An Interview with Maude Latour

This interview has been edited for clarity. Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): I think that it’s really cool how you’re able to do all that you do and you’re still in college. How do you balance being a college student and also wanting to do music full time, while being an independent artist?

Maude Latour (ML): My music career has been in the background of my entire college experience. I made a promise to myself that I would always choose music between the two in choosing how to spend my time, and just be committed to that first and foremost. There’s so many awesome parts of it. I feel like I’m majoring in my project. I’m taking classes to nurture my curiosity, and stay inspired by linguistics and philosophy and romantic poetry and screenwriting and everything very creative. For me it really works but it has been getting harder lately. I actually need it to be summer right now.

TMM: You mentioned philosophy, and I’ve noticed that you post a lot about philosophy on your Instagram story. So I’m wondering, how does that connect to your songwriting?

ML: It’s changed how I argue and how I think about other people’s beliefs. I do really go in and out of loving it and hating it. There’s a lot of discussion on the self and identity, and being an individual or not being an individual, or like nothingness and everythingness, how we know things and how we can prove that we know things. And it’s all quenching the same desire to me, just like being ravenously curious and thinking about love in art and aesthetics. It’s all part of exploring and that’s what I use music for as well. I really love how they complement each other. TMM: That’s awesome. I feel like that goes along with the fact that people love how honest and genuine your music is. What is your creative process like and how are you able to create such genuine art that people resonate with?

ML: Totally. I mean, I have a really deep promise to myself that I will only write songs that have to come out. I will only make songs when it’s burning up inside of me and it needs to exist, and that’s the role songwriting plays in my life. It’s like a journal. It’s like a check in. It’s never for the sake of making a song, it’s always because I need it to go through something. I only want to make songs that I rely on, and use to capture my life. Because those are my rules for it, I think it ends up being that for other people as well.

TMM: I have heard you say on a livestream that you’re waiting to put out the music that you really want to be making and that it’s going to be crazy. What is that going to be like?

ML: Oh gosh, totally. So it’s a funny dilemma that comes with that, in that I have these predictions for how a future body of work will sound and I’m realizing that I don’t want to box myself into that. I haven’t had the creative luxury yet fully to say “Oh, there’s enough people listening now, let me make a six minute song.” One of my goals is to earn an audience that will listen to every single syllable and analyze every moment of it. That’s where I see this certain project that I dream about every single night.

TMM: I’m really excited to hear it. So, going back to career-wise questions, do you see yourself signing with a label eventually?

ML: I do want to eventually. My goal is to do this, I don’t need to do it alone. The only purpose of signing would be to finally build out the world that I see in my head. Everything has been with my babysitting money so far. I think my fans deserve the best version of what I see all of this as. It really inspires me. I’m so glad I got these years of being independent because now I just know who I am and what I want to build and who my fans are. I feel so in charge of my vision and I would only use the label to execute the vision.

TMM: I always notice the way you interact with your fans and it’s incredible, like with your Instagram therapy sessions, Zoom parties and live streams. What does all of that mean to you?

ML: I agree, it’s such a unique thing about this project, and I feel like it’s the most me part of all of it. When I’m making music, I’m making something that is the most my taste in the world. Then, to find other people than that like it, just our hearts just must be similarly shaped. It’s a direct antidote to being lonely. When people are like, “Holy shit, I just heard your music. And this is exactly my taste in music. I can’t believe I found it!” I’m like “Oh my God same bro!” It’s so crazy.

TMM: As you’re growing and gaining popularity, do you think that you’ll continue to interact with your fans the way that you do now?

ML: Yeah I hope that will always stay. It’s funny, like even in the past year, I used to respond to every single DM and every single comment, and that’s been my mentality for four years, and that’s how I feel like it’s grown. But I literally can’t anymore. But there’s new ways to evolve. I’m sure I’ll see a lot more people in real life and meet people at shows. I think the music will always feel like just you and me talking. I hope I only get to meet people more and and feel even closer to them. TMM: In “Furniture” you say you don’t want to be famous. Do you still feel like that? What are your thoughts on fame and recognition?

ML: Oh gosh it’s so hard. I’ve had more and more fear and confusion about it. I think in this new era of digital everything, maybe fame doesn’t need to mean the same thing it did. I think as long as I’m focusing on the music first and foremost, that’s it, that’s all that matters. I look up to people who feel like that. Lorde for example, she’s just about the music. If the music is good nothing else matters. I haven’t felt the effects of it yet, like I don’t think I’m super famous. I haven’t felt the perks of [fame] yet because I’ve been in my room. Maybe I’ll enjoy some of that one day. But it feels simply scary. I think just focusing on the music is just going to be my strategy. I honestly don’t know. Let’s check back in on this question in a year because I have no idea.

• Emily Greenberg (Communications)