Bipolar Sunshine at The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth – Interview & Review

Bipolar Sunshine is a product of a solo career from Manchester group Kid British, who, in 2009, looked like they’d make it big. Moving to present day though, Adio Marchant has been gaining support now with three EPs behind him and a debut album on the way.

Although Bipolar Sunshine’s song often sound delicate through your iPod, his three-piece live band take them up to sonic monsters. Alongside a lockstep duo of bass and drums, his producer and collaborator Jazz Purple toggles between guitar and thumping a keyboard/laptop stack. Adio told me that he has most enjoyed collaborating with Jazz Purple more than any other artist. It’s often hard to put a genre on Bipolar Sunshine’s music but there are crisp elements of funk, hip-hop and electropop are periodically roughed up via black boxes, and the live set is tent-poled by a cover version of Mad World that incorporates a bassline so malevolent, it makes you fear for ears.

The moments where his industrious band peel away to leave only his voice are by far the most affecting; Where Did the Love Go and Love More Worry Less successfully combine heartbreak epics with a DIY ethic. It provides a positive forecast for his debut album, due later this year.

Watch our interview with Bipolar Sunshine below: