Troye Sivan Exclusive: 'I Would Collaborate With The Artist Who Stole My Artwork...Maybe'

21 April 2016, 16:48 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09

Troye Sivan
Woodrow Whyte

By Woodrow Whyte

Watch Troye Sivan spill the beans to PopBuzz.

Troye Sivan stopped by PopBuzz yesterday evening and he had some interesting thoughts about the Russian artist who was accused of plagiarising his artwork.

In an exclusive interview with PopBuzz, we asked Troye if he would consider ending the feud by collaborating with Maxim Burmatov. Watch the video below:


Troye seemed a little shocked by our suggestions at first, but he wasn't opposed to the idea; "Oh my god! Maybe that would be a nice peace treaty between the two of us...maybe." 

So who is Maxim Burmatov, exactly? 

Maxum is a Russian musician who drew the wrath of Troye and his fans after he posted artwork for his album which had clearly plagiarised Troye's Blue Neighbourhood artwork, drawn by Hsiao-Ron Cheng. Check out the side-by-side picture below to ~draw~ your own conclusions.

Blue Neighbourhood Artwork Comparison

Uncanny. 

Once fans found the artwork they created a hashtag that trended globally, which helped bring it to the attention of Troye and his label.

Troye initially snapped back at Maxim on Twitter, saying, "see you in court, sweaty" with a screen shot of the stolen artwork.


According to Super Fame, Troye's record label sent an infringement notice to Maxim which asked him to stop using the artwork. Maxim has now decided to change his artwork but insists it was all a complete 'accident'. 

He claims he came across the Blue Neighbourhood artwork by 'coincidence' and used it as inspiration, not knowing who Troye was or how popular he was.

"The whole story began when I started thinking about what the cover of my album will look like, and by complete coincidence I came across a picture. It had no title, no description of what it is or who is on it."

Maxim made his artwork and then uploaded it on to his social feeds. "The next day, I opened my laptop and saw thousands of messages to me, accusing me of stealing the cover of someone named Troye Sivan. Of course, we immediately started researching online to find out who this person was. Sure enough, we discovered that he was an Australian singer, a vlogger, an actor, a rather well-known personality."

LOL! Well maybe some good will come of this now Troye has tepidly agreed to a collaboration! 

The full interview with Troye will be on the site next week. While you wait, why not watch Troye launched our Snapchat! You can find the link over here.

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