PORTUGAL THE MAN & “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC
HONOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY WITH
“WHO’S GONNA STOP ME”
GRAMMY WINNING ROCK BAND TEAMS UP WITH LEGENDARY ARTIST
TO CELEBRATE & RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT INDIGENOUS CULTURE
JEFF BHASKER-PRODUCED SONG RECEIVES STUNNING VISUAL DIRECTED BY AARON BROWN AND JOSUÉ RIVAS – STARRING INDIGENOUS ARTISTS AND LEADERS
PTM FOUNDATION PARTNERS WITH DIGDEEP TO LAUNCH
$20,000 MATCH PROGRAM TO BENEFIT THE NAVAJO WATER PROJECT
WATCH “WHO’S GONNA STOP ME” HERE
(New York, NY – October 12, 2020) GRAMMY award-winning rock band and social justice advocates PORTUGAL THE MAN have teamed up with “Weird Al” Yankovic and fellow Portland artist The Last Artful, Dodgr for “Who’s Gonna Stop Me,” out today via Atlantic Records. The song arrives on Indigenous Peoples Day and aims to honor and raise awareness about Indigenous culture and rights. “Who’s Gonna Stop Me” marks the first time Weird Al – who Portugal The Man has long cited as one of their biggest influences – has been credited as a featured artist; it also marks his first non-comedic release.
“Who’s Gonna Stop Me” was produced by 5x-Grammy winner Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Harry Styles, Rihanna) and co-written by Paul Williams, one of the most respected songwriters of all time, whose songwriting credits include everyone from David Bowie and Helen Reddy to the Muppets and The Love Boat theme song, just to name a few. The song’s companion visual – directed by Aaron Brown and Josué Rivas – stars indigenous artists and leaders from around the country including world champion jingle dancer, Acosia Red Elk, of the Umatilla people of Oregon.
LISTEN TO “WHO’S GONNA STOP ME”
WATCH “WHO’S GONNA STOP ME” MUSIC VIDEO
Last week, PTM Foundation announced a fundraising campaign and $20,000 match program to support human rights nonprofit DigDeep’s Indigenous-led Navajo Water Project in expanding water access on the Navajo Nation across New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, where over 30% of residents are living without clean, running water in their homes. A limited-edition t-shirt with “Water is Life” messaging is now available for purchase on the band’s website, with all proceeds going towards fundraising efforts to be split between DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in the band’s home state of Oregon. The band will match fan donations up to $20,000.
THE SONG
Musically, “Who’s Gonna Stop Me” started a few years ago and took a while to find the voice of the song. PTM, Jeff Bhasker, and the legendary Paul Williams were reminiscing the feeling of youth and what freedom feels like when you are young. Of course, when PTM lead singer, John Gourley thinks about growing up, he thinks of “Weird Al.” Ironically, when the lyrics came together during quarantine, it only made sense to just ask Al if he wanted to sing on the song. He sang and nailed the second verse.
THE VIDEO
Directed by Aaron Brown and Josué Rivas (PTM, Artic Monkeys, Vic Mensa) and produced by W+K Studios, the video is conceptualized best as “where do we go from here?” in regard to topics of social unrest, the COVID-19 pandemic, etc. It was important to the band to highlight both the traditions and thinking of Indigenous Peoples and their ability to recognize the good and bad in themselves and move beyond it to find harmony. It fits hand in hand with the recent launch of the band’s PTM Foundation.
QUOTE FROM PORTUGAL THE MAN:
“They say barbwire was the death knell of the cowboy. It was the end of the open range and the end of open pastures. Before the cowboys, for time immemorial, the indigenous peoples of the Americas looked to the earth as their spiritual authority. They did not parcel the earth any more than Christians, Muslims, or the Jewish faith would parcel out God. That would be sacrilege. But along came the colonists and they did just that. After the genocide of the indigenous peoples, once our white picket fences and barbwire and border walls were erected, the ancestors of the colonists made a lot of technological progress. We invented cars, skyscrapers, cheeseburgers, and smartphones! And yet now, at the dawn of the 21st century, mother earth is reacting to the past few hundred years of neglect. The earth is sending out pandemics, fires, hurricanes, and so on. The indigenous say that it’s the earth’s immune system calibrating itself. The indigenous people of the Americas, and the rest of the world, have stewarded their sacred planet for tens of thousands of years of recorded history--likely more. The PTM Foundation turns a conscious heart to the ancestral youth of the indigenous elders to shepherd our sacred planet and peoples through this time of difficulty.
The PTM Foundation is a platform for artistic collaboration between materialist culture, the arts, and indigenous paradigms. For the video for “Who’s Gonna Stop Me” we created a collaboration between indigenous artists, friends, artistic collaborators, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, and Indigenous organizations to explore the possibilities of collaboration in this new time. To us ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has always been a figure of playful boundary-breaking. His work makes us take less seriously, the things that we take so seriously, like what’s cool, or what’s trendy. ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has been an inspiration for Portugal The Man since their inception until now. In the tradition of the indigenous cultures of the western North American territories, the Coyote represents the trickster and the maker of new worlds. The trickster is an archetype that can be found in nearly all indigenous and ancient cultures; the trickster not only is playful and a comedian but through their playfulness, they connect people. PTM Foundation sees music and art as a similar tool to make new connections and we consider this video to be the beginning of a campaign of many collaborations to come. PTM Foundation strives to forge bridges between the materialist contemporary culture in which we are immersed and the indigenous stewards to whom we strive to give a larger voice.”
QUOTE FROM “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC:
“I’ve jammed with them at Bonnaroo, I’ve produced remixes for two of their songs, and now I’m doing vocals on “Who’s Gonna Stop Me." Portugal The Man are not only my friends, but they’re one of my favorite bands in the world, and I’m thrilled to be featured on their new single.”
For more information on Portugal The Man, please visit: www.portugaltheman.com and http://www.ptmfoundation.org/.
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