‘Man’ of the moment
Alaskan band makes it big — after 14 years
‘FEEL It Still,” the psychedelic earworm from the unusually named rock band Portugal. The Man, was one of the biggest songs of 2017, ending up in several advertisements. The band’s frontman, John Gourley, says his favorite was initially a Vitaminwater commercial, starring “Breaking Bad’s” Aaron Paul — until Gourley caught the tune in the trailer for “Peter Rabbit” at a movie theater with his partner Zoe Manville, who sings with the band, and their 6-year-old daughter.
“My daughter just screams at the top of her lungs, ‘ MOMMY AND DADDY AT THE MOVIES!’ ” Gourley, 36, tells The Post with a laugh.
“Feel It Still” has been everywhere. Peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the track has remained on the chart for 34 weeks so far, and last month it earned the band their first Grammy. New Yorkers can hear the megahit live when Portugal. The Man plays Brooklyn Steel on Tuesday. (Tickets are also on sale now for their Sept. 22 Forest Hills Stadium show.)
“This is all so appreciated and so cool and so completely random,” Gourley says of the acclaim (and the ads).
Portugal. The Man isn’t some young new act. The band formed in 2004, and “Feel It Still” is the featured track off their eighth studio album, making its massive success all the more unlikely. That confusing band name didn’t make things any easier. It’s intended as an alter ego a la David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust. “Portugal” is the name of “The Man” they’ve created. Plus, the band hails from Alaska, which Gourley politely admits doesn’t exactly have the most bustling rock scene.
When he was a teen, Gourley lived outside of Wasilla, where Sarah Palin was then its mayor. And, sure enough, Palin and the band have history.
Bass player Zach Carothers went to a city hall meeting to propose the building of a skate park, and Palin agreed that the city would build it if Carothers and his friends could raise half the money.
“I know she did this fully thinking, ‘ Those kids are not going to be able to pull this off,’ ” says Gourley. “The thing that she underestimated — and the thing that I think she still underestimates — is the power of community.”
Gourley says they raised the money, but Palin didn’t hold up her end of the deal. “It took a year of going through city hall meetings and bringing all of our mohawked, missing-teeth friends in there,” he says. “You know, you gotta bring the punk to city hall sometimes to get something to happen.
“It did eventually get built,” he says with a laugh. “But it was to the dismay of Sarah Palin, I’m sure.”