portugal-john-gourley-638.jpg

Just because hip-hop has snagged music’s style crown for the better part of the last decade, it doesn’t mean rappers are the only ones with their eyes on the racks and runways. Meet John Gourley, the mustachioed lead singer of Portugal. The Man, the indie rock band that emerged from the Alaskan wilderness in 2004 with a sound that’s all their own and a name that fuels the nightmares of any copy editor.

This summer, the boys released their seventh full length album, Evil Friends (produced by 2004 GQ Man of the Year, Danger Mouse), and are currently in the midst of a nationwide tour taking them everywhere from Anchorage to Vegas. We rang up Gourley to talk about style, packing for ever-changing climates, and the role hip-hop has played in his life.

GQ: You’ve always been a very stylish guy. Who has been your biggest influence in that regard?

John Gourley: Album covers and movies. 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 bough before he moved. I grew up looking at album covers: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, John Lennon. And movies, I’m a huge fan of film. That was my escape, that’s how I got out of that cabin in the woods: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Logan’s Run. You look up at the stars, and that gave me a lot of inspiration. To me, sci-fi has the most amazing style.

GQ: It’s 2013 and that whole one-piece gray jumpsuit thing still hasn’t caught on.

Gourley: Yeah man, I wish. It would make it a lot easier to get dressed in the morning.

GQ: In terms of style then, what brands are you into right now?

Gourley: Levis are my go-to. Plain crew necks and jeans. And I’m really into UNIS. She makes amazing stuff. It’s all about simple and classic for me.

GQ: When you come to a place like NYC, do you get to do a lot of shopping?

Gourley: If my publicist Jason Davis is listening in right now, I need more fucking free time [laughs]. There’s always something on. 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.