SINGAPORE – The last time we sat down and had a chat with Gentle Bones last May, the Singaporean singer-songwriter was young, bright-eyed and hopeful about his rising music career.

And who could blame him, when he has had such a remarkable start to his career?

Since the successful launch of his eponymous debut EP late 2014, Gentle Bones, whose real name is Joel Tan, has gained more than 20,000 followers on Instagram, while his original music and covers have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.

Last year, Tan became the first Singaporean artiste to sign a “360-degree deal” with Universal Music Singapore and last month, became the only Singaporean to make it to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia — Entertainment And Sports list, alongside big name stars such as K-idols G-Dragon and Choi Siwon and Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth.

He also sold out his first full-length concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall in 10 days. It’s an impressive achievement: While indie artistes have sold out the smaller Recital Studio, which seats about 245 people, selling out the 1,800-seater Concert Hall is no mean feat. Especially for a local indie artiste headlining his own solo show.

Earlier this month, he also became the first Singaporean musician to be awarded the prestigious Super Nova Award at the Hong Kong Asian-Pop Music Festival.

However, late last year, Tan found himself stuck in Indonesia for nearly 100 days, along with YouTube stars Kina Grannis and Jesse Epstein, after their passports were impounded because of a problem regarding performance permits. Luckily, they were not incarcerated in a prison.

The musician, who was slated to be the opening act for Grannis’ Asia tour, was eventually released on Dec 23 — but not before he was forced to cancel his solo concert, which had been slated for Dec 10. (It has been moved to June 10, with a second show added on June 11.)

But, as they say, behind every cloud is a silver lining; and luckily for Tan, his three-month stay in Jakarta, although frustrating, seems to have had an upside — even though he said he would now be more mindful of the legal formalities involved when performing overseas.

“We wrote music, and I mastered Daytona (the video game) so I finished the entire game. We watched movies too, because movies there are really cheap. You can get sofa seats for S$7.50 — like Gold Class — so we would just go (to the cinema) every time a new movie came out there.” he quipped, looking cheery but a little thinner than we remember.

Indeed, Tan isn’t quite the same person we knew from a year ago. Here is a young man with renewed focus, perhaps due to of what he had gone through. Mind you, he is barely 22 years old.

Perhaps making the best of a bad situation while he was stuck in Indonesia, Tan took the opportunity to spend more time working on his second EP. The singer has completed a number of songs on the upcoming five-track record, and is hoping to release the EP before his concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall in June.

Of course, now that he has the attention of both an audience and the industry, the pressure is on for him to prove that he isn’t just a one-trick pony.

“We have been very ambitious with this whole record, not just for the songs and the production, but even for the marketing and the stuff we have planned out for the future,” Tan said.

“In some sense, I feel like I have a lot to prove because I have only released one EP, so I don’t want people to think it’s down to luck. With this second EP, if it flops then ... see you next year! We will talk about it again,” he chuckled.

Now that he will likely have more opportunities to perform in front of a live audience, the musician is also working on more concert-friendly tunes for his upcoming EP.

“I feel my old music has always been the kind that when you play them in front of an audience, the audience can’t do much. They just have to stand there and sway a little bit. I want to bring out more movement in the crowd, and that is the whole intention in my new music,” said the singer.

For Tan, who is also juggling his studies at the National University of Singapore, the focus for the immediate present is clear: Music, music and more music.

He has even taken to posting less on his social media accounts, with all but a few photos on his Instagram deleted.

“Yeah man, I just don’t feel much for social media anymore,” he said. “I don’t believe in having direct conversation — if you consider it being direct conversation with the people who listen to my music. I just want people to judge me for my music.”

He continued: “There is just an overflow of content nowadays. Especially with the position I am in, I think I can afford to focus on quality over quantity.

“I want to do that for a while at least.”

Gentle Bones’ concert will be held on June 10 and 11 at The Esplanade Concert Hall. Tickets to the second show are priced from S$25 to S$45, available from SISTIC.