Troye Sivan Knows How to Throw a Party

Smirnoff5 min readTroye Sivan knows how to have a good time. If his new single ‘Party’ has anything to say about it, the singer can throw down at the park, under the bridge, and at the club or restaurant. He hasn’t just been busy releasing new songs and collaborating with Ian McKellan and Nicole Kidman in his music videos, however. He’s also joined Smirnoff as “chief vibes officer.” It’s the perfect side hustle for a popstar.“I feel a bit like a personality hire, but I think I bring a nice energy to the role,” Sivan tells me. “I help curate a chill vibe, and it’s giving me my corporate fantasy.”Thankfully, the role doesn’t have Sivan collating papers at a cubicle. Instead, to celebrate his new single, he’s been working with Smirnoff to create delicious drinks to enjoy at any type of occasion. The result is a collection of cocktails that are delicious and easy to recreate at home. Sivan taste-tested the all of the new drinks himself and declared that they fit the needs of whatever party you might be hosting or attending. Examples include Party at My House, which is a spicy twist on a mule, or the tropical yet refreshingly slushy Party in the Day. (You can learn how to make all four of his signature cocktails on Smirnoff’s Instagram page).In between the parties, Sivan is hard at work with a new album, She’s the Best, set to release on October 9, and he just collaborated on the soundtrack of Ryan Murphy’s TV adaptation of The Shards, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Sivan caught up with Esquire via Zoom about his new single, music videos, favorite pre-game cocktails, and songwriting process.ESQUIRE: What is your go to cocktail when you are at a bar? TROYE SIVAN: When I'm out, I try to keep it pretty simple. I love a vodka soda with lime. I know that I'm hydrating at the same time while I’m drinking, so I feel good about myself. I like it fresh and simple. But then it depends the vibes. If I'm lying by the pool, I want something more interesting, like a margarita.How did you and Smirnoff come up with the cocktails that match your new song? We wanted to come up with a few because the song's called ‘Party,’ and it’s about all of these different places where I enjoy a party. I think my favorite lyric is, “Party at the restaurant,” because I feel like that’s my dream: When a big group dinner gets lit, there's good music playing, and the dinner evolves into a party. We just wanted to come up with a few different cocktails that would suit different vibes. We have very talented mixologists put together these recipes, and I tasted all of them. They’re all amazing. My favorite one is the Party at the Club. It's got Smirnoff 21, elderflower, and orange blossom water, and it's delicious.SmirnoffTroye Sivan and Smirnoff collaborated on four cocktails that will make you want to party.Why is vodka your go-to?I love a vodka martini. A dirty vodka martini is probably my cocktail of choice. Especially at a dinner, after a long day, having a very, very cold, dirty martini is like one of the greatest pleasures in life. I would say that's probably like, the main mode I would enjoy vodka is in a vodka martini. Extra dirty, extra cold.‘Party’ is such a fun song. What was your inspiration behind shooting that video?It started with a study in dance music. I was really fascinated by what would seem repetitive makes total sense on the dance floor. I think that repetition as a form of hypnosis was really interesting to me. So I wanted to make something that messed with structure in that way. We had this lyric that is a perfect circle that loops back, and it was signifying this party that kind keeps on going and going.It was a really fun song to write and work on. For the music video, Gordon von Steiner and I take partying quite seriously and think that it's important for humans. This idea of letting loose is something that is innate to humans. So we thought, surely people have always partied, so what did it look like in the past? We went back in time and through the most debaucherous party that we could possibly imagine.What kind of vibes do you need to write music?The number one most important thing is that it has to be a fairly low pressure environment. I write a lot at my best friend's house. I write a lot at my house. I rarely work at studios where you are paying to be there for the day, however many thousand dollars it is to book the studio for that day, that puts a weird pressure on me. Then I feel like I can't write. So I need an environment where you can leave if you want to, or stay as long as you want to, where I can follow the ebbs and flows of the creative process. I see creativity as this fleeting thing that flies through the air. You have to be ready to catch it. I don't feel at all in control of it. I can't make it happen. So creating the environment where you feel comfortable enough to be able to grasp it is really key.How did you get Nicole Kidman to star in the video for your single ‘She’s the Best’?We met on a movie a couple of years ago called Boy Erased. She's a lifelong icon of mine. I was very honored to have worked with her in that context, and she was so nice, and gave me her phone number. We kept very loosely in touch. Then, when it was time to make the video, I knew that she would symbolize the type of person that I am talking about in my life. So I asked her to do it, and she said yes. It was insane. I love her. I owe her big time. I don't know what I could ever possibly give Nicole Kidman. I don't know what she would ever need from me, but I will give it if I can.I was listening to ‘She’s the Best’ the other day walking around New York City, and I also smoke skinny cigarettes. I was like, is this song about me?That's the best way to listen to it! Yes, it's fully about you!I enjoyed the original music you made for the TV show The Shards. How did you get involved with that project?I read the book, and I loved the book [by Bret Easton Ellis.] I was in Copenhagen at the time, and I went and saw a lot of different music, like jazz nights and shows like that. I ended up feeling really inspired while reading the book and also listening to all of this music. I found out that Ryan Murphy was making the show, so I wrote these songs with Oscar Görres and Leland, and we wrote them before we knew if they were going to be in the show. Ryan loved them thankfully, so they ended up making it in the show.