EQ50 announces participants in mentorship scheme class of 2022/23
Rupture LDN,1985 Music and other labels are involved in the scheme
EQ50 has revealed the full list of participants in the second run of its mentorship programme.
Originally launched in 2020, the project was established to support women and non-binary people who want to launch or further a career within the jungle and drum & bass scene. 10 artists will be given support via the scheme, which will be spread across 12 months and kick off at the start of 2023. Registration for this latest run opened in October of this year.
The artists who will be taking part in the EQ50 Mentorship Class of 2022/23 are Vienna-based Waves, Bali-based Artemis, Leeds' Jamurai, Manchester-based Pod Imiya, Scotland's imo-Lu, Oxford-based Katalyst, and vocalist and producer Dee Montego.
Those selected to take part in the latest run of the scheme have been picked as representatives of labels and collectives like 1985 Music, Rupture LDN, AudioPorn, The North Quarter, Drum&BassArena and RAM Records.
In an Instagram post announcing her participation as a representative of 1985 Music, Waves said: "I can't wait to start working alongside the label I've been looking up to for so long and I'm forever grateful for this opportunity."
In her own post, Artemis said she was "extremely grateful" to be given the chance of being involved in the scheme, and added: "I've been working super hard behind the scenes on my production and I can't wait to see what the year ahead holds."
Launched in 2018, EQ50 has since campaigned to improve diversity within the D&B scene across promoters, DJs, producers and other figures in the industry. This has seen the team behind it – which includes Mantra and DJ Flight (who recently received the Outstanding Contribution honour at DJ Mag's Best of British awards) – host workshops and webinars, as well as its debut mentorship scheme in 2020.
Revisit DJ Mag's 2019 feature on how the drum & bass scene is finally addressing its diversity problem here and about the the LGBTQ+ club nights fighting for diversity in drum & bass here.
