Polarbear
Location:
Birmingham/ London, UK
Biography:
Polarbear is not a bear at all, but a twenty-something Brummie with a fine line in lyrical story-poems and his roots in the rhythms of hip-hop. Cutting his teeth at the Glastonbury and Ledbury Festivals, he came to national prominence last year as part of Apples & Snakes’ Exposed tour. Raised on a diet of Eurythmics, Jethro Tull and Ragga, Polarbear fell in love with hip-hop aged 10. He developed an obsessive attention to rhyme patterns, syllable control, narrative structure and the spaces between words. This translated into stories told in rhythm that he performed to his sister until the chance came to get on stage. A core member of the OneTaste arts collective Polarbear splits his time between writing, performing and leading creative writing/spoken-word workshops with participants ranging from 4 to 60 years old.
His current projects include no-nonsense Hip-Hop duo AFROBEAR, who are finishing up their debut album due early 2008, live collaborations with a jazz quartet, an electronica project with producer ‘Stitch’ and Polarbear’s hour-long performance story ‘If I cover my nose you can’t see me’ directed by Yael Shavit, showcased at Birmingham REP theatre and due for UK national tour in spring 2008.
‘The yarn spinning Brummie’ – The Times.
Review:
Polarbear is a pleasure to behold, whether it be accapella at a spoken word gig, or recorded on knife edge beats, his words cut through your consciousness and remind you of what’s real. Truth is hard to come by these days, but he has an earful of wisdom for anyone who has the time or the inclination to listen. With years of learning and teaching under his belt, he is his own army of angels, and as his style has matured over time, it is absolutely right that he receives the amount of exposure and success that he has.
It is difficult to put beats to spoken word without compromising the instrinsic rhythm of the poet’s phraseology, and it is clear that Polarbear has taken his time to get it right. Working with some ingenious producers in the UK, his efforts have culminated into both a place and a sound where the combination of music and beats does deserved justice to the clarity of his verbal vision. Take time, listen and learn.
‘Polarbear, aka The Educated Hoodrat, (or simply Steven Camden from Birmingham), is primarily a spoken word artist. As his excellent Jessica automatically kicked into life, (an increasingly infrequent occurrence on myspace these days), upon my first visit to his page it kind of caught me unaware, and I sat staring at my undecorated pink spare room wallpaper like a drooling moron for it’s entirety. You MUST go and listen to this man’s work, and you too will maybe drool like a moron. On a more informative note, according to his website busy boy Polar is working on several highly exciting projects. Having already appeared at Glastonbury and Latitude this year, he’s also playing Big Chill, The Electric Picnic, and what sounds like a couple of very special shows at The REP in The Door space in Birmingham on 18th and 19th of Sept 2007.’ John Hillcock – XFM
‘Self-titled ‘educated hoodrat’, Birmingham born London based poet PolarBear has some of the greatest skills on the circuit. He writes of the everyday, the nostalgic, the occasional tragic; schoolboy crushes and sweaty palms, troubled souls and choices. His flow will sneak up on you and jar your solar plexus. He has nothing of the try-hard dramatics of some of his peers, and coupled with the complexity of his storytelling, this makes for powerful listening. Onstage, he creates an intimacy which makes you feel you’ve known him for years. Offstage, he’s modest and smiles politely at praise.
More of him please.’ LoveSexy Magazine
Links:
MySpace - http://myspace.com/polarbearspoken