Singer-Songwriter Gentle Bones on His Latest EP and Collaboration with Lullaboy
In an exclusive interview with L'Officiel Singapore, Singaporean singer-songwriter Gentle Bones shares the creative process behind his latest EP and song with Lullaboy, as well as his thoughts on founding his own record label.
Tell us about your latest EP The Art of Thanking Yourself and the inspiration behind it.
The EP is titled The Art of Thanking Yourself because it plays on the titles of the three songs – the first one being “Dear Me”, the second one being “Thank You”, and the third one being “For Being You”. The whole idea of it was to explore what it meant to truly thank and appreciate yourself. There’s a claim that self-love sometimes could possibly reach a point of narcissism, but I believe that not having any self-appreciation at all is also very dangerous. So I was trying to explore this in a way that would be truly balanced.
What is the meaning behind “Dear Me”?
The first song “Dear Me” speaks of the relationship that we have with ourselves. Whenever someone close to us is going through something, we always have the nicest things to say to the other person. But when we are the ones going through difficult times, we tend to speak to ourselves in a very different voice. So “Dear Me” brings that inner conversation into real words and into song. It's about thanking yourself for going through all the hard times, coming out of it and acknowledging the efforts that you put in and comforting yourself. Obviously, every form of external conversation will still continue. It's not as if, when you recognise your own difficulties or effort, you can’t acknowledge others' efforts. It's important to do both.
Your eponymous debut album features collaborations on nine out of 12 tracks. What about collaborations do you enjoy so much?
As with any artist, we tend to take an insular approach in terms of the way that we create our art, and that is a cool thing. But there's also beauty in co-creation, in being inspired by others and being able to work with people that inspire you. When two great minds come together, they can always be better than one. It's about seeing the beauty of the music industry and what we can do together as a team.
Every song that I make with each artist always comes out so differently. It's like a child in a weird way – you can see parts of each artist in that song. The greatest part about it is that I think when you're both inspired by each other (which thankfully is the case for me and most of my collaborations), you can appreciate each other's work and that allows you to add to each other's work efficiently and appreciatively. And that is incredibly inspiring for me.
Talk to us about your newest collaborative project with Singapore-based artist Lullaboy on "Bones & The Boy” and your song “Good in Me”.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. In the spirit of collaboration, what Anderson Paak and Bruno Mars, Skrillex and Diplo have been doing recently is they would come together to form a whole new act.
It's great to be able to collaborate in the same way with Lullaboy whom I feel is one of the most promising up-and-coming acts that have come from Singapore. It's a pleasure to be able to work with him – I think he has a true heart and soul for music on its own. What I've learnt from him is beauty in the simplicity of music, and how the message he brings to the table is not only authentic to him but is also a very clear voice. To come together with him in tribute to Silk Sonic was amazing because we've both been doing our own solo journeys for a long time.
Being able to take a break from our individual work was almost a creative holiday. We didn't have to stick to our specific sounds or what we specifically thought our next song should be. We could just rest our minds to create a whole new project. I think that allowed us to bring our best to the table, and so we came out with three earnest and honest songs. "Good in Me" is one of them, and it's the first song that we're going to put out. It's a love song that highlights the beauty of being seen for the good that you are and your ability to bring good to the world around you, to the immediate environment around you, and to the people that you love. It's very heartfelt.
Since your debut 8 years ago, you’ve managed to drum up steady interest in your music and expand your repertoire through the years. How do you think you remained relevant and even thrived despite the challenges caused by Covid-19?
Outside of expressing myself as an artist, I like to see myself growing as a musician and a producer and a songwriter all at once. So those are active skill sets that I always try to improve on because music grows and evolves through time. Acts that inspired you before, may not be acts that inspire you now. There are always going to be new acts coming out. I naturally stay in touch with what's going on because I love all the new songs that come out and see how music evolves and also evolve my music as such.
The challenges caused by Covid-19 are definitely very real. You didn’t get to play shows, and there was a bout of stepping away from what normally would be an artist or influencer's career path. But one thing that I'm glad about having done during the height of Covid-19 is focusing more on the ordeal of music.
I made a decision early on to focus on being in the studio and being in my room, writing music. The period of Covid-19 became a very rewarding journey because I got to collaborate with so many artists to put together what I feel is the best music that I've ever done in my life. And now here we are.
Thankfully the world has gotten a bit back to normal and more things are coming down the pipeline.
Congratulations on Yung Lee Records! What made you decide to found your own record label?
What made me decide to establish Yung Lee Records is that I needed a place to distribute my music, so I created a label to put out my music early on, in 2019. So there's been a beautiful journey putting that stuff out and then being able to work with Cross Ratio Entertainment for a while.
I think I'm in a very privileged position to be at the forefront of the music industry in Singapore. So I try to be consciously aware of what I want to do as an artist and then try to find ways in which it could align with what I personally feel would expand the possibilities of what the young creative industry in Singapore can do more of. What comes to mind are collaborations and creating art for the sake of art, then letting that speak, instead of being caught up with the business side of things. With my experience in the industry, I feel I'm in a position to do more of that.
I think we've all grown as people through Covid-19, and there's just more stuff to be said through music. Music spoke to me a lot in my formative years, and I hope to do that for others with Yung Lee Records.
What other future projects of yours should we be excited about?
The future project that I'm excited about right now is definitely "Bones & The Boy". We're making music, trying to find ways to spread more good and positive messages out there, and I’m also trying to be more authentic to my being as I discover more of myself. "Bones & The Boy" is going to be exciting. "Good in Me" is the first single, and the EP drops after that. I'm very proud and a big fan of Bernard (Lullaboy) and I think what we've created here is beautiful. And I'm excited to show that to the world.
