When asked about the inspiration behind the title of his debut album “Private Blizzard,” singer-songwriter Dhruv references a line from Margaret Atwood’s “The City Planners.” Atwood’s poem details an unsettling perspective from a passing visitor of the suburbs who’s horrified by the clean-cut, copy-and-paste houses and streets. Pondering over the characterless landscape in front of them, the narrator wonders about the possible inner turmoils inside the seemingly composed architects of the city, “concealed from each other, each in his own private blizzard.”
“That’s kind of how I felt,” Dhruv admits. The musician first burst into the scene when his 2019 single “double take” became a viral hit during the pandemic. Now at over 890 million Spotify streams and counting, the song propelled Dhruv to stardom—and while exciting, the success came with pressure from the music industry to chase the high with another single. Instead of following what felt like the beaten path though, Dhruv broke out of his own private blizzard and decided to do what felt authentic to him and him only.
The result led to the creation of a cohesive debut album years after his breakout moment, and he’s finally ready to share it with the world. “Private Blizzard,” which came out last Friday, Aug. 23, took the star on a journey of music-making he’s never adventured before. On May 30, the night of his sold-out Los Angeles show at the El Rey Theatre, Character Media sat down with Dhruv to talk about the writing process behind the project, how he’s grown as an artist since breaking out and more.
Character Media: Tonight is the third of three shows you’re playing before the release of your upcoming album you just recently announced (The first performance in NY and the second in London). How has performing been and how are you feeling overall?
Dhruv: These three shows have been interesting because I don’t have my album out in the world yet, but I obviously have my first project, which came out a couple of years ago. It’s been a mix of celebrating the older stuff but also just introducing people to new things, playing unreleased [songs], and gauging the audience’s reaction. Specifically, tonight, I am announcing the title of the album and the date that it’s going to be released, so that’s gonna be fun.
CM: You made your late-night TV debut recently on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” How was that?
Dhruv: I was so nervous. It was funny because my dad came—my family’s from Singapore. My dad came to see me play, and I think he had not the best time because he was just sort of consoling me the entire time being like, “it’ll be fine” while I was in my panic state. But saying that, I practiced really hard in the weeks leading up to it. On the day, I was just like, “I’m just gonna let it go,” and do my best without thinking too hard about it and the fact that it was something like “Kimmel,” which I’ve grown up watching.
CM: Did you get to meet Jimmy Kimmel?
Dhruv: No, actually. That’s the greatest myth of late night, that the music films at a different time in the day.
CM: Like you mentioned, you’ll be announcing that “Private Blizzard” is coming out August 23 at tonight’s show. In a nutshell, what is the project about?
Dhruv: It’s about a time in my life where I was quite nomadic and moving around different cities. My writing process moved away from being inside the studio to being out in the real world—having my laptop and sitting in a coffee shop, and pouring out these very heavy, emotional things. In high school, I read this poem by Margaret Atwood called “The City Planners.” She talks about people being in their “own private blizzards,” and that’s how I felt. Also, it’s a nod to the fact that I think the writing is really intimate but the sound of the album is very big. It’s very maximal.
CM: So you were traveling throughout the making of this album. Sonically, do you feel like each location inspired a specific sound?
Dhruv: It’s quite diverse in terms of sonics. I think every song sounds really different from the next, but there are definitely a few that when I listen to [it], I know exactly where I made it. Like, there’s a song called “California,” which is obviously about being in LA and not really knowing what I was doing here. So, there are specific references [too], but yes, there are sonic differences between the different cities.
CM: It was mentioned you focused on trusting your intuition to find the album’s sound. Explain how intuition brought the pieces of “Private Blizzard” together.
Dhruv: My last project, there was a song on it that was pretty successful. In the wake of that song going viral, there were just a billion different suggestions about what to do next with my career, what kind of music to make, how to recreate the success of that scale—which sounds ridiculous. But intuitively, I just felt in my bones that I didn’t want to really chase another single. I felt that I needed to make an album. That’s my favorite way of listening to music: from start to finish listening to an album. Intuitively, I steered towards finding people who wanted to do that with me, not just people who were interested in making a single. That’s how I ended up in Nashville and ended up working with my producer [JT Daly], who pretty much only likes working on projects [like this.]
CM: Do you have a typical process for your writing or overall production? Is there one you developed from this second project that contrasts with your first?
Dhruv: The last EP, I still worked with my friends, but I would often write stuff and then bring it to them. This one, a lot of it was written outside [too], but there were also a couple of songs on this project that were born out of me being in the studio with other people, then I would take the ideas and work on them outside. It was a lot of “refining” for this album, so lots of picking my best verses, matching them up with melodies, cook[ing] melodies that I felt complimented really well. Yeah, it was tedious at times, but also within the making of an album, there are so many… amazing breakthroughs that push you through those tedious moments.
CM: You mentioned Margaret Atwood, but were there any other inspirations?
Dhruv: In general, I feel like the album is really writerly. It’s like a thinking album. The kind of literature I have been reading growing up, poetry… [I was] just trying to adapt something that felt poetic into this pop music landscape.
CM: You recently celebrated five years of “double take” on Instagram. If you could tell your younger self something before the song blew up, what would it be?
Dhruv: Just that it’s a slow burn. I feel like the impression the song gave people was that [the success] was overnight, but I obviously know that wasn’t true. The song had been out for two years. I put it on some random Irish distributor when I first uploaded it because they let me lowercase my name, and for a while, nobody listened to it. There was definitely a time where I was like, “okay, well, I really love the song” and you want people to listen, [yet] there’s definitely… doubt. So, I would tell myself just that there’s a slow burn and things just happen in a really unexpected way. Also, I feel like wanting to have a career in music that’s longer just means putting [in] those years of work and pay[ing] your dues.
CM: What was it like handling such a sudden rise in your career when “double take” got big?
Dhruv: It was weird because it was happening over COVID-19, so I was just not aware of what was happening. Also, so much of it was driven in Asia, and I was in the UK at the time. It felt like this weird dissonance between knowing people [were] listening to the song, but also not seeing anybody [who] would’ve been [listening]. I only think that dissonance felt bridged when I went to Asia and I played shows there.
CM: Diving even further into your past, are there any pinpoint moments in your life where looking back now, makes you realize you were meant to make music?
Dhruv: Yeah, I just remember listening to Amy Winehouse when I was really young. [In] Singapore, they had this shop called “That CD Shop.” It was a local CD store, and the CDs at the front were these compilation CDs of Grammy nominees and stuff. I think “Rehab” was nominated and was on it. I remember listening to it and thinking, “wow, this is incredible”—obviously not understanding at all what rehab was. But, deep diving into her discography and a lot of artists coming up at that time… Adele, as well. That was the first time that I, even despite having not experienced heartbreak or true love, just felt the words so viscerally and made me interested in wanting to write.
CM: Looking into the future, are there any goals you have next?
Dhruv: I hope that this album, people get to hear it. I spent a lot of time on it, so that one is the obvious one. But also, just playing bigger shows… getting better at the craft of shows. I feel like one of the more interesting things is that I was such an insular songwriter. To come out and do shows and meet people is definitely me putting on an extroverted front. So getting to play more shows [and] getting better at it.
Watch our video interview with Dhruv below!
