Portugal. The Man

Portugal. The Man is an experimental indie rock group from Wasilla, United States, formed in 2004 and active to the present. The band is based in Portland, Oregon, and its work spans experimental, indie pop, indie rock, neo-psychedelia, pop and progressive styles.

Line-up

The group centres on singer and guitarist John Baldwin Gourley and bassist Zachary Scott Carothers, both formerly of Anatomy Of A Ghost. Its line-up also includes John Wesley Hubbard, Jason Wade Sechrist, Kyle O’Quin, Ryan Neighbors, Zoe Manville, Noah Gersh, Kane Ritchotte and Eric Howk. Manville provides backing vocals and percussion, Howk plays guitar, Sechrist drums, and O’Quin is the keyboardist and formerly of Gatsby's American Dream.

Early releases and touring

The debut album, Waiter: “You Vultures!”, is released by Fearless Records in 2006, followed by Church Mouth in 2007. After that release, the band tours the United States with The Photo Atlas, Play Radio Play, Tera Melos and The Only Children, then tours Europe. It later heads out on another US run with Rocky Votolato and Great Depression, and then joins Thursday on a short east coast tour with Circle Takes the Square.

Albums and label activity

The band collaborates with The Sound of Animals Fighting on the re-release of Tiger and the Duke, remixing three tracks from that album. In 2008, it releases Censored Colors through its own Approaching AIRballoons label in partnership with Equal Vision Records. The Satanic Satanist follows in 2009, and American Ghetto is released in 2010. That album combines the group’s progressive rock approach from later releases with the electronic style associated with Its Complicated Being A Wizard.

Mainstream success and later records

In the Mountain in the Cloud is the band’s sixth album and its first for Atlantic, arriving in 2011. In 2013, producer Danger Mouse works on the next album, Evil Friends, which features backing vocals from Este Haim and Danielle Haim and includes the title track and “Purple Yellow Red and Blue”. The group also works with the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in 2014 on a limited-edition release linked to awareness of critically endangered Sumatran tigers, with the track “Sumatran Tiger” kept off digital release.

In 2014, the band records its eighth album with Mike D of the Beastie Boys producing, and Mac Miller also appears in the sessions. In 2016, it features on Yoko Ono’s collaboration album Yes, I'm A Witch Too on “Soul Got Out of the Box”. Later that year, it releases “Noise Pollution”, featuring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Zoe Manville. In 2017, “Feel It Still” is released and becomes a major hit, reaching number four in the United States, while the album Woodstock follows. The title is taken from an original 1969 Woodstock festival ticket stub owned by Gourley’s father, and Gourley links the record’s idea to social and political unease.

Recognition

The band has ten studio albums, two number one hits on Alternative Radio, and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Personal detail

John Gourley and Zoe Manville marry on New Year’s Eve 2017.