Tom Misch has an unusually grounded outlook for a modern musician. In a pop music age when streaming numbers and mega-gigs are everyone’s currency, the 31-year-old Ivor Novello-nominated South Londoner is deliberately keeping his career – already boasting two top 10 albums and nearly four million monthly Spotify listeners – smaller than it could be. His new album Full Circle is the first under his own name since 2018 debut Geography, whose mix of nu-jazz, textured guitars and hip hop-influenced beats made Misch an alt-star; even Barack Obama approved.
But Full Circle has been given what he calls a “soft launch”: not much promo and two shows at Camden’s 1,500-capacity Koko, about half the size he could expect to fill. “I’m just not interested in growth in that sense,” Misch says. “More streams, bigger shows – I don’t see that as a very long-term strategy for me. My worst nightmare is basically blowing up and becoming this huge artist. You lose your freedom.”
Not just that, he’s spoken of wanting the structure of a second job alongside his music career. “Not necessarily a job, but navigating my relationship with music is something I’m still doing,” he says. He’s taken a course in counselling, and even started acting lessons (they didn’t take). “Some artists are happy to literally just be working on their craft all day, every day,” he says. “They live for it. That’s just not me. I’m gonna make music anyway, whether I’m getting paid for it or not. I love it, and I’m good at it. It’s cathartic. But it wasn’t like I had a dream of being a performer or a singer.” Full Circle’s opening track “Flowers in Bloom” contains the line “because I won’t be sold/or bought for gold”. “I never want to be pushed in people’s faces, being part of this big machine. What I do feels like the opposite of that.”
