Portugal. The Man have inked a deal with Atlantic Records. Guitarist/vocalist John Gourley commented:
“Portugal. The Man has been our lives for the past four and a half recorded years. Together we have played near one thousand shows and we have released five full length albums and two EPs. We have done more traveling than my younger and more apprehensive brain would have told me. We traveled to Europe? I never would have ever expected this. To be perfectly honest, I would have been just as content with the handful of Portland shows that we played upon taking our first steps outside of our home of Alaska. It was amazing. Playing shows in the lower 48? I still find so much excitement in these memories. It was so absolutely massive to me. There was the realization that we could actually do this. We could play music and, yeah, maybe it was five or six people coming out at the time but you know what? It didn’t matter. I think about this daily. My mother and father and brothers and sister call me and with every conversation we start with “Can you believe this?”. We talk about where we come from and how small our world was. Every day I think of this. I remember the old house on Knik where we grew up. We watched beluga whales rolling and singing in the dark silt waters of the Cook Inlet. I remember my mother fixing our diesel generator whenever it would break down – building fires and chopping wood for the times when she couldn’t get it started again. Levi and Lindsay helping with the dog chores while my dad was away with work. What a strong woman, an amazing woman. I feel very lucky for this family. I have since left. Not because I wanted to move away but because of our love for music – my family’s love for music: our truck rides to town listening to KOOL 97.3 oldies radio, the sounds of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, The Rolling Stones, and yeah, The Beatles… Lots of Beatles. We sang along together and loved every minute of it. Never at the time did I think I would ever be playing music today, but I do it and found myself in it because of these moments. I feel very lucky to have the family I have and the support they have given me. We all have been lucky in this, Ryan, Zach and Jason included. We do this because we love it and we are supported in it. We could not and would not do it without our families.”