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Pulling up to the Regent Theater in Downtown LA on a chilly Wednesday in April, you could already feel the block buzzing with excitement from the line of jittery fans decked out in Sugar Water blue, sparkly makeup, hair tinsel, and merch dedicated to the artist on the sold out marquee - the glittery pop prophet that is Maude Latour. There’s a unique feeling in the air that just feels special. When Latour released her debut album Sugar Water in August of last year, she could not have predicted the way its reception would forge a path for herself, one where all of the chaos finally makes sense. The good, the bad, the real, and the imaginary all converge in the universe Maude Latour has built for her fans, and is now allowing herself to live in too.

As a follow-up to our Chef’s Choice episode where we deep dive into her discography, we caught up with this rising popstar just hours before she hit the stage for the last show of the tour to chat about how Sugar Water has evolved from its release, the experience of performing these songs across the country, and what’s next for Maude Latour. 

OnesToWatch: I was listening to the last time we chatted, which was a few weeks before the album came out, and I remember you saying it was one of the first times you ever talked about Sugar Water in-depth. You were fascinated by what your listeners were going to make of it. Now that you’ve toured this album, what have you noticed? How are you feeling? 

Maude Latour: You know that my live show is the core of what makes this special. I'm surprised at how much the songs make so much more sense in the room. “Sugar Water”, the title track, was meant to be in this room. It's such a weird song, so I was nervous to see if people fucked with it or not and these shows made it all make sense. It’s the existential rave that I wanted it to be. “Bloom” hits so hard, which is one of my favorites on the album. I can't believe how much people understand it and feel it. It’s exactly what it's supposed to be and I feel like I'm relearning the meaning of Sugar Water. It feels like I'm ending a chapter, saying goodbye to these feelings and entering a new part of my life. I'm starting to make new music and now I really live here [Los Angeles], I’ve moved fully and have no plans to go back to New York.

Photo: Ariel Goldberg Morris

I was going to ask, last night of tour in LA - does it feel like home? 

This is the first time I feel like I’m coming home, for sure. I'm singing “taste it all like sugar water” to myself every night and I've learned what it means on a new level, wishing for this tour to never end and making peace with the fact that it is going to end. It’s ending right now. That's exactly what the album's about, trying to be as present as possible and knowing it's going to end but still taking in the full moment. So, I feel like I'm relearning the meaning of the album. 

Wow, that's so beautiful. Back in August, we talked about how meticulous you were with the tracklist, so the fact that you start the show with album opener “Officially Mine," is it affirming? Does it feel like you chose right? 

That's so funny! It totally does. It feels like the intro to the world. The setlist does mostly follow the album order, it feels like the perfect journey.  

I know that was such a hard decision for you. 

It was between that and “Summer of Love” right? 

Yes, which I saw is the second on the setlist!

We’re gonna wipe your memory before the show so you can go in without knowing [laughs].

I know, I'm in between studying and also wanting to go in blind, but I'll just forget the second the show starts [laughs]. I would also love to hear about how you decided which songs not from Sugar Water to put on the setlist. I was so excited to see that “001” is on there and personally I'm begging you to never take it off.

Oh my god, I'm so glad. Once I played a college show and I didn't play “001” and then everyone was like, “That's our favorite song.” And I promised from that day forward to never skip it. I'm curious how you think it's going to hit tonight. It definitely feels like part of ML1 to me. When I was making that song I was wondering, maybe this is the first album? So in some ways it is to honor that whole chapter. I think that song came out before the world was ready. In my deep, dark dreams one day I might re-release it. I think it makes more sense with the Sugar Water rave world.

When I saw the ones you chose to keep on I was excited but, your discography is so expansive. There are so many deep cuts. It’s crazy how many hard decisions you must’ve had to make, even though this is technically your first album. 

Totally. I think I chose ones that balance it well, that make you want more Sugar Water. They feel really different from Sugar Water, but nostalgic and sentimental. I'm playing “Superfruit” for the first time in a long time. It grounds it all, it’s everything that is ML1. These are just the core songs, but there are so many core songs not on there. Like, “Ride My Bike”...

I was so sad to think of the ones you left out, why can’t you just do a five hour show? [Both laugh] Well, we have to talk about “Miss America”. How has it been performing this unreleased? I was on the Instagram livestream when you played it for the first time. 

When I was going crazy about it? Yeah, that song has been so fun to do live. It's so fun to share unreleased music. It's such a different reaction from the crowd, people are so attentive and locked in. 

I feel like there are some people that know it already, though, right? 

[Nods] Isn't that wild? There are people in the front row who know every single word. It's exactly what the song was about. I wrote it right after the last tour with Fletcher. I had a boo with me on the road, so I was falling in love all over the country. The song is inspired by being in those rooms with Fletcher's fans, queer people in every single city, making a safe space for every show. It’s about believing in everyone's right to defend themselves, to protect ourselves and each other. It’s about touring in the US and having the mixed feelings of the country and seeing so many sides of it, then meeting these people who are so beautiful in every room and saying, “This is the thing that we protect.” These people, these rooms…each other. The human part of this country. This song is the closest source to bottling up what it all means. I'm excited to put it out in the world. 

I’m so excited to feel all of that tonight. You said it all but, it's so relevant and beautiful how it means so many different things at once. 

Thank you, I'm realizing that my songs are always about multiple things at the same time.

Photo: Ariel Goldberg Morris

What I'm also excited to experience tonight is when you go into the crowd during “Save Me," tell me about that experience and why this song. 

Oh my God, I'm so glad that that song has gotten its moment! 

When we last talked, we were saying how it was going to be underrated and I've seen the love for it grow throughout the album being out and the tour. 

I'm so glad, I agree. It's taken on a whole new life form. It's been so important to me, in my years of writing music, that I help the listener feel like the main character when they put their headphones on. They're the powerful ones in the story that I'm telling. I never make the lyrics self-deprecating, I want my music to have confidence building effects on people. “Save Me” is the first time that I've ever asked for help in a song. I was nervous to make a song like that, because it’s not what I think of my music being for, but that's what this album is about. This new part of life where you’re mourning things in the past for the first time, the beautiful parts of life and losses in life. It's my first time opening my heart in that way. With “Save Me," I ask the crowd to talk to strangers. It’s been such a powerful moment. That is my core, truest mission: making strangers feel like they can look in each other's eyes and see each other totally. This tour feels aligned with those little missions, like the secret box that I'm having at the merch stand and that moment with the crowd during “Save Me." The point is to feel that every night and it feels like my own little holy space, this belief in people.

The fashion on this tour is so good, we need to talk about it. It’s so bold and cohesive, but daring. Tell me about planning these outfits. 

Hell yeah. I wanted to feel comfortable and strong. I wanted to feel Sporty Spice. The boots, the big boots…

Oh my God, the boots. 

Those boots are part of that “001," Sugar Water dream rave we just talked about. I feel like I'm finally cracking the pillars of my universe. I've been waiting to find the right way to embody it and it's really starting to look like my little world.

It’s so refined. You can see the planning and thoughtfulness that went into the outfits.

Thank you! Now that I know how to look like myself, I can't wait to just feel more confident about it and keep trying things and go deeper with the looks. 

Photo: Ariel Goldberg Morris

Tell us about some special fan moments during this tour. 

An unforgettable moment is the story of a proposal during “Miss America” in Philly. They found the song on Instagram live and they resonated with it so much that they screen recorded it and knew all the words. One of the partners asked me to coordinate the moment, so we pretended to randomly choose them and they came on stage. They literally got engaged on stage, it was so beautiful. It was my first time being involved in a moment like that. 

And with an unreleased song.

With that song in particular, in this moment…the fact that this song can stand for love today, that's what it is for. It was so powerful. Another fun moment is when I see someone dressed like a cheerleader in the front row, I pull them on stage with me during “Too Slow." I've seen these fans fully take the moment and give it their everything. That's the spontaneity I love. No rules, strangers, it just makes it so fun. 

What are the biggest lessons the Sugar Water tour and album have taught you? 

The feeling of being self-assured and confident…it's growing in me. Everyone has a vision in their heart of their truth, their life, and their plan. You can trust your instincts and you can trust your vision, and no one can make those decisions for you. You know the world inside your head. The people in the audience waited for me to make this album. They have supported me for five, six years at this point…and they're still here. It makes me feel like I’m beginning a new version of myself, a new chapter of my life. 

I trust myself. There are new feelings in these rooms. There are moments of total love and explosive joy, and then there's sadness. Every night people scream the lyric, “Why am I still so broken-hearted?” with complex pain. They’re people who are grieving, people who are changing. This is a room for all of these things. I'm mourning my own things right now and this tour has helped me do that, reminding me every night “Open your eyes, this is happening right now. This is gonna end.” That’s why this album exists, to learn to love those losses because they make everything bloom. Every night when “Bloom” hits, I think of people that have inspired me and people who aren’t with me anymore…the past versions of myself. They’re all with me in the room.

Photo: Ariel Goldberg Morris

Like you just said, this is the beginning. Which is so crazy when you think about all of the work that's gone into getting to this point. But it's actually just the starting point. That is so beautiful. I'm happy that this conversation will even be a tiny part of it.  

And it always will be. 

I know we want to savor the moment so we don’t have to look too far into the future, but what’s next for Maude Latour?

It's important to me that the next thing I write is scary. When I was writing Sugar Water, I was looking at the past, at all the things I was saying goodbye to. I don’t know what the future holds, it's a blank slate again. I don't know who this older version of me is, at all, and I want to write songs that are honest. I want…no I need to need the songs I write. I want to learn something about myself through the next music and I need it to teach me how I feel. I don't know who I would be without my songs, they've taught me so much. They are questions that I put into the world and then the music comes back and tells me what I need to know for the next chapter. I'm curious what it'll tell me, but I'm so excited.

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