Tom Misch

London’s Tom Misch has drawn worldwide notice and commercial traction through his fluid fusion of soulful songwriting, rare groove rhythms, and the swing of 1990s new jack. After a string of widely discussed EPs and tracks that spread rapidly online, he arrived with his first proper album, Geography, in 2018; the set climbed into the British Top Ten and led Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart. He later joined the Blue Note roster and, alongside drummer Yussef Dayes, issued the Ivor Novello-nominated What Kinda Music in 2020. Electronic terrain came next with Happy Music, credited to Supershy and released in 2023, before he returned under his own name with the 2024 single “Insecure.”

Born to an artist father and a psychiatrist mother, Misch was raised in an environment that nurtured creative pursuits and began violin studies early through the Suzuki method. As a boy he revealed a singing voice by delivering Patrick Watson’s “Man Like You” after school one afternoon. Rock dominated his listening through childhood and adolescence until sixth form, when a boyfriend of his sister introduced him to hip-hop and especially the productions of J Dilla. He soon began crafting beats of his own while studying music technology, then started sharing material online in 2012. Emerging rappers quickly incorporated those beats into their work; around the same time Misch partnered with local singer-songwriter Carmody, and the pair released the Out to Sea EP together in 2014. That year also brought Beat Tape 1, an instrumental set containing “Dilla Love,” a tribute that earned the approval of Maureen Yancey, J Dilla’s mother. July saw the arrival of “Memory,” his debut single on the Beyond the Groove imprint he founded.

Beat Tape 2 followed in 2015, now featuring vocal turns from Carmody, Loyle Carner, and Zak Abel. On the 2016 EP Reverie, Misch wove his various strands into relaxed, R&B-inflected pop and assumed lead vocals on multiple cuts. He resurfaced in 2017 with the single “South of the River” and the 5-Day Mischon EP—five tracks cut in five days that included appearances by Carmody, Novelist, Will Heard, Kaidi Akinnibi, and Tobie Tripp—while also joining Carner on the single “Damselfly.” Geography, his first full-length album, arrived in 2018, peaked at number eight on the U.K. albums chart, and later received gold certification. Two years afterward, the Yussef Dayes collaboration What Kinda Music reached number four in Britain, spotlighted the track “Kyiv,” and earned an Ivor Novello nomination. During the COVID-19 lockdown Misch assembled home recordings that appeared independently as Quarantine Sessions in September 2021. His subsequent major statement came under the Supershy alias: the 2023 album Happy Music merged electronic textures with his signature R&B and soul leanings and included a guest spot from Roberta Flack. He resumed his own name the following year with the understated, groove-driven single “Insecure.”