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Aug 02, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Stefan Kohli

Later this month, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer/songwriter Dhruv is set to share his debut album, Private Blizzard, arriving on August 23rd. Although the album is his first full-length release, Dhruv has been on the rise in the world of alt pop since his 2019 single “double take”. He followed the single with a series of new singles in the lead-up to his 2022 EP, Rapunzel. Those records saw him conjuring a chilled blend of alt pop and feathery R&B, coated in an intimate bedroom pop sheen.

For his full-length debut, Dhruv says he focused on expanding his vocal range and his songwriting. As he explains, “I started in a place of numbness, and I didn’t really understand why I felt that way. The songs that I started out with were trying to help me unpack that feeling. The further along I got, I started feeling better—I just felt lighter.” The album was recorded in Nashville with producer JT Daly (Noah Kahan, Bully, Benson Boone) and finds Dhruv and Daly bringing out a live, in-studio sound, rendering Dhruv in warm, vibrant color.

He has already shared the album’s early singles, “Tragedy,” “How,” and “Speed of Light,” and today he’s back with a new track, “Grieving,” along with an accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Grieving” softens the grooves and hooks that colored the record’s previous singles, instead opting for a subtle, aching piano ballad. In its opening moments, Dhruv is joined only by sparse piano chords, though the track later fills out with atmospheric production, simmering gospel harmonies, and moving swells of strings. All along, Dhruv crafts the track with a delicate touch, leaning into the crescendoing instrumentation in one moment only to fade into a meditative murmur in the next.

Meanwhile, his lyrics explore the uncertain grieving process after the end of a relationship: “I’m learning how to move ahead / Learning how to grow / Learning how to live life without you, friend.” Dhruv explains, “Heartbreak feels like a shade of grief. This is a song that explores the different stages of it and specifically how strange and non-linear it is.”

Check out the song and video below. Private Blizzard is out on August 23rd via Little Worry / RCA. You can also find our Q&A with Dhruv on the song and album below.

How do you feel your songwriting and creative process have evolved with your debut album?

I’ve definitely become a lot more open to collaboration. Before my first project, so much of my writing process up to that point had been just me in my bedroom writing on my piano. For that reason, I was closed off to working with new people and didn’t know how to not be self-conscious in studio sessions. On this upcoming album, I decided to push myself outside of my comfort zone and expand my circle of collaborators.

What were your feelings going into the project after your EP, Rapunzel?

I felt a lot of pressure to recapture the success of the first project. For many months, I felt uncreative because I was thinking too hard about “the audience” and forgot what it felt like to make music for myself.

You also made your late-night debut earlier this year. What was that experience like?

It was surreal. I grew up in Singapore and names like Jimmy Kimmel felt almost mythical because I lived that far away from the US. I was also really happy to perform with a full band and show off the musicality of the album.

What does the album’s name, Private Blizzard, mean to you?

It represents the process of making the album - silently chipping away at it in coffee shops and other public places. It also represents the feeling of the music, very intimate in terms of writing style but very grand, dissonant, and messy in terms of its sound.

“Grieving” is one of the more intimate and emotional points on the album. Is there a story behind the song or specific experiences you drew on when writing it?

It’s a song about the end of a relationship. Exploring that as its own shade of grief. Different because the person is still somewhere in the world but similarly strange because they were a big part of your life and now they are not a part of it all.

The major recurring theme of “Grieving” seems to be the lessons taught from grief. What have you learned personally and creatively while making the song and album?

To go easy on myself. Making an album felt like climbing a really tall mountain at points and I definitely beat myself up when it wasn’t coming together. I only really started getting somewhere when I started embracing the challenge and uncertainty of it.