Making a sophomore project is notoriously difficult. Especially when your first one went seriously viral. Like over 800 million streams viral. So, when singer-songwriter Dhruv embarked on this task, he knew he was waging an uphill battle.
“It was really hard, that was the general vibe of it” he says laughing, when I ask him to describe the process of creating Private Blizzard, his first full album which will come out in late summer.
However, to combat this, Dhruv decided to tease his fans with a track which speaks to a universally hated experience: bumping into your ex. After I learned this inspiration came from Dhruv’s own experience, we immediately swapped stories, proving the relatability of the subject.
“Even if you’ve moved on, it’s really tough,” he expands, speaking to the particularly painful encounter of seeing your ex with someone new. This motif is the foundation of Dhruv’s new track ‘Speed of Light’, with the chorus starting: “Damn, you’re wasting no time/Found yourself somebody new at the speed of light.” This accessibility factor is shored up by the song’s pop/funk overtones, which despite the somewhat disconcerting subject, helps add to the song’s feel of at least we’re all in it together.
Despite the challenges of making Private Blizzard, Dhruv really started to get into the process once he changed two very important things; his headspace, and his literal space. “Virality is so unpredictable and hard to engineer”, he explains. “When I realised that and let go of it, that’s when I really started to hit my stride.” He also made the move to Nashville, and found he felt less pressure to “make something good right now” – an overwhelming feeling he was experiencing working in LA.
Another change in this recording process was the live element that Dhruv was keen to inject. “I had so many phenomenal people come into the studio and improvise songs – I’d never experienced anything like that before,” he says. This attitude was inspired by the strong live elements in two of his favourite albums, 21 by Adele and Frank by Amy Winehouse. “They both had a huge impact on me,” he says, “I’ve always wanted to do something like that.”
Nashville influenced the album in other ways too, apart from the country stylings that are apparent on both ‘The Morning’ and ‘Lonely City Waltz’. Being in a city where no one knew him gave Dhruv a lot of time to think. “What’s born out of that is an album which is very on the brain,” he says, “it’s not as much of a feeling album as it is a thinking, introspective album.”
I ask him what he hopes fans will take away from the project, and his answer betrays just how much thought went into the process: “I want fans to believe me. I write so much from my own personal experience, and I just hope I’m convincing enough that people feel like they have a part of me when they listen to it.”
This virality that Dhruv felt pressure to overcome occurred at the end of COVID-19 when his track ‘Double Take’ started to suddenly gain traction, despite the fact the song had come out two years before.
‘Double Take’ is a soaring ballad about queer teen relationships, and Dhruv chalks up its sudden popularity to its sense of longing. “The song is all about yearning, for someone or something. Maybe people being stuck in the house increased their sense of kinship with that feeling,” he muses.
I asked him about how he felt during this time. “I was so grateful, as it gave me such a platform and opportunity, but it was also so stressful. I felt like every decision I made was life altering,” he explains. This feeling was exacerbated by Dhruv’s lack of experience in the industry, having never even played a show. “I was truly a bedroom artist,” he explains. “I had no idea what to do”.
By chance, the artist sought clarity from one of his heroes Amy Winehouse and happened to be rewatching the documentary Amy at the time. “It was such a great reminder of what it means to have reverence for music and do a career in service of music, rather than a career in service of yourself. I think that mentality has been the thing that’s driven me forward. I always have so much love and reverence for music, and I try and take my ego out of it completely and make it about the love.”
As he says this, I find it hard to believe that Dhruv ever worried about moving beyond virality. It’s this attitude which has already seen him surpass being a ‘one hit wonder’ and move to greater successes like touring Asia and appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. And it’s this same attitude which will undoubtedly see him succeed in the long run. Who knows, one day we might find ourselves watching a Dhruv documentary, albeit hopefully one less tragic.
