This podcast episode features an interview with musician Tom Misch, exploring his artistic journey from internet-based beatmaking to a successful career as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, highlighting his creative process, evolution, and approach to collaboration.
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[Music]
what's happening welcome to wong notes
podcast season 2
episode 4. today my guest is tom mish
if you're unfamiliar with tom he's one
of the leading voices
i don't have a j thing for london
anyways tom and i have collaborated on a
couple tunes
here's a quick sample of the first tune
[Music]
and here's a sample of a tune off of my
brand new album the striped album
[Music]
all right hopefully that compelled you
enough to go listen to my album and buy
all my music whenever i put it out
and his as well so without further ado
here's my interview with tom
bish this season of the wong notes
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well tom thanks so much for being with
us it's really a treat to have you on
thank you for having me man how's it
going i'm doing good i'm chilling man
we're hanging in there how about you you
just moved
i see you in a new place that i don't recognize
recognize
yes yeah i just moved to a new house um
and i just carried a fridge up the
stairs with the help of some other people
people
and um yeah man feeling good happy to be here
here
nice well we've had the joy of meeting
each other and hanging out and
every time we've met we've just hung out
for like a couple hours and played music
and talked a little bit and uh yeah we
haven't actually spent a lot of time
just sitting down and talking music
talking concept together so i'm excited
about this
although it is always fun when we just
get together and start playing music
right away
yeah yeah but um this will be good this
is fun for me to
to pick your brain on some things that
i've been wondering about this whole time
time
i was watching some older interviews of
you i've been reading a lot about your stuff
stuff
and just trying to get an idea of how
you got your start doing what you do
it was all internet you didn't start by
having a band
and then hitting things online it was
all just starting from the internet is
that right
yeah it was all um it was like 2016 2015
and i was
making beats i i was studying music
technology at school
and i was making beats and um at this
point i played the violin
i started playing volume when i was four
i played guitar um i had
been playing guitar for a few years so
so i had that kind of musicality element
and then i was just making beats i was
i was obsessed with j dilla and and that
was um
yeah i was part of that soundcloud
community you could say the sort of the
golden age of soundcloud
and um yeah yeah man that's where it all
started and you know
and the guitar has always been a part of
that you know me making beats and stuff and
and
and then i started singing yeah man so i
go through the whole
yeah i mean so i started singing and
then and then my i guess my music became more
more
um became less beats and more song
structured stuff i guess
yeah it's interesting listening to the
catalog that you've released
beat tape 1 beat date 2 geography
your most current album what kind of
music with yousef days
was there a songwriting and recording
process that was different
in making those albums yeah they're all
they're all quite a different process
they've they've happened at different
times in my career and i've i've sort of
evolved as a
musician and stuff so i guess be take
one was purely done in my bedroom
at my parents house um and that was
that was kind of focused around uh jay
diller inspired me so finding a loop you
know that was like really finding a loop
that i love
um where you know it's chord
progressions things like that and
subtle changes and getting the swing of
the drums you know that was like
something so important on that tape and
i was obsessed with the hi-hat you know the
the
the placement of the hi-hats in relation
to the kick and snare and things like that
that
and then beat tape 2 was was like a
evolution of that but with me start
inviting people to the bedroom studio so
people would come in and we'd
i'd have productions and they'd sing
over stuff and we just vibe on that
but this had a few more influences i was
getting into i had a bit of electronic
music a bit of like
housy stuff bit of jazz and then yeah
and then geography was the next step and
but that was
me singing so me stepping up as sort of
front man
singer songwriter um was that the first
album where you felt like
i'm a lead singer now i guess so yeah
i think it was man because i i had sung
before that but that was
that was kind of like my debut album you
know with me singing and yeah
writing lyrics and stuff like that so
that was that was interesting taking
that step but it's always
i never want to just rely on my my
singing and
i i never quite want to just rely on the
songs i want to rely on production and
stuff as well
because i'm i'm into that you know i
love i love producing and that's part of my
my
sound is the production you know yeah
and how is your guitar playing
and the approach to your guitar playing
changed through the evolution
of that the evolution from that era to
where you are now
i think i've become more of a
conventional guitar player
then when i started playing guitar i
think the more music i've listened to
and the more i played in bands and stuff
i've kind of
found my role sonically as a guitarist
more than i had in previous stuff so be
take when i was using the guitar is like
it was more kind of like loads of little
textures and stuff built up right sort
of like high twinkly stuff
and then and nowadays it's more you know
i'm fitting in as
as a rhythm guitarist almost within my
own music a bit more
so yes it's kind of different different
approaches and then jamming with yusuf
is just completely different madness
i'm trying to impress him by playing
sort of like
crazy and maybe there's a bit of
vice versa you know so that's different
man yeah
that's cool i definitely recognize that
i mean it's funny because
a lot of the guitar playing on the beat
tapes feels like
either textural or like you're
simulating samples
exactly exactly i mean yeah yeah that's
it man b take one was
was that vibe of like because j dilla
obviously sampled so much
you know jazz guitar and stuff and at
the time i was studying jazz guitar so
i'd try and
play that stuff in you know that's cool
as far as
you talked about your writing process
your production process
singing the guitar playing it all
kind of depends on one another in the
whole thing
it seems like your albums and what you
do as an artist
it is a full package thing that all goes into
into
the thing yeah if you didn't have the
producing side or the singing side would
you approach your guitar playing differently
differently
i think so i think i would some
conscious it's funny i don't really think
think
i i never really think about these things
things
and i find it hard to put them into
words because i kind of just like
music's never been a intellectual or
like kind of
something i've thought about too much
but i think it's definitely influenced
the way i play guitar
often i'm kind of just jamming over
beats you know like i spend a lot of
time doing yeah just jamming
um and i guess that's that's probably
why initially i want so much of a
conventional guitar player you know i
wouldn't necessarily be playing like
the sort of conventional chords and and
licks and stuff it would be more like
just jamming over stuff
yeah i definitely noticed that in the
times that we've played together
where we'll sit and play on something
yeah and i can tell you i can i can see
your motor moving and like oh is this a
textural thing
is what kind of vibe is this thing and
then you just go for
things and it's fun to watch your
creative process as you just
figure out sound palette texture palette
and then rhythmic groove palette where
you sit in the beat
yeah you've got a really cool way that
that i've watched you
kind of pull from all those different
things it's fun
oh that's cool man yeah i guess some just
just
influenced by the stuff i listen to you
know yeah of course
of course yeah well you mentioned the
soundcloud community and the golden age
of soundcloud
and that is something that i definitely
was around for
but i was totally just not in that thing
and i think it was just one of those
platforms that while it had its golden age
age
i didn't quite understand it and i just
didn't put my energy there so i'm kind
of out of the loop on what that is
is there something that replaced that
now no
not really i mean spotify i feel like
has taken
that role as the streaming place you
know and discovering new music
spotify has amazing algorithms for like
finding related music
but um soundcloud was like that kind of diy
diy
place where you could make a name for
yourself by just
putting stuff on online uploading it
no industry links no no kind of like
connections it's literally just if
someone likes it they're going to repost it
it
and if if uh if they repost it their
fair followers see it and it's just that
kind of like
that kind of process and i just i just
um that was like the birth of me
as an artist was like being on
soundcloud getting to know
the people who followed me not literally
but just you know knowing their little
icon in their name
and then commenting on my stuff like
this is sick or something and then i do
you know i was kind of it's sort of
quite addictive that the feedback you'd
get and then i kind of just upload stuff
again and again yeah um so yeah it was
it was cool man and i discovered a lot
of new music
and a lot of people you know kedranada
came out of soundcloud um
keefer another producer that i like and
like yeah a lot of people
it's interesting man and then some
people made the jump to
to spotify and things like that whereas
some people didn't and and they're
they're kind of they kind of missed out
because they hadn't made that leap
to other platforms which is interesting
yeah in a similar way where you saw a
lot of people that were famous on vine
yeah and then vine went away and it's
like where are these people what happened
happened
yeah that's it oh well that's
unfortunate they didn't really do any long-term
long-term
career things yeah and i guess with that
in mind for you you've built an entire
career off this which is something that
not everybody who does
sound clouds or what i don't know did
soundcloud i sound like an old man i
post to the youtube
like anybody who is a quote unquote
soundcloud artist or whatever
you're one who has made a long-term career
career
out of it at what point did you feel like
like
this is my thing that i do now rather
than oh this is fun to just post to soundcloud
soundcloud
i think as as i got a manager and
i kind of started doing shows and stuff
like that and things were taking off it
was that was when i was kind of like okay
okay
it's still kind of just something that i
do it's always just been something i do but
but
yeah but um it's kind of strange that
the evolution of like
becoming who i am today like as an
artist it's kind of
i didn't plan it it kind of just
happened um and i'm still
still surprised you know yeah what about
you yeah i mean i think
i think the same thing kind of happened
with wolfpack
where it started as this kind of youtube act
act
and an internet band that didn't really
have intention like jack's the band
leader jack i don't think
had intentions of touring
and doing a bunch of festivals and
you know being like a big band or
anything it was just this internet thing
that got big on the internet and then
all of a sudden oh
i guess we gotta do shows and people are
asking us to
tour and play festivals and now there's
these expectations
and that's fine that's cool i mean what
do you expect when you do something
really well and
people latch onto it yeah yeah yeah yeah
i definitely relate to you in the sense where
where
i don't know it's just what we do we
make an album every year
and it's like the thing and we get
together and it's still in some ways feels
feels
like the same it's been for years but it
just happens to now be in front of
thousands of people
yeah it's exactly the same for me man it
really wasn't very planned
um and i don't it was only i never
dreamed of being a musician
i just loved making music and it was
something i did
and and then yeah it just grew from from that
that
i think i am i don't i don't think of
myself as very ambitious but i think
i have a hunger to make more music and i
i you know i really love doing that so
i'm always kind of
thinking about the next project you know
i'm finishing out and then i'm straight
on to the next thing
um because that's just there's always
something that's exciting me
that's new you know whether that's a new
new song or new genre or something you know
know
absolutely i'm the same way so you
mentioned having a manager pretty early on
on
i know there's a lot of people i don't
know if you get this question online a
lot or just
in person i guess but people ask all the
time oh when should i get a booking
agent when should i get a manager
when should i go and try to get a deal
with a record label
what is your approach to those things
because you've done it from
literally in your parents in your
bedroom at your parents house to now
where you're selling out
huge rooms and yeah you know charting on
on billboard and everything
um i i'm very lucky that i have an
amazing manager who
kind of just sent me an email one day
and said let's go for a coffee
i met up with him and then he kind of
just kind of steered my career and sort
of helped me
understand everything from um from then
till now and he's
he's really good because he doesn't push
me to do stuff i don't want to do but he also
also
we have a bit push and pull in terms of
me not wanting to do stuff him saying
you should do this because it's
it might be good for this and that you
know so i think it can be really
important and valuable to have a manager from
from
from an early stage actually but you
don't necessarily need one
if you if you're if you have a clear vision
vision
and you're and you're just doing your
thing i think that will that will happen
yeah man
and labels like i've never really i'm i
kind of released my projects through
label services
so they so i've got my own label right
which is called beyond the groove and
the label services um put money into the
releases help kind of
promote the albums common ideas that way so
so
so i'm i'm kind of an independent artist
but with the infrastructure to help
promote the albums and things like that
and that works for me because there's no
one telling me what kind of music to
make or what kind of
yeah i think for the people that are
listening yeah wolfpack is independent
and i'm independent and there's wolf records
records
i have my own label imprint but for
those of uh for the people that are
listening who don't quite understand
what that is basically
if you're an indie artist you're just
releasing albums yourself
the other option is you go with a record
label sometimes there's independent
record labels sometimes major labels
there's been a the sort of thing where
you put an album out the uh
the record label will give you an
advance of however many thousands of
dollars to make your album
they recoup the money and then you start
making maybe a 50 percent
royalty on that but if you go with a
label services or sometimes a
distribution deal
you still own your album but a major or
sometimes even independent label
will use their distribution arm and then
take a much smaller percentage
of that who is the label that you're
working with on that
um so cobalt okay cool yeah so
i like working with them that's great so
you've had the same manager for
since basically the beginning yeah same
manager for about
six i think maybe seven years six seven
years and he's um
that's great yeah we're we're really
good friends and um
it's yeah he's quite young as well it's
quite nice to kind of grow our careers
to grow together
have you got a manager you've got a
manager i have a manager now yes
which has been great i've had a manager
for a year and a half
yeah and i honestly didn't know
what it would do for me i mean for some
people it's really important to have a
manager early on if they don't have the
business sense the vision
yeah there's certain types of
personalities that
really need a manager yeah and certain
ones that can get away for a long time
without needing one yeah yeah
and i finally got to the point where it
was like ah i think a manager would
really help
yeah yeah and they they promised that
the percentage that they would take
yeah they're they promised that they
would help bring in more than the
percentage they will take
with my current trajectory and and
that's been great you know that's cool
that's what managers do they help you
along in your career and they help
like you're saying figure out which
things to do or not do
i think i'm the kind of personality
really benefits from having a manager
sure um like i just i'm not interested
in going to
industry meetings and things like that and
and
and do all the kind of um the club i
don't know the classic music industry
kind of talk rubbish then for an hour i
don't know
like my manager is amazing that that and
and i trust him to you know to smash that
that
yeah that's great so then you can focus
on the creative side
exactly so speaking of the creative side
and who you are and where you find your creativity
creativity
when did you feel like you found your thing
thing
your voice as a musician or even as a guitarist
guitarist
i think it's always evolving i think
it's something that i think it's
something it's weird because it's not
it's not something i didn't have it
didn't kind of arrive
one day it was like something that has
evolved over time and
it's still changing um and there's
it's funny what people because it takes
you know you up on an album
and then it gets released like seven
eight months later
often what people think is thomas sound is
is
is not where i am now so like it might
be an
outdated kind of version of what what
i'm into and there's like
i guess most people might think of me as
the geography top mish
because that's where they're at and
that's what they're listening to right
now and
but there's kind of the evolution has
has moved along and i think
i guess i guess it comes but my kind of
prime my kind of core sound comes
from all those early influences and
stuff and and being mostly being ear
trained and stuff you know
like i don't know any theory i've never
been i've always hated that that sort of
thing like the intellectual side of music
music
so i think that's kind of limited what i
can play maybe
to just using my ear at all times so
yeah i don't know
but i think using your ear has given you
a certain freedom a certain freedom yeah
like when we've played together i've
seen you raise your eyebrow and just
try sounds rather than oh well that's a
d7 or
that's a d flat nine chord so i have
these shapes to pull from
yeah it's like what's this sound what's this
this
paint color that i can just throw at
this thing exactly yeah and it's always references
