Just about everyone in Melbourne’s inner north has had a Troye Sivan sighting. At any given party there’s a story about seeing him shopping at Piedimonte’s supermarket, say, or sunning himself at Fitzroy pool, or working out at celebrity gym Saint Haven. Mine is when I met the pop star and his parents’ dog Bowie while out walking my friend’s pointy-eared pup, Spooky, a few years ago. “Do you still go to the park much?” Sivan asks when we meet again over a Teams call. Sometimes, I explain, but not very often these days.

Sivan’s speaking to me from his internet-famous house in Carlton, which was immortalised in Architectural Digest. It’s the first nice day at the end of winter, and he’s wearing a pink Acne tee. In case you missed it, the Rush singer is riding a massive career high right now. The 29-year-old’s Grammy-nominated album Something to Give Each Other has taken him to SNL-parodied heights (where he was played by Timothée Chalamet), and across Europe for the first leg of his solo tour, which arrives in Australia this November. Oh, and he has over 15 million followers on Instagram.

It’s a supercharged moment for international pop music right now, with the “overnight” success of stars such as Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Sivan is about to officially enter his Brat summer, joining the internet’s favourite pop star, Charli XCX, for the Sweat Tour across the US in September and October. The pair are long-time collaborators, linking up on songs 1999 and follow-up track 2099. “[Her success] couldn’t be happening to a nicer person or to somebody who deserves it more,” he gushes. “As a Charli fan, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this makes complete sense’.”

For a generation of fans who have grown up online, the British singer-songwriter has soundtracked much of the last decade. But as the rest of the world finally latches onto her sixth studio album, Charli XCX “is not striving to capture the world,” Sivan says. “I think she’s just following her gut.”

The “sudden” stardom of artists such as XCX, Roan and Sivan himself have actually been years in the making. And while the world meets its new stars, Sivan was into Chappell Roan way back in 2014, when he wrote on Twitter, “I’ve had a 16-year-old girl on repeat for 2 months”. “We’ve caught up a few times since everything’s gotten crazy,” he says. “I am so excited to have Chappell Roan as a pop star in the world. We have a superstar in our midst.”

Long before surfing the Brat Summer waves, Sivan made his name in acting, not singing. He moved to Perth from Johannesburg at the age of two and became a child actor, starring in a trilogy of movies based on John van de Ruit’s Spud from 2010. He played 13-year-old Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Joel Edgerton in Boy Erased, and managed to emerge unscathed from HBO’s bomb The Idol with Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd.

Between film sets, Sivan first found his following on YouTube where he uploaded vlogs and collaborations that would attract millions of views. He announced his first EP with a major label, TRXYE, at the annual influencer convention VidCon in Los Angeles, which would become a smash-hit on Tumblr. Back then, online stars didn’t have enough eyes to turn a US presidential election Brat green like Charli XCX can.

Sivan says the influence of internet culture on his music cannot be overstated. “It’s really integral to who I am,” he says. “I think especially as a queer person growing up not knowing any queer people, I really leant on the internet and an online community for a sense of place. I developed my identity online, and it’s still something that I take a lot of joy in.”

Despite years of travelling back and forth to Los Angeles, he still considers himself “fully Australian”. “When something happens to me that’s, like, particularly Australian, I still get really nervous. I still get excited to be on The Project, you know?”

Sivan and his brother Steele Mellet recently launched their own fragrance brand, Tsu Lange Yor, which is now the first Australian fragrance brand sold by beauty behemoth Mecca. The collection includes fragrances inspired by life in Victoria, channelling locations like Sassafras and Fitzroy pool. “That was such a foreign concept to me, because in Perth, we would go to the beach all the time,” he says. “[Now] I have a lot of really special memories with my siblings by the pool and then going for a wine afterwards.”

He chats about his various projects like a neighbour talking about their office job. While he seems like a long-time local, he explains he’s fairly new to the city. “My family moved here, so when Covid hit, I came to Melbourne … I didn’t grow up here so for me to find this city that I just felt so deeply in love with, I just really adore it here and it feels like it really aligns with the adult me.”

When we run out of time, Sivan says he wants to make the most of the unseasonably good weather. “Tell Spooky I say hi,” he says as he logs off the call. Like the rest of the inner north, we’ll wait for our next Troye Sivan sighting.

What does your perfect Melbourne day look like? I’m definitely riding my bike a lot. Getting some exercise, seeing my siblings, and maybe go to Florian for breakfast.

Where do you shop? I’ll always go in and check what’s up at Smith Street Bazaar or Castorina & Co – they’re my favourite furniture stores. And maybe go to At The Above [gallery] and see what’s on over there.”

What are you listening to? The new Clairo album Charm, pretty much exclusively since it came out.

What are you streaming? I’ve been watching Restoration Australia on ABC iView.

Any local tips? I went to Bar Olo for the first time. Delicious cocktails.