So Seume David Seume comes profesh on his debut solo album.

For being so under-the-radar, KC act Seume sure went pro when putting together his debut album, It Is What It Is.

Seume is David Seume, whose last name — pronounced “sue me” — is different enough to stand on its own once people get used to hearing it.

Alexandra Wolkowicz (the same photographer who shot the image of the man smoking on the cover of the Arctic Monkeys‘ 2006 album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not) took the picture of clear, red, floating letters on the album that Seume released on his own Grassland Records imprint last month.

Seume got Wolkowicz when he hired the Liverpool-based Smiling Wolf design firm, which has worked with the Kooks, to make his Web site and put together his album art.

Why did a totally unknown, aspiring musician from Kansas City’s Northland go across the pond for the packaging of his first album?

“I’ve known from the get-go that there was no point in putting something half-assed out,” the 26-year-old Seume says. And, as we all know by now, appearances do matter in rock and roll. That’s a fact that shouldn’t hamper Seume, for more than one reason. In a straw fedora and retro gray jacket, a portrait of the goateed Seume in the liner notes to What It Is evokes Justin Timberlake. Seume is just as good-looking in person.

He meets me at the Brick wearing a stylish red jacket and sporting a few days’ worth of scruff on his face. His slender build helps him pull off a shaved-head look.

Casual yet well put together, he fits right in at this bar. He even starts to book a gig with owner Sheri Parr while I’m there. But aside from his December record-release party and a couple of other performances, Seume hasn’t spent much time at the Brick or any of the usual midtown hangouts that attract musicians.

Born in Connecticut, this son of a pastor lived in the Kansas City area until 1997, when his family moved to the Netherlands. After high school, Seume headed back to attend college near Chicago, but he ended up finishing his philosophy degree at William Jewell College in Liberty.

This little patch of the world has always felt like home to him. It’s why he named his record label Grassland. The sentiment is also reflected in the song “Leavin” — Come back home, back to me/In Kansas City.

Seume has been back for about five years now. Three years ago, he decided that he wanted to make an album. He borrowed money from his brother for a bare-bones home studio and set to work. “I had never poured myself into anything to that extent,” Seume remembers.

Since then, the meticulous artist has spent most of his free time holed up in his bedroom, writing and recording songs that were sometimes inspired by what he could see out the window.

Like most of the 11 tracks on What It Is, the breezy “Apple Tree” started on guitar, an instrument that Seume didn’t pick up until relatively late. “I didn’t even listen to a lot of music before I got to college,” he says.

He battled insecurities about his abilities when he began making his own music, especially at the beginning of his solo project. But he persevered, hiring out bass and other parts when necessary and traveling to Chicago to get a college buddy to lay down drum tracks. “I went back to Chicago three times,” Seume says. “That lends some insight into how picky I’ve been.”

Capturing music requires perfectionism, though, and Seume’s attention to detail shines through. What It Is isn’t the most exciting new music I’ve heard lately, but it’s promising: a mixed bag of pop and rock riffs plus folksy ballads and just enough hooks to have you humming along. Seume’s voice is appealing in its gritty and falsetto states.

Lyrically, he addresses issues of the heart and of the spirit, without getting too trite or heavy-handed. About half of the album came to him “tip of the tongue,” or spontaneously, he says, as he played.

I’m eager to see what Seume does with these songs live.

He goes back to the Brick for a show on February 7. In the coming months, he hopes to head out on a little tour when the weather warms up and maybe even get a band together.

“I wanna make a living as a musician,” he says.

We won’t sue him for that.