JOHN COMMON sometimes wishes he were a filmmaker or a painter. But due to a ...
JOHN COMMON sometimes wishes he were a filmmaker or a painter. But due to a run-in with his older brother's record collection at an impressionable age, he ended up with an obsession for making music instead.
He writes songs and sings the hell out of them -- because if he didn't write and sing them, they'd clog his mind and his heart, create a log jam of sorts. And then he'd get stuck at stop lights and in coffee shop lines, mumbling incoherently to himself. He knows how to take you into a story, into a character, into a place and then pin you to the wall with feelings and thoughts that feel somehow like your own. He makes it comes across as seamless, effortless.
He makes records -- because as fun as the architecture of songwriting can be, it closes a kind of karmic loop to actually build the house too. You can sleep in those records. They'll hold you, if you let them. And even though making a good record is very hard work, when it's done, you get to stand alone in your front yard with the door open and the record playing loudly and your neighbors pissed off but mostly understanding. That's when you look up at the stars through your cold breath and think to yourself, "God damn. We did it... this is right."
He plays shows with his incredibly talented friends -- because, on a good night, he leaves his body down there on stage and just floats around with everyone else in the air. And that makes all of the loading of gear and winding of strings worth it. Come to a show -- you’ll see.
He’s been writing songs, playing shows, making records, touring, and leaving a trail of art and music for longer than he cares to admit. And along the way, gotten a ton of glowing press, he’s won awards, released a bunch of records, and made the best friends of his life. You can read it, and see it, and hear it at www.johncommon.com.