Interview: Spoken Word Artist Polarbear

Interview: Spoken Word Artist Polarbear

08 March, 2010
by: Naima Khan

Naima Khan chats to the storyteller about his hometown and hating on Hollywood.

Polarbear has just finished checking out the space he's next going to be performing in: “It's massive, that space is massive man! It's going to be fun!” He's very excited. He's performing his latest piece Return at BAC in different spaces around the building and right now he seems like he's on an adrenaline high.

Is it intimidating?: “No. I don't get nervous about performing, I get nervous about not doing what I'm supposed to do Last night for example, general consensus was people really liked it, but I went too fast because I was excited”.

He's talking pretty fast but the skill in the delivery of his performances is glaringly obvious. His words are accessible and his story is clear. Return explores a man's relationship to a place and to his family and delves into the meaning of 'home': “basically this is a love story between me and a girl called Birmingham who I can't be with but has become really important to me. It's been a real maturing”.

Don't expect a Hollywood homecoming escapade; there's no changed man dealing with childhood demons in this one: “It's not interesting, Guy Ritchie's boring. Guy Ritchie can be entertaining when I can hear my own jaw chewing popcorn, it's cool escapism. C'mon, how many times have you seen that? That's not what I want. That's not my story. My story is very simple, it's feeling that you have to leave, realising that you might want to go back and realising that you can't and the dynamics of the relationships involved in that. It's not to build to a point where there's a twist. Oh my god the twist! I can't stand them.”

Working meticulously to develop a script with director Yael Shavit, Polarbear has hit on something both personal and widely applicable. The only challenge is getting it across in his delivery: “As soon as it becomes clear what you want to say it's like a lightbulb moment. You can say 'don't need that, don't need that and then boom there it is!' There's no scope to get it wrong in the delivery. If something is lost, it's gone. It's not like I'm hammering something home. The subtlety of something when it's read has to translate when it's live.”

There is more of the man in his performance than ever before and though he's not preoccupied with what the audience thinks, there is a purpose to it all: “I'm hoping you come with me and you see it and get a sense of what it means to me. Part of that connection is you attributing it to your own situation and relationships. I hope it stays with you a bit and makes you think about your relationship to where you're from. I would rather connect with you than impress you.”

What stands out about Return is its visual aspect. Designed by Marie Blunck, a series of projections illuminates the story: “This is nothing like anything I've done before, so it's important for me to push everything. People are like 'the thing I like about spoken word is that it's boiled right down and there's nothing else there' and I couldn't agree with them more. But this is a story where the visuals can enhance the filmic nature of it. There is a design in place, it's very bold and definite. I like the fact that it can be quite Marmite.”

Clearly a personal writer, would he also consider himself political?: “What's more political than the lives of real people? I come from a background of working class men, socialist grandparents, overtly miners' strike type. Politics have been around me from a multicultural, mixed-race upbringing and family so everything feels political. It's like a friend of mine said back at home, 'don't preach to me about the war, tell me the story of a soldier'.”

And what does the future hold?: “We're booking a tour at the minute to go all over the place with Return, as far and wide as possible. I'm going to start working on a couple of music project and in terms of stories, the next thing I'm going to be working on is called 'State'. I'm not going to say too much, but I'm charged.”

Return runs at BAC as part of The Big Story until 25th March

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Naima Khan