DISCOVERING GENTLE BONES

Pic by Regina Cheng

 

 

Gentle Bones… also known as Joel Tan… what can I say about him? He’s 20 years old, picked up the guitar when he was 16, but has never had a music lesson. To date, he has written almost 100 songs, and he keeps on writing till he finds the good ones. He has no musical background, and he is the first in his family to pursue music. All I personally know about him is that he's played a number of gigs in the past 4 months or so, including some music festivals like the 100 Bands festival, IGNITE! Music Festival and BeerFest Asia.

I have to admit, this article almost never happened. Why? Because I had a hard time thinking about what to write about him. I tend to enjoy writing “meaty” articles and interviews that are somewhat serious and biographical, and usually, there’s more information available that’s either provided to me, or that I can easily find online, when I prepare to write my piece. But in this case, there wasn’t much useful information online about Gentle Bones, because he’s a new face, and he’s pretty much kept his official website quite minimal (or at least that was the case when I was trying to do some background research on him).
 
Apart from the various articles and interviews that the mainstream media had already done on him that might still be available online, there wasn’t much else to go on, and I didn’t want to write something that repeats what everyone has already said about him. So what does one do when one is apparently stuck? I decided to go back to basics, and just talk about what I personally know about him, and what my personal experience is in finding out about the musician known as Gentle Bones.
 
 
SO HIS NAME IS GENTLE BONES?
 
Let’s see… I first heard his name mentioned just before attending Music Matters Live with HP this year, and I first saw him in person after he played at Razer’s The Art Of Sound gig on 30 Apr 2014 at Lower Case, located at Lasalle College of the Arts.
 
Charlie Lim was the main act that night, and some of the other supporting acts included Gareth Fernandez, Stopgap, .gif and Gentle Bones. I got there just in time to see Charlie Lim, and missed all the other acts playing before him, including Gentle Bones.
 
 
MY FIRST REAL ENCOUNTER WITH HIS MUSIC
 
The first time I ever heard him play live was during the Made In Singapore showcase at Music Matters Live with HP on 23 May this year. I remember rushing over to Paulaner’s at Clarke Quay, and finding myself trying to squeeze my way into what was a tightly packed venue. He appeared onstage at 8.00pm and played a 30-minute set that included 7 original songs, among them were the 5 songs that would be in his EP.
 
My first impression of this live gig was that he pretty much had a college-age crowd following his music. His songs had a big sound that I could imagine would be played on an epic scale in arenas worldwide, with tens of thousands of people singing along. Gentle Bones’ brand of Folk Pop music is easy to listen to, pleasing to the ear, and I’m not sure why, but it even reminds me of older acts like America or The Eagles, even though he personally names Ed Sheeran as one of his big influences.
 
 
AND THEN IT HAPPENED…
 
I probably don’t need to mention this, but I will anyway, because the story just wouldn’t be complete without it.
 
And then it happened… his music started being played on the radio, his songs started climbing the charts, his music videos were getting over 100,000 views each on YouTube, his music started selling like hotcakes on iTunes, and the tickets to his EP Launch started being snapped up online at Peatix.
 
Somewhere in the midst of all this buzz, I decided that it was time to make contact with the man himself.
 
 
GENTLE BONES’ EP LAUNCH
 
Now that you know how I first came to know about Gentle Bones, and what my first live music experience with him was like, here’s the deal…

Gentle Bones is having his EP launch tomorrow night, 30 Aug 2014, Saturday, from 7.00pm onwards at TAB (located at Orchard Hotel). His guest artists for the night are Gareth Fernandez and Samantha Rui. From what I understand, the $30 tickets which come with the physical EP are SOLD OUT! However, the $25 standard tickets are still available. These same tickets will cost $35 if you just show up at the door tomorrow night though, so best to get them online at gentlebones.peatix.com NOW! Hope to see you there!

And remember to keep your eyes right here on SG Music Mine, because there’s gonna be more on Gentle Bones soon!