Song Exploder - Troye Sivan - One of Your Girls

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Troye Sivan is a singer and songwriter from Australia. He’s been nominated for a Golden Globe, two Grammys, and he’s won four of Australia’s ARIA awards. His song “My My My!” was a #1 hit on the Billboard Dance Chart, and his third album, Something to Give Each Other, was one of Billboard’s picks for the best albums of 2023. Troye’s also an actor; he was in the HBO series The Idol, which figures into the story that he tells about this song. Troye came to the studio and we talked about how he made one of his big hits, the song “One of Your Girls.” For that song, he worked with two of his longtime collaborators: his frequent songwriting partner, Leland, and producer Oscar Görres. For more, visit songexploder.net/troye-sivan.

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. This episode contains explicit language. I think it's really, really difficult to write a song that's both funny and emotional. It's a hard needle to thread. But I think that's what Troy Savon did with the song that's in this episode. Troy Savon is a singer and songwriter from Australia. He's been nominated for a Golden Globe, two Grammys, and he's won...

four of Australia's ARIA Awards. His song, My My, my, was a number one hit on the Billboard dance chart, and his third album, Something to Give Each Other, was one of Billboard's picks for the best albums of 2023. Troy's also an actor. He was in the HBO series The Idol, which figures into the story that he tells about this song. He came over to the studio, and we talked about how he made one of his big hits, the song One of Your Girls. For that song, he worked with two of his longtime collaborators, his frequent songwriting partner, Leland, and producer Oscar Gores.

I'm Troy Savan. The story of one of your girls begins with guys who I was talking to that were maybe flirting with me that had not been with guys prior. There are these boys, I know plenty of them, that are just, like, too cool to be straight. You know what I mean?

Like, at least too cool to be 100% straight. And even if they are, right, they're never going to let you know that because it's like kind of part of their mystique and appeal, I think, to be this like metrosexual it boy. That character, I just know him really well. He's like tall and he's hot and he's like fashionable. Like he takes film photos. The guy that specifically started the song, the guy that it's specifically about, he's very funny and he's like one of my friends actually. And he told me he's like, I don't know. Sometimes I just like feel a little gay. when I start drinking or whatever, you know, if I've like had a couple drinks and maybe I kind of want to explore that. He was very open about it and sweet about it. And so then I was like, okay, well, let me know if you're feeling gay on Saturday night because I'm free. You know, some of these guys, they just think it's kind of fun to get the attention and flirt with a gay guy as kind of like a joke. And then there's maybe someone who is like quite deeply closeted and who's

actually not straight and, you know, exploring that. And I've had both of those experiences and experiences all along the spectrum on it. And I would create that safe space for them, but then at the end of the day, you're still kind of, like, alone. There is this, like, deep longing and this deep sense of, like, melancholy, I think. But what was really interesting to me was, like,

why do I keep putting myself in this situation? How does this keep happening? And that was the starting point of the song. At the time that this happened, I was in the studio with Leland and Oscar Gores, Swedish pop producer who I've worked with for years. Same thing with Leland. Leland and I have been writing together for almost 10 years at this point.

And Oscar and I and Leland, we'd been writing for a couple of months. And we were probably like in the middle of the album at this point. So we finished on a Friday. This was the weekend where I said to my friend, let me know if you're feeling gay on Saturday night. That weekend, unfortunately, Oscar went through some family stuff. And he went into the studio on the Saturday while processing his family stuff that was going on back in Sweden.

And he started with this melancholy loop that he made where he sings this vocal ooh and the drum groove, this bass line and the arpeggiated synth. So then when Leland and I come in on the Monday, Oscar starts telling us about his family and he plays this loop. and Leland and I are singing out into the room. And in the voice note, you can hear me go. There was just something so emotive and, like, hypnotic to me about this loop.

And we've never made anything like this before. So good. And so we started writing the verse. I've just had this experience with this guy. And I was explaining to Leland and Oscar, this type of guy. And I was like, let's write about him. Sometimes I'll think to myself, what would Gaga sing? What would blah blah sing on this?

And so this loop and this bass line got me thinking about like an Adele song. What would Adele do for a verse melody? And I sang, Everybody loves you, baby. That feels like something that maybe she would sing. You should trademark your face. It's like I'm imagining this line of like girls, boys, everybody, wants to be with this guy.

Lining on the block to be around you. But baby I'm first in place. And then Oscar had the acoustic guitar just in his lap and he started to strum that when we were writing. When he started playing that, I felt this longing. I think the thing when I'm songwriting that I'm really searching for, of course I'm trying to tell a story,

but I'm really trying to create a feeling. I'm just kind of like feeling so moved by this music and then I started to make these kind of like queer references like face card no cash no credit face card no cash no credit in queer culture, ballroom culture specifically someone's face card is their face and it's part of their sort of like currency this person can show up to the front of any line at any restaurant or any club any party, they just show their face and they get let right in.

Face card, no cash, no credit. I've never really done like a spoken part on a song. It's scary to me. I think it takes a certain amount of confidence. You can very easily feel quite silly speaking in a low, sexy tone into a microphone. It's a bit embarrassing. It's quite camp. And I think sometimes the fear of embarrassment would have prevented me from doing that

even if I thought it was really going to be cool on the song. But Oscar and Leland have heard me do much, much, much more embarrassing things. Then, yes, God, another queer culture ballroom saying. Yes, God, don't speak, you said it. So without saying a word, they've said all that they need to say. Skip the application in the view. And then... Sweet like Maribu.

The pre-chorus finishes out with Sweet Like Maribu. I had Sweet Like, and then I was like, Maribu is so, like, expected. here, you know, the place and the drink and just kind of like has been done a million times. But Oscar thought that I said Maribu. I was like, no, what is that? He's like, it's a Swedish chocolate. And I was like, that's perfect.

Sweden is a very special place to me. I've spent so much time writing with Swedes. I wrote my, my in Sweden. I've had Oscar as such a special friend in my life and collaborator in my life. And having had all of these beautiful experiences in Sweden, Sweet Like Maribu. I had never tried the chocolate until very, very recently. But I was like, it's a sweetest chocolate?

Let's do it. It was a little wink to the fact that Oscar was sitting next to me. Look at you. Skip the application in the view. Sweet like Maribu. Look at you. This pre-chorus just feels so special to me. It's hot.

It's sexy. It's longing. It's sad. It's happy. It's like all of these things. It's like the gayest I've ever felt. And then comes the chorus. and we are completely stuck.

At this point as well, the pressure is heavily applied because this is my nightmare. I try and write chorus first because that's the part of the song that I'm intimidated by. I don't like it when I start with a verse and pre chorus because if I fall in love with them, now you've got to write the most important part of the song trying to live up to this verse and pre

that you already are so in love with. And the chorus has this really cool daft punk feeling arpeggiated synth that's moving all around and trying to find the melody in that felt really difficult. So then overnight I'm like thinking about it. And we're filming the idol at this time, the TV show with The Weekend. There is a song in the idol called one of the girls that's like being talked about on set and stuff like that. It's part of the plot of the show. I don't think about it. It's one of those things where it goes into the back of my mind and just sits in the back of my mind. And Abel is like a film buff. Abel is the weekend. And he shows me this YouTube video and this robot is in the recording studio and he's singing and he's like sad. His voice is like this vocoder voice. And I'm like, wow, this robot really, really wants to connect with humans and he can't. He's having a really hard time with it. And simultaneously, I've just had this experience with this guy. And I'm like, I wonder if the chorus should be like that sad robot

because of how disconnected I feel from the sky. And so then I'm in the chair and like, me, woy, and I'm like making these like robot sounds and a melody comes. And then I said, I'll be like one of your girls or your homies in that like robot voice. And I was like, I think I've cracked the chorus. My favorite, favorite thing in the chorus is the way that it flips because it starts with, give me a call if you ever get lonely, and then it ends with, give me a call if you ever get desperate. That flip really reflected so accurately how I felt about myself in the situation. It's not just about him, it's also kind of having an effect on me. The chorus felt like it really captured all of that.

But there was a weird B part. It's just sort of this instrumental section in the middle of the chorus, and I knew that it wasn't right. but we couldn't solve it. We tried a million things, but nothing felt right. And I knew that it could be my favorite song, but it wasn't yet. The most treacherous part of a pop song is the top of the second verse. I think that's where you're most likely to lose people, because they've now heard the quote unquote best bit of the song,

and they've heard kind of like all of the parts except for the bridge, and they can make their mind up whether or not they're interested in listening to the rest of the song. And so I often try to put something interesting and ear-catching at the top of the second verse so that you don't want to stop listening. And every single time I would listen to this song, and it would get to that section, I would sing, everybody. And I was imagining it as a sample. But we're like searching through samples and like nothing is hitting.

And then it hits me. I'm like, oh, this is like a backstreet boys thing. and I go into the booth and I layer all of these vocals and then Oscar puts this like really sick automation plug in on it. And it is like one of my favorite moments in the song. There's an element of humor in this song.

There's a few moments of it. Number one, You should ensure that waste. You should ensure that waste. And afterwards there's this background vocal where it's like with the highest policy you can get. Funny lyric to me. We're just making ourselves laugh.

And it's got this sort of like under the sea islandy kind of feel which leads to this shalala, which almost feels like a luau vibe. It's really just me and Oscar and Leland sprinkling in these little treats for ourselves, things that make us smile. I feel as though I've sort of gone to like

the school of Swedish pop writing. I think I've sort of been raised. by Swedish pop songwriters. And Max Martin, he is like my idol. He wrote Baby One More Time for Brittany. He wrote all of those incredible Backstreet Boys songs all the way up to 1989, the Taylor Swift album. And when I first met with MXM,

which is Max Martin's publishing company, this was many, many years ago now, they were like, okay, cool. We think that you would write really well with X and Y from our company, come in and try and do some sessions. And that's how I met Oscar. So now, you know, all these years later, Max Martin, I've never worked with him directly. But back in LA, it's his studio. So sometimes he comes in to hear what we're up to. We play him a few songs and he's sitting on the couch and he's listening and then we play one of your girls and he stands up.

and the energy in the room kind of like shifted and then he's like, play it again. And he looks at me and he's like, is the lyric and he says the chorus lyric to me. And I was like, yes. And he was like, it's fucking brilliant or something like that. And I was like, wait, what is going on? And he walked over to the synth.

And he plays, I'm like over the moon because I'm like, Max just played something on one of my songs. And we saved the song and I was like, this is almost something really, really, really. really special, but for some reason, the chorus is still not as strong as the rest of the parts. And that was really frustrating. And so then I got to London to work with Oscar. And the studio that we booked, just because it was what was available, had this massive, massive live room that had like timpony. Oscar is like an insanely talented, classically trained multi-instrumentalist.

And so put us in this massive room. And he's like, wait, should we put a timpony roll in? one of your girls, like, we've got the timpony. There was a version where, like, we were trying so hard to make the chorus really hit. So there was, like, big drum fills. And then I was like, wait, Oscar, what if it's, like, the saddest, like, worst drum fill you've ever heard? It's the sad robot. He's in the studio and he's, like, just depressed. That's what we ended up doing, this sort of weak little...

And then I re-record my chorus vocal. It needs to sound like me, but it needs to sound like this, like, disconnected version of me. And so it's like, my falsetto is singing on top of the vocoder. I love layering a high, breathy falsetto on things. It was ultra important to add this element of silkeness and seductiveness and femininity to the song. But structurally, there's still this long B part in the middle where we don't know what to do. And I'm sitting in my hotel in London and I've got the chorus stuck in my head.

And I get to the part where it would be the B part, but because there's nothing written there, and it's just an instrumental part, I just skipped it, and I sang the last two lines of the chorus. And I had this like, aha moment where I was like, oh, we just don't need it. We just need to cut the B part.

And immediately, the song made total sense to me. I've always been fascinated by the fact that Oscar and I, we have this weekend where we each have these separate experiences that then on the Monday collide and you create something that none of you were expecting. And when it all was done, I mean, this sounds dramatic, but it felt like my manifesto.

I was like, okay, this is very, very clearly to me, the centerpiece of this album. I think it's such a queer song. I mean, like, the subject matter, the way that it feels, the cadence, the eternal longing, the dysphoria, the feeling of like throwing yourself at someone, the warmth, the humor. All of those things are like very, very queer to me. This is the most me that anything has ever felt, I think, and seeing the response to it, it is like everything that I ever hoped that it would be.

I don't know, I just, I feel really seen from this song and like proud, yeah. So at this point, do you feel like you're done with these kinds of flirty, may or may not be straight fashion voice? No, no, no, when the song came out, it got worse. Because they all got the idea. They were like, oh, wait, I can, like, hit up Troy. Coming up, you'll hear how all this came together in the final song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th.

It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope.

I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzuckus, Josh Malina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks.

And now here's one of your girls by Trishycash. Troy Savon in its entirety. song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more at Radiotopia.fm. And if you'd like to hear more from me, you can sign up for my newsletter. You can find a link to it on the Song Exploder website. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at songexploder.net slash shirt. I'm Rishi-Kesh Hereway.

Thanks for listening.