Swedish born, London based, artist LOUUD (Louise Udin) is one of the newest faces in rising pop music. Writing songs from a young age, developing and honing her craft at the prestigious Rytmus, following in the footsteps of artists such as Tove Lo, Icona Pop and Robyn. Later, Louise moved to London to study at BIMM where she started writing and performing under the name LOUUD.. Her sound is described as catchy melancholic Scandi pop with ambient guitars, electronic sounds and ethereal vocals.
UG: So to start out with a bit of background, when did you first know you wanted to pursue music or when did you start working on your music?
LOUUD: I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember and I wrote my first song when I was 12. I studied at Rytmus in Stockholm which is a music high school ( Alumni are Robyn, Tove Lo, Mabel, Icona pop to name a few ) and that’s when I started to develop my sound and tried singing /writing different genres. It wasn’t until I moved to London four years ago that I decided that I wanted to make this my career 100% and that’s when I started writing and performing as LOUUD.
UG: How did you come up with your stage name LOUUD? What is the story behind the name and why did you make that creative decision?
LOUUD: LOUUD is an acronym of my real name Louise Udin. I can’t really remember how I came up with it exactly , I just remember that I was releasing some music and I wanted an artist name. I didn’t want it to be my actual name so I started to play around with variations of my name and LOUUD happened. A lot of people think that I’m just bad at spelling the word loud or that I chose that name to get better search results, it can take a while for people to see the connection haha.
UG: How would you define your style of music and how does LOUUD fit into the music world? Any musical inspiration?
Follow up: If you had a dream collaboration who would you choose to collaborate with on a song?
LOUUD: I would describe my style as electronic pop. I usually write sad lyrics with catchy pop melodies so I call it heartbreak pop sometimes haha. I get inspired by a lot of the Scandinavian ladies like Tove Lo, Anna of The North, Tove Styrke, Robyn. I think they are great songwriters and inspiring role models.
My dream collab would be SG Lewis , I’d love to work with him. I think he’s a great writer/producer and it would be so much fun to write and feature on one of his tracks.
UG: I love your newest song, it’s called ‘Out Of Love’. What is the story and inspiration for that song?
LOUUD: Thank you, I’m really glad you like it ! ‘Out of Love’ is about moving on after a bad breakup. I wrote it about a year ago about my own experiences with an ex boyfriend but I hope that people who listen will be able to relate to it. For me it was one of those songs that I had to write to get all the things I was feeling off my chest .
UG: How have you already seen yourself grow as an artist even just between your single ‘Fools’ to ‘Out Of Love’? Anything you think you want to try or are gravitating towards with new music?
LOUUD: ‘Fools’ was my debut single and it was so exciting to put a song out there and I was overwhelmed by the response it got. I think my sound has changed quite a lot from ‘Fools’ to ‘Out of Love’ to a more electronic sound, it’s something that happened naturally because I listen to a lot of electronic music. ‘Out of Love’ is also a very honest track, I’m usually not that blunt and straight to the point when I write but writing this one was like writing a diary to me. At the moment I’m just writing lots and I’m experimenting with different sounds to keep developing my music., I just want to keep writing as much as possible and collaborate with different writers and producers.
UG: Last year you created a platform for female musicians of all styles to perform together. What was that like and what are your thoughts about the current women in the music world and all the new acts just breaking through now?
LOUUD: I created ‘’LOUUD presents The Future is Female’’ last year because I had never played a gig with an all female lineup before so I decided to organize the gig myself where me and some of my female musician friends performed . It was just a nice platform for us to support each others music. The response was better than I could’ve ever imagined so I ’m planning the second event for later this year, I’m really looking forward to it.
I listen to a lot of female artists and I think there are so many amazing ones at the moment like Skott, Billie Eilish, Maggie Rogers, Raye to name a few. After #metoo last year I feel like there's been a change in the music industry, women are supporting each other and aren’t afraid to speak up about the issues which is so encouraging to see. I still think there's a long way to go when it comes to an equal music industry but it's definitely a start !
I was recently involved in a campaign where 56 female Swedish musicians came together to sing a song about #metoo , the song is called ‘Vad Dom Än Säger’ and it's a beautiful song written by Vo Pam dedicated to a young girl growing up in this world. The song is out everywhere now and all profits will go to women shelters in Sweden. I feel so honoured to be part of something like that and to be able to hopefully make a change.
UG: One of our favorite questions, if you could recommend one growing or “Unheard” musician that you think we should listen to who would it be?
LOUUD: I love Caitlyn Scarlett. Her latest track ‘ Ornaments’ is amazing and she’s such a talented writer. She deserves more recognition !
UG: Thank you so much for taking your time to share your story with us, last quick question, where can and should our readers and followers find your music and updates on you?
LOUUD: Thank you for chatting to me ! Follow me on @louudofficial on all social media and check out LOUUD on Spotify and Apple Music !
Written and Edited by: Hannah Schneider