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Thursday, October 14, aoio | Thb Red * Black
8
Despite odds, Alaskan band flourishes nationally
By JOE WILLIAMS
The Red & Black
When John Gourely, a painter
and carpenter from Wasilla, Ala
got the offer from a group of
friends to fly down to Portland
and try his hand as vocalist for
their newly-formed band, he
bought a plane ticket the next
day.
“I was never spontaneous I
was really shy,” Qourely said.
"But these guys called me at the
right time. They said, ‘Hey, you
should come down to Portland
and sing a couple songs for our
band.’ I worked construction
always, so I just had money to
go buy a ticket and get out of
there.”
Biting the bullet on his social
anxiety, Qourely went against
his very nature to pursue his
love for music, despite one glar
ing issue.
He had never actually sung in
a band before. .
“I fucking did not want to
sing for a band,” Qourely said.
“It’s the last thing a guy like me
wants. I get really nervous in
groups of people I don't get
weird, I don’t turn into an ass
hole. I just like have panic
attacks.”
After years of playing his gui
tar long into the night, Gourely’s
dedication paid off. His first
band, Anatomy of a Ghost, was
signed only a month after he
made the trek from Alaska.
“There wasn’t really a music
scene that I was ever a part of. I
just kind of grew up at 14 and 15,
and I started building houses
with my dad and family, and I
just did home school and hung
out with them," Gourely said. "I
always loved music and I grew
up listening to a lot of it.
Obviously. I listened to a lot of
the Beatles and Motown, just
pretty much oldies radio.”
The hours he worked were
long and hectic, but between
meeting the demands of his
young hammer-and-nail profes
sion, Gourely met up with
friends to write music.
“(We] never had more than
five or six songs at a time. We
would just play for fun. and we
always worked at it like it would
be a job.” Gourely said. "And I
was never good. I never prac
ticed scales or anything like
that. But I made these little
demos.”
What seemed like misfortune
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PORTUGAL, THE MAN
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at the time blossomed into the
next stage of Gourely’s musical
career Anatomy of a Ghost
broke up after gamering mild
success, and what rose from the
ashes was anew band with a
firm goal, supported by a mild
epiphany.
"I really do feel like things
happen for a reason, you know?”
Gourely said. “That was the rea
son I realized, ‘You know what?
You don’t have to be fucking
Eminem or Marilyn Manson,
that top of the top as far as
mainstream goes. You can tour
and have fun doing it without
needing that.”’
And thus, Portugal. The Man
was bom.
With a strong passion for
doing it their own way, the
members keyboardist Ryan
Neighbors, bass guitarist
Zachary Carothers, drummer
Jason Sechrist and Gourely on
Lead vocals and guitar have
quickly made a name for them
selves, releasing five albums
and. by stem request from their
fans, a full-length acoustic LP in
the six years since their incep
tion.
However, hailing from Wasilla
didn’t exactly come with the
connections Gourely could have
hoped for.
Even other artists neglected
to mention their Alaskan roots
for a shot at a fresh start in the
California sunshine.
"Honest to God, it’s flicking
harder,” Gourely said. “It seems
like it’s this thing that writers
grab, and they have something
to write about right away. Who
else is from Alaska? The long
winters, fucking Jewel. And
Jewel claimed California when
she moved out, which is crazy to
me. I mean the ’9os? That’s
when you’d be lying and saying
Alaska.”
Like fellow Wasilla native
Sarah Palin, the band's step into
the spotlight came with its fair
share of hurdles and skepticism,
especially in the studio.
“Every time we go in with a
new producer, [they] flip out and
say. This isn’t a song! You can’t
play music like this,' and we go.
‘No man, it’s like what we do.
refi IBBm^SSSEhIHSb
Photo Courtis* op Portugal. Thr Man
▲ Portugal. The Man thrives on experimental, ‘outside the box' rock to pump up fans.
This is how we do it.’”
A quick listen to Portugal.
The Man is one of excitement
and uncertainty, glazed with
chaos. For example, the song
“People Say” features a twangy
guitar coupled with uplifting
harmonies, nothing too out of
the ordinary.
However, the video for "Do
You” is enough to start an all
out church riot —a woman is
sucked into a hole in the ground,
a man jumps rope in a space
suit, Gourely himself appears to
be some sort of mutant, full-size
Oompa-Loompa tripping on seri
ous narcotics while a rope is
pulled through his chest and he
holds an inverted pentagram.
Not exactly Matchbox
Twenty.
It is this very sense of creativ
ity and “outside the box” think
ing that has propelled the band
both live and in the studio.
“We sort of do the hip-hop
production,” Gourely said. "I’ll
just sit down and play acoustic
guitar to a click track, put like a
guide vocal to things, then chop
everything up and find the right
structure. It’s all pretty weird.”
Breaking the mold from the
manner in which rock bands typ
Christian film confronts homosexuality
‘Faith Flicks' series
offers commonality
By PAIGE VARNER
The Red & Buck
At the intersection of Aims and
faith, one University religious group
directs traffic.
Tonight as part of its “Faith
Flicks” series, the Presbyterian
Student Center will show the movie
“For the Bible Tells Me So” —a doc
umentary about religion’s conflict
with homosexuality.
Clay Mersmann, who leads the
discussion after each film, said mov
ies provide common ground for peo
ple of all faiths.
"Film puts people in the same
place,” he said. “You’re taken
through the same ride. The film
guides you through the emotions.”
Mersmann, a sophomore from
SneUville on the Presbyterian
Student Center board, said past
movie selections have stuck with
him.
One was “Through My Eyes.” in
which young Christians shared their
views on how churches respond to
homosexuality.
For these Christians, Mersmann
said, Ood is the most important
thing in the world.
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When: Tonight at 8
Where: Presbyterian Student Center,
1250 S. Lumpkin St.
More Information: Coffee and tea provided
Price: Free
Yet the gay Christians in the film
were told their identities were at
odds with the most important thing
in the world.
“After that, I definitely felt a
strong inclination to question and
push the beliefs of friends who are
Christians who maybe aren’t as
inclusive to gays,” Mersmann said.
“I’m not OK with people using their
Christianity to condemn homosexu
ality.”
Other past films in the “Faith
Flicks” series addressed a post
apocalyptic world in “Children of
Men,” African genocide in “Hotel
Rwanda" and religious satire in
“Saved!"
Campus ministry intern Mitch
Roper said he chooses movies with
biblical themes for the series, espe
cially the theme of creating “loving
communities that Jesus would have
us live in.”
The movies aren’t censored
some contain violence, sexual con
tent and language not typically
heard in a place of worship.
ically write and record, Gourely
purposefully takes a round
about approach to everything he
does.
“It’s all about stepping out a
little, having fun with it,”
Gourely said. “Everything I do
today is something that my
teachers flicking gave me a big
red mark on my papers for.”
Transcending from rural
Alaska to the national airwaves
takes more than just crossed fin
gers and a funky recording pro
cess.
The band’s very name repre
sents its approach to music.
“Portugal. The Man was just
meant to be an alter ego,”
Gourely said. “We would all have
these alter egos. I knew I was
always going to play with a
band, so in picking my ’Ziggy
Stardust,’ I just went with a
country because a country is a
group of people with a single
voice in the world. And it just
made sense at the time. What’s
bigger than life? Bigger than one
person? A country. So Portugal
just sounded good.”
In fact, for a brief time, the
band simply went by the moni
ker “Portugal."
However, the band feared fans
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would not pick up on the larger
than-life meaning.
“We decided to call it
•Portugal. The Man,’ and to put
a period so people would know
Portugal is the man," Gourely
said. “The first time I saw it in
print though, I went, That’s
going to be a hassle for every
body. Anybody who has to write
about this band is going to have
their editors going, ’What the
fuck is this? Did you randomly
just start throwing in periods to
see what would happen?’”
Instead of counting earnings
and worrying about what’s in
store for tomorrow, Portugal.
The Man’s carefree, in-the-mo
ment attitude is one that is sure
to resonate with fans at the 40
Watt Club Friday night.
“I mean, obviously that’s
everybody’s fucking goal, to be
the biggest fucking band in the
world,” Gourely said. “But it’s
cool knowihg you don’t need to
do that. You don’t really need
things to survive. You just need
the bare necessities you fuck
ing need food and a place to
sleep. That place to sleep can be
a fucking van, it can be a tent, it
can be anything. We just want to
have fun.”
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That adds more value to
Christianity’s message, Roper said.
“To avoid that is to set yourself
off from the harsh reality we live in,”
he said. “That makes Jesus’ gospel
all the more meaningful because his
gospel has something to say about
the harsh realities.”
Future movies include “Lars and
the Real Girl” on Oct. 28, “Why We
Fight” on Nov. 11 and “The Nativity
Story” on Dec. 2.