This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

For anyone who finds Portugal. The Man's latest album, "Woodstock," to be a disgustingly craven attempt at mainstream appeal, band co-founder and bassist Zach Carothers would like to address your concerns.

"It wasn't that we were planning on making this one more commercial, per se," he clarified to the Tribune in a phone interview — it's just that P.TM weren't good enough songwriters at the time to make the previous ones equally commercial.

"We're pop kids! I don't know why so many people still think that we're trying to be like this underground, prog, experimental … we've never been that. We were trying to write cohesive songs, we just didn't know how the f—- to do it," Carothers added. "And so, people thought we were so experimental and psychedelic, like, 'Oh dude, you just changed keys and then totally changed time signatures!' And we're like, 'Yeah, 'cause we didn't know how to write a decent transition to get into another part.' … Try telling a good story in 3 minutes. It's really hard."

Of course, Portugal. The Man will endeavor to do exactly that this Tuesday before a sold-out audience at the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City.

The band, which originated in Wasilla, Alaska and now resides in Portland. Ore., did anticipate some level of backlash, and sought to take ownership of their scarlet letter in advance, pre-emptively printing up a batch of "I LIKED PORTUGAL. THE MAN BEFORE THEY SOLD OUT" T-shirts.

And while Carothers admits it was partly done simply because everyone in the band is naturally smartass — "Almost everything we do starts off as private jokes" — that doesn't mean the underlying sentiment isn't legitimate.

Not everything the band does is tongue-in-cheek. A great deal is tongue stuck straight out — especially at those who would suggest that people trying to make a living as professional musicians should intentionally seek to limit their audience so that only a select few can lay claim to truly loving them. Because that makes sense.

"Yeah, exactly. I want to have a family; I'd like to be able to feed some children someday!" Carothers joked. "When some people look for a reason to hate you all the time, we'll try to do something super-funny. We always do that in pairs, and people never get it. On a social media page, we'll be like, 'Hey, we donated a ton of money and instruments to this school,' and everybody's like, 'Yeah! Good for you! That's great!' And then, the next post, we'll be like, 'Hey, we're featured in a vitaminwater commercial!' And people are like, 'Boo! F—- you, f—-in' sellouts!'

"You f—-ing idiots, can you not see that for us to give something, we have to get something? We can't donate money without making it, you dipsh—s! Where do you think that stuff goes? We're not just over here Scrooge McDucking, diving into a f—-ing pool of gold coins. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous."

Which is not to say the band is incapable of accepting criticism.

The fact that P.TM previously was on an album-a-year pace, but that "Woodstock" arrived a long four years after its predecessor is itself an indictment of the work done in between, they admit — an acknowledgment that the path they were on was the wrong one.

It seemed right enough for awhile, hanging out at Rick Rubin's studio in Malibu, with the Beastie Boys' Mike D serving as producer — "pretty much the best situation you could possibly be in, for an artist," Carothers admitted.

Turns out, "the best situation" was perhaps too good: "We were just too comfortable there," Carothers said. "There wasn't any struggle."

And just like that, the realization hit that the project they'd devoted several years to, tentatively titled "Gloomin + Doomin," was, indeed, doomed.

"We lost perspective on it. We tried the whole approach — the Elvis Costello or Prince or Michael Jackson approach — to write a hundred songs and pick your 10 best. And that takes something that we don't have. It's something close to … focus," he conceded. "Yeah, we didn't have it. And we got stuck in a songwriting situation, where we were just — our favorite 10 songs were just the last 10 that we wrote, so we just couldn't stop writing music."

A weekend trip to Wasilla and a talk with frontman John Gourley's straightforwardly practical carpenter dad yielded a straightforwardly practical plan of action: Quit overthinking it, grab your instruments, go into the studio, and write some damn songs.

And before they knew it, they had regained their mojo and were back on track toward their stated ambition of wanting "to sound like Wu-Tang Clan meets the Beatles."

The sarcastic working title for what would ultimately become the song "Feel It Still" was "The Long Awaited Global Smash Hit." So imagine their surprise when, LaVar Ball-style, they spoke it into existence and saw it go No. 1 pretty much everywhere.

Now they're seeing the impact. On one hand, being in demand means cutting more radio promos, doing more interviews. On the other, being an official sellout has resulted in a lot more sold-out shows.

Carothers assures us, however, that no one in Portugal. The Man — and least of all him — is turning into a big-headed rock star.

"It's nothing crazy yet. And I never have to worry much about that stuff anyway — I'm the bass player, man. I could be sitting on the plane next to the bassist from U2, and I'd have no idea what he looks like. 'You look familiar — I know you're somebody! But I don't know. So I'm gonna take a nap,' " he said. "It's never too crazy. I'm never gonna have to worry about going into a mall or something. I think we're OK."

Probably.

That being the case, they'll probably just, you know, focus on playing live shows for those people not too put off by their crass commercialism to keep showing up. There are, apparently, at least 3,000 such souls in Salt Lake City.

"We're excited to get back out to Red Butte — that place is gorgeous! We had an amazing time up there last time, and we've always had a rad time in that city," Carothers said. "A lot of good food! We just found, on the last two times we've been there, we found a really good cocktail bar and made friends with everybody that works there. So we're excited to see all those boys again. I think it's called Bar X. The cocktails there are fantastic! Give them a shout-out for me."

A shout-out from a sellout — how disgustingly craven.

Twitter: @esotericwalden —

With The Aces

When • Tuesday; doors 6:30 p.m., show 7:30

Where • Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre, 2280 East Red Butte Canyon Rd., Salt Lake City

Tickets • Sold out