Troye Sivan Gets Into Drag for 'One of Your Girls' Video and Says Ross Lynch Was a 'Perfect' Costar (Exclusive)

Sivan tells PEOPLE about his new single and video, inspired by complicated sexual encounters with men who previously identified as straight

On his new album Something to Give Each Other, Troye Sivan explores a series of passionate sexual encounters that followed his last long-term relationship — some of which were with men who considered themselves straight, complicating the dynamic.

The Australian singer-songwriter dives into such complex experiences on his new single "One of Your Girls," which arrived alongside the album on Friday with a steamy music video featuring Sivan in full drag and Ross Lynch as his love interest.

"I repeatedly found myself in this situation," Sivan, 28, tells PEOPLE during Spotify's Something to Give Each Other listening party at Outer Heaven in New York City. "'One of Your Girls' is really me psychoanalyzing myself about, like, why is that something that was interesting to me?"

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After nights spent with men who enjoyed connecting with Sivan but didn't identify as gay, he felt they shared a special bond in a "safe space" to explore. "And then other times I would feel really empty afterwards, or feel like the secret — or feel ready to throw myself in, and maybe that wasn't what they were ready to do," he explains.

Sivan didn't look to deem the situations good or bad while writing "One of Your Girls," because many of them were ultimately positive meetings. Instead, he wanted to figure out what was attracting him to queer-curious men, eventually realizing it may stem from his own internalized homophobia.

"A lot of the boys that song is about, I feel like they probably would've bullied me in high school, and now here they are paying me attention," he says. "So, at the sacrifice of my own self-worth, I'm throwing myself at them, and then you're really just at their beck and call, and that can sometimes not feel so great."

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When it came time to dream up the music video's concept, the "Rush" musician wanted to create a "fantasy version" of himself in order to morph into the type of person these men generally wanted to spend time with: a conventionally gorgeous woman.

"It was really just reflective of how I felt I was bending and changing my values or my self-worth for someone else," says Sivan. "It's like, slay, there's this performance from a pop-star-girl version of me. But towards the end of the video, I think you really can see the vulnerability and the cracks that this isn't going to work."

While looking for the perfect man to play the role of his seemingly straight romantic partner, Sivan looked to Lynch, 27, whose shirtless photos frequently go viral on social media. "The song is written so adoringly about these guys that everyone is obsessed with — and everyone's obsessed with Ross," he says. "I needed someone who's representative of the general population's thirst, and he's the perfect guy."

Related: Troye Sivan Reveals 'Making Moms Cry' Used to Be His 'Barometer' for a Successful Performance

Despite the song's emotionally intricate subject matter, getting into drag was fun for Sivan, who looked to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera for inspiration on his female persona's look. "I've never done drag before, [but I've] always wanted to, and it was a really beautiful, fun experience," he says, noting that she's more of an extension of himself than her own character. "We were trying to think of a name, but honestly, I feel like her name is Troye."

Something to Give Each Other premiered early to an audience of Sivan's biggest fans at Spotify's event on Thursday, which was held in partnership with GLOW, the streaming service's initiative to platform LGBTQ+ musicians year-round.

"Spotify has been such a huge fan of Troye’s throughout his career, and for Something to Give Each Other, we wanted to help Troye lean into the album’s themes of community and connection," Lucy Davidson, Spotify's label partnerships manager, tells PEOPLE in a statement.

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Read the original article on People.