Portugal. The Man’s newest album features more than just eleven fiercely transcendent vignettes. is a single machine as well as a long suite of compositions, segued together into one seamless presentation. Born from the band’s ravenous creative appetite, many months of dedicated touring and their rare commitment to challengingly perfect songcraft, all set against a canvas of Portland winter skies. Content instead to rely upon their faith in each other, their music and the steady guidance of friends. This is a band that has embraced that they are performers and musicians for life and witnessing their live shows are famously awe-inspiring. I don’t exaggerate, this band is the real deal.

You can catch Portugal. The Man’s Euro Tour here as well as two holiday shows in their hometown(ish) of Portland, OR.

The week keyboardist Ryan Neighbors answers probably one of the best Kuestionnaire’s we’ve had in a long time (question #5 in particular).

1. Could you state your name and what you do in the band?
My name is Ryan Neighbors and I play keys and sing background vocals.

2. How would you describe your sound?
I would say we are a rock ‘n roll band with many touches of pop and psychedelia. We have soul too, lots of it.

3. What is your favorite local band?

4. Any concerts that blew your mind recently?
I think the last concert that actually blew my mind was Air at the Crystal Ballroom a couple years back. I hadn’t seen them before so I wasn’t sure how they were going to execute their sound. They were absolutely incredible. Seeing them play their songs with a five piece band and live drummer was so cool.

5. Any non-musical influences you would like to mention?
I would say my biggest non-musical influences are friends and travel. Almost all of my friends are involved in projects of some sort, whether its building a wind turbine or recording a record. Surrounding myself with people like that keep me wanting to work on things and have hobbies. If all my friends just played video games and and ate Dorito’s all day I would be a little less motivated to do interesting things. Touring and traveling has also had a great influence on me. Just seeing different places in the world gives me a great appreciation for everything.

6. If your music was to be the theme of a film/TV show, what would it be?
Growing pains has the greatest theme song ever. I will just leave it at that. It can’t be topped, I would never even try.

7. What musician/artist would you like to collaborate with for a day?
Harry Nilsson. I love his story telling and his loose style. I think spending a day with him would be great and very free. I feel like he could take anything and somehow make it intriguing. He is a genius.

8. What is the album you listen to on a cold rainy day?
I definitely don’t have a standard rainy day album, but today was rainy and I listened to ‘Get Lonely’ by the Mountain Goats. I just recently started listening to that record. They have so many records so it can be difficult to know which albums to to put time into but I really like this one. That man has some good delivery. He seems to make the simplest things seem important. I like that.

9. List four songs you would listen to on a roadtrip?
Wild World – Cat Stevens
Say It Ain’t So – Weezer
Without You – Harry Nilsson
Idioteque – Radiohead
All songs with big choruses. My road trips tend to include people singing together so it’s important.

10. Where do you see yourselves in 7 years?
I imagine I will still be playing music in one form or another. If not with Portugal, most definitely something, at least my own music. I will more than likely live somewhere, that is a current goal for me right now. Oh, and I will hopefully have a wife. I always look for wives.

11. What is the last book you read?
Last Exit To Brooklyn by Hubert Selby. It’s some pretty intense stuff.

12. Is image a factor in music or is it a waste of time?
It really depends on the band you are trying to be. If you are a novelty act, such as the Darkness, you couldn’t really get away with looking like a normal dude. If you want your fans to portray you as a normal person (which most are) image isn’t really a big deal. I mean sure, it is great to look nice but it isn’t all that necessary. Weird Al better not stop wearing Hawiian shirts though, that would be devastating.

13. Any embarrassing moments on stage you would like to share?
Oh I have a pretty good one for myself. We were playing a sold out show in Stuttgart, Germany. In the middle of Bellies are Full, John’s vocals stopped working. I ended up going down into the crowd, digging through everyone’s feet, and finding an unplugged cable. I plugged it in and hopped back on stage. I pretty much saved the day and then I fell right on my face. It was pretty priceless. A real bittersweet moment for me.

14. Any favorite tour locations?
Austin, Texas is great. People are really good to us in Texas and on top of that, Austin is just a really cool city. Good vibes, good feelings. Also San Diego is awesome. We generally go to the beach and get breakfast burritos when we have time. Who couldn’t like that? Anywhere in Germany is a favorite place as well. We just feel so lucky that we even have fans over there, it makes every trip to Germany incredible.

15. Lastly, what is your present state of mind?
I am a little jet lagged, kind of tired, a bit scatterbrained. We are in Manchester playing for the first time. I am also really excited, just exhausted. We have a long 5 weeks of touring ahead of us. I am always looking forward to touring, especially new places.

Portugal. The Man – People Say from The Satanic Satanist (2009)

hello electric – the bear king from pilot EP (2009)

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