IN the world of soca music, basslines move waistlines. And Joshua Richardson’s groovy style of playing often does just that. From Kes’s Cocoa Tea to Yung Bredda’s The Greatest Bend Over, the 34-year-old musician is the man behind some of the 2025 Carnival season’s popular grooves.

‘That sounds cool’

Richardson hails from Pleasantville in south Trinidad.

Recalling his childhood, he said his father Selwyn, a guitarist, was always blasting music in the house and jamming along to it.

“He's what I would call a reggae fanatic. So I would always hear him playing Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, Sizzla, Third World – all the legends.”

His father played guitar at their church as well.

Wanting to also play an instrument, Richardson opted not to follow his father’s footsteps and tried out African drums.

“I never wanted to play guitar because I always felt like it looked hard,” he said, laughing.

“But once I started to get a little older, I started picking up the (acoustic) guitar (at home) and played around with it; fiddled with it.”

He was around ten years old and attending the San Fernando Boys' Government Primary School.

But it was when his family moved to Marabella that he fell in love with the instrument he was destined to play.

“We started to go to another church there and that was the first time I heard somebody playing the bass. I was like, ‘Oh! That sounds kind of cool.’”

[caption id="attachment_1134993" align="alignnone" width="768"] Bassist Joshua Richardson. -[/caption]

Young Joshua would sit in the church’s wooden pews moving his fingers to mimic the bassist.

“Then eventually, I decided to take up the guitar that my dad had at home and play it as though I was playing a bass guitar.”

He said it was then he realised he had “an ear for music” as he was able to accurately replicate melodies with no formal training.

He was excited to learn more so he approached the church’s bassist, Cecil Ramsey, for tutoring.

Owing to Cecil’s work schedule, they were only able to have two classes, which he remains thankful for to this day.

“The first class he taught me the major scale, and then he taught me two-finger exercises, and I literally practised that for like five years, no joke, because I did not have any other information at that time.”

He still did not have his own instrument so he would go to church whenever there were no events to practise there.

“Sometimes me and another friend used to be there all 2 am just practising, just playing, just trying to figure out how to make it make sense.”

Asked what happened to the African drums, he said, “Once I discovered the bass, that was it.

“I was thankful for the foundation of the drums because it helped me in terms of rhythm. But…”

The magic bass guitar

His father was “very excited” to learn he was genuinely interested in playing a type of guitar.

There was one challenge, though: Cecil’s bass was “extremely heavy,” especially for a child.

“I started to play with gospel artiste Koen Duncan around 15 years old. So I would be walking aro