Meet Maude Latour

The NewsHouse sat down with up-and-coming singer-songwriter and Bandersnatch performer Maude Latour to ask her some questions about her music, her style and her life. The singer definitely had some pre-show jitters,  but that just made the blonde-haired sparkly-jeans-wearing artist more endearing. Personable, sweet and someone who feels deeply, Maude Latour was a joy to meet and talk to.

How do you balance being a college student and a rising Indie popstar simultaneously?

ML: Oo shoot, great question. I’m trying to currently figure that out. It’s definitely gotten harder in the past few months, so, I don’t know, gosh, same as everyone. So many people work and do school at the same time. I’m just trying to be happy, you know?

I’m realizing that I would rather be happy, so I’m just constantly checking in with myself, prioritizing the fact that I’m supposed to be enjoying this and that it should always be that, and stepping back. Keeping ourselves healthy and just keeping that my priority always.

A lot of your Instagram, social media, and song covers feature loud prints and bright colors. What role do aesthetics and fashion play in who you are as an artist?

ML: I’m also figuring that out. I have always just worn random stuff, bright colors. Oh gosh, when I was in middle school I wore different colored pants of the rainbow every day. It’s never really had a method, but I’m starting to ask myself those questions of ‘What do I look like in the physical material world?’ because I feel like I haven’t really made all those decisions. But I think they just stream out of a person naturally. I like just being extra all the time and as much as possible. I threw a party a week ago -Covid safe, everyone got tested- and the theme was ‘wear that thing in your closet that you’ve been scared to wear.’ I’m trying to just wear everything in my closet, really dig out those old things and be brave and do it.

What do you hope that fans get out of your music?

ML: I think it’s kept changing with every project. At first, I was trying to have people find the joy in living, and pushing away small talk and asking themselves deeper questions and wearing bright colors and all of those things.

I think my last EP was supposed to be a cure to heartbreak and finding your own power and enjoying things even when they end and the fact that nothing lasts forever and holding onto that transcendental part of life. And I think my future projects are kind of exploring the world in my head, figuring out what it means to be a person and close your eyes and be in this human freaking body living on this Earth and all of those things that come with that.

You’ve lived in various cities throughout your life around the world, but you’re also a New York City native, so my question for you is, what about the city holds a special place in your heart, and does anything about the city add to you and who you are as a person or who you are as an artist?

ML: Lovely question. I think New York is so one of the main reasons I am doing what I’m doing. I got to be independent at a young age and put on my headphones and walk around the city and feel it unfold in front of me and build this world in my head, and have these moments where I got to feel so small and so connected to something larger. New York is such a place I turn to feel that, and it’s just such a romantic, beautiful, feels-like-you’re-part-of-something city. That home feeling is something I try to channel whenever I’m writing.

Obviously, with COVID-19 still being prevalent, what does it feel like to have the chance to perform in front of people again?

ML: Well, this is my second show since COVID. I mean, I just can’t wait for the feeling to be in front of people. It’s so crazy to play these songs. So many of my songs came out during the pandemic. I feel like I met so many new fans and now I get to finally see them.

And I feel like playing the music live is the final form of these songs, and I kind of forgot about that. They’ve only existed in my room and my headphones and on my computer in the digital sphere as music, and now this is where they actualize and become their final state, their true state. They’re supposed to be played in a room, and they’re supposed to be sung with other people, and I am supposed to sing them to your face! So I’m excited to get closure, to give a home to these floating songs in the world, because they deserve to be screamed and danced to.

Oh God I’m so excited. I want it to be a really good show!