Soulfulness can be traced back to his humble beginnings - sort of. As a hard-up teen living in Australia, Merriweather once prepared "soul food" as a $4.60-an-hour employee at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"I wasn't very good at cooking chicken," he says. "But I'm willing to try it again. But unfortunately, I have no future in soul food."

That's OK, because the 28-year-old is holding his own in the music business. He bubbled up on the U.K. scene in 2007 when he paired with DJ/producer Mark Ronson to sing on the Smiths-inspired dance hit "Stop Me".

Ronson, known for his work with artists such as Amy Winehouse and Christina Aguilera, produced Merriweather's debut album "Love and War", which hit the No. 2 spot on the U.K. charts last June. It's a feat that Merriweather jokes warranted an extended celebration.

"I actually only stopped celebrating just before Christmas. It's a big deal for me."

Merriweather is also getting plenty of love from his fellow Aussies, who last year anointed him Australia's best male artist at the ARIA Awards, the Down Under version of the Grammys.

Now he's poised to test his pipes on U.S. audiences. "Love and War" releases here next Tuesday on J Records.

"All the music I grew up listening to were all American artists so it's like treading on ground that your heroes treaded on," Merriweather says. "It's a huge challenge."

The singer, who counts D'Angelo, Stevie Wonder and Boyz II Men as some of his influences (he's also a Jay-Z fan), will traverse North America as the opening act for Corinne Bailey Rae starting in April.

We cornered Merriweather at Manhattan Inn, a funky Brooklyn bar run by one of his friends, where he and his band performed his album's single, "Red". Here's some more stuff he'd like you to know:

It's Mostly About Me

When it comes to song lyrics, Merriweather lets art imitate life - to an extent: "I get really autobiographical. I think that every song is about me in some way. But I think [notorious Australian criminal turned TV personality] Chopper Read said it best: 'Never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.' And I always live by that. I think when you're writing anything down, there always has to be an element of fiction in it to make it interesting."

His Tattoo

On the inside of Merriweather's right forearm is a big tattoo he got when he was 18: "It says 'for love or money' in Latin. I was young and thought I was deep."

Awww...

Merriweather grew up in Melbourne, Australia, but East Harlem has been his home for the past three years. So what does he miss most about Australia? "Probably my mum. And being able to say really inappropriate jokes and have people laugh at them."

Auto-Tune Me - Not...

If you get Merriweather talking about Auto-Tune, the process of using technology to correct vocals, he gets pretty passionate: "We can thank Cher for a couple of things. We can thank Cher for amazing hair, for her amazing chemistry with Sonny, but what we cannot thank Cher for is Auto-Tune. As much as T-Pain would like to say he started the Auto-Tune trend, he didn't. It was Cher. Cher put Auto-Tune on the map [with 'Believe'].

"I'm not a fan of Auto-Tune. I feel like it's the first step in turning humans into robots. How much further do we go before you don't need a singer? You should sing songs naturally. That's what the voice was made for."