Portugal. The Man Scrap Gloomin + Doomin Songs to Work on Upcoming Album Woodstock and Release New Video for “Feel It Still”

Photo Credit: Pamela Lin

Last week, Portugal. The Man surprised everyone with new single off of their forthcoming album, Woodstock, titled “Feel It Still,” that broke the band’s lengthy three year silence of new material. They then solidified that break by returning with a call-to-resistance video to accompany the groovy new track. The video is available in two different platforms, a regular stream that can be seen below and an interactive one that can be seen here. Both platforms are of the same video, the difference is that in the interactive version there is a task for viewers who are “encouraged to find hidden Easter eggs designed to help #theresistance movement.” These different “eggs” are outlined through out the video and when clicked on there are different calls to action, such as giving to ACLU, Electing Women and to Fight Climate Change. The band partnered with creative agency Wieden + Kennedy to release the interactive version with the goal to act as a toolkit for the social injustices we are seeing today. The video also features Northwest rapper The Last Artful, Dodgr.

A press release explains that the decision to break the long hiatus that the band was in and get off the “musical elliptical machine” came to John Gourley, Portugal. The Man lead singer, after a visit home to Alaska. The group had been creating music since 2013 toward an album they would call Gloomin + Doomin, giving context as to how a band that was producing an album virtually every year was so silent for so long. During this trip home, Gourley had a conversation with his father, who questioned the time it was taking for his son to put out new music. Left with that question rattling in his head, Gourley found an old Woodstock ’69 ticket that belonged to his father in the house. It was the finding of that ticket that finally sparked a fire in him and broke down the internal block that prevented him from putting out new material. He was lacking a purpose in what he was creating. The ticket made him think of the way that music was directly involved with the world around them at that time and the current state of our world today. Gourley then hastily decided to throw out all of the band’s work that had been done since 2013 and make new material with this goal of social justice in mind. Under constant threat by their record label for this decision, the band created what will be their next album titled, fittingly, Woodstock.