If you follow UK music, you’ve most likely heard ‘Slow Jam’, a song heating up the charts.

The man behind the rising hit? Bermuda’s own Matthew Bento.

It’s one of many projects he’s currently working on as, with the backing of UK producer Matti Roots, what started as a hobby has turned into a career for the 24-year-old from Southampton.

Even though I’ve worked hard to get a foot in the door and worked harder to squeeze through it, I’m still only in the lobby of the skyscraper which is the music industry,” he said. “There is so much more work to do, but in the last four years I’ve gained enough experience to encounter any obstacle or project that needs doing.”

Mr Bento started performing here with Hitman Records, now known as Devils Isle Entertainment, where he worked with local artists like KASE, Imari and Derek G.

His 2005 song, ‘Working on U’, got a lot of play on radio stations in Bermuda and three years later, he earned a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

From there he transferred to London, England.

“I started performing with a Bermudian collective, Spredluv, every now and then for different events like the Bermuda Day in London party,” he said.

It was enough to get him noticed by a booking agent who, at the time, managed Matti Roots. The two hit it off and started working together on Matti Roots’ imprint, Other Way Records.

“I kept trying to work with whoever was willing to make good music, so we had sessions pretty much five days a week sometimes, and ten-hour shifts,” Mr Bento said.

“I would sleep at the studio most nights and try and work a bar job at the same time.”

His big break came when he wrote and produced a song with UK pop singer Bluey Robinson. Their video for ‘Good Times’ got more than 16,000 views on YouTube.

Feedback for his latest songs has been “pretty dope”, in part due to the calibre of artists he has worked with, he said. His hope is that his success will also benefit Bermuda.

“The shows we do, we get all love so hopefully it spreads the Bermuda love across the UK,” he said. “All I get is people either asking me where is Bermuda or why did I leave such a hot country? I just explain about the music scene [on the Island] and what my goals are in the music world.”

Look out for a mini-album and, in the New Year, a video for KISS, a song featuring British singer Raheem. The remix to Slow Jam is currently available on iTunes and Amazon.

Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4WaZLx73lg