Photo provided by Maude Latour
UCLA Radio’s Rising Artist Spotlight aims to highlight upcoming artists who have demonstrated unique creativity and talent through their music. Through interviews and features, we delve into their journey, influences, and aspirations, giving listeners a glimpse into the future of music.
With a debut album under her belt and an accompanying headlining tour on the horizon, Maude Latour is getting her sugary taste of pop stardom. In the five years since the release of her first EP in 2019, the singer-songwriter has graduated with a philosophy degree from Columbia University and her experimental, queer, summery discography has garnered her a cult following of pop enthusiasts and millions of streams.
UCLA Radio’s Kiara Mack had the opportunity to chat with Latour about unpacking the philosophy behind Sugar Water, moving to LA, and what to expect from her upcoming tour.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes.
Interviewed by Kiara Mack
Kiara: How are you? Are you in the rehearsal process right now, or is this the kind of calm before the tour?
Maude: I have a few seconds more of calm, but it’s about to start. It’s definitely chaotic, but yes, all I can think about is the tour. I’ve just fine tuned the setlist. I freak out about the setlist because I have so many songs, and I wish I could play all my songs, but it would take four hours. I hate to make the choices, but I’ve made some choices. All I’m thinking about is tour right now, for sure.
Kiara: What music are you into right now?
Maude: Oh my gosh, I have to look at my playlist. I am on a 2015 kick, to be honest. I’m missing these nostalgic electronic songs when that was first so new and radical for there to be these sidechains and crazy beat drops and these kind of EMO, hipster ways of singing. It’s just been making me feel super nostalgic. I’ve been listening to a lot of Broods, early Doja, her first EP, Purrr!, so I’m on a nostalgic kick right now.
Kiara: What’s a song you wish you wrote?
Maude: I think about this all the time. There’s so many songs I’m so jealous of, but “Fearless.” I wish I wrote “Fearless.” I feel like it’s really Maude-coded, and I wish I had written that.
Kiara: I definitely see that. Now, you released four EPs before your debut album Sugar Water was released last year. Was there a moment or a song in the process where you knew that your next project was going to be an album rather than another EP?
Maude: I think it started taking album form when the song “Bloom” happened, the closing song. It felt like I could explore new pacing and make something that was a journey up-and-down and up-and-down the whole way. I think that was a turning point for sure. The first song I made for it was “Cosmic Superstar Girl.”
Kiara: That’s my favorite!
Maude: Oh, my God, cool! That was the first song, and I think even then too it was like, huh, maybe it could look like this.
Kiara: And since you brought up “Bloom,” I’m absolutely fascinated by that song. It’s so lyrically and sonically complex, and in that case, did the lyrics come before the melodies?
Maude: The verses started as a poem, kind of, and then, the chorus was just these sounds, this repeated “so lovely, so lovely,” over and over, and we had no idea what was going to happen around it. Then, I think when it expanded, we fit in this poem through it. It happened a little bit separately, but it came together as this symphony of a song.
Kiara: You have a degree in philosophy so you utilized a lot of that knowledge to craft this album. Do you feel like these songs have taken on new meaning for you within just these past few months now that they’ve been out in the world and for others to enjoy?
Maude: Yeah, I’m realizing how much the album was there for me when I was making it freshly out of school, and I was looking for meaning post grad. I was looking for how to cope with a new chapter of my life being behind me, and I was coping with friendships changing, moving, and entering a new era. I think so much of this was me saying goodbye to a certain chapter of my life too. I’m looking back at it like, wow, I got to feel I had a friend in that whole process with me, and Sugar Water was that friend. I’m grateful I got to know her, and she taught me so much that I didn’t know. I’m learning how much of a mutual relationship it was. And yeah, I love her.
Kiara: You’re obviously inspired a lot by philosophy and other music, but are there films, literature, or artwork that you pull inspiration from in your music?
Maude: Me looking around my room. I totally think of myths, fables, Greek gods, ancient statues, and exaggerated poses of human ache, these huge ideals of the human condition and how much all art has this through line of this extreme human thing. I think an album is just another way to make a statue that is frozen, and it’s even cooler because it’s invisible and has no physical medium. It’s just floating. I think of those big ideals, but I’ll take any recommendations that you have for other art or movies.
Kiara: I feel like your music would fit perfectly into “Bottoms.”
Maude: “Too Slow” is meant to be on “Bottoms.” Definitely.
Kiara: In honor of “One More Weekend,” what’s your favorite ’50s movie or Old Hollywood movie, in general?
Maude: Oh my god, I’m gonna fail this test. I guess “The Music Man,” how about that?
Kiara: Your music has been the soundtrack to college for so many of your fans which is quite fitting considering how much you reference college and also New York where you went to college. Is there a particular album besides one of your own that you feel really got you through college or that you just heavily associate with that period in time?
Maude: Totally, I definitely associate Vampire Weekend. They went to Columbia, so that comes to mind. Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer was my freshman year soundtrack, and I do think before COVID, Hot Pink by Doja Cat, that was college to me like Doja Cat’s rise. Hot Pink is so like me walking to class. I love those albums. That’s such a good question. The music you listen to in college, I feel like, is so the soundtrack of life.
Kiara: And you moved to LA last year, right?
Maude: One year ago.
Kiara: Well, first of all, welcome! I moved to LA four months ago, so we’re very much in the same boat here. Have you noticed a difference between how LA and New York influence you musically at all?
Maude: I think I need a little dose of New York to fully be able to write. It’s definitely different. I think it’s changed more so leaving college because I used to just sing about my roommates, and honestly, what I learned in class and what I wish class actually taught me. I was in all these dry kind of philosophy classes, and my music was like the sparkle on what I wished I was reading and taking what I was learning to a more magical place on my own. I was like “F this, old, ancient, system,” and “How can I believe in something else?” and I believe in something beautiful and from the heart and spirit. I think of having these constant sources of social time, living with my college roommates and having the drama of college and breakups and everything. The transition to after that, I had more loneliness or alone time in post-grad and less drama kind of. Do I have to make my life super dramatic to sing about it? I don’t know, but it definitely requires me to dig a little deeper and also work on living a life that is fulfilling in different capacities. I’m feeling like I’m still learning and using my mind. College is a beautiful time, and so is post grad, so different kinds of music.
Kiara: A few months ago, you posted about how you’ve been trying to fit “air conditioning” into a song for a really long time.
Maude: And I did!
Kiara: Are there any words that you’re fascinated by right now that you’d love to incorporate into a song someday?
Maude: Oh my God, my dream question! Well, why don’t I look at my word list? You’re not gonna like this one, and people are not gonna like this one. I feel like everyone’s gonna hate it until I make it cool. Okay, “baby teeth.” I’m trying to say “baby teeth” somewhere. I have some baby teeth drama, whatever. I am finding a lot of nautical references that I keep including ocean navigation stuff, ocean-faring. I also have a couple I keep stumbling upon like “captain,” “co-pilot,” “sailor,” these titles of people exploring on a mission, so I wonder what that means or if it’s like how I feel that I’m searching for things right now. “Compass” has been on my mind. That’s such a funny question. No one’s ever asked me that, but I’m glad. Well, let’s check back in a year.
Kiara: You started talking about the setlist earlier, but what was the process like choosing and ordering the setlist for the tour? The Sugar Water tracklist seems very intentional and really feels like it’s telling a story, so are you sticking to that pretty closely, or are you crafting a new journey for these songs to take live?
Maude: Well, you will just have to come and find out.
Kiara: I do have tickets, so I will be there.
Maude: Yay! There are some changes, but I think the flow is generally the same. There were some songs that I am just too hyped about that need to come at the beginning, and there’s some songs I’m hyped about that need to come at the end, so there’s some swaps, but I do think it’s important to me that we go through the arc of entering the whirlpool correctly.
Kiara: Is there a specific lyric that you’re hoping your fans go all in on singing back to you on tour?
Maude: I am very curious. I want to hear how loud “Samantha, get in the effing car” is gonna be in real life. I remember from past tours, like the first show of tour, just being always shocked that people are singing along. I’m excited to even just hear the voices, because I always am like, “Is anyone listening to this album? Numbers don’t look like anything. I don’t know what’s a number.” I think feeling it with people, it’s going to make me really excited, but I want to hear the bridge of “Cursed Romantics.” I want to hear “Go, go, go!” I want to hear “Can you spit sugar water straight into my mouth?” I want to hear what that is going to be like. I’m like nervous. I’m like bashful, but no, we have to slay. We have to make it awesome. I’m excited to hear “We’re entering the whirlpool.” There’s so many moments that I wonder what people are gonna resonate with the most. I’m excited.
Kiara: I feel like your album was really built to be performed live. I’m so excited.
Maude: I’m honored. Thank you.
Kiara: Is there a concert experience that you’ve been really influenced by?
Maude: When I was in high school in New York, I would go to a lot of shows in small venues where I would wait afterwards and meet the artist, and it felt so walls down. It felt so casual to just go with my friend, and we would just go to as many shows as we possibly could and talk to the artist afterwards. It felt like we were getting this scrapbook of music and filling our lives with music. There’s so many different types of concerts these days, concerts you have to prepare for for months and months, but I love a show you can buy a last minute ticket to and just go and bring a random date or bring a random friend that you barely know. I love how we can just decorate our lives with these beautiful moments, and hopefully, my show is at a medium-sized place where people can make spontaneous decisions and come even if they’re not a huge fan and just see what’s up. So come through UCLA! Come through!
Kiara: You’re playing the Regent here in April. How are you feeling about playing in LA?
Maude: Well, LA will be the last stop on tour, and so it just means it’s going to be the best show of all of them. I’m very excited. I think I’m gonna have a new relationship to it now that I live here. I’m gonna know way more people in the crowd, and it’s gonna feel like “I’m home now! Let’s party! We did the whole tour!” I think it’s gonna really be a celebration.
Kiara: Last fall, you went on tour with Fletcher. You even got to play the Greek. Can you tell me about what you learned opening for Fletcher that you’re hoping to apply to your live shows going forward?
Maude: I think I got to just observe someone else’s relationship to their fans and their music and how much her queer safe space is around the whole country. We would just go to different cities and people would come out of the woodwork. It was so obvious that it was just this community, this get away from some states where queer people are really in danger. It felt so clear that it was a safe space, and it’s making me excited to visit all these fans that I met on that run. Now, I have so many more people that are going to be supporting me in those cities. We just get to make this magical world where time stops for an hour and a half, and it’s really such a sacred space, and now, I get to feel it again. We all get to do it again. It’s gonna be so special.
Kiara: I was just about to ask you about the safe space you were hoping to create on tour, and you read my mind.
Maude: I feel like the Sugar Water album, there’s so many holy references. I think it’s an album that is supposed to be about making sacredness in your life. “You are the pathway. You are a world. You are a hill. You are a bike. You’re a surfboard,” all of these really normal parts of life throughout the album and heightening them to preserve them as precious things. I think it’s so many tender feelings in there. I think the sacred space that we’re going to make is going to heal a part of me that is needing it right now too, so I’m excited.
Kiara: To finish things off here, is there anything on your music-career bucket list that you’re hoping to achieve someday?
Maude: Oh my gosh, you’re opening a manifestation portal into this Zoom right now. Let’s see. What do I need to say? So many of my desires have become just wanting to feel like the most confident version of myself. I think I look back on my older music as proof of my childhood confidence. When I was going through a breakup, it was so important to me that all the songs centered my strength, and I never wanted to make a crushing, small breakup song. I wanted to make, “No, I’m the center of this. What are you doing here?” type of breakup songs. Main character-pop I feel like is my music. Even as I get older and don’t feel as main character most of the time and different parts of life become stressful with decisions, success, or career, I want to just make sure that this feels like the freedom that making art is and the joy and the honor it is, and just for it to feed my soul and keep teaching me more about life. I want to just make sure I’m getting the most out of music, and that I always have this tool to learn more about life and living and people.
Maude Latour will bring her “Sugar Water” tour to the Regent Theater DTLA on April 2nd, 2025.
Check out Maude Latour’s socials and her debut album Sugar Water below!
