Mat Kearney is not Matt Nathanson. Nor is he Gavin DeGraw, Andy Grammer, Eric Hutchinson or Joshua Radin.

But he can see how you might be confused.

“Being a songwriter, there’s an innate challenge to differentiate yourself and be interesting,” Kearney said by phone from his adopted home of Nashville, Tenn. But once you get to know him, he wants to make sure you remember his name. “There’s an intimacy with a solo artist that you don’t experience with a band,” he said. “I think if Bob Dylan had been in a band, there wouldn’t have been some of the deep moments you experience with him.”

So what sets Kearney apart from his singer-songwriter brethren? There’s his emotive voice, a deep croon reminiscent of Coldplay’s Chris Martin that’s perfect for radio weepers like “Nothing Left to Lose” and “All I Need.” And there are his three major-label albums, the most recent of which, “Young Love,” is an infectious melange of big hooks, hearty handclaps and pop positivity.

His biggest selling point, though, might be his surprising omnipresence in pop culture. More than half of his songs have been licensed for use in TV shows, movies, commercials and other projects. A recent example: Google used the “Young Love” track “Sooner or Later” in its year-in-review “Zeitgeist 2011” video.

Q. You moved to Nashville from Oregon. Let’s say I’m a young singer-songwriter living in Tampa. Why should I move to Nashville?

A. I don’t know if you should. I’m not someone that says you need to move to Nashville or New York to be successful. I actually talk people out of it all the time. It has more to do with where you find the community that makes you the most creative. For me, Nashville could have been anywhere. Once I got here, it began to transform my songwriting and my ability as a live performer. I’d never even been to the South.

Q. Are you ever confused with other artists? Do people ever come up to you, like, “Matt Nathanson! I love your stuff!”

A. (Laughs) No, that’s never happened to me. I really don’t like singer-songwriter records, to be honest with you. They bother me. They’re boring, and they’re usually super-flaky. And I think I’ve challenged that. My first record, half of it was a hip-hop record, but then I was talking about car crashes and teenage girls struggling with being a high school student. There were still love songs, but I wasn’t trying to do that thing of making girls swoon. I mean, I’m not saying I haven’t caused women to swoon, but that wasn’t a motivating factor for what I was doing.

Q. For the most part, the past decade has been pretty friendly to singer-songwriters, with movies and TV shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” turning to solo artists for music. How many of your songs have you licensed for use in other media?

A. I only have 30 songs out there. Out of the 30, let’s see ... I have no idea. Maybe 20.

Q. That’s incredible.

A. Yeah, it’s been amazing. ... I think on my first record, I was the most licensed artist in the whole Sony world, which kind of blew my mind. ...

I never really tried to write licensing music. And it’s funny, on this record, I actually went the other direction. I think there are artists that are writing for licenses, and it’s created this kind of milquetoast, “you don’t have to deal with me” type of songs. On this record, I wanted to jump from the background to the forefront, and I wanted people to deal with me. ... I wanted the songs to be very specific and have characters and be their own stories. And I knew when I did that, I was taking a chance.