So effortlessly does Bo Saris tap into the golden era of vintage soul that, when you first hear his voice, it's hard not to believe he's a contemporary of legends like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Al Green and Marvin Gaye. Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway.

In fact Bo Saris is a young Dutchman with one foot in the past and the other firmly in the present. He comes not from Harlem but 3,000 miles away in Haarlem – the Dutch town that lent its name to soul music's spiritual home in New York City. But don't let that put you off: as Michael Jackson put it, “It don't matter if you're black or white.”

It's a balance beautifully brought out on Bo's first album – “GOLD” – by renowned producer Dre Harris (Michael Jackson, Mary J Blige, Usher, Chris Brown) during recording sessions in Los Angeles. “I'm trying to combine a vintage soul sound with something more modern, taking bits and pieces from different styles and eras of soul music,” Bo explains.

His eureka moment came in 2011 when he performed at a televised tribute to soul great Bill Withers in Amsterdam. At the after-show party, he found himself chatting to one of his idols. “When we started talking I realised this guy was one of the most humble people – maybe the most humble person – I have met in my life. Such a pure and beautiful person. That blew me away. His musical legacy speaks for itself but the man himself is very inspiring. The whole conversation was inspiring for me and I took very important things out of it.”

One of those things was to move to London to launch his career in the UK. “I realised I have to stay true to the black music – soul, blues, jazz, funk – that is my influence and inspiration. That's what I grew up on and that is who I am.”