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Thibault: First of all, could you tell me a few words about the band?
Zach: We formed in 2005 after a band that John and I were in broke up and we started Portugal with a few friends from alaska right away. We recorded our first album in 2006 and have been recording and touring ever since. I guess I would describe our music as psychedelic pop… A lot of classic rock and soul influences with hints of prog and alternative, maybe a pinch of hip hop.
Thibault: Why do you name your band « Portugal. The Man »? Is there a particular story behind this title?
Zach: Portugal is an alter ego in the vein of Ziggy Stardust or Srgt. Pepper. We wanted to create a fictional character with a name that represented our whole band rather than one person. We figured a country is one name for a group of people with one voice in the world, and we randomly chose Portugal. Thought it would make a good name for a man.
Thibault: You release an album a year since 2006. ‘American Ghetto’ is already your 5th album. How could you keep this pace?
Zach: I guess it really doesn’t seem that crazy for us… A year is a long time. It can get a little difficult just because we tour so much, but we’ve got a strong work ethic and we simply love to play music. We do it everyday. Our singer/ songwriter is a machine when it comes to ideas and we’ve gotten very good at playing together and feeding off each other musically. We’ve learned to work very well with each other. My bandmates are awesome.. I’m a lucky guy.
Thibault: Last year with ‘The Satanic Satanist’, this year with ‘American Ghetto’, Portugal. The Man is really become an incredible hit machine. Tunes like “The Sun”, “Work All Day”, “Guns & Dogs”, “People Say”, “The Woods”, “The Dead Dog”, “The Pushers Party”, to name but a few, will never get old. Is it instinctive for you to compose this kind of addictive songs?
Zach: Well, thank you.. Ha. I’m really not sure. We obviously try very hard to write songs with substance that are catchy as well. Not just meaningless pop that will get stuck in your head, but piss you off because it doesn’t mean anything to you. We basically try to write music that we would like to listen to. John has always had a gift for melodies and lyrics and recently been focusing on song structure and chord progressions. I guess we’ll always feel like we can do better and that will push us to work harder on every record to come.
Thibault: Your music could be clearly defined as easy-listening music in spite of an experimental and elaborate sound. How do you manage to combine all of your influences (rock, pop, psychedelic, soul, …) with simple and insistent melodies ?
Zach: I guess we just love music and listen to a lot of it. Every member of the band has their own taste and will bring their own flavor to the album. Some of our favorite collective bands are masters of this kind of thing… The Pixies, The Flaming Lips, Beck…. Not to mention the obvious greats… Pink Floyd and The Beatles paved the way for all of this. They were brilliant.
Thibault: In this new album, you kept the spontaneity and the killer chorus typical of your previous album, but your sound changed a little. You seem very influenced by the rhythmic of Hip-Hop Music and Soul music.
Zach: We wanted to bring back the electronic element that we had started with at the beginning. John did most of this album on his own in Boston right after we finished ‘The Satanic Satanist’. I think a lot of it was a way for him to get out his more dark and eccentric ideas that we didn’t get a chance to use during the ‘Satanic Satanist’ sessions. Most of that album was bright and generally happy with lyrics based on growing up in Alaska. ‘American Ghetto’ was in some ways a sequel to it…. Our teenage years in a small town watching people around us lose themselves to drugs and alcohol.
Thibault: By the way, ‘The Pushers Party’ is already one of the catchiest songs of the year and this tune really shows how the groove is important in your music. This groove is almost the trademark of the band. Isn’t it?
Zach: As the bassist i’ll obviously say it’s very important to me. Every time we listen to music as a band, we may disagree with a lot of each others feelings on certain elements… But when a killer rhythm section groove comes in, everyone feels it. In spite of all our musical differences, we all agree that groove is a very important element.
Thibault: Except the last song, the tone of ‘American Ghetto’ is darker than ‘The Satanic Satanist’. Did you want to create a rupture with your previous album?
Zach: I guess I kinda explained this question above… But yes. It refers to a darker time in our lives. Not really a bad time… Alaska is an amazing place to grow up, but you see a lot of bad things happen up there. We thought it would be a nice contrast to our last colorful release.
Thibault: Knowing that you release ‘The Majectic Majesty’ – an acoustic version of the ‘The Satanic Satanist, their previous album – can we expect an acoustic version of ‘American Ghetto’ or complete acoustic albums in the future?
Zach: We’ve haven’t attempted to play any of ‘American Ghetto’ acoustic yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me. We had a lot of fun tracking the ‘Majestic Majesty’ and I’m positive we’ll do that sort of project again in the future.
Thibault: Anyway, in your five albums, there are a few things that never change: the enjoyment of playing together, your laid-back attitude, … Without knowing you, we guess that you are very good friends before everything. And your songs are all the more pleasant with this feeling. For instance, I can’t imagine you recording an album with wiggings and ego problems … Am I wrong?
Zach: Ha… We are very good friends and don’t have many issues especially when it comes to writing music. We all trust each other when it comes to our instrument. Of course we get into it sometimes. It’s impossible not to when you spend as much time together as we do, but we all try to be tolerant of each others quirks and short comings. We’ve got a good group and elements where some of us are weak, others are strong and vise versa. As a whole, we always seem to get the job done. When things get stressful we always tend to remember that we have the best job in the world and we are very lucky to be doing it.
Thibault: Is there a main composer into the band?
Zach: Yes. Our singer John writes mostly. He creates the basic structure of the song and everyone colors it in as we go along.
Thibault: Are media like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace … help you today to share your music and convince people to buy it? And What’s your position about piracy?
Zach: For sure… Those things are extremely important to bands these days. We have fun with it as well. There are so many different mediums to connect with your fans and supporters on so many levels. It would be silly not to take advantage of all of them. We support downloading. If it wasn’t for that, no one would know who our band is, but we stress the fact that if you love a band and want them to continue coming through your town, you should help support them. Wether it’s buying cds, ringtones, vinyl, shirts, or tickets for the shows… Do something. Otherwise they won’t be able to do what they do.
Thibault: Just a side comment … After seeing on the web the different acoustic videos, I need to know if Jason had a particular admiration for the character played by Zach Galifianakis in the movie “The Hangover and if John started a collection of Star Trek pins?
Zach: Ha… He’s got that question a lot… I don’t even know if he’s seen that movie to tell you the truth. It’s a coincidence… but he does look exactly like him. Ha. And yes…. John loves that shit.
Thibault: A friend of mine saw you in Bruxelles last year for one of your shows. He was a bit impressed by the difference between the studio versions and live versions of the songs. Do you try to treat your songs differently for your live audience?
Zach: We love to play all types of music. It seems our recording tend to get a little soft at times, but when it comes to playing live, we still love to play heavy rock’n'roll. We also extend a lot of our songs live. We’re enjoying jamming things out quite a bit. Playing the same thing every night can get a little old, and if we’re bored that feeling might infect the crowd as well. We improvise on stage to keep it interesting for us and to keep us on our toes as musicians.
Thibault: What kind of guys are you on stage?
Zach: Sweaty guys….. That are having a lot of fun.
Thibault: Do we have a chance to see you soon in France?
Zach: Yes… I believe we just started booking a European tour for this summer… But nothing is final yet. We got to stay a night or two in France on this last tour over there, but we are very excited to play there and have more time to explore.
Thibault: During the different interviews I do, I always ask to each artist and bands the following questions: So, could you give me:
Zach:
- Three reasons to love your new album: We are very nice young men. / The producers did a fantastic job. / Not many people in France know who we are… So it might make you look cool. Ha.
- Three words to describe it: Dark. Synthetic. Unfuckwithable.
- The songs in it which represents the best you and your music: Maybe “The Pusher’s Party”. It grooves on a lazy, but low and heavy verse, but has some catchy and fun elements… That’s pretty us. And we party. Ha.
- Your favorite song on this album and the reason why you love it: “The Dead Dog”. It’s a lot of fun to play live and the lyrics really relate to me personally.
Thibault: If you have to choose right now:
Zach:
- An artist: Nirvana.
- An album Dark Side of the Moon.
- A song: « Strangers » By the Kinks.
- One of your songs: New-Orleans
- A movie: 2001. A Space Odyssey.
- An actor: Jack Nicholson
- An actress: Juliet Lewis
- A drink: Pepsi
- A meal: Cheeseburger.
- An animal: Three Toed Sloth
- A dream: Camp across Africa
- A super-hero power: Magneto’s power over metal. Could have a lot of fun, and do a lot of good.
- A line: hell yeah.
- A sport: Hockey
- A country: Austria
Thibault: What kind of artists and bands did you listen these days?
Zach: I’ve been into to softer music recently… The Mountain Goats, Bonnie « Prince » Billy, The Decemberists…. But i’ll always stick to Pink Floyd and The Beatles…
Thibault: Thanks for your answers! If you wish to add anything else, go ahead!
Zach: Thank you so much for this… We hope to get over there very soon.
http://www.myspace.com/portugaltheman
Chronique de ‘American Ghetto’, sortie le 02 Mars 2010
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