Photo Credit: Erica Hernandez

As a music lover, one of my favorite ways of finding new music is through Instagram stories. When Spotify released the option to share music, I started to routinely post songs that I’m listening to and making note of everyone else’s favorite tunes as well. This feature is how NYC based singer, Maude Latour, started gaining traction and streams for her songs. In fact, her single “Superfruit” gained 250,000 streams within days of release. 

The 19-year-old singer-songwriter was featured as one of Pigeons & Planes July Best New Artist. She’d released a project back in 2018 called High School High and three singles this year with a fourth one coming out today titled “Ride My Bike.” Her music has earned praise from Billboard, The Line of Best Fit, The 405, Ones to Watch, and more. With a cosmic pop sound, she’s an irresistible and fresh addition to the genre and industry.

As the daughter of two journalists, Latour has traveled around the globe, living in places such as London, Stockholm, and Hong Kong, and picked up languages like Dutch and Mandarin. Right now, Latour is attending Columbia University in New York where she’s studying philosophy and political science, both topics that she wants to implement in her lyrics and music. 

Her biggest goal? To be the first president to perform at her own inauguration.

We chatted with Latour about her fun, catchy pop music along with her views on politics and what the future holds for her.

Photo Credit: Mikayla Kitsanpolis

Your single “Ride My Bike” talks about a moment in your life when you felt a lot of stress and anxiety and went to ride your bike to alleviate some of that pain. What inspired you to put that into a song?

I could just feel exactly how the song was supposed to go. I could hear in the back of my mind what it was supposed to sound like, and one day I was fooling around with a vocoder with the producer of this song, Mike Adubado, and I immediately recognized that that’s what this song was supposed to be about. The journey of a bike ride that I knew so well seemed to be the perfect way to tell a larger story of finding freedom in odd places. I knew it was going to come out of the ether at some point, I was just waiting to find out when. 

Do you think this song will help others who also suffer from anxiety to seek out activities that may be as simple as riding their bike?

Maybe in the act of listening to the song, someone can muster up the energy to work out? I hope it at least gives you a nostalgic, magical feeling, especially once you hit the spoken word section. It’s a spiritual song for me. 

How did you come up with the music video concept?

The director of the video, Tess Lafia, myself, and my manager each separately came up with this idea on our own… I knew it had to be this. I wanted the intimacy of the slow motion and the entire journey into explosion to be clear. It’s a semi-imaginative, dream-like world combined with the actual sweat of me riding a bike. I had such a work out filming the video, and after it was over I felt a new level of connection with the song; it had manifested in a physical way in my body. 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_nBsFkUDtU[/embedyt]

Manhattan is often referenced in your lyrics. You’ve also lived in other cities, such as London, Stockholm, and Hong Kong. Will you be writing songs with references to those places and experiences as well?

I’ve always thought about going back to Hong Kong to write a project, exploring those intense emotions I had there during that stage of my life. Now with the wild protests and violence going on in Hong Kong, that project would seem to take on a whole new meaning in the face of government, control and rebellion. Perhaps one day. For now I’m praying for the safety of Hong Kong residents. 

Your songs often start off with a super chill melody before the beat drops along with the chorus. Is that intentional and the kind of sound you are going for?

Definitely. For me, that was the shift of where the runner’s high kicks in, and you explode into a feeling of true ecstasy. I love how that happens. 

How would you describe your sound evolving with each single you’re putting out?

I think each song is bringing you deeper into this world I’m building: a world of revolutions and freedom and honesty within your own head, where you tell your crush how you feel and you meditate every day and live in an existential world that slowly builds into true gratitude for the privilege of being alive. The music is a window into the philosophy I am building with my life. I’m super proud of what I’ve put out there in the world. With this song, I think it truly all starts to come together to create me.

Photo Credit: Mikayla Kitsanpolis

As a political science student with aspirations to be involved in politics in the future, how does the current state of the country make you feel?

Yeah, there aren’t really words to fully sum that up. We’ve deviated and disappointed the American ideals we’ve always held close. We are an embarrassment to the world right now and we are infringing on the sanctity of being human in the most fundamental way. I am focusing all my energy on the 2020 election and that should be everyone’s priority: staying informed, picking a strong candidate, and not to be distracted by the current president’s antics. 

Where does music fit into your goals for the future?

I hope to explore my musical depths and create bodies of work that continue to reflect a truer side of myself each time, no matter how difficult they are to write. I can’t wait to grow as a human and artist through all of this, writing my way through the world. 

Interview by Naureen Nashid