Jack Savoretti jokes that he always hoped to be a soccer player and settled for being a musician, but it is partially this discrepancy between design and execution which the singer-songwriter best encapsulates in his music. Take the title track to his debut album Between the Minds, in which he sings: “I’ve never been the one to shout because I listen/I don’t like to raise my voice…/You don’t know what I’m going through/When silence is all I give you/So hear me, if you’re out there.”

Despite the emotional vulnerability expressed in his music, the thoughtful singer told CollegeOTR, “I think most of my music isn’t too much a need to express. It’s more like taking a photo. I like to show what I see, rather than having a need to let it out.” So what has he seen? Loss, love, intoxication, loneliness, and above all, according to the singer, “melancholy. “

Though British, Savoretti, with his sensitive lyrics, earthy vocal stylings, and acoustic melodies, very much borrows from the American pop and folk traditions and includes amongst his influences such greats as Crosby, Stills, & Nash and Simon & Garfunkel. Recently he played the CMJ Music Marathon at The Delancey and The Living Room, the later clearly better matched to the singer because of its intimacy.

Savoretti will soon go on tour with Gavin DeGraw through Europe but returns stateside mid-November for a show UCLA and USC students can check out at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles.