Troye Sivan, the Australian, openly gay singer-songwriter who carved his way to worldwide stardom through this early videos on YouTube, took to Reddit this weekend to do an AMA session – an Ask Me Anything where he opened up with some insightful answers.
These were some of the best ones:
In this interview you said that “Fun is kissing boys and kissing girls sometimes”. Would you care to elaborate on that? (Seeing as I’m pretty sure you’re gay)
I’m totally gay – it took me a long while to figure that out, but I think I can say that confidently now. In saying that, I can’t even tell you how thankful I am to have had my boundaries pushed in the process of figuring that out – challenging myself and my sexuality has lead to me being so open to all experiences.
Some of those have included getting a little (perhaps too) inebriated at clubs n things, and, whatever happens with the closest person to me (regardless of gender), happens.
Again though – IÂ think me being on the ‘LGBTQ spectrum’ at all opened me up to those experiences, and I honestly wish that openness upon everyone. Allow yourself to mess around and figure stuff out. Life’s fun!
If you could talk to your younger self, what would you tell him?
Dude. Chill oooooout. Everything’s gonna be okay. You’re gay, and it’s amazing! One time, you’ll sing on the same stage as Celine Dion (I know you like her). Family is #1. Also, like pretty much all of everything that you’ve ever wanted is going to happen very soon. Keep going!!
How do you deal with criticism that you’ve ‘forgotten your roots’ purely because you haven’t had time to upload a video in a while?
Cuts deep!! I get where the criticism comes from. In saying that, for me, truth and content are key – I can and will only ever make stuff that feels completely genuine to me at the time. I’d feel disingenuous making the same YouTube videos IÂ made in 2014.
I will forever treat my audience with respect, and love to think that you guys will follow along and like what I make for a really long time. If not – at least I can say i made stuff I believed in.
What has been the strangest or most unsettling fan encounter you’ve experienced?
My drummer Adam had brought a mate down to hang after the show and we were all having a great time just chatting after the show. Adam’s friend was super nice and all was really lovely.
I was peckish and walked across the room to dip some baby carrots in hummus at the little food table we had set up, and Adam had the same idea. It was only once he told me through gritted teeth that my friend was really nice and asked how IÂ knew him that IÂ realized something was awry.
An awkward interaction ensued, and turns out the dude was just a really, really big fan who had somehow charmed his way backstage (and then into all of our hearts tbh), before being kindly asked to leave like a minute later.
Why Do you count to 15 in your song Heaven? Is it because you were 15 when you came out or..?
Two reasons, really – Heaven is about my coming out experience. I used to count a lot when IÂ was younger to relax me whenever IÂ was anxious, and so IÂ did a lot of that when IÂ was coming out, both to myself and to everyone else. It’s also a little nod to me being 15 when IÂ came out.
Are you working on new music?
Not juuuuuust yet. I’m bout to go on tour, then I’m gonna take a few months to just chill n think n live and eat breakfasts a little before starting to write really seriously. In the same breath, I’m sure I’ll get super antsy and wanna hop to it sooner. I have a lot of ideas though and am so inspired at the moment. I really can’t wait.
