An Interview with Maude Latour
AN INTERVIEW WITH MAUDE LATOUR ON CREATIVITY, COLLEGE, AND NEW YORK CITY.
all images sourced from @maudelstatus ‘s Instagram.
MAUDE LATOUR IS CREATING HER OWN UNIVERSE AND TAKING US ALONG WITH HER.
Listen to any of the songs off Starsick and you’ll see exactly what I mean. The twenty-year old songstress is unafraid to step outside the realm of carefully constructed pop songs and manufactured feelings. Latour rejects small talk and encourages those around her to talk openly about the things that matter to them. She leads by example. Her lyrics are fueled by her love for philosophy, political science, strong emotions, and New York City. Listening to Latour’s music feels like making a promise to be the most authentic version of yourself. And in a world filled with $9 matcha lattes and instagram models, authenticity is just what we need.
Not one for small talk, Maude and I jumped right in.
OKAY, FIRST OF ALL, THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS. YOU’VE BEEN FEATURED ON BILLBOARD AND ONES TO WATCH, AND IT IS SO NICE OF YOU TO LET AN 18-YEAR-OLD HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR INTERVIEW YOU.
Maude: Hell Yeah! Next generation!
WHAT WERE YOU DOING YOUR SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL?
Maude: Oh my god, great first question. I was performing around New York, and I decided to get my first song produced for my senior year final project. That was “Shoot and Run.” I presented it in front of my school and then I uploaded it to Spotify.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GET YOUR SONGS RECORDED AS A HIGH SCHOOLER? HOW DID YOU EVEN GO ABOUT DOING THAT?
Maude: I found producers through my acapella group’s connections. I had no idea what I was walking into, but I had been writing songs for a while. When I wrote “Shoot and Run,” I was like, “This one is different. This is the one that I’m finally going to produce.” I had been wanting to produce one for a while, and the producers were so excited and made it really cool.
DID ALL OF THIS HAPPEN WHILE YOU WERE APPLYING TO COLLEGE?
Maude: Oh my gosh, no! I did all of this after the December 31st college deadline.
SO NOW THAT YOU’RE IN COLLEGE, WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING A STUDENT, A SINGER, AND A SONGWRITER?
Maude: Great question. I’ve been in the library all day, I have only been doing music stuff, and now I have to do SO much homework. That’s the immediate answer, but it’s honestly really fun because everyone around here is so creative. There’s people who want to be filmmakers and people who want to be creative directors, and it feels like such a team effort. I get to make videos with my friends and they take all my cover art and do graphic design and promotion, so that’s really cool. I’m in a hub of “anything’s possible” because I’m surrounded by young people. My other artist friends who aren’t in school don’t see young people the same amount that I do, and that is what I write all my music about. I can’t really imagine being a full time artist and having nothing outside of that. I have to write about my real life. But also, I’ve decided to keep a piano in my dorm. Last year I had a double, but I had to get a single so I could play music 24/7. My room is covered in post-it notes with lyrics everywhere. I found what I need.
WHAT’S A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE LOOK LIKE WHEN YOU’RE MAKING MUSIC?
Maude: It’s very contingent on my emotions, mood swings, breakdowns, breakups, and good highs, like everytime I come back from a night out. Everytime I feel inspiration, I always record it. I only really like music that comes out naturally. I hate writing sessions where it's like “Okay, let’s write a song.” I only want to write songs that aren’t forced, and that come out without me even thinking about it. I have a collection of hours and hours of stream of consciousness stuff, and then on a day that I’m working by myself, I’ll go through everything and sort out the pieces and bring them together.
HAVE YOUR STUDIES INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC?
Maude: So much. I think it’s really important if you want to have a platform and have a voice that you research those opinions. I want to make sure that my voice is actually what I want to share with the world, and I need to educate myself right now. The things that we end up singing about or talking about are so intimate and personal. Music can literally change how you think about something, so I want my songs to actually bring good things. I am a philosophy major. My problem with philosophy is that it’s written in the most boring, inacceptable way, so my goal is to have the music have the same meaning as philosophy, but to translate it into a language everyone can understand. With music, you understand the meaning immediately. Music is one part of my life, and I think it’s the vehicle in which all of my passion go through, but I am so interested in government and morality and how to be a good person and what life is for.
YOUR STARSICK EP HAS BEEN OUT IN THE UNIVERSE FOR 3-4 MONTHS NOW, WHAT’S THE OVERALL RESPONSE THAT YOU’VE GOTTEN FROM IT?
Maude: Sometimes it’s truly crazy. I look at that EP and I really do love it so much. It really lines up with what I wanted my music to feel and sound and look and touch like. It is exactly what I wanted it to be, so when anyone says “Oh my gosh, it speaks to me so much,” I cannot even believe it has transferred over and they get it too. It totally affirms the fact that we all feel the same emotions. If I feel this lowest low and I turn to writing these songs in these moments, and then that exact feeling can be in someone else's head and they can feel the exact same way about them—that is very fun. And so many people believe in this revolution thing that I’m talking about. People get a little into it. It makes me have faith in life about what the world is going to turn into.
WHAT IS THE REVOLUTION?
Maude: I think it is hitting humanity over politics and realizing the degree to which everyone is so human and so the same. When you’re in a fight with someone or if you have a crush on someone or anything you feel that correlates to the outside world, you should be able to be that open and have confrontation and tell your crush you like them. We should be in this constant dialogue that is no more small talk and only truly what we mean. Every self consciousness you have is outside of the world. You can truly be as wild and crazy and different and have the truest intention to being your loudest self. Revolution from the inside out. I think it’s a growing concept, and I want to figure out exactly what it means, but it has to do with trying to actually live in the utopia that we can, and really believing the best in people.
I’VE NOTICED THROUGH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA THAT YOU ENCOURAGE YOUR FANS TO BE VULNERABLE AND AUTHENTIC BY SHARING THEIR SECRETS WITH YOU VIA AN INSTAGRAM “SPILL SESSION.” WHAT’S THAT LIKE?
Maude: That part is so fun. I’ll do a “spill session” when I feel like I have a crazy thing going on, and then I see everyone else’s [secrets] and realize it's so okay to have these huge problems because they do pass. Every person lives in their own world with a million problems. All of the things that we think are our deepest darkest secrets are the most human, normal, natural things ever and everything is okay.
THAT CONSTANT COLLABORATION AND CONNECTION TIES RIGHT BACK INTO YOUR MUSIC. IN TERMS OF BEING IN NEW YORK AND BEING A MUSICIAN, WHAT'S THE OVERALL ENVIRONMENT LIKE?
Maude: My New York crowd, like the people who come to my shows here, they know every word. It’s really just my home base for everything. It’s in the background of every single song. Some people have challenged me to try to write songs that are not “New York”, and I’m sure in other phases of my life I will, but it is the backdrop for everything. Having so much independence and these crazy life experiences so young, I just had so much time to think about who I was and what I wanted and break all these rules and have these rebellious phases and these crazy emotions and just have something to sing about all the time.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE SPOTS IN THE CITY?
Maude: A lot is written about Central Park and the Great Lawn. The Great Lawn is where everyone in High School goes after school in the Spring and in the Summer. I have had so many life experiences there, of just feeling this freedom and of being in High School and feeling on top of the world. So Central Park for sure. Columbia is in New York, and that’s been really fun—to have New York through a new lense. I love the campus. And playgrounds, like the one in Battery Park. And by my house, 82nd and East End over the FDR highway. I would just stand there looking over the skyline, just being like, “Oh my god I’m so young. The world is my life.” Yeah, those are some highlight and inspiration places for me.
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE NYC BASED MUSICIANS?
Maude: I just made a vlog about this and I forgot to post it. [The vlog has since been posted and you can find it here.] There are some cool people here: Samia, Chloe Lilac, Leyhere are some cool people here: Samia, Chloe Lilac, Leyla Blue, Raffaella, Caroline Polacheck is kind of New York, so she can count, Regina Spector, The Strokes, and Princess Nokia.
ARE THERE ANY NEW YORKERS YOU’D LIKE TO COLLABORATE WITH?
Maude: I am very much trying to collaborate with The Strokes in my life for sure. That’s my number one career goal. I will speak it into existence by saying it to you.
I’M SEEING SOME TEASERS FOR NEW MUSIC ON YOUR INSTAGRAM, CAN WE EXPECT ANY NEW MUSIC SOON?
Maude: Yes. I would say spring. And it's gonna be fire. I’m very excited.
WHAT DID I MISS? WHAT’S ONE QUESTION YOU WISH PEOPLE WOULD ASK YOU MORE?
Maude: Hmm...I want you to ask me if people get mad after I write songs about them.
THATS A GOOD ONE! DO PEOPLE GET MAD AFTER YOU WRITE SONGS ABOUT THEM?
Maude: For real. That is actually such a huge part of my life. My next song directly calls out some people, one girl by name, and it is so towards my ex boyfriend. It is so anti-him. Everytime that breakup shit got rough, I would literally blast this song. It’s just been that for me. To make it a tangible thing, it’s like I get ownership over my own life and my own story. It becomes a finite file in time and I get to have my own closure. I get to toss off all of that pain. That makes me so invincible. That is my favorite part of doing all this shit. All of my pain helps to push me further.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You can find Maude Latour’s music on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Go check it out!
