Troye Sivan on Growing Up, Ariana Grande, & Finding Himself in 'Bloom'

Troye Sivan is gearing up for the release of his sophomore album, Bloom, the long-awaited follow-up to his beloved 2015 debut, Blue Neighbourhood.  

Early last Friday morning, PRIDE chatted with the 23-year-old pop star about how he's coming into his own, his relationship, working with Ariana Grande, and what to expect from the upcoming release. 

PRIDE: First things first, have you listened to Sweetener yet? 

Troye Sivan: I've listened to almost all of it. I just woke up and put it on and had to hop into some phoner interviews. One of my favorite Imogen Heap songs ever is "Goodnight and Go" and I had no idea she did that cover thing that she did. And it's like so, so, so good. I'm really into it. 

What changed from your debut album Blue Neighbourhood to Bloom almost three years later? 

What sort of happened naturally is Blue Neighborhood was sort of the groundwork and the base of my life in general. Finding myself and going through a first relationship and all of the kind of hard work that you have to put in just to grow up. If that was that, this album is me getting to enjoy the fruits of my labor a little bit. I just feel like more secure and confident and I know who I am a little bit better. Musically, I can make the exact music that I want. I know my way around the studio a bit better. Overall I think the album just kind of explores that. 

What do you want your fans to take away from Bloom?

I've always felt that a really impactful and powerful way to be any sort of inspiration is to just not let anyone stop you. I came out and everything and then once I kind of got that out of the way, I just completely realigned and focused on what I always wanted since I was a little kid, gay or not. I've always wanted to be a singer. I've always wanted to be happy. I loved the idea of being in a relationship. I hope people listen to the album, and be like, 'Holy shit, I can do literally anything regardless of who I am or because of who I am. I can do anything in life.' I hope that's what people take. 

What's next for Troye Sivan?

I think the thing that I've always fallen back on is making something that's exciting to me. The only reason I feel like I can do this for the rest of my life is because music is constantly changing and evolving and my taste is constantly changing and evolving. What I feel is cool and exciting is constantly changing, so I don't really know and that's the coolest thing in the world to me. My job is to make cool stuff, whether that's film or a piece of music or something completely different, and I feel like the luckiest person in the world as a creative to be given the opportunity to have people to trust you. That's all that you can really ask for. I'm excited to see what happens in the future. I really have no idea.

Bloom drops Friday, August 31.