff, you kind of have a progressive thing going, and you acknowledge that, because you have a progressive/grime/something else on your MySpace description.

PTM: Oh yeah, it’s definitely grime.

M-R: What’s grime referring to, when you say that?

PTM: I have a friend, this girl that I’m friends with, who’s actually a really great musician as well, whose name is Zoe Manville, and she told me what grime is. Grime is like dirty, like southern, er, South London rap, Like "MIA" is grime. Or "Dizzy Rascal" or "Lady Sovereign." From what I understand, I’m sure over here it probably has a different meaning, but…I could be off base for that, I didn’t mean to put her name to that. I was told that’s what it is, and the band definitely starts with the intent to groove (laughing), to be like a hip hop group, without necessarily rapping, or without being hip hop at all, it’s just all about that groove.

M-R: You also do the prog thing, but, I’m a prog rock fan, and that’s not the first thing that came to mind when I listened to the album, it seemed more indie rock meets the blues/soul kind of thing.

PTM: I would say….I don’t know if I’d say….we just say it’s rock and roll, you know?

M-R: It’s all rock and roll.

PTM: We’re not necessarily an indie band. We just don’t travel in that scene. I honestly don’t see us as….though we’re really like a lot of indie bands, I don’t know if we really fit into their thing. But at the same time I don’t know if we fit into the group of bands that are just, like, fucking parodies of that music. There are a lot of bands that are just like, you know, dressing that way, and playing that way. A lot of those hipster bands are that way, you know what I mean?

M-R: Well, your label, Fearless, is more of an emo thing, isn’t it?

PTM: Yeah, our label is, or was not exactly not the right label, but at the same time, they allowed to do whatever we wanted. And one thing that we always talked about…..we’re not on a label at this point, outside of Fearless and the life of this record….Fearless was really good to us in the sense that they let us have space, they let us do what we wanted and they just trusted us. They stopped asking us for demos and things that I hate doing. I will not make demos for a label. At least at this point, I’m never going to say I’m never going to do anything. But at this point right now I have no intent to ever make to demos for somebody to criticize when they’re signing us based on their assumption that we will perform. I mean why would we ever want to put out a record that we feel is not as good?

M-R: They basically let you go away and do your thing in a studio?

PTM: Yeah they just let us do what we wanted. And there’s so many cool bands. We’re friends with so many like really fucking cool bands, like bands that you would say like are really progressive and really underground and really crazy musicians and everything and they aren’t happy with their labels. You know? And they’re on, like, cool labels. It really doesn’t matter, you know, as long as the label treats you the way you need to be treated. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Matador, or 4AD or GSL or 31G or Fearless Records or Equal Vision or even a major label. There’s really no pressure on that.

M-R: Yeah really, the bigger the label name, the bigger the pressure and the more people looking over your shoulder.

PTM: Yeah, no shit. Yeah, if we ever stepped into that deal it’s going to be a pretty lopsided deal in somebody’s favor and I don’t think its going to be us giving the label leeway.

M-R: So…switch gears on you a little bit. Talking about the artwork. Kind of a modified chicken and the egg sort of thing. The press kit says that the artwork kind of comes after you write the lyrics and you’re putting visuals to the stories that you’re telling. Or…

PTM: Yeah, with some of the artwork it is. And I guess I was just talking about this pretty recently. With all the artwork it’s all related so much with the music, and with so much to the lyrics. Because everything that happens to me and around me and everything I see is really music and is the lyrics and is the visual. Its all entangled and piled up into a big mess within my head and it just kind of comes out when it needs to.

M-R: Does it ever work the other way around, I mean you’re drawing something and it just…

PTM: Oh yeah, that’s happened. Yeah I’ve done that too, like, "Fuck yeah, I’ve got to sing about that," too.

M-R: Does it happen on any particular song on "Church Mouth"? Just curious.

PTM: I can’t think of any on "Church Mouth", because I got really overwhelmed last summer, but um…

M-R: I was going to ask you about that too, you’ve got that "My Mind" song on here, and obviously when you lose yourself a little bit, you’re in a whole different space than you’d usually be. Other than that one song that’s directly about that time, are any of these other songs kind of arising from, you know, when you’re in a different mental space?

PTM: You know, I think…I’d say my mind was probably the heaviest on that, and that’s just like a fucking joke about it anyway. Like I was just really fucked up for a few months and it became a joke between Zach and I because it was like "well, that’s great, I went crazy… I hope that doesn’t happen again". It wasn’t good, it wasn’t like fun cool crazy, it was like "fuck, you’re crazy." I was like fine when I was talking to family and everything, I’d be like, "man I’m cool." But immediately after that I’d be like, no.

M-R: Something else in the press kit, about how there’s a religious theme to CM. I’m looking through the lyrics and is it supposed to be Pro-religion or Anti-religion? I’m not really sure. I see a little bit of both…it goes both ways.

PTM: Yeah, it definitely goes both ways. Um, I think a lot of my problems with religion are with the lack of individuality and the lack of just thought you know? There’s so little thought that goes into it. And it doesn’tmatter what religion you are, it’s always the same deal. I mean you’re always fighting against everyone else’s view. You’re always right and everyone’s wrong and it’s just unnecessary.  If God was so much about love, than who is He to just sit there and judge? And especially based on so many things, it just seems like its so government based.

And it’s so many different cultures and so many different times during history where religion was used to control people. And it’s very apparent today, especially with the war. With people going to die for their country and die for what they believe in, it’s so based on religion. It’s all based on religion. I mean who’s to say that this shit’s evil but we support it for so long? And just all this stuff…you know, we support it and we allow those things to happen. Like those…the Middle East wasn’t completely fucked before us. I mean there was always the shit going on with Israel but, you know, we fueled a lot of that.

M-R: It’s been going on for centuries now…

PTM: Yeah, it’s just not necessary to go into but yeah a lot of my concerns with religion are with the lack of individuality. I wouldn’t say that I’m not a spiritual person and all but uh, I also wouldn’t say … stupid laws and that shit, you know? I really appreciate the morals that go along with the religion stuff but there are so many awful things that go along with it as well.

M-R: I totally understand where you’re coming from

PTM: There’s just like a lot of prejudice and pretentiousness that goes along with it.

M-R: Something that struck me when I was going through other reviews, I didn’t review CM myself, some other guy grabbed it before I got it from the site, but Heidi was cool enough to send me a copy so I could check it out before the show and then this got set up later. So I was looking up other reviews of it just to see what other people were saying about it and what other people were saying about your first disc. And for CM specifically reviews seem to be all or nothing affairs, its either "I totally love this disc!" or "What the hell am I listening to?" reviews. How does that make you feel as an artist? I mean, you’re the guy who put body and soul into this.

PTM: I don’t give a fuck man… all of us fucking hate bands, you know. There are bands that we fucking dislike, but they’re doing it for a reason. At the same time we may not be listening to that music but we completely respect that they’re doing it, you know? And there’s always people that are going to be into it. And I’m really appreciative of the fact that people are completely honest. There’s not many bands that I’d say this band is just alright, you know, I either like it or I don’t. I appreciate the fact that people are like "good record", "fucking bad record, awful". Fine, alright, see if I give a shit. You probably know the people that are going to your site, and people go to your site because they trust your opinion and you know you’re saying what you want to say, so say it.

M-R: That’s cool to hear from an artist. I mean, you know the people who are going to buy your albums are going to buy your albums. They’re going to be at the shows, and, you know, people who are on whatever punk site I was looking at are not going to be there. It’s cool.

PTM: Yeah, yeah. If they’re not into it, they’re not into it. I’m not into shoving this shit down people’s throats.

M-R: That’s really refreshing to hear from an artist. That’s really cool…so, uh, a couple of comparisons that are thrown about, and this includes stuff in your own press kit...Stuff like the "Mars Volta," that’s probably…it seems more from the first disc, in which you guys were trying out all of these seemingly random keyboard blasts of noise… is that something you guys listen to?

PTM: Yeah, you know, with the comparison…I actually, there are a few that I get and a few that I don’t get. "Mars Volta" isn’t necessarily a band that I listen to. I can’t say outside of our drummer Jason, anybody in the band, I mean between Zach and I, we don’t listen to "Mars Volta." But it’s one of those bands that we completely respect in every way. We may not listen to it, but I really respect what they’re doing. For the most part they seem like they have a definite handle on what they’re doing, and they’re doing what they want to do. And that’s completely respectable, especially in a scene that’s so watered down right now.

M-R: Putting stuff out like that on a major label, that kicks ass in my book.

PTM: Yeah, yeah, that’s badass. I mean, you know, especially with the new album, we’ve gotten compared to the "White Stripes," "Led Zeppelin," among other bands….

M-R: I buy the "White Stripes" review…. they’re a Detroit band…. I’m from Michigan, I lived in Detroit for a while, so I dig the retro soul thing that you have going on. So when you’re compared to Jack White and the "White Stripes," do you buy that, is that something you listen to?

PTM: Sure, another thing that I think is completely cool and a band that I’d say is really respected, we really respect what they play, what he’s doing and what they’re doing. I actually love the drums on those records. That’s probably one of the things that draws me most to it. He rips guitar, he sings, and the drums are bad ass, they’re simple and stripped down, and it’s a really great thing that he’s doing, but again, not something that I listen too, especially on a daily basis or even a weekly basis. It’s one of those things that like when I hear it, I’m like, "Fuck yeah, I’m so glad somebody’s doing this." Same with "Mars Volta," and "Led Zeppelin." I think a lot of these comparisons come from like…I really like old blues and I really like 60s pop, and 60s rock. I really love the rock and roll that was happening in the 60s and the early 70s, and even through the 70s, you know? I really, really love that stuff, and Motown and things like that. And I imagine that there is most likely a lot of the same playlists on their Ipods as we have. I mean, with "Led Zeppelin," obviously, it wasn’t Ipods, but they obviously came out of that scene. They grew up in that 60s kind of pop thing, and they were obviously listening to old blues. I can completely see the comparisons. It’s really obvious especially when all those bands just have high voices, you know? We’d probably get compared to a lot of other bands, if I didn’t have such a high voice. You know that means, we get compared to those bands, ok, you’re listening to those high vocals and you’re making an opinion based on that, when in reality we probably just listened to the same music and just happened to have a voice in the same range.

M-R: Well, it’s the thing. I listen to your voice, and I’m not making an opinion of the music based on that, because it’s the music that drives it, and the vocals are just the…it’s kind of weird when I see that.

PTM: Yeah, I’d say that that’s where a lot of those comparisons come from. Guarantee, if we had a singer that wasn’t singing high…like if I was a mid-range singer, or even a lower singer, we’d have much different comparison. I feel like they get it a lot out of that, and a lot out of the same influences. The music is along the same end, I mean from the same area, or same era.

M-R: I definitely have to ask you about the line on your myspace page that reads, "Influences: Weird Al." (laughter). I mean, they have a thing over in Milwaukee called Summerfest, basically 10 days of 6 stages going at the same time, noon to night music, and I stood in the rain for two hours to wait for Weird Al to play, so I had to ask you about that.

PTM: Fuck yeah.

M-R: It was the greatest show I’ve ever been to, the most fun I’ve ever had.

PTM: Dude, swear to God, that’s…I mean, Zach and I both came out of that. Right when Weird Al was getting big was like when we were hearing music for the first time, I mean really hearing music. He introduced you to all those bands. That was like, that was the dude you could listen to as a kid and laugh like it was the funniest thing ever, and going back to it, it’s still fucking funny as shit.

M-R: (laughing) It’s hilarious. He played for two hours, like 8 costume changes, and the last one he did, he comes out with the fat suit for Michael Jackson…It was brilliant.

PTM: (laughter) Yeah dude…it’s so badass. He introduced us to a lot of new music I would say. I’d say he introduced a lot of people to new music. He obviously did it better (both laughing) We should just leave it at that.

M-R: I’ve pretty much run out of questions, but this is one more thing, totally coming out of left field and from me being a political junkie. Your home town is Wasilla?

PTM: Yeah.

M-R: How big a place is that?

PTM: I don’t recall how big it is…the school had like 5 or 600 people in it.

M-R: OK, so it’s not like a tiny little town.

PTM: It’s not really small… I moved around the town…(yelling away from the phone: "Hey Matt!" (distant voice, "What?") "Make sure you put my harmonica away!") The guitarist, getting my harmonica out, putting it in his dirty ass pocket, he carries it around.

M-R: Get some Listerine going for that, huh?

PTM: Yeah.

M-R: The Governor is from that town, isn’t she? For Alaska?

PTM: Uh, I believe so. To be honest I haven’t been keeping up with the Alaska stuff. I know my mom and my sister and my dad are pissed. Or they were pissed about something.

M-R: Like I said, totally out of left field, I’m a political junkie. I was like, wait a second, Wasilla, why do I know that?

PTM: Yeah…she was actually at a party that I went to. I probably shouldn’t even say that. She just happened to live in the neighborhood and….it was an adult party. It was a (haughty voice) party.

M-R: A partee?

PTM: It wasn’t like "a fucking party!" It was just a party, and she was there for a little bit, I think.

M-R: Well, she’s the governor now.

PTM: Fuck. She can hang out as much as she wants…who is it, what’s her name?

M-R: Sarah Palin.

PTM: Yeah, yeah, they were pissed.

M-R: I’m a political junkie, all this random crap in my head. Hey, that’s about most of the questions I had for you. Actually, I got one more. What’s up with this band "Anatomy of a Ghost"? While I was prepping for this, I heard some of their music, and I saw in a different interview how you were writing "Portugal. The Man" type of material before you got into that band.

PTM: Yeah.

M-R: Did some of that band’s music come back and rub off on where you are now?

PTM: Oh, some of playing in Anatomy? Yeah, I would say so. I mean, playing in that band got me into like more progressive type writing and stuff, and different structures. Things like that. With that band, Dave just called me and asked me to come down and sing. It was like two days later, I was like, "Fuck yeah, I’ll do it." I was really really shy at the time. I was like, "if I’m going to play music I should just go and do it." So I just joined that band to sing, and I didn’t really have a huge hand in that band until the second album, which never came out. At that point, I was so out of it, I didn’t want to do it, you know? I was just like, "Fuck, I need to get back to the reason I wanted to do this."

M-R: Actually that brings up another thing. Funny how that happens, huh? Yet another interview, I saw how you’re still nervous when you sing, when you get up there to play the guitar. Is that something that gets better, now that you’re out a second time with Portugal, maybe your third nationwide tour or whatever?

PTM: Yeah, it’s something that, like, I’m so used to it, it’s like, "alright, hey guys, we’re gonna play some songs." I don’t do that, but at the same time, I still have really bad social anxiety. If I look at people while we play, I just get really nervous. I’m not like a frontman frontman. And it’s not even necessary in our band, it’s such, just a group project. No matter who’s playing in the band with Zach and I, it’s such a group project. It’s always like… I usually play facing to the side, I started doing it because we were having so many people come and jam with us, I ended up starting to play facing them, so they could see what I was doing, and we could just jam, you know?

M-R: So it isn’t a deliberate shoegazer-type ethic. It’s just making sure you can concentrate on your thing, and not worry about who’s looking at you.

PTM: Yeah, yeah, it definitely became easier because it was like, "Fuck, if I can just turn around sideways like this, I have an excuse." And that worked really well. I just found that worked best for me, and it helps me avoid wearing my jacket when it’s too hot to wear it.

M-R: So no one sees the sweat stains?

PTM: (laughing) Nah, I always wear a jacket so I don’t have to look at anybody. And it’s not because we don’t appreciate it. That’s not my thing. Nobody in the band wants to yell at kids and tell them to clap along, and you know, be that asshole. We might as well just play and do our best and give people the music that we want to make.

M-R: From an audience point of view, whatever let’s you play your best, whatever let’s you put the show on, you know?

PTM: I appreciate it when people appreciate it (laughing).

M-R: Well, I think that pretty much is all that I had. Hey, I’m really looking forward to the show Sunday night.

PTM: Well, we’ll try to pull it off.

M-R: I’ll come up and say hi, man.

PTM: Yeah, come up and say hi for sure!