Jonnie Common – Restless (Video Premiere)

Stirling-based Jonnie Common has a busy old time ahead of him this autumn. As well as working on the score for new theatre piece You Can't Go Back by poet and playwright Ross Sutherland (set to be broadcast on BBC Two on 7 Oct), Common and Duncan Marquiss have been commissioned by the McManus Gallery in Dundee to generate a work based on the museum’s collection in celebration of its 150th anniversary. Completely separate to all of that, he’s got a new single – Restless – out via Song, by Toad on 6 Oct.

"A dulcet siren issued from the trig point on a mountain of student debt" is how Jonnie Common describes his latest single. Born from low-key live shows trying out new material in stripped-back form, Restless is a slow bob on a wave of self-employed uncertainty. Featuring backing vocals from Save As Collective's Gavin Thomson, it's a wry and lyrically dense anthem for the overworked and dissatisfied. So if you're feeling restless, Common's advice is to "Have a break. Have a KitKat. Have a listen to this. (Sorry, that's very cheesy but I just ate a KitKat)."

The Skinny is delighted to be premiering the video for Restless, which you can watch in the player above. Of the video Common tells us, "Resident Song, by Toad video wizard Mario Cruzado made the video for Restless. We had a good chat/dissection of the song and developed the concept together from some pleasingly surreal visions plucked from Mario’s mind’s eye. The first verse starts 'Masseuse loose on my back space' and the video was originally supposed to be me getting a massage but the label quickly saw through that flimsy attempt to get a free trip to the spa."

Restless is released on 6 Oct via Song, By Toad and available to pre-order here.

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Jonnie Common live dates

Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, 5 Oct
Tolbooth, Stirling, 6 Oct
Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 7 Oct
Servant Jazz Quarters, London, 9 Oct
The McManus Gallery, Dundee, 25 Nov (w/ Duncan Marquiss)