Get ready to immerse yourself and interpret the art that is Sugar Water, members of the MCU (Maude Cinematic Universe).
Whether you’re tuning into her anthemic numbers with their evocative lyrics spinning her introspective ballads with their angelic melodies, you’re getting to know the true Maude Latour. The singer-songwriter (and Columbia graduate) has a keen sense of self that she graciously shares with friends, family, and fans around the world through songs that stick in your heart as much as they do your head. She challenges mainstream pop, creates original art, and is bright and shiny and brave and honest time and time again. Her debut album, Sugar Water, is out Friday, and it encapsulates that through a rich, dreamy, predominantly upbeat journey that has to be heard as soon as the clock strikes midnight.
Tonight is the secret, sold-out, invite-only album release show in NYC for Maude Latour. The pop star with a homegrown style and work ethic has succeeded and evolved in the Big Apple – partially because of it, and partially through it. (She explained such to us in the below conversation.)
First and foremost we have to talk about Sugar Water, which is right around the corner. How does that feel? What’s going through your head? Are you as excited as I am? [Laughs]
[Laughs] I definitely am as excited as you are! Have you heard of the project yet?
I have only heard the singles so far. I’m kind of holding out, although that’s not the right thing to do as a journalist, but I’ve been a fan for so long. It just feels like I need to be part of the fan community and be one of them for once.
Stop – you’re so nice! I love that; I’m glad. I am so excited, to be honest, to the point where I’ve not been able to sleep for days because I keep just thinking about it. I’m literally so excited and I feel the same way that you just kind of described it like, I just can’t imagine actually giving this full album to the fans because it feels so much like a friend group and a squad and a community with me and them. I just love talking about these songs and I just love talking to these people who have the same taste in music as me and who understand my soul and who care about me and my music. I love hearing what they think of it, because then the songs, finally, take on just a new life when. The people who are in the Maude Cinematic Universe, the fans, they live like this, too, and so I just can’t wait to hear what people think. I don’t know what they expect either, and I am so curious just to find out! That’s all I can think about [Laughs].
With the reception of everything that’ has come out single-wise leading up to this album, there’s been so much warmth and love for the music. As a fan, my favorite single that has come out, not even from you, but just from music from 2024 as a whole thus far, is “Cursed Romantics.”
Let’s go!
It’s such a good single; I mean, all of the singles are good and all of your singles in general have always been thought out in terms of what it leads up to on a larger projects scale. “Cursed Romantics” seems to have set such a great stage for Sugar Water that it makes me, like you said, be part of this friend group, be part of this squad, and be able to chat about it and further enjoy it with everyone else.
Totally!
That being said, how do you go about picking what songs to come out ahead of time?
Great question! This is the first time that I’ve put out like real singles, because Sugar Water is the first full body of work of mine to come out in a real way. Honestly, all of the songs could have been a single, the first single. I feel like any first three songs could have been the choice and it would’ve shown a totally different path of the album, too, ’cause I think the album is kind of one of everything that I love.
I don’t think there was just one right way to do choose a lead single, but when I look back at the singles, I think it starts off following the storyline of the album a little bit. At first, with the first single, it’s like this, like, “Hey, I’m gonna live forever!” It’s a song that has this youthful kind of innocence. Then on “Cursed Romantics,” you kind of get a taste of the forbidden fruit; you want something and love something. Then there is this come down, which is this feeling of being lost that comes with love. The album kind of follows that order of like, the beginning of having something, and the journey it takes you on. The question of the album is like, “Wait, what happens when you love something? What happens if and when you lose it? Is love worth the loss? Can you still feel love after you’ve lost?” It’s kind of in that order, like the water that appears on the “Cursed” cover, and I think it’s like, the come down, this kind of abstract blurriness of getting deeper into the Sugar Water world.
I think the singles are kind of different than the album as a whole; they don’t tell the whole story, I think people are gonna be surprised when they hear the whole thing, because the singles are just like a tiny little window into the full journey.
I love the artwork that you mentioned, and I love that you brought it up because they are obviously very colorful, exuberant, and aesthetically pleasing – very Pinterest board of you. The energy the visual art gives off creates a through-line, and you do have such a hands-on, DIY growth to your career, so I’m curious: how important to you is that visual aspect of the work you’re releasing and creating?
Oh my gosh, I’m glad you said that, because sometimes I feel like I can’t decide if I’m a visual person or not! In the music world and when I’m making songs, it feels like it is a sort of invisible form of art. Music is just weightless. I love it, and making music is when I totally feel completely sure and certain and I can follow my heart – so truly. I think that I definitely can sometimes overthink it’s visual vibe, especially as I’ve like gone from making stuff in my dorm room with my friends to it being just like this – this professional chaos of me that I never thought about as an aesthetic growing up. I was always just like a funky weirdo doing art, marching to the beat of my own drum, and I think that I’ve noticed that as I’ve gone from that to making a real album.
I’ve totally had moments of like, “Oh my God, I’m thinking too much. I don’t know what I like,” but I’m remembering what I like as this album is about to come out. Everything looks and makes sense because it’s coming from my heart. My heart and this world is colorful and cinematic, but it’s fun and full and human. Those words you were just saying – I’m determined to keep growing in the visual world that this person is, that I am, and that this music grows into being. I’m excited to keep growing with it. I’m making some cool videos and stuff right now that I hope will help tell the stories, too!
You know, Maude, the last time that we here at The Aquarian saw you in concert was here in New York, of course, and it was back in the fall on Friday the 13th, which is pretty cool.
Oh my God.
What a date to have a performance in New York, huh? [Laughs] New York is the coolest city, as you know, in and of itself. What was that show like? Was anything spooky or mythical? Or just typical NYC cool?
Oh my gosh, such a good question. That show was during the Twin Flame era, which felt a little different than the other EPs, too, because it was just really emotional…. Well, they’re all emotional, but the release was like a dark romance.
The emotions felt a bit deeper?
Yeah! That was a really fun show for that. I remember it and it sticks out to me because my grandmother was coming to see me, and she had never seen me perform to a big crowd. Then I surprised her by putting a spotlight on her! I said hi to her and made the crowd say hi, and that is now one of my happiest memories ever. That’s how I think of that show, for sure.
Webster Hall, too, was amazing. It is such an iconic venue. I mean, every New York show just hits so differently because these are the venues that I went to in high school that changed my way of life. I saw the world just by seeing the music come through New York. Every benchmark of mine in New York is special, from Baby’s All Right to Irving Plaza. All of these places are special to me, and the first shows I played here were at the Bitter End and Rockwood Music Hall, too, so every New York venue just feels like I’m experiencing life and growing through it, and it’s an honor every single time.
MAUDE LATOUR’S NEW LP IS OUT THIS FRIDAY, 8/16, WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC!
