As the sun lowered itself behind Los Angeles last night, a small group clad with pale roses, bouquets of hydrangea, and eager smiles set foot into Troye Sivan's garden--the sanctity of his work on Bloom.
Fresh off a flight from Australia, Troye and Spotify treated around 50 fans to an exclusive, intimate Fans First listening session to his new album, which arrives in its tender, deeply relatable beauty Aug. 31. Four singles from the album have already been released ("My My My!" in early January, followed soon after by "The Good Side," then "Bloom" in early May, and "Dance to This" in June), and his night atop Baldwin Hills marked the first time he had performed his new work live.
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The experience was a dip into the vulnerability of Bloom; Sivan had no air of pretense, no apparent nerves, no massive crowd to electrify. This was him, sharing simple truth. And while we can't tell you the specifics about those truths, we can tell you this: many of them revolve explicitly around his life and his own experiences in ways that will make you truly proud.
After performing four live songs on a small stage backdropped by the mellow blue-grey of downtown, Troye led us into "the craziest idea" he'd had for the performance--a bright, technicolor contrast to the beginning of the evening.
Enclosed in a white and translucent modular dome comprised of rearrangeable, inflatable cells from Pneuhaus, an Ohio-based design collective that specializes in "nomadic masonry," Sivan laid out the inspiration and collaboration behind each song between studio recordings of Bloom's remainder--detailing quite personal, private stories about both his life and the creative process behind the album. Then he laid down.
Images from the album sprawled across the ceiling of the bubble capsule, dancing in delightful tandem with the mood of each song. The dome's cells stretched and splayed the faces, eyes, lips flitting by, leaving us with our own thoughts to fill the gaps.
The night ended as quickly as it began. After the last title from Bloom played and Troye gave effusive thanks to Spotify and to us--to you, his supporters--he took his leave. Young LBGTQ couples and fans streamed out of the dome one by one, all smiles just as they came.
Bloom debuts August 31. Stream his four singles from the album on Spotify.
