As the sounds of Snoop Dogg laying down his hits like “That’s That” rumbled in the near background, I tried my best to have an audible conversation with the nomadic four-man band known as Portugal. The Man. Distractions or not, I was able to have a good talk with this group that derives from both Portland, Oregon and Alaska. Earlier in the day I was lucky enough to catch Portugal at the Lolla’s PlayStation stage. Here I experienced musicians with a strong influence from late-60s/early-70s rock, pop, and soul, but who are unafraid to step ahead. With a dual guitar, drums, multiple keyboard set-up and almost everyone on vocals, members John Gourley (vocals/guitars), Zach Carothers (bass/vocals), Jason Sechrist (drums), Ryan Neighbors (keys/vocals), and touring player Zoe Manville (keys/vocals) easily glide across a wave of old school-minded harmonic freshness. I spoke to Portugal. The Man about their sonic commonalities, touring, and how home is now a hard place to find.

So how do you guys like playing bigger festivals like this, now that you’ve played Bonaroo and Lollapalooza compared to smaller, indoor stages?

John Gourley: It’s pretty amazing. There’s a huge difference in playing the two. And it’s not necessarily an intimacy level, but I feel like as a fan you kind of feel like that’s what it is. For us, we’re more a part of a party when we play a festival. It’s more a part of somebody else’s show. It’s for the people that are there. When we play shows by ourself, it’s like, ‘play as long as you want and do your thing,’ which is really cool. It’s fun to connect with fans in that way, but these festivals are fun because it’s just contributing to a good day. It’s contributing to a day of music. So it’s fun. I think they’re both fun in their own way. I like both settings.

And you guys have been doing some pretty heavy touring this year right?

Everyone: Yeah.

Has that affected the recording schedule at all?

JG: Nah. Normally in the past, our first three records and first two EPs were recorded on the spot. We just got done with tour, we went in and make a record and that’s how it worked. This record [The Satanic Satanist], it’s pretty much the same—we just did that before going into the studio. We sat down together and said, ‘here’s the record and let’s go make it in a month.’ Basically, the touring doesn’t affect the recording.

Ryan Neighbors: We were just recording [and] we were off tour anyway so it might affect the time of year, but it seems like it’s generally in the winter.

So how long have you all lived in Portland?

JG: Seven years. It’s been off and on. I’ve gone back to Alaska. Basically the reason I’m out of Alaska is for music anyway, it’s for touring. But we’ve been playing music for about seven years professionally.

The Portland music scene is pretty strong right now. Does that affect anything that you do because it’s so welcoming to a lot of bands right now?

JG: Not that we don’t want to be a part of that scene because I really love the Portland music scene. I think it’s the best music scene in the country in my opinion. It’s just that we tour so much that it’s really hard to be a part of any music scene. It’s hard to be a part of your family—it’s hard to be a group of friends let alone a music scene. But it’s a really great place. It’s a great place to hang out. Really great bands are from there.

Do you consider yourself more connected to Alaska than Portland?

JG: It’s pretty well displayed. I think everybody has a lot of respect for [Alaska]. One of the key things for this band anyways is respect. We’re pretty respectful of everything. And Portland has given us a home. And without Portland we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing and without Alaska, we wouldn’t have thought to move to Portland so it all goes hand-in-hand.

I noticed a real soul connection in your sound [today]. What were some collective influences that brought you guys together?

RN: The Beatles (laughs).

JG: Oldies radio. I think [the fact] that they played any single band or any single songwriter or any single musician out of that era is so hard because it was all pop music, but it all had substance. It was all so new to everyone, even the songs that were total formulas—total science—they had meaning. It was just being part of this new wave of rock ‘n’ roll, mixing soul with the rock. The Beatles obviously is the best example of that. I mean they took what people were doing in the ’60s like the psychedelic sound of the ‘60s and they made it lift them. Not to be offensive towards those bands today that are like noise bands—some bands like Animal Collective take that noise and they make songs out of it. They do something new with it. The Beatles did that back than. I am not comparing Animal Collective to The Beatles whatsoever. (Everyone laughs). Just so you know, no offense to Animal Collective….

Zach Carothers: …or any other band for that matter.

How did you guys come up with your current [instrument] arrangement with all the multiple keys? How did you guys decide to make that happen?

RN: We just all like a bunch of different stuff and we kind of want to show it all.

JG: Yeah, you can’t play music is compromise is a part of your band. If compromise is a part of it, then you can’t do it. It just doesn’t make any sense. If you’re playing something just for the sake of doing it as well, you can do it. It’s just a matter of doing what you wanna do. And we’ve been lucky enough to have people that are accepting of it. We’ve made a point to make different records every time so people know we’re not a rock band, we’re not a punk band, we’re not an electronic band—we play music. The Knife is the same way—that band is rock ‘n’ roll, that band’s punk, that band’s metal, but it’s electronic music. I think The Knife does that really well as well.

It seems like you guys have come to a common ground with the vocals—like a good compromise for everyone to come together… because you all participate in that.

JG: Yeah, Ryan joining the band pushed a lot of things like pushed the vocals pretty hard because he came in as a singer. Zoe’s singing with us—she pushed the vocals as well. To be a tight band, you have to know each other—you have to know what everybody does and how they do it. There have been a lot of things that have built us up to the point that we’re at right now but we have so much further to go. Not to down play what we’ve been doing but we played a thousand shows at this point and it really takes thousands of shows to really get there. Tool is a good example of that last night I’m sure; The Flaming Lips are a good example of that—the Beastie Boys as well.

So what else do you think you guys have to do to eventually get to that point?

JG: Play music, put out records.

RN: Just keep doing it.

Do you think it’s more important to be on stage trying it out or at home in the studio?

RN: I think it’s both but on the stage you really show if you’re a real band or not and play live and a solid set. Because the studio is not easy, but there are definitely ways, short cuts to getting a good song.

ZC: If you mess up, you can do it over again you know?

RN: Playing live is when you kind of prove that you are the band you are on record ‘cause a lot of bands can’t do that—they only have a good record and then live it’s nothing.

JG: Or they can only do what’s on the record. It’s true with anything. Playing live—that’s the setting where you really have to do it, which has been stressful for the first two-and-a-half years. I was just having panic attacks and getting nervous on stage, but that’s another thing that’s come out of it. Playing a thousand shows and you realize that this is what we do: we play music.

RN: Yeah, we make a record for a month a year and then tour for nine. So it’s more of what we do you know?

Interview and photos by Max Herman