CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 144: MO•LOUIE ON TURNING EMOTIONAL CHAOOS INTO CATHARSIS
Interview by Brooke Gibbs
On her most vulnerable and experimental release to date, Melbourne-based producer and artist Mo•Louie channels emotional volatility, dancefloor escapism, and fearless sonic risk into her new EP, Breakdowns & Dancefloors. Written and produced during a deeply transformative period, including navigating mental health, creative independence, and late-stage pregnancy, the EP captures the tension between euphoria and collapse with raw honesty.
Blending warped electronics, cinematic arrangements, and punk-tinged chaos, Breakdowns & Dancefloors is both a release and a reckoning. In this interview with Futuremag Music, Mo•Louie opens up about translating mental illness into sound, reshaping the role of women behind the console, and why taking risks in music and life matters now more than ever.
FMM: Thank you so much for joining me. I’m really excited about your EP. How are you feeling?
Mo•Louie: I feel really good. It's been a journey this year. I'm really happy to get it out. I'm like seven months pregnant at the moment as well, so because I'm doing my own PR and all this stuff, I'm trying to do the best I can with my mental and physical state at the moment. So, that's also been a bit of a struggle, but then the other half of me is like really pumped and excited about it.
FMM: Balancing a release with pregnancy is a challenge, so why is now the best time for you to release this EP?
Mo•Louie: I just feel like I need to get this out before my pregnancy because I want to move on from this kind of chapter in these songs. The intro and outro of the EP especially. I've kind of gone into a new territory where it's a bit more experimental and electronic and so that's the direction I want to head, in the future. I feel like this will be a release to just let go and then I can start afresh. Yeah, absolutely. I was going to ask if you had any big celebrations planned for the release, but I guess, that's a bit limited at the moment.
FMM: I love the EP title because, I mean, look, I've been guilty of a few breakdowns on the dancefloor myself. What does this piece of work mean for you?
Mo•Louie: Yeah, I’ve had lot of breakdowns, and I feel if I'm having a real shit time in my life or I know things are going wrong or if I’m mentally fucked, I go out and go to the dance floor. I just get messy, angry, happy, euphoric. It's an escape that feels incredible but also kind of sinister in a way because it's just like you've got this kind of negative energy, but then you’re feeling this euphoria at the same time. I kind of wanted to connect those two things with the EP.
FMM: You described this EP as channeling the emotional roller coaster into sound. What were some of the hardest emotions to translate into production, and which ones come out the most naturally?
Mo•Louie: The bad stuff always comes out most naturally. I have major depression, and I have some psychotic symptoms. Psychosis is not with me all the time, but if I get quite sick, it can be quite bad, so I think particularly, I was focused on having that feeling, those thoughts, and these things that you think are there, but they’re not. It’s this fear and scariness and wildness. I wanted to translate that with electronic sounds and synths that kind of sound like they’re melting or warping. Particularly, the last track, Breakdowns & Dancefloors, which is the title of the EP, obviously. There's a lot of shit going on towards the end and it's chaos. I kind of wanted to make the listener uncomfortable, feel a bit anxious, and a bit like, ‘What the fuck?’ Because that's kind of like what I feel when I go through that kind of thing.
FMM: What production designs or techniques are you most proud of to show off in this EP?
Mo•Louie: Oh, probably I would say my arrangements. When I produce, I see things in pictures, colour and shape. Then, I make sense of it as if I’m directing a movie or play, and it needs this kind of cinematic journey for me because that's what I connect with. So, I think I'm like quite proud of how I've arranged all the tracks in that. It really brings through the emotion and sounds like different scenes.
FMM: As we know, unfortunately, there are more male producers getting recognised than female producers, but you’ve been actively reshaping that locally. What realities are people still misunderstanding about being a woman behind the console?
Mo•Louie: Yeah, that's a big question. As it stands, there hasn’t been a census in Australia that gives you an indication of how many women are working as producers and engineers in the Australian music industry. There is an organisation in America called We Are Moving the Needle and they advocate for females in the industry, but they did a census in America as well. I think, even to this year, women make up less than 6% of the industry as a producer or engineer. That’s pretty low. I think it might stem from society and culture. 50 to 60 years ago, men were allowed to work in jobs as engineers and things like that, and women weren’t allowed to work up to a certain time. Then, when they could work, they weren’t advertised to work as an engineer. It was more like, oh, you could be a receptionist at this place, that kind of thing. So, women were really far behind the eight ball in terms of getting into the industry, so I think we're behind in that sense.
And I think as well, I've had some pretty shitty experience with male engineers as an artist in my time. And that's the reason why I wanted to get into production because I didn't want someone to ever feel like that. You have to be so vulnerable in that space, and if you're not vulnerable and if you're tense, you're not going to get a good take from the artist. There's a lot of artists and engineers I've spoken to and yeah, they've just had quite bad experiences with male engineers. I remember going through uni at Collarts and a few of the girls dropped out because they had bad experiences. It’s not nice.
There’s less work for people now, so the people who have already made it, they want to get their work, so they’re less likely to offer internships in studios. I’m very grateful. I have a handful of male engineers who recognise that as well and who have been really good to me in my career. Something needs to change. Maybe the Australian media needs to take this a bit more seriously and shine more light on engineers. There’s also only two categories in the ARIAs; best producer and best engineer. There should be mastering engineer, recording engineer, mixing engineer. I think we’re just a bit behind and we need to do something about it.
FMM: Do you have a personal favourite song from the EP that you're really excited for people to hear?
Mo•Louie: Yeah, I love the end one, Breakdowns & Dance Floors because it's just so messed up and chaotic. I was really kind of channeling some dark punk energy in that, but then I wanted to just mess up. I really like the snare in that one as well. I could listen to that snare like on repeat all day.
FMM: Yeah, it works so well, and as you said, the last track is a bit chaotic, so what do you hope people take away from the EP?
Mo•Louie: I hope they take away the creativity and it inspires people to make more bold choices in their music and take more risks. I really think music at the moment is missing risk. It’s all very safe. I just want to hear more like Russell Leah’s album and Lily Allen’s album. Yeah, it’s a pop album, but I found that really risky. Take risks in life whether that be in art, or sound, or anything. Give it a go. Everyone’s too scared at the moment.