Interview

On Friday June 9th, I headed out to the Trocadero in Philly to see Gatsbys American Dream, Portugal. The Man, and Forgive Durden. Luckily, John Gourley (singer and guitarist of Portugal) was able to spare some time to sit down with me to discuss his band, the tour, and Weird Al among other things. Bassist Zach Carothers soon joined in too.

EP: So you have an interesting explanation of the meaning behind your band's name- would mind just reiterating that for people who don't know?

John: I don't know how I went about this last time...I've already answered this like four times in the last week. (pauses) Portugal is a man's name as "Ziggy Stardust" is David Bowie...but the country is representing a group of people- and the band is not just one person...

EP: How did you decide to go in this new musical direction, after your previous projects such as Anatomy of a Ghost? And why did Anatomy of a Ghost break up?

John: Really, this is the stuff I was doing right before I joined Anatomy of a Ghost. Those guys actually called me and asked me to come down and sing with them and play in the group. I mean it worked out really well for a while but everybody felt the need to do their own thing. And its not just Portugal, there's The Burning Room and Turbo Perfecto as well.

EP: Your tour with Gatsbys American Dream and Forgive Durden is almost over, how has that been going?

John: Its been going really well. Gatsbys is really cool, they're good friends of ours. So yeah, its been fun every single night. We've known each other for quite a while.

EP: And may I ask what happened with Horse The Band? Why did they leave the tour?

John: Oh yeah sure, although I probably won't give you a straight answer...but I don't know. Yeah, they were real cool guys. They were cool to us and we liked hanging out with those dudes but I don't think this tour was what they were really looking for. I think it looked good on paper, until they got out and realized that the other bands are all so different from them.

EP: So kids just really weren't into them?

John: Yeah, I mean Horse The Band fans aren't fans of Gatsbys...and Gatsbys fans are most likely not fans of Horse..that's all the explanation that there really is.

EP: What exactly is your song writing process? Are the lyrics written first and then the music? How is everything laid down?

John: Well as far as the last record went, I laid down guitars then some some bass parts, some keyboard parts, and then Wes and Zach came in over top of that. And then Jason our drummer actually came in last to play the drums, which is a pretty intensive process. He just came in and laid everything down on the spot...so his ability is yet to be seen. (laughs)

EP: What was it like growing up in Alaska? Do you ever go to the dog sled races anymore?

John: Yeah, yeah we hang out. My parents are still way into that stuff, you know...but I mean my dad's sort of out of that scene now though.

(Bassist Zach Carothers jumps in)

EP: Hi how's it going?

Zach: What is this?

EP: Its an interview..

Zach: I'm ready!

EP: So you were on Fearless Records for Anatomy of Ghost. Were you happy with Fearless, is that why you stayed on that label for Portugal?

John: Yeah, yeah.

Zach: That's exactly why.

John: They're fun guys, I mean we have a past and everything, we're just, I mean Anatomy stuff is in the past...

EP: Why did you choose Casey Bates to produce your record? Have you ever worked with him before?

John: He really wanted to do it, I think he was really excited about it.

Zach: Yeah, he just really loves us and honestly, he's got this really bad drinking problem and we thought we could help him out...

John: Yeah we thought we could help him but it hasn't worked.

Zach: And he's really bad at Halo, so we feel good because we beat him all the time.

EP: I also heard you were going to write a book about your Dad. What ever happened with those plans?

John: That was a long time ago when I was going to do that. We actually bought a tape recorder for him for Christmas and he's just recording all his thoughts and so its just a family thing by now.

EP: Are you influenced by Hunter S. Thompson at all? Because a lot of your lyrics and stuff reminds me of him.

John: Oh yeah, he's cool as shit...there's definitely some of those aspects in our music.

Zach: Yeah, we all love him.

EP: You guys have a long summer ahead of you jumping from tour to tour- first with Action Action and The Matches, and then The Twilight Army Tour with Circa Survive. How do you deal with all of that?

John: Well personally, its really easy for me because I don't really have a home.

Zach: (laughs) Yeah he sleeps in the van outside my house. He won't sleep in my house...but our van is incredibly comfortable, probably more so than my house.

John: Yeah, its pretty cool.

EP: Ever think about upgrading to a bus?

John: I could never see us getting to the level where we would use a bus, I could imagine, but...realistically...

Zach: Circa's getting a bus haha...so I'm just gonna hang out on that.

EP: Oh yeah I saw they were at the show tonight, have you known those guys for a while too?

John: Yeah we've known them for quite a long time. We went on tour with This Day Forward back in the day, so we've known Brendan and Colin for a really long time.

EP: What are your favorite musical artists? And what have you been listening to recently?

Zach: Weird Al! We really love Weird Al.

John: Yeah of all time...he's probably the best. Yeah he's cool...I would like to get him to guest actually.

Zach: We're gonna really try, I don't know if he will, but...I don't even know how to go about it but that's gonna be a hell of a process.

John: But that's like for real though, like growing up that's how I got into any music. I'd be like, "Aww yeah that's an awesome song, Weird Al is awesome! ...oh wow that's a [i]real[/i] song!"

Zach: And I was like "Oh wait, its really by somebody else...yeah lets check that out...oh that's alright."

John: --"but its not as good as Weird Al though."

Zach: We like Madonna too, like a virgin...

John: Well no, I don't like Madonna.

EP: I know you released "Waiter: You Vultures!" in January, but any future album plans?

Zach: Yeah that's done.

John: Oh yeah that's written. [kidding? at this point I can't tell] Actually, we have an EP coming out this fall, its all programming but yeah...I didn't tell anybody about it. I didn't want anyone to know.

Zach: Everyone's in the dark...

John: It ended up being...like the EP is just like...we had some time with Casey and everybody was working, so I just went up an sat down with him did a bunch of--

Zach: --Oh [i]that[/i], I thought you were talking about something else.

John: Oh yeah, I've got secrets...all kinds of secrets.

EP: Anything else you'd like to say to your fans?

John: To our fans? We have fans?

Zach: Don't shout at us!

John: Yeah don't shout at us when we're playing.

Zach: We can't hear what you're saying!

John: We can't hear what you're saying and we probably can't play the song you're asking for.

EP: haha okay...

Zach: But thanks for coming.

EP: Well thanks for doing this interview with me.

John: Yeah we appreciate it.