“I started out playing a Telecaster. One day, I heard someone playing a Gretsch – I said, ‘What is that? That’s the sound I’m looking for!’” Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley joins a fresh wave of signature artists updating Gretsch for a new generation

Gretsch Broadkaster John Gourley Signature.

Growing up in the snow-capped nothingness of Alaska with a raft of his father’s records – but no record player – John Gourley fell in love with the aesthetic of music. “I would just look at those record covers. They felt so awing to me,” he remembers.

“They gave me this feeling of something happening on the outside of the woods where we were, and it made me feel less isolated. To me, the aesthetic is the most beautiful thing about music. It’s the sound – it’s the shape of the guitar, the clothes the player’s wearing, the way they carry themselves and make their instruments speak.”