Ryan Lane | @RLaneKU
Up and coming pop-start Maude Latour sat down with KJHK in a Zoom Q&A Saturday morning to talk about her life building a music career as a college student.
Latour, a philosophy major at Columbia University in New York City, said despite the pandemic, her college experience would not be the same without her music. Her roommates and friends play a huge role in growing her career, from designing album covers and acting in music videos, to planning small, song-themed release parties.
“This has always been kind of a background, social life of my college experience, and for all my friends too,” said Lartour. “Like the other day we were sitting there like ‘I don’t know what our college would have been like without this music career.’”
For Lautour’s friends, her music is as much a project for them as it is for her. Her friends created a support group for her creativity and thoughts as she builds this career, according to Latour.
While her music career provides a social outlet, Latour is experiencing burnout just like most college students right now. Latour said she’s relying on summer break for a reprieve.
“If I haven’t mentioned six time already, [the semester] is ending today, and with Zoom classes there’s definitely been some moments of despair,” Latour said.
Even with the burnout, Latour said it was really important for her to remind herself she deserves a break, enjoy the weekends, and that sometimes, “it’s fine to do the minimum.”
Latour got her start in music at the age of 15 after a heartbreak, of course, but had been journaling her thoughts throughout her childhood. Growing up, Latour moved around quite a bit, giving plenty of opportunities to write down how she felt.
“I lived in Sweden, and then I moved to London, and then New York. Then I went to middle school in Hong Kong, then I came back to New York for high school,” said Latour. “I think it made me feel the need to write things down and really rely on having a journal and things I could bottle up.”
Now six years later at the age of 21, Latour has over 40 thousand Instagram followers, more than 730,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and was preparing to play at South By Southwest before the pandemic hit. Latour attributes her success to TikTok.
“This stupid app, TikTok, ended up getting my music to way more people than a tour every would; literally from my bedroom,” Latour said. “I would have had to spend so much money on a tour and take time off school and instead [TikTok] has this ability to either get your video to seven people or three million.”
Just over a year into the pandemic, Latour’s most popular song, “One More Weekend,” has over 6 million streams on Spotify, all thanks to TikTok, according to Latour.