A NAME like Bipolar Sunshine is sure to turn heads, and his music will get them bopping along like nodding dogs.
"Nobody wants to hear that, it’s sickening to see a band try and be Oasis."
A Manchester lad, he first hit the music scene as the lead vocalist of six-piece ska and urban music band Kid British. Picking up headlines and reviews along the way and being regularly likened to The Specials, the band went their separate ways in December 2012 but Bipolar Sunshine (real name Adio Marchant) has chosen not to leave the music scene.
Bipolar Sunshine aka Adio Marchant
“Kid British came about five years ago whilst I was at university. When it finished a year and a half ago I needed to find a new way of creating myself,” explains Marchant, while banging around the house so much I have to tell him to concentrate on this interview a little since he had agreed to a chat.
He calms down a little bit which makes things easier.
Anyway, his solo artist career is already taking off having supported Haim and Bastille last year and currently touring with Brit award winners Rudimental. His sound has been a difficult one to pin down with even the Telegraph struggling to define him.
“I admire different people for different things. NAS has great music and is fully respected in the industry, and The Streets are remarkable,” says Marchant. He's been known to cite Bowie, Kanye West and even The Carpenters as musical influences which again makes him a difficult sound to pin down. Don't even start with the ethos behind his name.
So where did it begin for this 30 year old from Chorlton? Originally turning to music as a distraction, “I was at Liverpool Hope University studying media studies, but I was preoccupied with other things”, Marchant has worked hard to get his success. Even recording his debut album in the space of 24 hours. Speed and dedication are never bad ingredients for success.
Now the subject of music in our city is always one to provoke debate. Most music fans will point to bands such as The Smiths, Happy Mondays and Oasis as examples of our musical prowess. All good bands but none still recording (even though Oasis like to poke the fire and rumours of a possible reform surface regularly), and in Marchant's eyes it's time to make way for the new faces.
“Lots of Manchester people still have their claws into old music which doesn’t leave space for the young music to come through," he explains. "It’s been like this for years, Oasis don’t even make music anymore but it’s all we talk about. There’s no other place that still does it, they’re not allowing other things to shine through.“
Oasis are dead apparently“Too many people try to be a third rate Oasis. Nobody wants to hear that, it’s sickening to see a band try and be Oasis. They’re just knock-off Manchester acts.”
A bold statement but commonplace. Trite. It's become a right of passage with more recent acts to attack earlier ones.
Marchant's gone beyond just criticising the Manchester scene and moved to London. Yes, he's buggered off to the capital. “I’m London-based now which I was told ‘never to do’ but there’s more there so it does make more sense."
Honest if nothing else.
And if you want to meet him and discuss Manchester music (and why he's left us for London) with the man himself?
“You’ll probably find me in Murkage, Kosmonaut or Soup Kitchen. I don’t tend to go out that much.”
Prepare yourself Marchant, the Oasis fans will be waiting.
Follow Bipolar Sunshine on Twitter at: @bipolarsunshine
or go to his website: www.bipolarsunshine.com
Follow Niamh Spence on Twitter @missnspence
