Some people may have gotten word of the acoustic soul of 19-year-old singer/songwriter Justin Nozuka thanks to his “You Outta Know Artist” status on VH1 and his stripped-down single “After Tonight” getting steady spins on radio. But there was a time where Nozuka had the chance to reach a wide audience years earlier.

At 15, he wrote the first of the 11 tracks that would eventually comprise his debut album “Holly,” named after his mother. The songs got the attention of Universal Records, which wanted to sign him to a deal.

Nozuka, however, wanted to make the album himself and turned them down. Getting big fast wasn’t part of his plan for success.

“We actually had been doing this with the intention of this happening organically and naturally,” he says. “It’s sort of our approach, just sort of letting it take time.”

Nozuka first released “Holly” in the UK and Canada in the spring of 2007, followed by a stateside release in spring 2008 on Glassnote Records.

Now, he’s on his first headlining tour of the states and will be coming to the area to perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 at The Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kan.

Based on the reaction he has gotten so far, his slow-and-steady approach has gotten him the crowd he’s hoped for.

“I always believed in creating an audience that is strong and that doesn’t just know one song, they know all the songs,” Nozuka says. “The thing that’s cool right now is that people are singing all the songs.”

And in all of those songs, the star is Nozuka’s voice, with acrobatic R&B-flavored vocals and falsetto that may cause some to compare him to another Justin (Timberlake). But Nozuka’s vocals have an underlying, bluesy roughness, which comes to the forefront of understated melodies and minimal production. It’s perfectly suited for the dirty slide-guitar in the long-distance longing track “Be Back Soon,” the jazzy swing of “Mr. Therapy Man” and the acoustic-pop-meets-hip-hop backbeat of “Criminal.”

“I think the whole approach is making it raw and really kind of gritty,” Nozuka says.

From a lyrical standpoint, Nozuka occasionally takes an offhand approach to his songs. Sure, he has plenty love for the women in his life (significant others and his mother), but he sometimes writes from the perspective of characters, like that of a doomed man trapped in a well or when weaving a tragic tapestry of domestic violence on “Save Him.”

Nozuka’s music and unorthodox plan for success has put him on a familiar path to international exposure, a goal the artist aspires to achieve yet exercises patience beyond his years in attaining.

“For me, I want to get my music out to everybody in the world,” Nozuka says. “Of course, it takes time, but at this point, I feel like it’s in a good place.”