EMI just updated their page for Troye.
Introducing BLUE NEIGHBOURHOOD:
It’s here. Welcome to BLUE NEIGHBOURHOOD, the debut full-length album from the international chart-topping Australian artist, Troye Sivan. Jump in; come along for the ride. There are surprises at every turn.
If you already know anything of the Troye Sivan story, then you won’t need any extra encouragement: Just press play. But first, a brief introduction from the artist himself about this milestone new work.
Track by Track by Troye
WILD is a song I wrote with Alex Hope in Sydney. It was my ideal writing experience – a lot of beer and sushi. We went in wanting to write a killer song and left that day feeling like we had. It’s about that intoxicating feeling when you first start talking to someone, maybe meet someone while you’re out. It’s complete infatuation, just about the very, very early beginning of a potential new relationship.
BITE is a song about my first ever time going to a gay club. I wanted to sonically capture the naivety and innocence that I felt, while also capturing the chaos I felt that night and the fun that I had. I felt like a little kid and everyone was a million years older than me and more buff than me and stronger than me. At the same time I was completely wide-eyed and curious about the whole thing and the song is supposed to capture all that.
FOOLS is a song that I wrote with Alex Hope and Count Bounce (Pip Norman) in Sydney. It started with us writing the worst song we’d ever written during the day. We had half an hour left and we said, ‘You know what, let’s just start something fresh.’ And I said to Count Bounce, ‘Play the most heartbreaking chords you can possibly think of.’ And then Alex and I started mumbling gibberish over it, and I thought Alex said, ‘Only fools fall for you.’ We ran with it and that was exactly what I needed to say at the time.
EASE I wrote with Broods in Sydney. I’m such a huge fan and it was such an honour to be in the studio with them. We had three days and on the first day we wrote EASE and it’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written. I just wanted to capture the warmth I feel when I think of, or speak to, my family.
THE QUIET I wrote in Melbourne. I was in a writing session and having a fight with someone at that particular time, they were giving me the silent treatment, and I was writing about that frustration then and there in studio. That song just takes me right back to that exact day and that exact emotion.
DKLA I wrote with Alex, Slums and JL. We wrote it at the Grove on the Central Coast (NSW). Slums and JL produced all of TRXYE and a lot of WILD and a lot of the album, but I’d never actually written with them. They came up with the chords, Alex and I went into a separate room to start working on the lyrics. When we regrouped, it was something beautiful that I don’t think either of us would have made if we were all in the room together. But there was this one missing element and when I decided it needed a rap, the first person that came to mind, because I just think she’s the sickest, was Tkay Maidza. I didn’t know her, she was in London and I just reached out as a fan, but I think her feature is one of the coolest moments on the whole album.
TALK ME DOWN we wrote in Bram Inscore’s garage and Brett McLaughlin went up to the piano and started playing the chords and singing the melody. It was something that he had in his head and in his heart and it just sounded so special to me from the moment it came out of his mouth. I was like, ‘Oh my God – what is that?’ So we all started spiting out lines and had it written really quickly. The final touch was getting a real orchestra to come in to play on the song.
COOL was a fun song to write. Alex and I were in the studio in LA talking about how LA made us want to smoke and drink and be out all the time. The lyrics are really tongue in cheek. I just hope no one takes it too seriously, because there’s an underlying emptiness and tragedy behind all these fancy things I’m talking about.
HEAVEN I wrote with Alex Hope and the legendary Jack Antonoff. Writing with Jack was such an amazing experience – he has a sense of melody like no on else I’ve ever met. Everything he writes or plays sounds so nostalgic, makes you feel warm and cuddly inside. Alex and I really wanted to impress Jack because we’re such big fans. We started writing these lyrics and they just flowed out of us. It’s basically about all the questions I’ve asked myself as a gay man. Like, if me being myself means I’m not going to get into heaven, when I did believe in those things, then maybe I don’t want that. It’s a really important song to me lyrically. Then we got Betty Who on it, which is the coolest thing ever because I love her voice and she’s a good friend.
YOUTH was weird because it was Alex Hope, who I write with all the time, and Bram Inscore and Allie X, who I write with separately – the two camps that have basically written the entire album with me. It was like introducing your two best friends that don’t know each other. So it was kind a bit weird and awkward but I sent the song off to my manager and label and everyone lost their mind over it.
LOST BOY was a song we actually wrote with the movie Pan in mind. It was a song about not knowing what you want, the confusion that one feels in their teen years with first loves and things like that. We wrote half of it and then I heard they were making a new Peter Pan movie and that they wanted songs and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I wrote a sing called LOST BOY yesterday.’ It never ended up getting in the movie but I really, really like the song. It shows a lot of vulnerability.
for him. is a song I only recently decided was going to make the album because it was a gift I was writing for someone and it’s very, very specific. The lyrics are completely between him and I. I played it for him and we had a really sweet moment. But I ended up listening to it over and over and over again and I started thinking, ‘Maybe the whole world should hear it.’
SUBURBIA is essentially capturing the very strange relationship I have with home, which is I’m there for a week and then I’m away for a couple of months, then I’m there for two weeks and I leave for another two months. I just want to make everyone proud – my friends and my family and where I’m from. And it’s just about capturing my relationship with home in a song.
[BONUS TRACKS ON DELUXE EDITION]
TOO GOOD is a song Alex and I wrote in LA, we were in her hotel room and the power went out. It was a fun song to write about someone being too good to be good for you.
BLUE is a really important song to me. Alex and I were procrastinating while we were writing COOL. So we were like, ‘Let’s indulge and write a ballad.’ And I was like, “Let’s start doing it as a duet – it might not ever make it out of this room.’ Alex has the most beautiful voice. I don’t know if she’s ever going to pursue being an artist, but sentimentally, it means so much to me to have her voice on something. Because her voice is actually on everything on this project, whether it’s in the production or the lyrics. So to actually have her singing on a song means a lot to me.
The XXYYXX remix of WILD is just the coolest version I’ve heard of the song. It’s so, so, so sick.
And so much more on the album if you wanna read,
click here.