INTERVIEW

FINDING POWER IN THE WRECKAGE — Chicago’s underground scene has never shied away from confrontation, but Latter—a post-hardcore/noise rock band formed in 2022 by Meredith Haines and Jonathan Alvarado—makes confrontation the core of their art. Their latest release, “Hope You Love Her,” marks a pivotal moment for the band—a deepened descent into emotional excavation and sonic chaos.

Frontwoman Haines describes the new single as a spiritual successor to “I Don’t Owe You,” the standout from the band’s 2023 debut album My Body Is My Sickness. But this time, the lens has shifted. “‘Hope You Love Her’ is about the same relationship I wrote My Body Is My Sickness about, but from a different perspective years later,” Haines says. “I’m writing about how traumatic relationships can have effects that span years or lifetimes. I wanted to write a song that honors that kind of permanence—an enduring kind of pain—because in a lot of ways, it’s become a source of strength and motivation for me to be a better person and artist.”

This notion of endurance—both emotional and sonic—lies at the heart of Latter. Their debut album, My Body Is My Sickness, was self-funded and recorded with Pete Grossmann at Bricktop Recording, Chicago’s go-to studio for underground heavy music. Written during the final stages of a destructive relationship, the seven-track record plays like a fever dream of unraveling identity. Chronic illness, post-COVID dissociation, and heartbreak coalesce into a searing suite of songs that fuse noise and post-hardcore. It’s a record that resists genre, containment and easy interpretation.

But to understand Latter fully, you have to witness them live. Their performances are ritualistic, chaotic and bracingly intimate. Haines takes the stage in a hospital gown—a nod to both physical and emotional trauma—before launching into a whirlwind of guttural screams, audience immersion and noise experimentation. Sets often end with Haines cutting herself free from the gown using an amplified saw, in a gesture that blurs the boundaries between music, performance art and bodily catharsis. Her DIY sound devices—like a three-channel oscillator controlled by photoresistors—add layers of unpredictability to the set.

“For me, the hospital gown represents not feeling like I have any control over my body, and then ripping it off, sawing it off is me reclaiming that,” Haines says.

Latter’s power lies in their refusal to sanitize their pain. Instead, they amplify it—literally and figuratively—into something that is guttural and refuses to be shoved down.

LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?

MEREDITH: I think for me, in terms of our sound, it's really a mashup of mine and Jonathan’s influences. He comes from more of an indie-rock and pop background, and I listen to a lot of heavier music. Some really big influences are The Blood Brothers, METZ and Mannequin Pussy. I think, thematically for me, a lot of things that inspire the lyrics are heartbreak and revenge. I've been describing that our new single is about having a level of hatred for someone that's so deep to the point where it becomes spiritual. It becomes this force inside of you that drives you forward in life. A lot of our new songs are about getting older as a woman and how as a woman, our fucking faces and bodies are a source of capital. As we age, that changes and the fear and anxiety that comes with that change that my male counterparts obviously don't experience.

LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?

MEREDITH: I want the songs to be big. I want the songs to sound big and immersive, but also small enough in a way where people can relate to them. While the sonic world is big and epic sounding, the themes are shit that we all deal with, but I think our music is very rooted in the female experience. A lot of what I sing about is really specific to being a woman that men would not be able to understand.

LUNA: You just released your newest single “Hope You Love Her” and you’ve said this song is a companion to My Body Is My Sickness. What is the inspiration behind the single and what themes and emotions do you explore?

MEREDITH: We went viral earlier this year because I posted a video of us playing a song and it was about this relationship where my ex boyfriend sent me an invoice for breaking up with him. It was very insane. This single is about that same relationship, whereas a lot of My Body Is My Sickness was very rooted in my immediate experience with this person. When we were recording the album, I had broken no contact with him and it made for a lot of really good songwriting because I was so upset every day. This is about the same relationship,but years later, so it's examining that relationship.

It's been difficult to move on from that relationship. I think about all that I've gotten out of my hatred for this person, like my art career really took off after breaking up with him,because I was talking about themes around the relationship. Latter went viral because of it. We've made all these new fans and people are really relating to our music. I've transformed this relationship into an origin story. My hatred for this person really propelled me.

LUNA: I would love to touch more on your creative process. How did “Hope You Love Her” evolve from its initial idea to the final version?

MEREDITH: The way the band functions is that Jonathan the drummer and I are the songwriters, and the other two people in the band, Clem and Nick perform the songs live for us. Jon and I write all the songs together, and we pretty much always start with just us in our practice space together. We just start jamming and start writing and seeing what happens. In this case, we shelved it. But when we were in the studio this last time, we fleshed it out and then we recorded it. We wrote it a year ago, and then we came back to it because I really believe in this song and I thought it would be good.

LUNA: Your live performances are confrontational, theatrical and deeply physical. What does that performance ritual—especially the hospital gown and amplified saw—symbolize for you?

MEREDITH: The hospital gown and the saw is an interesting thing, because the last song we always perform is “My Body Is My Sickness” and there's two different things going on. So number one, I was diagnosed with a very rare disease in 2023 and that's when I started writing the song, but I also tied it into the relationship the first album is about when contracting herpes from my partner at the time.

It was really emotionally intense for me. That was the first time that I felt like my body wasn't really my own. I felt like I had lost ownership of it because of other people's actions. The song is about both of those things. I started writing about chronic illness, but then I also tied that in thinking about the body as a site of disease and the lack of choice and agency, especially as a woman. For me, the hospital gown represents all of that and not feeling like I have any control over my body, and then ripping it off, sawing it off is me reclaiming that. It's like performance art because of all the layers involved.

LUNA: With My Body Is My Sickness being out, how do you feel about the album and its impact almost a year later?

MEREDITH: I'm really happy with how things went. I think it was a slow start, but after we went viral, our music got in front of a lot of people. I just feel like music has always been about connecting with people and a way to share my pain with people. The fact that so many people identify with what I experienced has been very healing for me personally. I feel like I’m not alone because I get really nice messages from people. I really appreciate that, because in our heartbreak and pain, it can be really isolating. I think writing music about it, and then having other people connect, that's the best part. I'm happy that it reached the right people.

LUNA: What did you learn about yourself as both an artist and a person through that process?

MEREDITH: I don't know if I really learned that much about myself through My Body Is My Sickness, but I think recording our newest music that we just finished, I learned a lot in that. I really got in my head, when we were recording our new stuff, because it was right around when we were going viral, and I was really stressed out if our new stuff isn't as good. What if no one likes it? What if it doesn't do as well? Sitting with all of those emotions and getting through it, even with all of the doubt. It strengthened my faith in myself as a musician. I had these negative emotions and I was really stressed out, like I was really in my head, and being able to move through those emotions and still put out music that I'm happy with was like healing. I can do this. I got this.

LUNA: Looking across your discography, is there a particular song that always feels like a crowd favorite or one you look forward to playing the most during a live show?

MEREDITH: “My Body Is My Sickness” is the one that people like. That's the one that people sing along to the most. I think it's probably because it's like the catchiest one and they get the melody really quickly. That's my favorite one because I like when other people are singing, then I can give them the mic and my music becomes a communal experience that's more than just me.

LUNA: What can listeners expect from this new era of music from Latter?

MEREDITH: I think moving forward, it's going to be less I hate my ex boyfriend songs, and more focused on getting older and what that experience is like as a woman in America. I want to start really writing more deeper music and addressing larger themes.

LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?

MEREDITH: I feel good. I'm nervous because Latter is getting to a point where we have to go on tour more, so being 35, there’s a lot of stress about how am I going to make money? What kind of jobs will I have moving forward? It's definitely stressful in that way, but also really exciting, because I never thought this would happen. I'm really excited for the rest of the year. We're playing some festivals over the summer. We're playing PUG Fest in Detroit. We're playing a festival called Ghost Canyon in Denver. We're going to be doing some touring, and then we're going to start working on a full length album in the winter.