When Portugal. The Man stopped by WFPK before their show at Louisville’s Palace Theatre, they were still adjusting to life on the other side of the looking glass. Not too long ago, they were the band your indie cousin wouldn’t shut up about. Now they’re the band your grandma heard on Kathie Lee & Hoda, and the band your ten-year-old sings along with at recess.
It all started with a song—“Feel It Still,” that irresistible earworm that found the sweet spot between Motown cool and rebel sneer. And then, as bassist Zach Carothers put it, “Things are different and things are still the same. We’re still on a tour bus playing shows… they’re just letting us into nicer places now.”
Nicer places like the Grammys, where the band unexpectedly won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. And yes, that was frontman John Gourley saying “Hail Satan” in his acceptance speech. “I thought it was funny,” he shrugged. “We’re just creating conspiracies within conspiracies. And for the record, the Illuminati really doesn’t have as much power in Hollywood as people think. I get 10% off at participating Red Lobsters, and that’s it.”
That’s Portugal. The Man in a nutshell—equal parts cheeky mischief and earnest mission. “We feel a responsibility in the pop world to shake things up just a little bit,” Gourley said, noting that they opened recent sets with Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” just to rattle the folks there to hear the hit. “It’s a little different, a little fun. But it needs it.”
Even the band’s massive success hasn’t dimmed their scrappy ethos. Raised in Alaska, where environmental awareness is more survival instinct than lifestyle choice, they’ve carried that mindset onto the world stage. “You take what you need. You don’t take more,” Gourley said. “That’s just who we are.” Greenpeace noticed. So did the masses. Somewhere between Lars Ulrich, your kid’s cafeteria, and a sync during the playoffs, “Feel It Still” became inescapable.
And if you think they’re chasing pop stardom? Think again. The band actually scrapped an entire album they’d recorded with Mike D at Rick Rubin’s Malibu compound. “We got too comfortable,” Carothers confessed. “We had to go and take things down a notch. Beck said it best: you can’t write if you can’t relate.”
Which brings us to “Cheer Up,” the band’s latest single, which—surprise—originated as a request from Will Smith for a movie. “We’re just trying to write better songs,” Carothers said. “It’s not about going pop. We’re just trying to make it cleaner and more structured. We want to write the best songs in the world.”
And they’re not above commercial use—within reason. “People get mad when they hear us in a commercial,” Carothers said. “I say, you’re already watching the game. Would you rather hear worse music?” He’s got a point. “The mainstream could be amazing if people helped the bands with art and substance get up there.”
So yeah, they might wear Slayer shirts on Ellen and sleep in Kim and Kanye’s bed (long story), but they’ll still eat gas station rice cakes and skip the afterparties. “We just want to experience everything,” said Carothers. “But you don’t get creative stuff from the opulence.”
What you do get is a band that somehow survived indie blog buzz, a pop explosion, a Grammy stage shoutout to the devil, and a load of mischief with their soul intact. “We’re never gonna stop pushing ourselves,” they promised.
Pop might never be the same. And that’s a good thing.
Go further with two other interviews:
