Tom Misch and the Bass Riff That Made Me Stop Everything

There are artists that come along once in a while and make you feel like music is being invented all over again. Tom Misch is one of them.

Tom Misch is a British musician born in London in 1996. He started producing beats in his bedroom as a teenager, self-taught on guitar and production, and eventually released his debut album “Geography” in 2018. That record landed like a quiet earthquake. It didn’t try to fit neatly into any genre. You could hear jazz, soul, hip-hop, disco, and R&B all living in the same space without fighting each other.

What draws me to his music specifically is the bass vocabulary he leans on. You can hear The Whispers in there. You can hear D’Angelo, Stevie Wonder, J Dilla. The groove DNA is deep, and you can tell he grew up listening to the right records. When I hear his tracks I immediately want to pick up the bass and figure out what’s happening underneath.

The bass on his studio recordings has been handled by some serious players. Rocco Palladino — Pino Palladino’s son, and a monster player in his own right — has played with Tom on various projects. That lineage shows in the approach: melodic, vocal, never just functional.

In this video I’m playing one of his riffs on the MusicMan StingRay 1987. There’s something interesting that happens when you take a modern groove and play it on a vintage instrument. The StingRay’s midrange punch gives it a different character than a modern bass would — a little more grit, a little less polish. Honestly I think it suits the style even better.

Tracks like this are a reminder that the 80s bass vocabulary Tom grew up absorbing is still completely alive and relevant. Every time I come back to it I find something new.

The bass riff in this track is interesting because it functions as melody and groove simultaneously. It’s not sitting underneath the song — it is the song in many moments. Tom Misch writes bass parts the way jazz composers write horn lines: with a melodic logic that doesn’t need to be explained, it just needs to be played.

For students working on this kind of material, the challenge isn’t the technical execution. The notes are accessible. The challenge is playing it with the right softness. This is not aggressive music. The right touch is loose, warm, slightly behind the beat in a way that feels intentional rather than late.

Tom’s influence on young players has been significant because he makes it look effortless. The dangerous thing about musicians who make difficult things look effortless is that students underestimate the foundation beneath it. Tom Misch spent years studying jazz harmony, soul production, hip-hop rhythm. The lightness is built on that foundation.

If you’re approaching this riff as a bassist, study the rhythmic placement first. Where does each note fall relative to the kick? Where does he leave space? Once you understand the rhythmic logic, the melodic choices make more sense. Bass lines at this level are never random — every note is a decision.

Play this slowly. Record yourself. Listen back the next day with fresh ears. That’s how you actually learn this kind of material.

One specific thing that makes Tom Misch’s music educational for bassists is the space in his arrangements. There’s room to breathe. The bass doesn’t compete with four other instruments for the same sonic territory, which means you can hear exactly what’s happening in the low end without having to listen around other things. Study the track for what the bass is doing rhythmically relative to the drums. That clarity is a luxury in modern production, and you should use it.

The riff itself is essentially a two-bar phrase that repeats with slight variations. Map it out on your fretboard. Understand where it sits positionally. Then close your eyes and play it from memory until it becomes automatic. That’s the whole process.

Tom Misch represents a generation of musicians who grew up with the entire history of recorded music available on demand. The result is a fluency across genres that previous generations couldn’t develop as naturally. His bass parts reflect that — they borrow from jazz, soul, hip-hop, and indie pop simultaneously without sounding confused. For a bassist trying to develop their own hybrid voice, his catalog is excellent source material.

The short version: learn this riff, understand why each note is where it is, and then use it as a model for writing your own melodic bass phrases.

One final note: the bass part on this track is melodically self-contained. It works as a statement even without everything else around it. That’s a high standard for composition. When you’re writing your own bass lines, ask yourself whether the line says something on its own, not just whether it supports everything else. Reaching for that standard will push your writing to a different level.