With nearly 4 million YouTube subscribers and about 3.5 million followers on both Twitter and Instagram, Troye Sivan is one of many young creatives who have built their own digital empire. Set that aside, though; no one who hears the 20-year-old, South Africa-born Australian’s debut album, “Blue Neighbourhood,” would assume or believe this multitalented pop singer-songwriter (who appears Monday and Tuesday at the House of Blues) first built his fame by vlogging.
Released in December, the record is filled with all the infectious personality of Sivan’s videos, mixed with introspective lyrics and deep, moody synths. It arrived close to a decade after the artist, at just 12 years old, joined YouTube in 2007, shortly after the social network started.
“I found this one girl who had like a million views, and she was responding to people in the comment section,” he said in an interview with RedEye. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s famous, and she’s like talking to people. Let me try and comment to her.’ ” After the YouTuber replied encouraging Sivan to post videos of his own, he began using his channel as a platform to promote his singing.
Soon, though, he pushed pause. Conveniently timed with puberty—his voice was cracking—he pursued a small role in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Meanwhile, his channel morphed into a video diary of sorts, akin to “The Truman Show” but entirely organic, and directed and produced by Sivan himself. It’s an honest body of work that is as silly as it is serious, depicting the ups and downs of growing up in a digital world.
Now, his presence in that world shows a versatile, creative talent with content that’s both personal and universal. The music videos for the album’s first three singles, “Wild,” “Fools,” and “Talk Me Down”—a cohesive three-part series released ahead of the album—depict two young gay boys who fall in love but are torn apart by one’s homophobic, abusive father and who are later reunited after he dies. It’s not likely that Sivan identifies directly with his abused character, though. He came out to his parents, who he says were accepting and supportive, at the age of 15 in 2010, before he was signed to his record deal. It would have been dishonest for him to tell a heterosexual love story, he says. But more importantly, it would have been awkward for his fans, to whom he came out in 2013 via YouTube.
In fact, the YouTube community helped inspire him to open up to his family about being gay. “When I was coming out to myself and to other people, the one really hope and inspiration and strength to me was the Internet,” he said. Being upfront has made his sexuality a “nonissue,” he told Billboard.
The album, like his YouTube channel, is intended to be autobiographical. For Sivan, the effort’s name refers to where he grew up—suburban Perth. But everyone comes from a blue neighborhood, he says on a YouTube promotion for the album. “It’s where you call home. The comfortability of it. The warmth. The nurturing suffocation.” But from a stagnant place many try to escape, Sivan has found inspiration in the mundane. “That to me in itself is kind of beautiful that not much in these places changes,” he said. “I think being able to travel and get away and then come back, I realized everything was changing.”
Much of the album was written away from Perth, making it almost like a homesick love letter to friends, family and lovers. This sort of honesty and openness allows Sivan to connect on a deeper level with his fans. Where artists like Taylor Swift and Adele (both publicly have applauded Sivan’s music) use social media to help craft their public personas beyond music, Sivan leverages his songs to provide more introspection to the tale he already has crafted on YouTube.
Unlike on his video channel, however, he never names the characters in the stories on his album. Here, he’s much more cryptic, allowing his audience to find their own experiences in his music. But make no mistake, a lot of his songs are about boys he’s loved or at least fallen for.
Among acting, YouTube and music, tracking Sivan’s success isn’t easy, even for him, but it’s passion that he says has guided him.
“The common thread between all of them is that that was what I was really passionate about at the time,” he said. “I was like 15 years old living at home and had like no risk at all, so I could just fully go for whatever I wanted to go for.”
And as he begins to play live shows, it seems millions of YouTube views don’t stack up against a live audience of just thousands. Sivan, after all, is still a young musician, nervous amidst his sold-out tour.
“My biggest show, in Sydney, was 2,200 people,” he said. “It seemed like it may have well been a million for me as far as how nervous I was and how much fun I had.”
While Sivan humbly appreciates all the success, he’s just getting started and has room to grow.
“I want to keep going just because I love making things, and I love, I guess, seeing how far I can push things,” he said. “But I’m definitely very, very grateful and content with how things are going right now.”
In concert: 7 p.m. Troye Sivan, Monday, Feb. 22, Tuesday, Feb. 23, at House of Blues. $26.25.
@monroeschultz | jmschultz@redeyechicago.com
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