Portugal. The Man

Growing up in an off-grid log cabin in the woods of Alaska, John Gourley was surrounded by huskies and wilderness with only his parents' collection of Beatles records for musical reference points. He dropped out of school at 15 to work for his father's construction business but was inspired by hearing Oasis and Nirvana in the mid-1990s and teamed up with his bass-playing friend Zach Carothers to form the raucous emo act Anatomy of a Ghost in 2001. They toured across the US and released an album but, after three years, the band split and Gourley and Carothers went on to form Portugal. The Man with the intention of exploring a wider, more diverse array of influences, including synth-pop, funk, and soul. Early independent records Waiter: You Vultures! (2006) and Church Mouth (2008) got the band rolling and they moved down to Portland, Oregon, before making a breakthrough with their fourth album The Satanic Satanist (2009) and the highly acclaimed American Ghetto (2010). Landing a major label deal with Atlantic Records, they worked with superstar producer Danger Mouse and made it into the US Top 30 for the first time with the colorful swaggering sound of 2013's Evil Friends. Their love of jaunty pop melodies, hazy sixties rock, and dancey, funky rhythms all came together on their eighth album Woodstock, released in 2017. Driven by the Grammy-winning single "Feel It Still," Woodstock reached Number 32 on the Billboard 200 and fared even better in the rock charts, where it peaked at Number 2. Over the following years, Portugal. The Man toured extensively in support of the album, issued the live album Oregon City Sessions in 2021, and participated in the Metallica charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist. Preceded by the single "Dummy," their ninth studio album Chris Black Changed My Life arrived in 2023 and was dedicated to the memory of the band's longtime friend Chris Black, who passed away in 2019.