Channelling jazz, dub, punk, and hip hop influences, Laswell remains an enigma of bass-playing history and has blazed a trail in creating his own unique style. “All I ever wanted was for a good drummer to say, ‘He’s bad. I wanna play with him,’” said Laswell in a rare Bass Player interview from January 1992. “There are guys beating up the bass and getting a bunch of notes out of it, but no one really plays great basslines anymore.