Local rockers come home

WASILLA — Like many Alaskans, Portugal. The Man bassist Zach Carothers is excited to go to the Alaska State Fair next week.

Unlike his fellow Alaskan fairgoers — with the notable exception of lead singer John Gourley, who joined Carothers at Wasilla High School in the early 2000s — Carothers be onstage Sept. 2 as part of the 2015 fair’s AT&T Concert Series.

The two rock stars return home for the winter holidays every year and often play an Alaska show then, Carothers said from Portland, Oregon in a phone interview on Tuesday.

“I love the winter, I love the cold, and I love the dark,” he said. “It’s very purifying for me.”

Carothers said it took leaving Alaska for him to respect even the most unglamorous aspects of his hometown.

But the lives of Carothers and Gourley have never been about glamour. Gourley grew up with musher parents in various small communities, including Healy and Knik, and Carothers worked several jobs as a teenager, such as dishwashing and occasionally helping out with Gourley’s father’s construction business.

Neither band member finished their tenures at Wasilla High School — Carothers said he dropped out three weeks before the graduation ceremony his senior year — but it’s not something they really regret.

“Whatever it took to make me who I am today, it was worth it,” Carothers said.

Too cool for school?

It wasn’t as though school was a waste of time, he said. Although some people may have thought he listened to “too much punk rock” during his time at WHS, Carothers said he enjoyed certain aspects of his studies and had good relationships with his English teacher, Mary Kay Downing (Flynn), and principal Dwight Probasco.

“They completely molded how we think,” Carothers said. “They informed ideas that we still write about today.”

The negative memories he has of his English classes have also shaped the band’s artistic philosophy. Carothers recalled a time when his classmates did not appreciate his perspective on a short story, convinced that the author meant something totally different than how he interpreted it.

“I thought that was bulls---,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what the artist intended, it’s how you perceive it.”

Downing — who hasn’t missed a fair in 45 years — said she agreed with Carothers that art is all about interpretation, and was glad to hear of his philosophy. She described him as “an eager student,” “witty and smart,” and guessed that school moved too slowly for him, a young man who “was really quite bright.”

“That kid had so much personality,” Downing said.

Carothers said he and his bandmates don’t mind when their “very weird lyrics” evoke alternate interpretations of their music. One individual who regularly posts on songmeanings.com, he said, is often “dead wrong” about the origins of Portugal. The Man songs, but the user’s reasoning “makes more sense” than what really inspired the lyrics.

“We like lyrics that are vague and colorful and mean something (different) to different people,” Carothers said.

Portugal. The Man’s 2009 album, “The Satanic Satanist,” is an example of shocking, even alienating language that wasn’t devised to turn any specific group away. The album name itself, in Carothers’ mind, is supposed to describe “the loneliest loner” in concrete terms, and to indicate the isolated nature of living in Alaska.

Carothers used the “Mr. Rogers” television show as an example. Gourley once related to him his childhood confusion in Mr. Rogers’ discussion of a neighborhood, which the young Gourley really had no concept of, since Alaska homes are often very spread out.

But if that’s not what listeners get out of “one of our happiest albums,” Carothers said, that’s okay, too.

“We’re not all about black and white, we’re about the whole spectrum,” he said.

Around the world

When Carothers and Gourley first left Alaska for Portland, they had “no delusions of grandeur” that they would soon see their names in lights.

“I did not know that I would be playing music for a living,” Carothers said. “It was just all about experience and practice to make us get better at what we do.”

He wasn’t just talking about experience in the music industry, though. Immersing in the cultures of communities that host Portugal. The Man shows, he said, is just as important.

Last year, when the band was in South America for the first time, they arrived a week before the show to go exploring.

“We would be out at the bars all night, wake up early, make friends and drive up to the mountains … do whatever the people do,” Carothers said.

Meanwhile, other big bands touring with Portugal. The Man spent most of their time on the continent in their hotel rooms, contrary to the Alaska/Portland band’s traveling ideology.

“The whole reason we kind of do this (tour as a band), it’s all about connection, whether that’s through music or the people we meet or things we do,” Carothers said.

In addition to playing international shows in countries the band members had never visited prior to achieving stardom, Portugal. The Man has been featured in big-name U.S. music festivals such as Lollapalooza in Chicago; Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee; and Coachella in Indio, California.

Alaska: far away

Carothers said he had never been to any of those festivals as a spectator because of the expense — show ticket prices plus airfare from Alaska aren’t cheap. Such inaccessibility to diverse, live shows, he said, is a tragedy all Alaska music-lovers lament at some point. Carothers said he would pay $60 to see, at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, “artists that I straight up did not like” simply because it was live music.

He didn’t place the blame for the lack of musical diversity in Alaska on any one person, group or industry. The physical difficulty and time it takes to bring a popular, on-tour artist to the northernmost state, he said, is the biggest barrier.

“Being an artist now (we) see how difficult it is to play up there,” Carothers said. “It’s very expensive and it’s hard because there’s not a lot of resources up there for … lighting or gear.”

Carothers said most artists can only bring about half the equipment they would bring to a Seattle or Portland show on the same tour to Alaska. Plus, it’s harder to come away with a profit.

But that’s not what Carothers and Gourley need or are looking for when they come home.

“We’d rather get a couple hundred friends and family together then make any money like that. It’s more fun for us,” Carothers said.

And they’re happy to be contributing to the live music scene in Alaska — not only are the fans “thirsty for it,” he said, perhaps Portugal. The Man can encourage emerging Alaskan artists.

“The whole reason we do this, the whole reason we work so hard is to make it so we can inspire others to make (music) better than (we) did,” Carothers said. “That's just the circle of life. There’s no point if you’re not pushing anything or growing.”

Portugal. The Man will play at the Alaska State Fair Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. For more information or to buy tickets, visit alaskastatefair.org/concerts.

Carothers said fans can look for the band members during the day riding the Gravitron, the squirrel cages eating at Husky Burger or, after the show, hanging out at the Sluice Box.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.