Interview: Jonnie Common - Pop perfectionist's strategy of 'eternal rehash' pays off

A desire to get his music just right has led former team player Jonnie Common to go it alone

THE first thing you've got to know about Jonnie Common is that he's a perfectionist. That might not affect your appreciation of his gorgeous debut solo album Master of None, but it will give a little context to its creation. The 30-minute record's nine tracks are split between new material and music which has been part of Common's set for some years, albeit remixed and rerecorded.

"I just wanted to go back and do more justice to those songs," says Common. "I've got a friend down in Manchester who gets annoyed with the amount of different versions of tracks I do, he calls it my 'eternal rehash'." As if to emphasise the fact, he points out that anyone who preorders the vinyl album will receive a bonus CD-R featuring an alternative mix of the record.

"Basically it's a whole other version of the album. The intention is for these to be the definitive versions of each song, but whether or not they are is another matter entirely."

Common's fastidiousness has led him to this point. Brought up in Birnam, the 27-year-old was indirectly influenced by his musician father.

"He gave me a wide berth when I started playing the guitar," says Common, "but I think that was for the best. He still makes a living playing in a country band on the working circuit, social clubs, that kind of thing. My folks aren't together, so we used to spend summers with my dad, pretty much on tour with him. I learned a lot from doing that."

Did it seem like a glamorous life? "Not necessarily, but it all seemed very natural to a certain extent."

A procession of school bands followed. "I think it made a difference staying where I did, because you basically have to make your own fun if you live in a more rural area." By the time he moved to Glasgow for university eight years ago, he had already started the solo project which would mutate into the band that would make his name on the local scene: Down the Tiny Steps.

While DTTS earned a respectable name for themselves around Scotland and allowed Common to release some records over their five-year existence, it was that perfectionism which forced the change to this solo project.

"I wrote all the songs," he says, choosing his words carefully. "It was essentially my project. It was just that a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into it with me, and as much as I appreciated everything they'd done, I didn't want to feel indebted. I felt like I'd spent so long trying to keep a band happy that changing the name was more about marking this change in ideals and priorities than anything else."

All of which sounds like a diplomatic way of saying he didn't want to be a slave to expectation, where he was the leader of the band and everyone was asking: "What now, Jonnie?"

"To be honest man, that's exactly what it was like. I spent all my energy trying to keep everyone happy and doing pretty much what the consensus was. I'm impressionable, so to have people telling me what they liked and didn't like, it felt that I was more being filtered than collaborating with people." His new live show is a solo electronic and vocal set, albeit featuring Galchen's former drummer Peter Kelly.

Even before he left Birnam, though, Common had already met possibly the greatest influence on his work to date. A friend in one of his old bands knew Fife's Fence Collective, and through him Common was introduced to Kenny Anderson, aka the recently Mercury-nominated King Creosote.

"He can sing about the smallest detail or interaction between people," says Common, "but as long as the feeling's there, then it's just really compelling listening. To be honest that's been affecting my own work since I met Kenny back in 2003. I spend a lot of energy trying to avoid clich and just singing."

This influence shows on the album in a tangible and positive way, with Common's singular electronic songwriting being delivered with clarity, purpose, lots of good tunes and an unashamedly Scots-accented delivery. The presence of a credibly well-executed rap on Bedbugs merits comparison with the Beta Band, while the harmonica-infused joy of Summer is For Going Places bears heavy hints of Go! Team.

Despite insisting that he's "happy for it to be a wee bit of a slow burner," this limited release has already attracted high-powered attention from the likes of BBC 6 Music's Lauren Laverne, and deservedly so. "It's the album I've been trying to write for a long time," says Common, "and I'm happy for a few people to love it rather than a lot of people to like it." Where he takes things from here is entirely up to him, particularly because he's his own manager too.

"Like I say," he laughs, "I'm a perfectionist. But really, I'd rather have only myself to blame. There's nothing more frustrating than the vague disappointment of someone else letting you down, whereas if you do it yourself you can at least try and learn from it."

• Jonnie Common plays the Captain's Rest, Glasgow, on 31 July; Haarfest at Cellardyke Town Hall, Fife, on 11 August; and Electric Circus, Edinburgh, on 23 August, supporting Ulrich Schnauss. The album Master of None is out on Red Deer Records on 1 August.