Troye Sivan on the dark side of dating as a gay teen
"I just did stuff that a 17-year-old boy shouldn’t really have to do."
By Will Stroude
After bursting onto the music scene with his 2015 debut Blue Neighbourhood, Troye Sivan is set to cement his position among pop’s LGBT A-list with the release of his eagerly-anticipated follow-up record this summer.
The moody, grimy video for comeback single ‘My My My!’ showcased the grown-up new sound the 22-year-old Aussie star is set to explore on his forthcoming material, but as Troye reveals in Attitude’s new-look June issue – available to download and in shops now – growing up fast was something he was all-too familiar with even before his burgeoning pop career took off.
Opening up about life as a young gay teen growing up in Perth, Troye – who came out publicly on YouTube in 2013 at the age of 18 – sheds light on the darker side of trying to find connections as an isolated LGBT adolescent.
“All my friends were hooking-up with random people at parties, and I just felt so left behind because I didn’t know gay people, I didn’t know where to meet gay people,” the ‘Wild’ singer says.
Troye Sivan, shot by Damon Baker for Attitude’s June issue
“I didn’t really want to venture out by myself and so I just did stuff that a 17-year-old boy shouldn’t really have to do.
“I managed to get a fake ID and then I got Grindr on my phone and started to try to meet people who were like me, but you sort of are forced a little bit into these hyper-sexualised environments, and even though that’s awesome when you’re 17… I didn’t know what else to do.”
Casting his mind back to the encounters he had with “older” men during his teens, Troye recalls: “My heart must have been going a million miles an hour. I don’t remember specifically but, because I was always so small, I was so scared to meet up with people because I was like, ‘I’m going to get killed, I’m going to get murdered by someone.’
“When I see photos of myself, from when I was that age, and I think of the guys that I was meeting up with and talking to, I think: ‘Wow, I looked really, really young.’
Photography: Damon Baker
“[It makes me feel] Kind of a little bit creeped-out, but at the same time I really don’t have any regrets. Maybe I wasn’t ever truly scared, just really uncomfortable.”
He continues: “There’s actually a song about it on the album called ’17’… Originally the chorus of the song was ‘Here he comes / like he just walked out of a dream / doesn’t care that you’re 17’. And I was like ‘uh, that sounds a bit predatory’, and maybe it was a little bit.
“That’s what I mean, it’s like, I’m not looking back at those experiences in a negative or a positive light”.
Read Troye’s full interview in Attitude’s new-look June issue, which also comes with a second cover featuring Sir Ian McKellen. Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: 3 issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.
