David Grossman writes tender songs that touch the soul. He writes his share of upbeat, fun songs, but it's his introspective material which reveals an emotional and songwriting maturity that a lot of pros will never possess.

"We're in the disposable era-music included," Grossman said. "You still hear Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens) and You've Got A friend (James Taylor)," he observed, but "do you even remember Bette Davis Eyes?"

Any song that creates an emotion is going to last because that emotion will always be there," Grossman said. When he writes a song, he said, "The idea and the emotion have to come at the same time. People want to hear something that makes them feel something."

Songs such as When Everything Was New and Bridge of Wood and Stone reflect a bittersweet resigned attitude toward the world. "Any truth," he said, "is within a paradox."

Grossman's maturity and song-writing performing ability is all the more impressive when you learn he's only 17 years old and finishing his last semester at Central High School. But despite his youth, Grossman is a veteran performer and songwriter.

He's started playing the guitar at 10 and performing professionally at 14. his break came in his native San Francisco Bay Area, where he played in the kind of places that used to be called coffee houses. Grossman moved here two years ago and has been working anywhere from two to six nights a week.

Every Saturday night, he performs at the Warehouse Deli, 130 E. Universlty Drive in Tempe, with occasional performances at the Back Stage -Off Broadway, also in Tempe at 530 W. Broadway Road. Some Wednesdays, he's at Funny Fellows Sandwich Joynt, 1814 W. Bethany Home Road, where he also fills in sometimes for Joe Bethancourt, who's also an admirer.

Grossman's writing experience goes back about 150 songs - though he said that there are only 50 that he would claim. The bearded but boyish-looking player of guitar, harmonica, and piano said his ability to portray innocence and tenderness came from the lack of those qualities in his own life.

He had a very unstructured childhood, which included several years of separation from his parents. Ever since the fifth grade, he has been at a different school each year, and in the sixth grade he ran away from home. At that time, he said, "I had all these things going on. I couldn't tell anybody about them. So he went home and wrote songs about them.

The early attempts, he admitted, were terrible, but it started an introvertish process that clearly works. Discussing his song Everything New, he said he tried to express "the longing to go back to be a child. But I couldn't write about wanting to be young again because I am. So instead, he "took on the perspective of someone older."

Grossman said he has about four or five voices that he uses in writing his songs. It's effective for portraying different emotions and perspectives, but it's also a lot safer emotionally. "I'm a lot more careful now," Grossman said of the first-person self revelations in his songs. It's scary to bare your soul to the world and sometimes It can hurt those close to you. "That's about as personal as I'm going to get," he said of his Bridge of Wood and Stone. Now, he said, "I'm just disguising" with other character's voices.

Grossman has a 14 song cassette of originals that he began making available to fans at club appearances. The tape, which includes songs written over the last three years, was packaged after he started getting requests for such a tape from his audience. He said he always had taped material available for club owners and possible record producers, but never had anything for mass consumption.

Once he graduates from high school, Grossman has a never ending list of things he'd like to do. The main objective, however, is to find a small record company willing to work with him. "I think there's a market for it," he said of his music. "You just have to market it right." In noting that much of today's music is "made to a blueprint," Grossman said he realizes some artistic compromises will have to be made.

He admitted to going for a commercial sound with his newer material and upcoming recording session. There will be less acoustic guitar with a style he described as "techno-pop." "I want to have a record out. It would be a product, but it would be an honest product," Grossman said. "I still come from my little space, but in a way that everybody can accept it," he said. "I just hope that by compromising I don't compromise the whole thing.