Portugal. The Man: From Alaska to rock stardom (AP)

By CHRIS TALBOTT, AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Aug 5, 10:43 am ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – John Gourley, lead singer of Portugal. The Man, has one heck of a back story.

He grew up in Alaska, the son of adventurous homesteaders and Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race veterans, rising before dawn to feed his family's dog team. At times, he went to school with just a handful of classmates and lived a lifestyle that in no way prepared him for the rest of the world.

"It's pretty bizarre, right — that a band actually came out of there?" Gourley said. "Being born and raised there you really, really take it for granted. People who live in New York City really take it for granted, too, I guess. We would go there and visit and just see all the things we never got to see growing up. We would watch `Sesame Street,' people with these tall buildings living in apartments. I had no idea what that life was about."

It's been seven years since the 30-year-old Gourley and his band mates left Alaska for Portland, Ore. Only bassist Zach Carothers remains with Gourley from the original Wasilla crew, but the Last Frontier still resonates in Gourley's songwriting. The title of the band's sixth album and first for Atlantic, "In the Mountain in the Cloud," is a reference to Mount McKinley. And the group's psychedelic bent, reminiscent of the spacier sounds from The Flaming Lips and Built to Spill, recalls Alaska's open, airy vistas.

The band reinforced the association with its first video from the album for "Got it All (This Can't Be Living Now)." It offers a dark, apocalyptic vision played out with Gourley — hatless because the director wanted to see his face — on the runners of a dog sled. Gourley spoke with The Associated Press about that particularly cold shoot, how dog mushing applies to rock `n' roll and his band's struggles with its latest album in a recent phone interview from Portland:

AP: The new video was shot at your parents' home?

Gourley: It was 25 below in our back yard while we were shooting this (laughs). ... The loose idea was obvious — OK, let's take out the dog sled and mush around and all that. When you get back home you just do that anyway, so let's film it. It was freezing cold. ... Frozen hair, frozen beard, mustache. At the end of the day my face would just be pink and swollen.

AP: How did your family end up in Alaska?

Gourley: My dad just left high school in `69, went to Woodstock and, after half a year of college for architecture, just took off for Alaska. He bought a van and went straight into the mountains and built a cabin. He didn't even have the $50 for the deed to the land. He really worked his way through all of that and found my mother along the way in the same town, in Wasilla, and found out they both came from Morrisville, N.Y., in almost the exact kind of way — just out of high school and going to Alaska. Their parents knew each other and they knew each other's parents, but they'd never met. So just a really amazing story.

AP: Why did you give up dog mushing for rock `n' roll?

Gourley: I think the best experience I ever had was also the worst and the one that turned me off of it. We were going to do this long run, you know a three-hour run. We're riding around and we go out on the tundra. I'd never really been out there. ... We were riding along next to these herds of caribou. It was just amazing. But all the way along I'd been taking it in, my hat had kind of blown back and it was ... cold, and my ears just froze really bad. It hurts really bad at first when it's freezing, but it's nothing compared to the thawing.

AP: How much does dog mushing still stick with you?

Gourley: I found it's really just fascinating the way it applies to the business world or what I refer to as the "real world" — because Alaska's just something different. It's just helped me understand things a lot better than I would have growing up somewhere else.

AP: The new album has been received positively, but you've said it was a difficult process with some conflict in the band. How did you work it out?

Gourley: The record was a mess and falling apart because we ... were thinking Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones for this record. We were beating ourselves up trying to make this crazy record and we had a meeting with Craig (Kallman, Atlantic chairman and CEO) about why we play music and songwriting and I wanted to know what he liked about our band. ... As we left he said, "You know, just make the record you want to make and we'll put it out." That felt good to hear.

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Online:

http://www.portugaltheman.com

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Contact Chris Talbott at http://www.twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

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Jackie Evancho balances stardom and childhood (AP)

NEW YORK – When Jackie Evancho was a young girl — well, younger than her 11 years — she remembers singing songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" around the house and getting a response far less adoring than the ovations she now commands.

"My family thought I was horrible," she says with a laugh, adding that things changed after her tonsils were removed.

Her father, Mike, has a decidedly different take. He and his wife, Lisa, always thought Jackie had a nice voice, but didn't think it was much more than that.

"We didn't know it was anything special until she did a local talent competition," he recalls of his daughter, the second eldest of four. "The reaction from people kind of said, `Hey, she might have a better voice than we thought.'"

Talk about an understatement.

David Foster — who has worked with vocal powerhouses including Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Josh Groban and Celine Dion — says of Jackie's voice: "I've never seen a mature voice like this in all my years. It's just amazing."

He's not the only one who has been wowed. Though the classically inspired singer was the runner-up on "America's Got Talent" last year, she's been winning in every way since. Her Christmas EP, "O Holy Night," went platinum after its release last fall, and her first official album, "Dream With Me," debuted at No. 2, behind an Eminem collaboration, after its release earlier this month. She's had her own PBS special, Oprah Winfrey requested her presence on one of her final goodbye shows, while both Susan Boyle and Streisand appear on her new CD — and Jackie more than holds her own against the two powerhouse divas.

Much like a preteen Charlotte Church did a decade ago, Jackie has voice that belies her age and diminutive stature. Though there is a youthful quality in Jackie's voice, it's hardly childlike: It's a soprano that deftly traverses the musical scales with power and grace. Though she may not be ready for the operatic stage, she effortlessly sings songs like "Nessun Dorma" and "Somewhere" (with Streisand) on her album debut. Even when she's singing the Disney classic "When You Wish Upon a Star," she sounds light-years away from most of her childhood peers.

"I don't really think much of my voice, and I don't try to think much of my voice, but if I had to describe my voice, I mean — I've heard people say that my voice is angelic, so I guess it's angelic," says Jackie, wearing a cute sundress in the picturesque offices of her label headquarters, with her father sitting in the room.

"I've also heard people say my voice is horrible," she adds with a laugh. "I really don't know how my voice is. To me it's a child's voice. It's just a normal voice to me. That's what I hear in my head. I know I hear some quality, but I don't hear what everyone's talking about, where I sound like a 20-year-old opera singer. I don't hear that."

She also doesn't act like one either — except in the studio, says Foster, who is the producer of Jackie's album.

"She's very childlike in every way, except when she gets on the mic," says Foster, who met the young singer when she auditioned to appear on stage with him a few years ago, before she became a sensation on "America's Got Talent."

"She's a regular kid who just has this extraordinary talent," he added. "It doesn't weigh her down."

With her growing success, her parents are working hard to make sure she remains that way.

"I tell people a lot that my new job is unfortunately saying no, because we do get a lot of phone calls — `Can Jackie can do this, can Jackie do that?'" says her father. "We just have to be very selective."

He adds: "It's pretty important that she stay a normal kid, because, as she gets older, if this were to all end, that's where I could see potential problems occurring, if she gets used to being treated a certain way because of her singing abilities," he said. "We make sure that it's not happening now."

Her parents need not look far to see the troublesome paths that other child stars have traveled. While wild-child antics typically involve those tween or teenage stars who have grown up in the pop or acting spotlight, classical crossover also has its own example of young talent gone awry in Church, who, like Jackie, was a preteen when she shot to fame with an adult-sounding, operatic voice. The British singer sold millions and was a crossover sensation, but faltered under the white-hot spotlight and an ill-advised transition to pop music. She's now considered more of a tabloid personality.

So far, singing pop music is the farthest thing from Jackie's mind. While she professes a love of Lady Gaga, it's her ambition that impresses her the most: "I love people like that, because they're not afraid to follow their dreams. They're not afraid to crash and fall at some point, because they always know that they're gonna get up in the end."

And though Jackie loves to listen to pop radio, it's not what she wants to sing.

"I've never wanted to sing pop music," she says. "I still listen to pop, you know, I always listen to it, and some days I think, `I wonder why my voice doesn't cooperate with that music.' But you know what? Other days I go, `My voice, so happy in this genre, I cannot believe I am so happy here, and I'd rather be doing classical crossover than pop.'"

Jackie, who lives with her family in suburban Pittsburgh, will be spending part of her summer vacation on a nationwide tour, though she will get some time with family (and an array of pets, including a dog and some ducks).

She now goes to "online school," as she calls it.

"I wish I could go to normal school every day if I could, but I can't. I guess that's one of the prices (of success)," she says.

"You can't be a regular kid and have this career," Foster says. "If she wants to be a regular kid, then stop singing."

But that has never been an option for Jackie.

"This is definitely what I wanna do, and it's always going to be what I wanna do — at least that's what I think," she says.

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Online:

http://www.jackieevancho.com/us/home

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French actress Clemence Poesy poised for stardom (Reuters)

CANNES, France (Hollywood Reporter) – From "Gossip Girl" on the Upper East Side to Peasant girl from Eastern France, French actress Clemence Poesy has crossed genres, languages and territories in her career.

Now, 19-year-old actress is at the Festival de Cannes with a divine role as Joan of Arc in Philippe Ramos' Director's Fortnight title "The Silence of Joan."

The film takes place in 1430 and follows the maid of Orleans during the last year of her life as she is captured and imprisoned, miraculously survives a fall from a tower and deals with the many men surrounding her, played by an all-star male Gallic cast including Thierry Fremont, Mathieu Amalric, Liam Cunningham and Jean-Francois Stevenin.

So did Poesy relate to the heroine known for hearing voices from God and leading the French army to victory during the 100 years war?

"I can't really relate to a young prophetess who was leading armies at a time where women weren't allowed to have any kind of social importance," she said. "While we were shooting, I didn't relate to Joan of Arc personally as much as I related to the Joan we were trying to portray and whose story we were telling. It was a long process that I approached with different references and different crafts."

For the film's director, Ramos, Poesy was an obvious choice for the role.

"I was looking for someone with a divine presence and Clemence had the spark," Ramos said. "Clemence has a sense of mystery about her. She has a very particular beauty that's childlike and sensual at the same time she's full of contrasts."

Poesy's film choices also diverge. "I like being between French films and international projects it feels like an amazing opportunity to always keep learning and discovering and it also gives me a lot of freedom. I'd love for things to keep going this way. Every project is different, every director is different. It changes all the time which is what's so great about it."

After Joan, Poesy will leave her native tongue to explore more English language roles including Rupert Goold's upcoming adaptation of Richard II opposite Ben Winshaw that starts shooting this month.

With the offers piling in, Poesy has managed to find a balance between Hollywood blockbusters and French auteur cinema like The Silence of Joan. "I just go with what feels right at the time and very often it's in reaction with what I've just done," she said. "I tend to want to act in English after a French film, make a small film after a big one, something fun after something dark. I like experimenting and I try to do things that are different from one another," she explained.

As her English-language roles multiply, the French accented actress may just be poised to rival Hollywood's leading ladies.

"I have a lot of respect and admiration for someone like Cate Blanchett, find Emma Thompson wonderful, Meryl Streep inspiring, Juliette Binoche full of light and Catherine Deneuve incredible," she said.

Based on the way her career is going, Poesy, whose last name means "poetry" in French, may just join the elegant actresses in the international starlette circle.

Ramos said: "She's a beautiful young actress, but not archetypal it's her personality and talent combined with her unique beauty that sets her apart."

And, did we mention, she sings too?

"Oh it's a small thing really," the actress says of her collaboration on a duet with Miles Kane that will be on his first solo album. "I like the song, I loved recording it and discovering a new way to tell stories."

Poesy will also be saying goodbye to Hogwarts as her role in the "Harry Potter" franchise comes to an end this year.

"It's always moving to see a story come to an end, but I always thought the strength of "Harry Potter" was in the fact that people knew from the start that it would end after seven books/films, so it's a little bit like life we appreciate it because we know it's not there forever," she said. "I think it's a good thing that it's finishing while it's still magical."

While Poesy will be radiating divine light in Joan, the actress opts to stay out of the spotlight in her home country and abroad.

"Frankly, I think most of all, no one really cares about my private life. I just try to keep the two separated, always keeping in mind that there are things, precious things, that can just be mine and I don't have to share with anyone else but the people I love."

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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