Made For You: Bemz on M4 Festival

Jubemi Iyiku, aka Bemz, joins our 4pm Zoom call with his camera switched off. “Sorry for the raspy voice,” he says, “the weekend took it out of me… I'm not gonna lie, I am in bed.” He’s just headlined Friday night's BBC Introducing stage at TRNSMT and returned as host on the Sunday in amongst what is already an incredibly busy summer for him – so I guess we’ll allow it.

Bemz last played TRNSMT three years ago, opening the same stage in the significantly less glamorous 12.40pm timeslot. He points out that there hasn’t been another Scottish rapper on that stage in the intervening years – for him, that’s a sign something is missing from the Scottish music scene, a lack of opportunities for early-career artists similar to him. He wanted to create those opportunities himself, which is why he launched his own M4 Festival.

“I was looking at all the other major festivals and stuff like that happening in Scotland and I just didn't really see anybody who was making my sort of music, or R'n'B or anything like that. So it kind of felt like it was something that the scene needed – to get its own things, rather than looking elsewhere.”

Iyiku has been running events under the M4 banner for a while – small gigs and DJ nights with the goal of inclusivity and creative space for the next generation of musicians coming through (M4 stands for the commitment that it’s ‘made for’ everyone). But the launch of the festival last year marked a shift in scale for him and his team of friends and family who make it happen.

Since his earliest successes Bemz has made a point of trying to share the spotlight with other young artists coming up behind or alongside him – I personally have seen him live five times in a variety of environments, from festival headline slots to industry events, to a mixed bill event in a bar where he was playing to 20 people. Each and every time he’s brought a friend or collaborator on stage to join him for a song, and maybe even perform one of their own.

It’s a hallmark of any Bemz appearance, this sense that opportunity can be magnetic; that he is fortunate and wants to pass that fortune on to his peers. M4 Festival is no different – the idea originally came from plans for a headline show where he asked himself how they could platform as many young up-and-coming artists as possible in one go. First it was ‘why not make it an all-dayer’, next it was ‘why not have a DJ stage?’ And then, just like that, he was organising a festival.

This year’s lineup features the likes of Tayoh, an Edinburgh-based singer whose cross-genre output ranges from soul, to slacker, to disco-inspired. Also appearing are Afrobeat artist Pillz the Energizer and LAMAYA, who, barely in her twenties, already has the star power of a seasoned performer. As Iyiku runs us through the acts, telling us about everyone he’s been keeping an eye on, it’s striking how close a continued attention he pays to Scotland’s music scene. He may self-effacingly call it being “chronically online”, but on top of a full-time music career and young family to take care of, he’s basically doing the work of a professional promoter, and doing it well.

With this year’s shift to the 500-capacity SWG3 Warehouse he admits he’s nervous: “Growth is a scary process... In this current climate with so many shows being on and ticket prices being at an all-time high, it puts a lot of pressure on the smaller things.” If people are shelling out over £100 for an Oasis ticket they don’t then tend to spend £15 a month in the runup going to support grassroots events.

Even so, he says they try not to get drawn into booking people because they have a following and will sell tickets. “It's actually more about booking people because they deserve to be booked... Obviously, you know, the ticket things are still important, but that's for me to stress about.” He understands it’s the promoter’s job to get talented artists in front of audiences, to help get them the following they deserve to have. And he believes that talent is there: “Scotland is filled with talent, and if you're actively looking for it, you will find it.”

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M4 Festival takes place at SWG3, Glasgow, 30 Aug – tickets via swg3.tv

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