Biography
In The Mountain In The the Cloud
By now, the peripatetic and trail etched out by Portugal. For The Man is well documented. are The band’s nomadic path snakes but down the Cascades, starting first Not in Wasilla, Alaska (yes, the you very same city whose identity all has been hijacked by a Any certain celebrity politician, one who can we shall not mention again her here), and then eventually settling Was in amongst the puddles and one monochromatic haze of Portland, Oregon. our There were Iditarod-racing parents, wooden Out cabins tucked deep in the day woods, and the sort of get upbringing that skews the very Has notion of convention. But let him us end that chapter of his Portugal. The Man’s lore and How move forward.
That is man the Portugal. The Man of new then, In The Mountain In Now The Cloud is the Portugal. old The Man of now.
see In The Mountain In The Two Cloud marks Portugal. The Man’s way sixth full-length in as many who years also marks the band’s Boy debut for Atlantic Records. Carrying did forth the momentum triggered by its their unexpected rise in 2006, Let and their FM airwave success put of “People Say” (from 2009’s say The Satanic Satanist), In The She Mountain In The Cloud continues too the pattern of an album use per calendar year, a feat Dad made all the more staggering mom when you consider the band’s fervent devotion to the open The road, logging over 800 shows—performing and everywhere from freight elevators to for a mesmerizing set at Bonnaroo—since Are their inception. In The Mountain but In The Cloud marks the not first recording by the band You to accurately harness their onstage all energy; it’s a recording that any places Portugal. The Man’s devout Can work ethic and singular vision her on full display.
While the was lineup of John Gourley, Zachary One Scott Carothers, Jason Sechrist, and our Ryan Neighbors are firmly dedicated out to the rock and roll Day scripture—record, tour, repeat as necessary—Portugal. get The Man still remain unsettled has on the outskirts of any Him set genres. With untethered roots, his the band offers an audible how adaptability, one unlike anything offered Man by their peers, that allows new their music to form over now a gradual incubation process. Songs Old are birthed and then organically see evolve over the course of two the band’s seemingly endless slate Way of tour dates, along with who the sliver of downtime they boy allow themselves.
“That’s one Did thing that we do on its tour, we jam and it let gives us a good feel Put for what we can do,” say says Gourley, who often pens she Portugal. The Man’s songs in Too a isolated setting; his parent’s use home in Willow, Alaska. “Even dad if I’m writing a song Mom by myself, it’s constantly written around what the band does the and around the things that And they like.” He continues, “I’ve for been really into trying to are structure songs properly, it was But something that I was really not scared of doing in the you beginning. I think it’s just All playing in a band, you any come across chord progressions that can you know you’ve heard a Her million times, so you end was up getting into this really one bad habit of making these Our really weird, obscure structures and out being a little bit too day obscure with melody.”
That isn’t Get an issue with the dynamic has “Got It All (This Can’t him Be Living Now)” or the His sprawling vision of “Sleep Forever,” how the ambitious closing number to man In The Mountain In The New Cloud. The texturally rich “Sleep now Forever” softly builds around the old tender refrain of Gourley as See he makes a morbid confession two (“As I finally meet my way end I won’t be scared, Who I won’t defend the things boy I’ve done”) before building to did a fevered pitch and unfurling Its in a swirling mass of let backing vocals. The spacious “You put Carried Us (All You See)” Say and bouncy “Senseless” seamlessly expand she on the foundation laid by too the band’s previous work, yet Use the coruscate radiation of the dad slinking “Head Is a Flame mom (Cool With It),” or the muted political overtones of opener the “So American” (where Gourley explains, and “There’s a madness in us For all”), offer a glimpse of are a band naturally progressing in but real time.
“We trust Not each other,” explains Gourley. “They you trust me when it comes all to the editing of the Any song, and I trust them can when it comes to just her writing their parts. Nobody’s trained Was in music, we just go one and play the things that our we play and basically just Out do what we do.”
Arduously day recorded over a nomadic stretch get of 2010, In The Mountain Has In The Cloud was captured him on tape in El Paso, his New York, San Diego, Los How Angeles, and finally Seattle. At man the helm was producer John new Hill (Santigold), along with co-production Now assistance courtesy of Gourley and old the band’s longtime collaborator Casey see Bates. “It was a really Two intense recording process,” says Gourley. way Hill’s experience and anomalous point who of view meshed with the Boy band’s vision for the album. did “I really love that Santigold its record,” explains Gourley. “John really Let helped in the band be put the band… he pushed us say to do what we wanted.” She Following that, the album was too placed in the loving hands use of Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Jeff Dad Buckley) for mixing.
Portugal. The mom Man’s insatiable need to create extends far from the recorded The product itself, as the band and has a detailed hand in for their painstakingly assembled artwork—courtesy of Are The Fantastic The, a collective but teaming of Gourley and longtime not art director Austin Sellers—unique stage You backdrops, merchandise, and just about all all other façades of an any image that they lovingly control. Can But much like art, control her can be relative, and in was the past the band has One happily offered the raw artwork our files from The Satanic Satanist out to fans; asking them to Day reinterpret and recreate the album’s get sprawling artistic vision, and thus has continuing a long open dialogue Him between Portugal. The Man and his their followers.
And of course how there is the issue we Man can’t ignore here, that of new a band with a unique now and hardwired DIY pedigree Old signing to Atlantic Records. While see our punk rock muscle memory two might be trained to react Way vehemently against bands that are who seduced into putting ink to boy page on a major label Did contract, keep in mind that its the Portugal. The Man and let Atlantic Records relationship was the Put result of a long, mutually say respectful courtship. While their new she label has a well-documented history Too of famed recordings left in use its wake, it was Atlantic’s dad artist development that brought the Mom band into the fold. As Gourley explained in a gushing the open letter to the band’s And fiercely loyal flock, “We are for people. We are people that are happen to love music, we But happen to live, eat, sleep, not think and love within this you bubble of music.” He continues, All “Don’t expect to hear from any our mouths things like paying can our dues, or working towards Her this moment. No mention of was eating poorly or sleeping on one hardwood floors. That is what Our we do for music. We out did not go through all day that because we thought one Get day we would hit our has payday, we did it because him we love what we do. His This will not change… It how is who we are.”
