‘Forced’ to sing at first, Joel Tan has now signed with Universal Music Singapore
Gentle Bones deserves all the attention he’s getting in Singapore’s music scene today. He even deserves to perform internationally in front of thousands of music lovers.
Yes, he’s that good.
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Joel Tan first began singing only when his friends ‘forced’ him to perform for his class in Hwa Chong.
Today, he has achieved his first major record deal ever, and it’s with international label Universal Music Singapore.
For the 21-year-old, this means perks like gigs (better stalk gentlebones.com to keep yourself updated), merch (YAAAAS T-SHIRTS), his face on a lot of things you buy endorsements, and rights to record and publish music.
But that’s not all there is to boast about.
Here’s a chap who shot up to Number One on Singapore’s iTunes charts IN ONE DAY (thanks to his DEBUT single, ‘Until We Die’), opened a concert for Christina Perri and performed outside Singapore.
Even though his achievements reflect sheer talent quite clearly, he prefers to give most of the credit to “luck”.
“I was really lucky to be given the chance to showcase my works to music lovers in Singapore and the help I received from local radio stations, the press and media really assisted in the chasing of my dream.”
He really, really, reminds us of Ed Sheeran
Obviously he didn’t start off busking on the streets like Ed, but we say this for 3 reasons:
1. He’s lyrically gifted
There’s one thing Joel has in common with Ed, and that’s writing some goddamn beautiful lyrics.
The ones below are quoted from equally successful follow-up single, ‘Save Me’.
“Maybe I’m dead now, the day is so still,
How do I run from the truth that is you
The island is calling, they say I’m at fault,
Don’t say I’m the one when we know that I’m not”
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2. Ed Sheeran is his inspiration
Singling Ed Sheeran out as the reason why he got into music and songwriting, Joel defines his style by the massively successful British singer songwriter.
“What [Ed Sheeran] could do with his music was using those few basic chords, and make a much more complex song out of it. The whole idea of lyrics with simple chords was something he made into an artform.”
Alternatively, just listen to this and you’ll get the idea:
3. Both of them find fame weird
Despite being obnoxiously fangirl worthy in every aspect, this is what both of them have to say about fan attention.
Ed Sheeran: “I find the whole concept of women screaming at me so odd. It’s very flattering, but I don’t think I will ever consider myself to be a sex symbol.”
Joel: “I still get surprised every time. The first time I actually noticed one person in the audience sing along to one of my songs was back in 2012 and I was already over the moon.”
Expect to be more and more surprised, Gentle Bones, your success doesn’t stop here.
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With references from Popspoken, Metro Lyrics, Today Online, We Are Singapore, Brainy Quote
