In 2019, when Dhruv Sharma was a junior at Yale University majoring in data science and statistics, he recorded “Double Take,” a lo-fi, mellow R&B song. For the next two years, it was viral in Southeast Asia. The go-to soundtrack for K-pop video edits on YouTube and TikTok, the song rose to No. 1 on the charts in Thailand and the Philippines and, in 2021, was among the five most streamed songs in Malaysia and Singapore.
Record labels quickly reached out, and he signed with RCA, which represents singers such as Justin Timberlake and A$AP Rocky, in October of that year. “The stats thing was me trying to be a stable, good Indian boy,” says the 25-year-old. “But music was always what I was interested in doing.”
Now known mononymously as Dhruv, he’s made his late-night-talk-show debut on Jimmy Kimmel, earned more than 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify (double Vampire Weekend’s listeners), and, in late August, released his first studio album, Private Blizzard. Detailing the fallout of a breakup, it’s “less of a feeling album, and more of a thinking album,” says Dhruv.
Born in London to Indian parents, Dhruv moved to Singapore when he and his twin sister, Naveena, were two. He remembers his father playing Bollywood music and British pop during car rides. “[My dad] was the first person to play new music that caught my ear,” Dhruv says, fondly recalling the first time he heard Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Although he didn’t necessarily understand the lyrics at the time, he was moved by the emotion in the music. The British-soul movement of the early aughts, from Winehouse and Adele to Duffy, continues to inspire him.
He attended high school in Singapore, where he excelled in academics and landed a spot in Yale’s class of 2021. Moving to the politically liberal New Haven allowed him to come out. In “Double Take,” Dhruv sings about falling in love with his best friend. “I was experiencing love for the first time and experiencing what it meant to be a queer person and not just somebody who’s watching other people live out their lives.”
Private Blizzard is “less of a feeling album, and more of a thinking album.”
“Growing up in a country where gay sex was illegal at the time, and then having my extremely queer love song chart in that country … it felt special,” says Dhruv. “I always held a secret hope that it would do well, but it feels like a total pipe dream when you’re putting it out and uploading it yourself.” The song did, however, cause his extended family in India to make several worried calls to his parents, asking if Dhruv was gay, he says, chuckling.
Even before the song went viral, Dhruv made the decision to take a year off from Yale to focus on his music. He was spending hours commuting on the Metro-North train, going back and forth between New York City and New Haven for meetings with music producers. It was becoming increasingly impractical to balance school and music, and he wanted to give his dream a real shot. Every year since 2020, he’s made the decision to delay completing his final year of Yale, though he hopes to finally finish his degree soon.
Private Blizzard marks a new phase in Dhruv’s career. “I have to prove to people that the first [EP, Rapunzel] wasn’t a fluke.” The pressure made writing a challenge. To record his music, he traveled to Nashville. “It felt like a natural place to make this album,” he explains. He collaborated with J. T. Daley, a Tennessee-based, Grammy-nominated musical engineer.
“My first project was a bedroom R&B/pop project,” he says. “This one is tons of live musicians that made it in Nashville, and it has a much bigger sound.” Along with Daley, he worked with Jam City (who produced Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour and Troye Sivan’s Bloom) and Daniel Tashian, Kacey Musgraves’s co-lead producer on Golden Hour.
This month, Dhruv will perform the album live for the first time. He’s the opening act for the European leg of kiwi musician Jordan Rakei’s 28-city world tour. His own tour, set for the U.S., will come next year.
He’s already focused on the future. “I am excited about making the next [album].”
Private Blizzard is available for streaming on Spotify
Clara Molot is a Senior Editor at AIR MAIL
