Dhruv on ‘Private Blizzard’ being his most ambitious album yet
Of pain and poetry
It’s a wonderful dichotomy when you find an artist who is as expressive in their music as they are introverted in real life. For Dhruv, his debut album’s title Private Blizzard couldn’t be a more apt description of not just the vulnerable world he lets us into but also his very being in person: he thinks deeply about each question, swirling and digesting them in his mind before carefully articulating his thoughts.
It is this rich introspection the British-born singer-songwriter possesses that has captured listeners all around the world. With his deeply personal musings about life, love and loss set against moody pop R&B soundscapes, Dhruv has created a world where listeners can come undone and find solace.
Such is the case for his highly anticipated debut album, Private Blizzard. Following the sleeper hit of his viral single Double Take in 2021 (it currently has over 800 million Spotify streams) and his debut EP, Rapunzel, in 2022, this new body of work continues Dhruv’s penchant for expressing the complexities of human emotions in striking and intimate ways.
We had the chance to preview the album ahead of its release and can conclude that Private Blizzard is a stormy ride into the deep recesses of Dhruv’s heart and soul. There will be songs that make you feel the harsh cut of loss and grief; songs that bring hope and sunshine through the grey clouds; and songs that evoke a sense of melancholy during rainy days and long nights.
As we sat down with Dhruv during his short time in Malaysia, we discussed how Private Blizzard helped the artist unpack the weight of his emotions, his relationship with music after going viral, and more.
Congratulations on your album! How do you feel about the release of Private Blizzard?
“Thank you! I’m so overwhelmingly excited for it—I don’t even feel nervous anymore [laughs]. I held onto this album for a really long time and it’s been a long campaign in some ways because I got out the first single for it in January. I’m just ready for people to hear this as a whole body of work rather than as singles.”
Sonically, how does Private Blizzard reflect your current musicality and artistry?
“It’s a very ambitious album. It took a team of people to get the sonics of the album right. My first EP was so DIY; I made it with friends and we recorded many of the vocals in my bedroom, so the scale from that to Private Blizzard is really different.
“I was very fortunate to have had success with Rapunzel and it gave me a big budget to make this album. Knowing that I had a bigger budget, I wanted to push my ideas and make them as big as possible. So, it’s a very maximal album: lots of live instruments and tons of cinematic arrangements and moments. I think it’s very cohesive even though each song kind of has its own flavour.”
How has your relationship with music evolved since going viral with Double Take? Did you feel pressure to recreate that success?
“Definitely a lot of pressure. I really struggled because I always thought of myself as someone who wanted to make albums and somebody interested in building worlds around music. But after Double Take became so huge, I think a lot of the collaborators that I started with were looking to recreate that moment, like Double Take Part 2 with me, which I really wasn’t interested in doing.
“And so that was quite challenging at the beginning, but I took a little bit of a breather—not a break from music itself—but I removed myself from the places I was feeling that pressure such as Los Angeles. I decided to move away from there and went back to writing music the way that I initially did. Eventually, I found my connection with music after initially feeling like I’d lost it.”
You describe your songs in Private Blizzard as “friends” in your Instagram announcement. Can you describe some of these friends?
“I have a song called Tragedy which is a friend that helps you see situations that aren’t necessarily the best in a positive light. They try to make a positive spin on it. The whole hook of that song is being the main character in your own tragedy, so that’s one friend of mine.
“One and only is a really optimistic friend who’s telling you to get out of your bed. We all need a friend like that, especially for this album. They’re the friend that makes plans and forces you to go out on a nice day to have a picnic or walk in the park.
“The morning is a friend who just listens to you and sits with you during those tough moments when you feel like you need to talk to somebody. So there’s a variety of them in this album.”
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You also described your life as “messy.” How was it revisiting those moments and writing about them for your album?
“To me, it’s always good to have things happen in your life, whether they’re good or bad, so you can draw inspiration from them. What made this album a little bit of a challenge was that I started from a place of numbness and the mess felt almost too deep and difficult to untangle.
“Numbness is not exactly an emotion that you turn to when you want to write and it’s not necessarily your instinct to immerse yourself in it, so I felt quite apathetic, cynical and sort of jaded in the beginning. But as I started to force myself to unpack them, it was almost like therapy. Going through those layers, I processed my feelings and it made me feel lighter because I started to understand why I was feeling all those emotions.”
How do you feel comfortable with this process of vulnerability and putting it all out there?
“I think it’s a practice, there is a sense of discipline involved for sure. I remember when I used to go to therapy, there were times in the past that I thought to myself, “Why am I even going when I feel completely fine?” But then as I started chatting with my therapist, I found myself going to a place I didn’t think I’d be going, and I realised that there were things I needed to unpack.
“It’s the same with writing music. Sometimes, I just sit by the piano and start to play a melody. Next thing I know, I’ve made something I didn’t expect myself to.”
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The title Private Blizzard comes from Margaret Atwood’s poem, The City Planners. Why does this particular phrase resonate with you?
“Yeah, the quote “each in his own private blizzard” is such an amazing description. The poem talks about what it means to function in this world and to keep up appearances. For the last few years of my life, I’ve spent my time in different cities and moved around a lot.
“I carried all these heaving things with me without finding a place where I felt I necessarily belonged. Private Blizzard felt like the perfect description of that weight.”
Lastly, what can we expect from Dhruv in the near future?
“I want to do more tours and shows. I’m definitely coming back to Asia next year, so you can count on me being back in Malaysia soon. I grew up in Southeast Asia so for me, it just feels natural to come back here and play shows. It’s not even a question in my mind of if I’m coming back, just a matter of when [laughs].”
Listen to Private Blizzard below:
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