FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Maude Latour

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

Maude Latour

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THE incredible…

Maude Latour is finishing off a run of tour dates at the moment. Her debut album, Sugar Water, was released last year. I covered Latour for Spotlight back in 2022. I am going to get to some interviews published with her since 2022. Some more recent ones. You may not know this artist, but I hope that the interviews I am bringing in will give you inspiration to check out her music. I am going to start out with an article from Ones to Watch. They spoke with Maude Latour about Sugar Water. I will return to Ones to Watch and a second chat, where they spoke with Maude Latour about her Sugar Water tour. However, this first interview is one I want to lead with:

“Pop prophet Maude Latour has been training for most of her life. Having built an intricate world for her music from the start of her career, today’s debut studio album, Sugar Water is the fully realized version of years of soul searching through song. But don’t worry, Latour is not done searching and will never be.

“My debut album is about growing up and learning how to lose things, people, and love— all parts of getting older," shares Latour. This album is an attempt at trying to hold onto the sweetness of this short life while it is still happening. It’s my most existential, deepest thoughts coated in pop music. I hope it takes you on the journey of a lifetime.”

The story begins with “Officially Mine” a track that brings high energy and blissful optimism front and center. It’s the peak of Latour’s signature electro-pop flair and engaging flow, possessing the bubbling electricity of a budding crush. The following tracks are two out of three previously released singles, leaving the rest of the album in completely uncharted territory. Latour wields this power by immersing listeners in a maze of love, loss, and reflection on her upbringing and the future she’s paving for herself.

“Whirlpool” and the title track are a one-two punch of Latour’s more experimental side, emphasizing the curious nature of Sugar Water. She experiences the unstable effects of growing up while remaining at ease, knowing it’s all part of the plan. In the emotional “Comedown” an epic ode to first loves and a standout moment on the album, Latour’s forced to stare at her past self and understand how it’s led her here. After “Comedown,” the focus shifts from nostalgia to moving forward. “Summer of Love,” which Latour revealed was a strong contender to be the album’s opening track, signifies this redirection. It’s a sweet confidence boost, bringing back the contagious energy of earlier tracks. Latour sings of a whirlwind summer romance, one that feels like a rebirth without the pressure of permanence.

In the ethereal “Save Me”, a Dido-inspired album highlight, Latour lets down her defenses in a way she rarely has before. The music of Latour has always been about everyone’s own ability to let the magic of the world push them forward, even in the toughest times. In “Save Me,” our heroine is so in love that she’s able to admit she might need a little help picking herself up from time to time. It’s a beautiful moment, one that doesn’t only stand out on the album but amongst Latour’s entire discography”

Whether it's because of her meticulous attention to detail or her pure ability to captivate through song, listening to Sugar Water feels like a front-row seat to your own life, described through Maude Latour’s eyes. Whether you’re a first-time listener or a long-time fan, the palpable connection Latour has with her audience and her music is undeniable. To say this is an impressive debut would be an understatement and we look forward to witnessing the path this rising star is paving for herself”.

There are a couple of other interviews I want to come to before rounding things up. Boston University’s WTBU Radio spoke with Maude Latour about her incredible record “the creative process, and what it’s like being a young musician in the digital age”. If you have not followed and heard Maude Latour, then you do need to check her out. I have been listening to her music for a few years now and it is amazing to see her grow and get this attention. A phenomenal talent that deserves massive and long-lasting success. This is someone who is going to have a very long career:

“Tabitha Curry (TC): I wanted to ask about the sound of the record—how did it come together and what were you drawing on?

Maude Latour (ML): Totally. Well, “Cosmic” was the first song that I wrote for the album [Sugar Water]. I wanted this album to reference all the different musical influences that I have – moments of rock, trippy distorted guitar, 2012 recession pop, electronic music, club music, trippy psychedelic music, hyper-pop. I wanted to blur all these genres and make something that was a kaleidoscope of me and all the music that I love.

TC: Do you find that all of your songs come from this metaphysical place where you feel almost bestowed upon an idea? Are there things that trigger the feeling of needing to write a song about it, or is it totally outside of you?

ML: I think there’s different categories of how things can initiate. Maybe if I was not doing this professionally, I would just wait for those moments to happen. When you want to dive in deeply and make anything a practice, you have to practice opening this channel and letting things just stream through and not judging them. Just getting the bad songs out, getting everything that’s not the song out and learning how to listen instead of having it come from you. But, there’s definitely songs that I’ve kickstarted— maybe those aren’t as good or as pure. Every song has a moment of “Oh, wait, this part and then this part – wait and then together they make a new idea”. There’s no way that that divine synchronicity comes from me. That’s totally something else in the works.

PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Koblish

TC: On the idea of being an artist and having to produce a product—how does that feel in this time where social media runs becoming “relevant?” What’s that like for you?

ML: Hitting the nail on the head. I think this is all a humbling journey to remember to practice not comparing yourself and to practice being detatched from numbers and results and posting. I think it’s a mindfulness, a challenge of do you love your art so much that who cares about the results – can it be that pure? I think that’s how I’ve approached the promotion of it over a long period of time—I’ve been putting out music for eight years. It is such an important part of it, it’s allowed the most exciting moments of growth in my career and it’s how everyone knows my music at all—it’s only through social media. It’s through word of mouth sometimes, like with your roommates. But, it’s a love-hate relationship and we all have it. We all compare ourselves, but it’s a perfect obstacle to have to wake up in the morning and be like “the numbers don’t matter, they can’t matter.”

TC: Okay, what’s new about this tour? Obviously, you’re headlining versus opening—which you did for Fletcher, right? What’s different about being at the center of it?

ML: I am very excited, I’ve toured a lot of times and I want this to be a very new experience. I’ve never toured an album before, so there are twelve new songs that I haven’t sung to the people who know my music. I feel it will be a very different experience, but also pulling from all the things that have made my shows uniquely mine in the past. I’m really taking people on the journey of this album and I want to bring it to life. I want to make it make sense for people in person. I am most looking forward to getting a totally new meaning from the songs when I hear other people experiencing them. This album has been a question mark of if people have listened to it and if they like it. To see what it means to them so that I fill this empty hole in my heart that I feel when I’m away from everyone. It will be so fun. Are you going to be at the show? What show are you going to be at?”.

I am going to end with another interview from Ones to Watch. In the interview, Maude Latour reflected on the Sugar Water tour. Interviewed some time after her album was released, this is someone who was changing lives and captivating fans. As we read in the opening of the interview, Ones to Watch spoke with Latour at the Regent Theater in L.A. They write how you could “feel the block buzzing with excitement from the line of jittery fans decked out in Sugar Water blue, sparkly makeup, hair tinsel, and merch dedicated to the artist on the sold out marquee - the glittery pop prophet that is Maude Latour”:

“OnesToWatch: I was listening to the last time we chatted, which was a few weeks before the album came out, and I remember you saying it was one of the first times you ever talked about Sugar Water in-depth. You were fascinated by what your listeners were going to make of it. Now that you’ve toured this album, what have you noticed? How are you feeling?

Maude Latour: You know that my live show is the core of what makes this special. I'm surprised at how much the songs make so much more sense in the room. “Sugar Water”, the title track, was meant to be in this room. It's such a weird song, so I was nervous to see if people fucked with it or not and these shows made it all make sense. It’s the existential rave that I wanted it to be. “Bloom” hits so hard, which is one of my favorites on the album. I can't believe how much people understand it and feel it. It’s exactly what it's supposed to be and I feel like I'm relearning the meaning of Sugar Water. It feels like I'm ending a chapter, saying goodbye to these feelings and entering a new part of my life. I'm starting to make new music and now I really live here [Los Angeles], I’ve moved fully and have no plans to go back to New York.

I was going to ask, last night of tour in LA - does it feel like home?

This is the first time I feel like I’m coming home, for sure. I'm singing “taste it all like sugar water” to myself every night and I've learned what it means on a new level, wishing for this tour to never end and making peace with the fact that it is going to end. It’s ending right now. That's exactly what the album's about, trying to be as present as possible and knowing it's going to end but still taking in the full moment. So, I feel like I'm relearning the meaning of the album.

When we last talked, we were saying how it was going to be underrated and I've seen the love for it grow throughout the album being out and the tour.

I'm so glad, I agree. It's taken on a whole new life form. It's been so important to me, in my years of writing music, that I help the listener feel like the main character when they put their headphones on. They're the powerful ones in the story that I'm telling. I never make the lyrics self-deprecating, I want my music to have confidence building effects on people. “Save Me” is the first time that I've ever asked for help in a song. I was nervous to make a song like that, because it’s not what I think of my music being for, but that's what this album is about. This new part of life where you’re mourning things in the past for the first time, the beautiful parts of life and losses in life. It's my first time opening my heart in that way. With “Save Me," I ask the crowd to talk to strangers. It’s been such a powerful moment. That is my core, truest mission: making strangers feel like they can look in each other's eyes and see each other totally. This tour feels aligned with those little missions, like the secret box that I'm having at the merch stand and that moment with the crowd during “Save Me." The point is to feel that every night and it feels like my own little holy space, this belief in people.

What are the biggest lessons the Sugar Water tour and album have taught you?

The feeling of being self-assured and confident…it's growing in me. Everyone has a vision in their heart of their truth, their life, and their plan. You can trust your instincts and you can trust your vision, and no one can make those decisions for you. You know the world inside your head. The people in the audience waited for me to make this album. They have supported me for five, six years at this point…and they're still here. It makes me feel like I’m beginning a new version of myself, a new chapter of my life.

I trust myself. There are new feelings in these rooms. There are moments of total love and explosive joy, and then there's sadness. Every night people scream the lyric, “Why am I still so broken-hearted?” with complex pain. They’re people who are grieving, people who are changing. This is a room for all of these things. I'm mourning my own things right now and this tour has helped me do that, reminding me every night “Open your eyes, this is happening right now. This is gonna end.” That’s why this album exists, to learn to love those losses because they make everything bloom. Every night when “Bloom” hits, I think of people that have inspired me and people who aren’t with me anymore…the past versions of myself. They’re all with me in the room.

I know we want to savor the moment so we don’t have to look too far into the future, but what’s next for Maude Latour?

It's important to me that the next thing I write is scary. When I was writing Sugar Water, I was looking at the past, at all the things I was saying goodbye to. I don’t know what the future holds, it's a blank slate again. I don't know who this older version of me is, at all, and I want to write songs that are honest. I want…no I need to need the songs I write. I want to learn something about myself through the next music and I need it to teach me how I feel. I don't know who I would be without my songs, they've taught me so much. They are questions that I put into the world and then the music comes back and tells me what I need to know for the next chapter. I'm curious what it'll tell me, but I'm so excited”.

I am going to leave things there. That is just an introduction to Maude Latour. I would advise people to do some more reading and listen to all of her stuff. Her latest single, TikTokBoom, was released last month. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next for her. Having first spotlighted her in 2022, I was keen to revisit. A successful and wonderful debut album and a fantastic tour, she is going to be winding down soon before the end of the year. It is a perfect time to discover this artist who is bound for Pop greatness. An original and intensely captivating voice in modern music, make sure you go and check out…