Troye Sivan has established himself as not only a brilliant musical artist, but as a forward-thinking visual artist as well. In each of the three videos made from his brand new album Bloom — “Dance to This,” “My My My!” and the title track — the Australian pop star has shown the world that he has a clear vision for how he wants to present his music to the world.
But what would Sivan do when tasked with turning his sound into art on the spot? Pandora sought to answer that question when they asked the 23-year-old singer to create various paintings that represent Bloom’s sound in a new video, premiering on Billboard below. “Quick disclaimer: never painted anything in my entire life up until right now,” he said at the start. “So this will be interesting.”
Trending on Billboard
While turning a small canvas into a “night sky,” Sivan confirmed that he does see himself as a visual artist, and that he used visuals as a means of inspiration for Bloom. “I think very visually when writing music,” he said. “The ethos for the album was kind of like, a lot of classic kind of 80s references in my head … immediately, I started thinking of film posters from that time and bright neon signs at night time.”
Creating a piece of Pollock-style action painting, Sivan commented that Bloom is the most proud he has been of anything he’s made, adding that part of why he loves this album is because he knew how to finish it. “With music, I feel like I’m pretty good at knowing when to stop, because I’m very particular about stuff,” he said. Yet with one stroke of white paint on his canvas, he quipped, “That ruined it.”
Of all the songs off of Bloom, Sivan declared that “Animal” is one of his favorites due to the natural feeling of the track. While painting with Earth tones rather than the electric blues and yellows he’d used before, Sivan said that he visualized where each song of his album took place. “For some reason, this whole album takes place in these really dimly-lit, nighttime, artificial environments,” he said. “And then ‘Animal’ is the complete opposite.”
Painting a large red smear across his original blue canvas, the singer remarked that he may want to change one thing about Bloom. “I would totally just put text over this that says ‘Bloom’ and make it my album cover,” he said.
Though Sivan’s creations may not be the cover of his latest album, his Bloom-based masterpieces won’t go to waste: The artwork Troye painted will be donated to LGBTQ charity Ally Coalition.
Watch Troye Sivan’s full painting session with Pandora below: