If you've followed us from when we started playing live in October 2010, you will notice that there has been numerous changes over the years.
Every time you come out with an album or a song, you want to feel like you're growing a bit in what you are and giving people something that they can feel.
I just wanted to have a look at my whole musical career, get right back to when I started and why I started doing it in the first place.
The main thing for all of us was having a ballad, a slower song. Finally, they get to hear more of a vulnerable side to us! We didn't really have that in 'Reflection,' and that's something we all fought for.
I'd say that 98 percent of the bands we've played with through the years have either broken up or are stuck in some kind of '80s revival now.
I'm really proud of 'Bright Lights' because I was still in the mind frame of my first album when I was putting it together, but next time I want to display something different. I don't want to be as young, immature and all about boys!
I find early jazz to be the most revolutionary music of its time.
I feel like 'Work' was a really good song for people to get to know me, as it's obviously biographical. With 'Bounce,' I wanted to make sure people know there's a fun side to me as well as the somber and serious one.
Our first album was kind of simple, but it had that fire, that energy that we have to have.
I have a soft spot for 'Wind of Change' because it was my first one, and it was a departure from Humble Pie - very much so. It showed me the spectrum of what I could do.
I think when you get past your second album, it all becomes something of a routine. So you have to struggle against that, find a way of making what you do sound fresh and new each time.
Portugal. The Man, to me, doesn't have any real ties. We try to change things up with every album, really progress, and let things happen.
I think people have been really receptive to understanding that I've grown up and the music's going to sound a little different.
What you have to understand is that blues... it's in a line from the oldest forms of African music. If you're playing it like it's an echo of the past, it would be a lot less exciting, but this music lives today.
Blues artists now try and stay in a box. Back in the day at all the clubs you would see James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, The Isley Brothers, Little Richard and Etta James all play the same venues. It was a mix of funk, soul, blues and rock 'n' roll.
I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.
It's a wonderful thing to be able to see your music going from generation to generation.
I'll never stick to one sound, I switch it up.
I don't want people to think like Roddy is John Legend now. I just felt like once I got to a certain point, that I wanted to expand musically.
I think that all my albums are different enough where I don't feel like I did this the last time.
In my creative life, David Bowie is definitely an enormous influence on me, being one of rock's greatest shapeshifters.
I think the main thing was me having a daughter. I just knew that I had to be a man, so I grew up real quick. Then I started caring about my music more, and I feel like that was the main change between 'Killer Instinct' and 'TRAPSOUL'. I was just like, 'I need to take this more serious and watch the things I say'.
As far as long-term goals, one of my favorite artists ever is Tegan and Sara, because every single one of their albums sounds different. Or Beck. I want to be like that because I come from so many different types of musical backgrounds.
I think that music has an endless life.
Nas' longevity comes from him having strong lyrical value in his songs, him being more like a poet and improving over time.
