A Conversation with Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley – HuffPost 11.6.13
Mike Ragogna: Why “Portugal” The Man?
John Gourley: When this band started, we hadn’t been out playing. We had just talked about David Bowie and The Beatles, those are two of our biggest influences. Zack [Carothers] and I always loved the idea of Ziggy Stardust and St. Pepper, like this alter ago. I was a shy kid growing up and I liked the idea of playing under this alter ego, like I could be Ziggy Stardust, but I also knew I could never be Ziggy Stardust. I was never going to be on my own, there is always going to be a band. And the country thing came about, because a country is an individual in the world, but it represents a group of people. Portugal just kinda came out, we were hanging out and I said “Portugal” and we said, “That sounds good, that’s our guy’s name.” The Man is just a statement, he’s the man. The period in the name, huge mistake I know. We didn’t think about that. We never thought we were going to be written up in magazines. The second we saw it in print, like what a mistake man.
MR: Nah, pretty original. And I love that you’re making music with Danger Mouse. I used to love that cartoon! Aaaand obviously we are not talking about the same Danger Mouse.
JG: I like to see what people think. That’s one of the first Google alerts that we put in, let’s see what comes up for Danger Mouse. So much was about that confusion, like who’s producing the record, a cartoon character? Obviously, Danger Mouse is the producer Brian Burton. He is just iconic, he really is one of the greatest producers ever, and I totally believe that. I watched the way he works and as music fan. And you see it, you really see it. The way Tony Visconti worked with David Bowie and with Mark Bolan, and the way George Martin worked with The Beatles. You see The Black Keys interviews as well. Brian is the third member of The Black Keys, and the 5th or 6th or 26th member of Portugal. The Man.
MR: Love that the title of the album was Evil Friends. What was it like making this album together?
JG: I’ll tell you the way I remember it happening, we really haven’t talked about it. I just give my side of the story. It’s funny because we had already started making the album. We were in El Paso or Coreno, Texas…anyway at Sonic Ranch. And I got a call from Craig Kallman from Atlantic Records and he says Danger Mouse wants to meet up with you. The first thing that came to my head was, “What the f**k man! Who’s talking to Danger Mouse? We are already making our record!” We were under this impression that we were trusted with this job, we’re going to make our own record that is self-produced and put this thing out. But when an opportunity like Danger Mouse comes up, you don’t turn that down. You get to go meet this guy whose records you listen to. I flew out to New York, it was literally the next day. It’s one of those things that a kid from Alaska doesn’t think about. Never in my life did I ever think I was going to be in that position, to meet some of these people. I flew right to New York and got to meet him the next day and he was an hour late for our meeting. When we met, he said, “Hey man, just so you know, I don’t really want to work with another rock band.” I mean he worked with The Black Keys, like, I totally understood it. Well, he said that to me, and so first of all, why did I fly out to New York? And thank God I don’t have to talk about making a record with this guy, you know. He’s Danger Mouse, man. I walked in like, “I get it man, you got your records and you’re wondering why we’re out here.” He can pick and choose. He is one of those producers that should pick what he works with. I mean, that’s why he is so great. He’ll talk to people and he’ll listen to your music and get into your head. He wants to know what records you listen to and what makes you want to play music. That was, basically, our whole day. We just listened to music the whole day. He had asked what type of record are we making, what type of music. I said, “I don’t know man, I want to make the best record. It might not be Dark Side of the Moon, it might not be Thriller, but I want to make the best music we can.” That’s what playing music is about. It should be a basketball game, it shouldn’t be just “because.” There’s no making art for art sake, you’ve got to make the best art you can. He and I laughed about it because, f**k, we’re not going to make Thriller or Dark Side of the Moon, but why not try to break new ground, why not try to do something new for our band. We did the best we can.
MR: It seems like he didn’t change what you’re about, but he did add layers of production and hints of psychedelia that weren’t as emphasized in the earlier recordings. It seems like this was a new creative stew, is it fair to say that?
JG: That’s what everyone thinks Danger Mouse is. But when we put out our first single, people were so quick to say as soon as they heard it, “Right away when I heard it I knew it was Danger Mouse.” It’s the funniest thing. People either want to tear it apart or latch on to it. That’s just the way it works. People think they know his sound, he doesn’t really have a sound, and that’s what’s really amazing about him. That sound that people heard, those comments we got on YouTube and Facebook, and the messages we got. That sound was literally the vibraphone that The Beach Boys used for Pet Sounds. Dude, Danger Mouse is getting credit for The Beach Boys vibraphone of Pet Sounds. Their biggest f**kin record. That’s amazing to me. He is really, really great at hearing that thing. If the tone’s wrong, he’ll tell you. He’s just saying that sounds good, and that doesn’t sound good. He is really great at that, he’ll say no so quick. He says no in the best way. When people tell you, particularly in the studio as an artist, you have to be offended, you have to think, “What do you mean man? That’s what I got, that is good, you don’t know.” For some reason, the way he says it, He’ll say no but it’s like, “Oh, man Danger Mouse thinks I can write something better. I can’t believe it, I can’t believe I am in this position where he thinks I can write something better than I know is my best. It’s the basketball game. You know you’ve got to jump from the free-throw.
MR: I need a little tour from the artist’s perspective, what were you talking about topically on this album and what was the goal?
JG: Over the past few years, for the people who know it, this band has been through a lot. For the people that don’t know it, we’ve had members come and go from this band since the beginning. It’s always been about collaboration and it’s been about just playing music with our friends. If you want to go on tour and come out with us, we’ll play music together. Over the past few years, we’ve been playing with Ryan Neighbors and Jason Seacrest on drums almost for the career of this band. And both of them left right before this album. Right after we made In the Mountain And In The Cloud, we did two tours and they left to do different projects. It was a big deal for me; it was me taking a step back. I tend to push people, a little bit harder than they want to be pushed, more than I want to be pushed, for sure. It has been constant touring from the beginning, and this change is really massive for me. It caused me to take a step back, and say, “Am I pushing people to hard? Am I the reason they left the band?” We always think that; I know the reality is Ryan is an artist, he wants to make his own music, and I need to make my music, I can’t stay away from that. I can’t hand that over to anyone else and it sucks. People would probably say the same thing about The Beatles, like, “Why isn’t Paul writing songs,” “Why isn’t Ringo writing songs?” “Like, George is my favorite Beatle, he needs to write more songs.” “But John did it.” Evil Friends, this album, was more about myself and listening to the bands that I love and looking at what we do. It’s been two years since our last record; we have never done that. It’s only been a year or less between albums. We took our time. When it comes down to it, Evil Friends is about David Bowtie, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, reading those books, watching those movies. It became what it did. It’s basically about band life and what it’s like to be on tour. Basically, to have family that you didn’t grow up with.
MR: What advice to you have for new artists?
JG: I’m the worse to be advising, because my advice is to don’t do it! Just don’t do it, its way more work than you expect it to be. The thing is, being in a band is the hardest job you will ever have. There’s a reason so few bands actually make it. I mean, we haven’t made it and you have to look at it like that. The Black Keys haven’t made it; they haven’t made until they make it over and over. They haven’t made it until they’re David Bowie. To come to that point, it’s a realization. I sleep zero to five hours a night; a good night for me is five hours a sleep at most. So the advice that I have is work hard, it’s not a job built for people who just want to party and hang out with girls and do that thing that you think rock star life is. Keith Richard f**king worked, The Beatles worked 10,000 hours; that’s a very serious thing. So if you want to do it, you got to do it.
MR: In the future, will there be a Portugal. The Man Plus Woman?
JG: We’ll see. I got my girl on tour with me and my baby. That’s part of the rock star life as well. I have a baby! When I had my baby Francis, it really changed things about the band, it did it in the best possible way. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to make songs about babies and family life. You look at things and go, “I have to f**kin say something because this kid and every other kid has to grow up in this world. If I don’t make the best music I can, if I don’t do the best I can for this kid, I’m not doing my part. I think that’s a really amazing thing. We have the most respectful groups of guys in this band. It wouldn’t work out with every group. Not every group can bring a kid on tour and live that life. That’s a part of who we are; we were raised on respect and hard work.
Transcribed by Amy Laudicano & Friends