Troye Sivan has spent his isolation in Melbourne well – he’s been prepping the release of a new EP he recorded in Sweden last year, including directing his own videos. Troye talks body image, ultra-personal lyrics and getting gifts from his mate Taylor Swift.
You’re in lockdown in Melbourne, but you have managed the release of your
In A Dream EP from home, including directing your own video for ‘Easy’.
I’ve realised I can get a lot of stuff done here; I don’t have to be in America all
the time. I know I’m excited about a song when the video ideas come to mind at the same time as I’m in the studio recording it. That definitely happened with ‘Easy’, right down to the drag-queen band in the clip. I decided I’d direct it myself, which I’d never done before. That was the most nervous I have been in a long time, but I loved the process. The video and the EP are about warping the line between the real and the surreal. That feels like this year – are we in a dream or a nightmare?
It’s a highly personal EP. Are you ready for people making assumptions about the songs
documenting a relationship falling apart?
I have always written personally. That’s never felt more true than this time. To the point of it being actually uncomfortable. I don’t mind that people know my business, but it involves other people that I still really love and care about. I go back and forth on it. A song like Easy or In A Dream, I’m like, “Am I really about to share this?” Then I think about Amy Winehouse and the specificity in her writing. You’d think something that specific would end up alienating an audience, when in reality it does the exact opposite. That’s what ultimately makes music connect and makes it feel applicable to everyone’s lives. That thought process ends up winning the thought battle in my head – if I can respectfully release this, I’m going to do it. I know how it feels to be a fan of people; you want to dissect and explore stories and understand where the person is coming from. I don’t have a problem with that. I do take it upon myself to shield myself from the chatter. I don’t have Twitter at the minute, that’s a decision I made around this EP, I’ll hop on, post a link and hop off.
Do you give the people the songs are about a heads-up?
I do, yeah. I’m lucky I’ve got people in my life who understand that songwriting is my way of navigating the world and it’s my biggest love. Maybe I should say when I meet people, “Just so you know, I write songs about pretty much everything. I hope that’s OK?”
Your friend Taylor Swift is the master of covering her tracks in songs...
Yeah I don’t think I’ll ever explicitly say what each song is about. She was one of the first people I sent Easy to. Another sign I’m excited about music is when I share
it with people I admire. I value her opinion and friendship, and I’m a fan of her as a songwriter. [Her album] folklore is the most honest music I’ve heard from her. It’s coming from a good place.
You posted a video singing her new song This Is My Trying
I think it’s my favourite song on the album. That’s my favourite version of Taylor, I think it’s pretty perfect. folklore reminds me that I’m just a huge fan of her as a songwriter, I think she’s the best, that’s why she can have a No. 1 hit in 2009 and one in 2020, both feel so good and so different. She’s a storyteller at the end of the day.
Taylor sent you a folklore cardigan from the merchandise line.
She was sneaky. She texted me a few days before folklore was announced saying, “Hey what’s your address in Australia? I want to send you a cute merch thing.” I thought why is there ‘Lover’ merch coming so late? Then the album came out two days later. The cardigan is really warm and nice. It snowed where I live in Melbourne, so it’s coming in handy.
While we’re dropping names, you’re also very close to Ariana Grande.
She’s one of the people I miss the most in LA. It sucks not to be able to see your friends and people you care about. But we text and FaceTime. We’re all doing what we can to stay in touch and check in on one another, and make sure we’re all OK.
The song ‘Stud’ from the EP touches on body image. Is that from personal experience?
I’ve definitely struggled with body image in the past. This idea of going out and trying to find someone who looks like the exact opposite of me and who is everything I know I’ll never be, almost to prove something and feel better. Trying to heal that wound with validation, that’s what it’s about. I want to help people feel seen when I write songs. I don’t think body image is spoken about enough in the gay community; there’s an intense pressure to look a certain way. It’s abundantly clear when you go out and immerse yourself in the community. I’d been shielded from it, but it comes out in crazy ways once you’re going out again.
This would have to be the longest time you’ve spent in Melbourne after your family moved there?
I’m loving Melbourne, all things considered I can’t leave the house, but when I could I really enjoyed it. I’m living with my brother, I’ve managed to put some roots down here, I think i’ll be spending a lot more time here. I was living with my parents, now I’m living in my older brother Steele’s granny flat.
What did you do in the weeks between Melbourne lockdowns?
It felt like such a blur, those few weeks. I went to the Dandenongs a bunch, I love it there. I went to maybe three restaurants. Had I know we were going back into lockdown I probably would have gone out a bit more and done some stuff.
Are you missing LA?
The toughest thing is before isolation I went to Atlanta to film a movie and right before I left I said goodbye to my dog, I thought I’d be gone for six weeks. I was anxious to be saying goodbye for that long. Cut to six months later and I still haven’t seen him. That’s pretty sad. Ariana (Grande) and (songwriter) Leland are the people I miss the most in LA.
You were talking about maybe moving away from the normal album-after- album process. Where do you sit with that now?
This EP was a rollercoaster, I wanted to get it off my chest and move on. Now I think the next chapter will maybe be a full-length album where I’m feeling at peace and everything’s good.
In A Dream EP by Troye Sivan is out Friday
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2020-08-18 03:51:00Z
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