Broke trance, so he was earlier (8)
I believe the answer is:
ancestor
'he was earlier' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'broke trance so' is the wordplay.
'broke' indicates an anagram.
'trance'+'so'='tranceso'
'tranceso' anagrammed gives 'ANCESTOR'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ancestor that I've seen before include "Antecedent, forebear" , "Forefather" , "Old member of the family -no traces (anag)" , "Predecessor" , "not being of the modern generation" .)