Troye Sivan talks boys, gay bars, and collaborating with Olly Alexander

Troye Sivan was interviewed on BBC’s Radio 1 yesterday morning (April 22) and spoke about his first time in a gay club, collaborating with Olly Alexander and ‘coming out online’.

Speaking about the song ‘Bite’ from his debut album Blue Neighborhood, Sivan says it was inspired by his first ever trip to a gay bar in Cape Town, South Africa.

“I was petrified but so curious and excited at the same time. It was a very dodgy club that I went into and I went with my friends.

“I had such a good night and I wanted to capture that vulnerability, innocence and everything.”

The 20-year-old also revealed during his chat with Scott Mills and Chris Stark that he had a little bit of a crush on one of their colleagues: Radio 1 DJ and former Cucumber star Cel Spellman.

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Troye also went on to explain how difficult he found the experience of coming out – but only to his parents.

“I came out to my parents when I was fifteen and it was, for me, the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

Sivan says that after coming out his family were incredibly supportive of him. He then reflected on his experience coming out ‘online’ aged, deeming it “mad” that everyone has to “declare” their sexuality and how it wasn’t scary because he was already comfortable with himself.

“All of my friends knew, my family knew. I was so comfortable with myself by that point, it kind of felt exactly the same as when i wanted to come out to my friends which was like, ‘Well, all right, I’m not ashamed, I’ve accepted this within myself, these are people I care about and I don’t want them lying and that’s the same I felt with my audience.”

He continued: “I was like, ‘I feel like they’re going to be fine with this.’ I feel close enough with them that I wanted to share this information with them and get it out of the way. So, I did it and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

Troye Sivan Radio 1

The Australian singer stated that good media representation of the LGBT community is important.

“When I was younger I saw two boys kissing on TV or something like that and I frantically changed the channel. It was really scary but just goes to show how important good representation in the media is because I remember those moments clearly.”

“Obviously, they were terrifying because they were confronting that I had to suddenly think about that but at the time it was so comforting to know, ‘At least there are some people in the world like this, like me.'”

When told that a lot of his fans want him to collaborate with Years & Years’ Olly Alexander, Sivan said, “that would be nice.”

Sadly, though they’re close, the pair haven’t done anything together yet. “It’d be really fun,” Sivan adds.

Sivan states that his songs are about love and he “just happen to like boys.” But his song ‘Heaven’, featuring Betty Who was the “one and only time I ever specifically wrote about having to come out.”

“I wrote it and really liked the song and it was super personal. But then, I just, not forgot about it, but left it. Then I started playing it live and seeing the reaction to the audience from that song and seeing the audience sing those lyrics back to me was so impactful for me, like a life changing moment for me. So now it’s my favourite song to sing everyday.”

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