Tan Hanjin has written, produced and performed music for and with just about every big Canto-pop star of the past decade. None of that, however, seems to have gone to his head. The affable, down-to-earth Singaporean recalls the names of almost everyone he has ever met and talks (perhaps too candidly) with anyone who's willing to listen.
At his stylish music studio in SoHo - where singers such as Eason Chan Yik-shun, Edison Chen Koon-hei and Joey Yung Cho-yee have recorded hits - Tan is having his portrait shot between bites of chicken curry, while members of a TVB crew wander through the quarters.
Fitted with a proper kitchen and bedroom, in addition to the recording and mixing rooms, the space also served as his home until he moved in with his fiancee recently.
'I would ask her to stay here, but it seems people are coming in and out all the time,' he says. 'And people gather downstairs sometimes hoping to see artists.'
Perhaps what Tan doesn't realise is that some of the people loitering around may be waiting for him. After years out of sight in recording rooms, the 34-year-old is now increasingly in the public eye after issuing his own albums, staging shows and appearing as a judge on a TVB singing contest, The Voice.
The television crew, for example, is preparing to shoot a segment for his recently released album, Buy One Get One Free. Billed as an acoustic hip hop album, it's a collaborative effort with rapper Auyeung Jin, better known as MC Jin.
'That [acoustic hip hop] stuff is just a marketing slogan other people came up with,' he says. 'To me [Buy One Get One Free] is more of an adult contemporary acoustic album.'