These new-age rock stars are such a bore. Due to rising rates of polite humility, endorsements for healthy eating and quibbles about on-tour exhaustion, the rock’n’roll fantasy is seriously under threat. OK, perhaps life isn’t an unfettered stream of wonderful decadence, but those at the top could at least use some imagination when summing up their regular activities.
American psychedelic rockers Portugal. The Man aren’t quite global megastars, nor have they cultivated a party-boy image, but these guys know better than most how to seize the perks of their profession. “We love to see things, we love new experiences,” says Portugal. The Man bass player Zach Carothers. “Just in general, travel is so important to us.”
Portugal. The Man head back our way this week for their most extensive Australian tour yet. Throughout November, the band will make its way to a number of beachside locations – many of which rarely get a visit from international acts – for 23 completely free gigs under the auspices of Corona Extra.
“We kind of lucked out on this one,” Carothers says. “We have the most unbelievable time in Australia, so we’re very, very excited that they offered us this tour. Five weeks hanging out down there doing that many shows in small pubs and bars? Hell yeah, of course we’re up for it.”
Carothers and vocalist/guitarist John Gourley started Portugal. The Man back in 2004, in their hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. Shortly afterwards the pair relocated to Portland, Oregon, which remains home today. Working with a rotating cast of band members, Carothers and Gourley have spearheaded seven full-length Portugal. The Man albums. It was their latest two releases, 2011’s In The Mountain In The Cloud and last year’s Evil Friends, that brought them to the attention of Australian listeners. Evil Friends landed the group a main stage slot on this year’s Big Day Out tour – the mention of which triggers fond memories for Carothers.
“We did a lot of activities while drinking and it was pretty amazing,” he says. “I got to go see a surf film [Spirit Of Akasha] at the Sydney Opera House, I got to go deep sea fishing out in the harbour. We got to go to a couple of wildlife parks to see some marsupials. It was really, really fucking cool.”
Another faux pas committed by many current-day rock bands is their seeming reluctance to rub elbows with their peers. Festivals such as Big Day Out bring together a smorgasbord of larger-than-life figures, and Portugal. The Man pounced on this opportunity to make some illustrious new companions.
“It’s pretty much summer camp for bands,” Carothers says. “Some of the craziest nights we’ve ever had, actually, were in Australia during Big Day Out. We had these parties after Arcade Fire did a sideshow in Sydney. We went to Frankie’s Pizza … one of the bartenders for some reason had face paint, so we had our tour manager go around and paint everybody’s faces. We just pretty much rallied with Grouplove, Mac Miller, Arcade Fire, Diplo and his backup dancers.
“That’s what was so cool about Big Day Out – you got to spend so much time with other bands. You look at the list and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ll probably make friends with these guys and make friends with this guy,’ but who knew that we’d become best friends with Mac Miller? If you ask anybody on that tour who the general MVP/coolest guy was, everybody will tell you Mac Miller. We had a blast with that guy and he is hilarious.”
It is otherwise hard to draw any tenable links between Portugal. The Man and the potty-mouthed rapper, Miller. The band’s music owes significant debt to ’60s pop and ’70s psych rock, so it’s basically a million miles away from the terrain of hip hop. However, Evil Friends features the production stamp of studio maestro Danger Mouse (AKA Brian Burton). These days Danger Mouse is commonly associated with rock acts The Black Keys and Broken Bells, but it’s not long since he was making records with rappers such as MF Doom, Jemini and CeeLo Green. While Burton’s hip hop background doesn’t directly surface on Evil Friends,his presence explains the record’s rhythmic emphasis and boldly exposed melodies.
“We learned a lot about songwriting, a lot about trimming the fat off things,” Carothers says of the experience with Burton. “We always stack up so many sounds on a lot of our records and it almost gets confusing. A lot of times we’d do that and then Danger Mouse would sit down with the four of us and be like, ‘Alright, there’s all these different melodies going on here, each one of you pick one that you’re going to play.’ You’ve got to keep it simple enough [so that] no matter how many things you stack up, you still always make sure that one person can sing it and play it on a guitar or a piano and it still comes through.
“I was very happy with the collaboration with Danger Mouse. He’s become a lifelong friend. We learned so much about music in general, about style and about our own ears.”
Whether or not they’ll team up with Danger Mouse again remains to be seen, but the lessons learned during the Evil Friends recording process are certain to influence Portugal. The Man’s next work. “Every time we go in it’s definitely a learning experience and it’s definitely practice for the next record,” Carothers says. “We have a thing where we try to be a different band every time we do a record. I’m sure the label wish we had more radio play – a ‘hit’ on the record – but none of that stuff is up to us. We go into the studio and we make the best album that we can every single time and we get it to where we’re happy with it. Then once it’s released, it’s completely out of our hands.”
It seems clear that not only do Portugal. The Man take advantage of their job’s ridiculous nature, but they’re also committed to making continual creative advances. To do this, it’s essential for them to keep a cool head while being introduced to various wonderful individuals and scenarios. But Carothers can’t help sounding somewhat boastful when he recounts his number one bucket list achievement.
“I got to sit in a car with Neil Young – in Neil Young’s Cadillac – and listen to music with him for about an hour at Bonnaroo a couple of years ago. That was probably the craziest thing I’ve ever done. My little brother was graduating college that very same day and I couldn’t make it because we had to play this festival. John and I were sitting in a car with Neil Young and I was texting my dad. Neil Young’s his favourite artist of all time and he was a very proud father that day.”
Evil Friends out now through Atlantic /Warner. Catch Portugal. The Man at The Bucket List, Bondi (afternoon) and Manly Wharf Bar (evening) on Saturday November 22 and Watsons Bay Hotel (afternoon) and Old Joe’s, Cronulla (evening) on Sunday November 23.
