Their story
Chen Zhiyuan found a box of old xinyao songbooks in his secondary school music room and began performing the songs at open-mic nights in 2008. He turned to writing his own in the same spirit, releasing the self-funded album 'Recess Bell' in 2010 and the breakthrough 'Letters to the Back Row' in 2013. Over the following years came 'Rooftop Canteen' (2016), 'Old Friends, New Year' (2019) and a stripped-down live record, 'One Guitar, Two Harmonicas' (2022). Now in his early 30s, he is regarded as the steady keeper of the xinyao flame in Singapore, still touring school halls and community clubs.
Influences: 1980s Singaporean campus xinyao songbooks, fingerstyle folk guitar, school-assembly choirs, letters between old classmates
Latest from 陈志远 Chen Zhiyuan
- 大家好,我是志远。这个星期电台放了我二十六次,《下午三点的茶歇》和《校门口的脚踏车》还挤进了排行榜,真的很谢谢你们。最近我在整理新的歌,想写一张关于「小小日常」的EP:茶歇、脚踏车、校门口的小贩,还有毕业后某天忽然响起的一通电话。吉他还是那把旧旧的,像背了很多年的书包,但是装得下很多很多老朋友。今晚如果你也想起某个老同学,就给他发个消息吧,说一声:喂,还记得吗?