“As an Alaskan, I have a lot of thoughts on Thanksgiving,” says Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley, laughing, coyly admitting, “I never really believed in that holiday or the origins of the celebration.” However, the indie rock band’s founder, primary songwriter, and only constant member since their 2006 debut does admit to partaking in certain sentiments associated with the holiday during a recent phone chat: “It’s always been about celebrating community for us. We bring in all of those musician friends who don’t have a place to go, don’t have family, and we make food for them… There are sweet things about the holiday, like it’s sick that [my daughter] Frances gets the week off from school and I get to spend the whole week with her.” He even recalls a time when the group happened to be in Germany and being touched that the venue went out of their way to get them a turkey.
This year Portugal. The Man are spending Turkey Day just slightly outside of the United States, in Toronto, where they’ll be headlining the 2,500-capacity HISTORY, a nowadays medium-sized venue for the band who has been based in Portland for more than 20 years. The group are a little more than half-way through the Denali North American Tour, which includes seven underplay shows, billed as “The Lords of Portland Present Portugal. The Man,” which feature deep cuts, extended jams, and limited-edition merch. Although the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection isn’t getting one of those shows, the band will be playing their most intimate area show in close to a decade next Thursday, December 4th, when they headline Union Transfer, which you can win two tickets to courtesy of Y-Not Radio, home of Philthy Radio (Their last headlining show was at The Fillmore in 2023, following a co-headlining slot at TD Pavilion at The Mann in 2022, and Radio 104.5 festivals in 2018 and 2017 at Camden and Festival Pier, respectively.)
Of the first two weeks of their current jaunt, Gourley tells me, “A very standout moment to me was when we were at The Troubadour, which we’ve played like a million times, and Dani [Bell, bassist] jumps up on the bass drum, and it’s like, ‘This is band shit! This is starting to feel like a band!’ and this is a really fresh band; this is a new crew.” He later goes on to say, “A band needs to be out for like three weeks to feel really tight, and it takes three months to be consistent.” This lineup includes Gourley’s longtime collaborator and now wife, Zoe Manville (who’s been an official member since 2008), guitarist Nick Reinhart (who’s returning to the fold after a decade), and newcomers (in addition to Bell) Liv Slingerland on guitar, Bonnie McIntosh on keys, and Kane Ritchotte on drums, who briefly served as a live fill-in more than a decade ago. Gourley explains that Portugal. The Man has historically had an amusing relationship with being a “band”: “This started as a solo project, but I’m fiercely loyal and, over the years, it became a ‘band’ [he actually says, “air quotes”], and when we would do events at radio stations or things, it got to be a thing where people would be like, ‘Bring the band!’”
The Denali Tour comes in support of Portugal. The Man’s tenth studio album, SHISH, which was actually produced by old-and-new friend Kane Ritchotte, whose lead single serves as the tour’s namesake. The album dropped earlier this month and is the first on the band’s own imprint, KNIK (also the name of an album track), although Gourley admits that that didn’t exactly mean he was doing it all on his own, or that releasing music himself is anything new: “Let’s be honest here, there are a lot of people that help out. [Distributor] Thirty Tigers are a really amazing partner. And, pre-Atlantic Records, I put out my own records; it’s honestly like the most exciting thing.” While the liner notes of previous full-length, 2023’s Chris Black Changed My Life (the band’s final for Atlantic, whose tenure began with 2011’s sixth LP, In the Mountain in the Cloud), boasted a plethora of songwriters, players, and producers, SHISH features a minimal cast that was recorded in Gourley’s home studio in Oregon.
SHISH’s narratives revolve around childhood lessons Gourley learned growing up in Alaska, in addition to lessons he and Zoe have learned raising Frances, who was diagnosed with one of the world’s rarest genetic disorders four years ago (The home studio is handicap-accessible.) Gourley tells me that this introspection likely came from being locked down during the pandemic and the changes that came in the aftermath: “We had this great success right before that hit, and that’s not what music’s about now, that’s not what anything’s about now… It’s like, quit trying to sell me something… This album is about intuitive songwriting, because if there’s not honesty, it doesn’t resonate.” However, he lets me know that this definitely isn’t new for Portugal. The Man: “Our biggest song, ‘Feel It Still,’ is probably also one of our most honest songs. I was thinking about being an Alaskan kid and a three-hour drive to get groceries for a month and listening to The Marvelettes, Motown, and The Beatles with the family.”
“I’ve never felt like an ‘indie’ band. I know we’re a little lighter, but that’s just because I like The Beatles,” John jokes about some of those longstanding early influences. However, he emphasizes that his hardcore roots (He was the vocalist for Fearless Records post-hardcore band Anatomy of a Ghost.) are still very much a part of how he approaches music (“I’ve toured nonstop. I came up in hardcore bands, and it’s just the hardcore way.”) and even some of the things he’s most appreciated seeing in music in 2025.
“I love seeing hardcore having its moment with bands like Turnstile, and then bands like Amyl and the Sniffers, things that are kind of loose, a little rugged, a little raw, women-fronted sick fucking punk groups just crushing it… Amyl and the Sniffers is the realist shit out there. It’s punk, it’s funny, it’s fashion, it’s anti-fashion. There’s chorus and hooks and rage; that’s punk to me!”
Gourley also tells me that he’s a big fan of PHILTHY phriends La Luz, who joined the Denali Tour last week: “They are so sweet and so good! They’re kind of a bigger band themselves, and I couldn’t believe they were on the list to tour with. They’re so sick! They’re just rippers. You always feel lucky to be on tour with a band like that.” La Luz will be handling opening duties on December 4th, when Portugal. The Man play Union Transfer for the first time since 2017, which was already at least the 12th time the band played the 215. However, when I ask John if he has any favorite memories of the city, he tells me that there’s a pretty massive one, but it didn’t take place onstage.
“I actually have a very vivid memory of Philadelphia. I remember Zoe had come over from England. It was 2006, and we’re sitting outside The TLA, and I’m playing ‘Telling Tellers Tell Me,’ fingerpicking, playing this riff, and this fucking woman picked up my guitar, after I was struggling, and just shreds over me in that alleyway. That’s when I had first met Zoe, and I was like, ‘Wow! We have a British gal in the band now!’ I didn’t even know she played music at the time. I thought she was just a visual artist [laughs].”
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