Kelvin Tan (born 22 August 1964) is a Singaporean musician, writer and lecturer. He has released two novels, ''All Broken Up and Dancing'' (1992), and ''the Nethe(r);R'' (2001) and over 102 musical albums. He teaches part-time at
LASALLE College of the Arts
LASALLE College of the Arts (informally LASALLE) is a publicly-funded post-secondary arts institution, planned to be a constituent college of the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) by 2024 along with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Sing ...
and is guitarist for The Oddfellows, for whom he wrote and sang the hit "She's So Innocent".
Tan is also a member of the bands Stigmata, Prana vs r-H and Path Integral. In 1997, he co-founded Aporia Society, a multi-disciplinary arts society.
Early life
Educated at
Anglo-Chinese School
Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) is a family of Methodist schools in Singapore and Indonesia. It was founded in 1886 by Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham as an extension of the Methodist Church. Anglo-Chinese School is usually abbreviated as "ACS", wit ...
. As a 14-year-old, he was introduced to the music of
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
and
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
, and the literature of
JD Salinger
Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...
,
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...
and
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
. He failed his 'O' Levels in 1981. Tan later attended
Jurong Junior College
Jurong Junior College (JJC) was a junior college located in Jurong West, Singapore. It was the ninth junior college to be established by the Ministry of Education of Singapore.
History
Jurong Junior College was first situated at West Coast R ...
and graduated from the
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...
with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Literature in 1990.
Career
In 1982, Tan was awarded a merit certificate for "Swan Leda" in the Shell National Short-Story Competition. In 1986, his play ''Tramps Like Us'' was awarded third prize in the Shell Short Play Competition. He joined The Oddfellows as lead guitarist in 1991.
His novel ''All Broken Up and Dancing'' (1992) was originally a short story published in ''
The Straits Times
''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...
'' in 1985. In 1986, he contributed the song "Seen the End" to ''BigO'' magazine's ''Nothing on the Radio'' cassette. The song was a response to the
Hotel New World disaster of the same year.
Bibliography
Novels
*
*
Plays
* ''Tramps Like Us'' (1986)
* ''Goodbye Jennifer'' (1987–88)
* ''Flights Through Darkness'' (1994–95)
* ''Life is an Angel'' (1998)
* ''Vermeiden//a(Void)'' (1998)
Selected Discography
* ''The Bluest Silence'' (1998)
* ''Alone, descending Sisyphus'' (1999)
* ''Songs In Search Of An Other'' (2000)
* ''Disembowelling Brecht'' (2001)
* ''Being; In The Light Of Convergence'' (2001)
* ''Mortal Songs For Believers'' (2002)
* ''Understanding The Lion'' (2002)
* ''Remnants From The Cities Of Reasons'' (2002)
* ''Meta(axis): In Reverse'' (2002)
* ''Truths And Consequences'' (2003)
* ''Myths From The Wilderness'' (2003)
* ''Dreams Of The Enigma Revealed'' (2003)
* ''The Wilderness Quartets'' (2004)
* ''When Our Spirits Awaken'' (2005)
* ''Weltanschauung Septet'' (2006)
* ''She Who Communes With The Stars'' (2007)
* ''...and her eyes said yes...'' (2010)
* ''From where i stand, it's all changing'' (2010)
* ''The Passion'' (2010)
* ''Below the Abyss'' (2011)
* ''Bound by Affection'' (2011)
* ''Lost Songs, Now Redeemed'' (2011)
* ''Ah Boy, Me and TNT!'' (2011)
* ''Together, Naturally'' (2011)
* ''Solitude, In Spite Of'' (2011)
* ''Tributaries'' (2011)
* ''Talkin' True, Lightnin' Blues'' (2011)
* ''The Heart'' (2011)
* ''The Taipei Shuttle and How To Use It'' (2011)
* ''Love Has To Be So Hard'' (2011)
* ''Re: Visions'' (2011)
* ''Evocations for Solace'' (2011)
* ''Homages'' (2011)
* ''The Souls of Old Harbours'' (2011)
* ''Dignity'' (2011)
* ''If you never know where you were, then you were never lost.'' (2012)
* ''Eurology for Paul Motian'' (2012)
* ''Odes for Asphodel's Smiles'' (2012)
* ''Perceptualities'' (2012)
* ''Slightly towards the Dawn'' (2012)
* ''Surfacing In'' (2012)
* ''Searching for the meaning of Incandenscence'' (2012)
* ''More lightning blues for you'' (2012)
* ''Modern Madrigals for Hope'' (2012)
* ''My Brother, My Soul'' (2012)
* ''Alive, in time'' (2012)
* ''Magpie till I die!'' (2012)
* ''Old melodies, made new, for my beatrice'' (2012)
* ''The Yearning'' (2012)
* ''Unhinged for Falling Stars'' (2012)
* ''The light that falls'' (2012)
* ''Transmigration of Citizen N'' (2013)
* ''Fighting the Fire'' (2013)
* ''Jacqtourismo!'' (2013)
* ''Morning Set!'' (2013)
* ''Flying low; Covered in Hope'' (2013)
* ''Lucidity'' (2013)
* ''Turning inwards, Raging fire'' (2013)
* ''Random Ubiquities'' (2013)
* ''Unravelling the Hunger'' (2013)
* ''We, the Sound, and the Zeitgeist'' (2013)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Kelvin
1964 births
Living people
Singaporean people of Chinese descent
Anglo-Chinese School alumni
National University of Singapore alumni
Singaporean musicians
Singaporean singer-songwriters
21st-century Singaporean male singers
Singaporean writers
Singaporean novelists
Singaporean dramatists and playwrights