SINGAPORE, 26 — So there we were, talking to Gentle Bones at the recent YouTube FanFest in Singapore about plans to develop a music career, when the Singaporean musician said he hoped to push himself as much as he could because “you’ll only be young once”.

“I don’t want to chase this dream when I am 27,” said the 21-year-old, whose real name is Joel Tan, as he chomped on a bag of popcorn.

“27 is not that old. I’m 27,” I inform him.

“Oh!” Tan replied, looking visibly worried that he had offended the ancient and slightly decrepit reporter sitting before him.

“It’s my personal opinion. There is nothing wrong with people doing it when they are 27!” he said, backpedalling. “I guess when you are older, the reality just becomes more real, and we’ll have so many other things we want to consider. At my age now, and being in between army and university, I have all the room in the world to be ignorant and to dream big.”

Tan’s craft has afforded him this opportunity to “dream big”. We, like many others, fell in love with Gentle Bones’ music after listening to his eponymous debut EP. The singer-songwriter, whose sound has that raw truthfulness that is often present only in the work of new artists, possesses a voice that hits you hard in the core. (Admittedly, my favourite Gentle Bones song, Settle Down, makes me melt a little every time I listen to it.)

Along with musicians such as Charlie Lim, The Sam Willows and Inch Chua, Tan is seen as part of group leading the new wave of local musicians. And people love it. So many fans turned up for the launch of his EP last August that the venue had to stop admitting them because it was filled to the rafters. Like his peers, Tan isn’t merely your by-the-numbers musician and he doesn’t take his success lightly.

It takes a truly intelligent person to understand the value of ignorance. During our conversation, Tan’s thoughtfulness shines through his work, which has not only caught the attention of critics and fans, but also of music labels.

The musician recently became the first Singaporean artiste to sign a “360-degree deal” with Universal Music Singapore. This means the label manages his recording and publishing rights, events, endorsements and merchandise. Mostly, however, Tan is excited about the opportunities such a deal would present. The singer will soon release a song for an upcoming local film and hopes to release his next EP in November this year.

“I’m excited to have the financial and industrial knowledge and backing to just allow me to make my visions of my music at least closer to where I want it to be,” he said. “There are just people you can’t approach independently. With a label’s backing, you can always go to a better producer or pay for bigger music video productions.”

In the meantime, Tan hopes to keep pushing himself to write songs every single day — though he admits he can’t always do so when he is busy with events such as the YouTube FanFest. And come August, Tan will also have to take up a brand new challenge: Going to university (even if he would much rather focus on his music).

“I will definitely still continue school. I think my parents definitely still want me to finish. But obviously the dream is to be so busy that you don’t have to go to university any more. But that’s still pretty far away,” Tan confessed. “If I get to tour the region consistently and get a good crowd, it’s good enough for me. I’ll quit university!”

With his music career going more successfully than he had ever imagined, we asked Gentle Bones if he was in danger of letting his accomplishments go to his head. “I haven’t reached the point in my musical journey where I can say, I’m the s***. It’s still super far away,” he said, thoughtfully. “I do my own work, and when my work touches somebody, it means something to me. I can understand when pop stars are arrogant and don’t want to meet their fans, because they aren’t even singing things they enjoy, so they are technically not the ones moving people. But for me, if it touches somebody, I want to be a part of it.”

He paused before adding: “But don’t get me wrong — if I ever get there, I am going to be super arrogant! (laughs) Just that it’s so far away, man, I’m not going to get there any time soon. I am just being honest, lah.”

That honesty is probably why — young or old — we’ll always be fans of Joel Tan. — TODAY