Singer Troye Sivan on his new album Bloom: ‘Pop music is such a part of me’
AUSSIE singer Troye Sivan talks about how he feels to have his own place in Hollywood, his acting career and why he’s embracing a pure pop sound in his new album.
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AUSSIE singer Troye Sivan talks about how he feels to settle down in Hollywood, his acting career and why he’s embracing a pure pop sound in his new album.
You’re from Perth, but your parents have moved to Melbourne just as you’ve settled into your first home in Los Angeles at the age of 22.
They’re loving Melbourne. I’m living up in the hills above West Hollywood. It’s made the biggest difference to have a place. I’ve been based in LA for the past three or so years but always lived in my manager’s back house or Airbnb. To have a space that’s mine, where I can put my suitcase down and unpack it, has made me feel better about everything.
Your first big break was in acting, with X Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. This year you have worked with Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman on the upcoming movie Boy Erased, about a gay-conversion camp. Did you spend much time with them?
I didn’t meet Russell, he’s not in the scenes I’m in. I briefly met Nicole. She’s a parent who picks up a kid from the camp and I’m sitting in the parking lot. I’m basically a glorified extra in her scenes, but I got to say hello to her so I was happy about that. It was a heavy shoot; the subject matter was intense. It weighed on me and I was happy to get out of there at the end, but I think it’s going to be a very special and important movie.
You came out in a YouTube video in August 2013. Your friend Sam Smith says he gets asked about his sexuality far more than a heterosexual singer would. Where do you stand on being seen as “gay singer Troye Sivan” as opposed to just “singer Troye Sivan”?
I’m an open book about it. My thought is: maybe if people are asking about it, it means it still needs to be spoken about because it hasn’t been normalised just yet. So I’m fine to take on that responsibility, or burden or privilege. We’re lucky to be able to be doing this.
The singles you’ve released from your upcoming second album Bloom seem to be embracing a pure pop sound.
I don’t know why I was denying myself that joy before. Pop music is such a part of me. I realised early on, there’s 100 per cent a science to writing pop music. I was expecting to work with these mega-producers and for them to go, “OK, here’s the formula to make a No. 1 hit.”
It’s not like that at all. They’re writers with great pop sensibilities who take the time to nitpick until something is absolutely, scientifically perfect.
The goal is to walk away with something that feels effortless and fun … but in reality that takes a lot of hard work.
And there is a lot of lurid speculation over what the lyrics of the title track ‘Bloom’ actually mean.
It’s thinly veiled! I was writing this song and it wasn’t going well. So we started having fun and taking risks — I think it was my idea to make it dirty. It’ll go over some people’s heads. I think back to listening to dirty songs when I was a kid — like ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine — and having no idea what they were about. I want everyone to sing along, even if they don’t know what it’s about.
You and your boyfriend, model Jacob Bixenman, have been called a power couple, although you seem private.
We don’t really love going out that much. I don’t mind people knowing we’re together; it’s fairly obvious. But I take comfort in the fact the ins and outs of our relationship are very private. I don’t think we’ll ever be that couple Instagram storying our every moment.
You had your first online backlash this year when you were photographed throwing flowers from a fan into a bin on the street.
Now it’s over I feel comfortable saying how silly it was. I’d been given really beautiful flowers from a fan. I kept them for about three days. Then I was moving hotels, so I threw them away. But I did it outside, and a guy took a photo. Then people said I’d thrown the flowers away right after I got them.
The only thing I cared about is I didn’t want the girl who gave me the flowers to be upset, so I checked up on her. She was like, “Guys, they were going to die anyway.”
It just looked unfortunate. I hadn’t had any hate like that before so I didn’t know how to handle the situation: should I have left them in the hotel room? I deleted Twitter for two or three days … I needed to bring myself back to Earth.
Given you launched your career on YouTube, it must have been interesting to watch the web’s dark side take over.
I don’t want people to think I don’t appreciate all the love I’ve been getting. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty more scandals. I throw flowers away, I go out and get drunk sometimes. I’ll figure it out when or if it happens. Hopefully that’s the worst thing I get involved in.
* Troye Sivan’s single ‘Bloom’ is out now. His second album, also titled Bloom, will be out on Friday, August 31.