“There were also other opportunities to meet other musicians...Arts First and the Loker Commons program,” he said. “I saw that and signed up to do a show there and to meet other people.”

The Mather House resident found himself writing music in strange places. “College was a great time to write, and I used to go in evenings to stairwells with [good] acoustics for a few hours until someone kicked me out,” he said.

Weinstein supported himself doing computer science work after graduating. But he regrets not devoting himself immediately to music: “I took an easy route for a little while and allowed my computer work to support music. I could do whatever I wanted musically because the rent was paid, but I think it would have been wiser to push myself from the start to struggle,” he said.

Weinstein, who recorded his album at Loho studios in New York City, and Berkeley, whose album is also professionally engineered, have now devoted themselves entirely to the singer-songwriter path. They’ve both been chosen to attend South by Southwest, a country music and folk festival in Austin, Texas, that selects talent from a pool of musicians nationwide. Weinstein has plans for a tour, while Berkeley is recording a second album.

Berkeley’s voice resembles Nick Drake, while Weinstein’s voice is scratchier and reminiscent of Tom Waits. Whereas Berkeley’s richly textured songs throw together mandolin and cello, Weinstein takes more influences from jazz; Norah Jones even sings a track on his first album. Both say they got lyrical inspiration from the people they met and the classes they took at Harvard.

And both say they are motivated by their commitment to music, as well as by the notion of using music as a medium to change the way others think about their surroundings and experiences.

“Music is the best medium I’ve found for expressing the way I see and feel the world,” Berkeley said.

—Staff writer Nicole B. Usher can be reached at usher@fas.harvard.edu.