Laetitia Tamko is right on time, entering her prime as a creator even as she begins to relinquish a bit of control over her creative output. Tamko, better known by her recording sobriquet Vagabon, produced every song on her eponymous major label debut, and now she’s enlisting the help of Rostam Batmanglij, famed producer and founding member of Vampire Weekend, to bring her follow-through to life.

Tamko, who will serve as opening act for Weyes Blood at Meow Wolf on Wednesday, March 29, recently released “Carpenter,” her first new solo single since 2019.

She tweeted last April that “Carpenter” is the best song she’s ever written, and she recently told Pasatiempo it was surprisingly easy to make room for Rostam.

“I think it was the right time, because it wasn’t that difficult,” she says. “As difficult as I thought it would be as a musician who’s been the sole producer, I think the key is to really admire and respect the opinions of your collaborators. It makes it so much easier to share control when you really like what the other people are coming up with and what their idea of music is.”

Tamko, who was born in Cameroon, has blazed an unconventional path to her career as a performer. She moved to the United States at age 13 and had no working grasp of English; she says she initially learned the language by watching television.

She didn’t have a music background until, at the age of 17, her parents bought her an acoustic guitar from Costco. Tamko taught herself to play by watching instructional DVDS and later recorded her first demos while studying engineering at City College of New York.

Those demos became her debut EP, Persian Garden, and she released her solo LP Infinite Worlds on Father/daughter Records in 2017. She chose her performance name because people frequently mispronounce Laetitia, she has said, and because the word “vagabond” invokes a sense of adventure.

The 30-year-old musician says she recently went back and listened to her initial album and is shocked at how far she’s come.

“I was curious what that record would sound like to me now,” she says of Infinite Worlds. “I felt like I was transported back to a novice version of myself as a musician. I think it was very brave to put that record out into the world, and I’ve changed so much.

“It’s interesting to see where it started and to listen to the album that will come out later this year, to see the growth. And that’s only natural,” she adds.

But she wasn’t just charting a path as a solo musician; she was teaching herself to play several different instruments and forming her own lyrical sensibilities.

On Vagabon, released by Nonesuch Records in 2019, Tamko plays drums, guitar, piano, synthesizer, bass, and the Wurlitzer.

During her first appearance on NPR’S Tiny Desk in 2018, she shared some insights with the audience about her progression.

“I just want to say that it’s really cool to be here,” she said between songs of her Tiny Desk set. “I taught myself to play these instruments maybe four years ago, and I’ve been hauling ass.”

And she hasn’t stopped. Tamko was obsessive about learning to play and exploring her creative impulses. But when it comes to her success as an artist, she says she was also in the right place at the right time.

“I come from a very robust community of artists who were figuring things out on their own at that time, and I feel really lucky to have found that scene of people in New York where everyone was just sharing their knowledge and resources,” she says. “Everyone was learning how to record and produce and play different instruments out of lack of access to studios and producers.”

Tamko, still the engineering student at heart, says she didn’t feel comfortable in the studio for Vagabon because she was still so new in her recording career. Sometimes, she says, she would do calculus to engage her brain during quiet moments in recording sessions.

But in her lyrics and music, she was serving notice that she had matured as a musician and wouldn’t be denied. On “Wits About You,”

for instance, she sings that she’s claiming her place and bringing her friends with her.

I was invited to the party

They won’t let my people in

Well then never mind, never mind, never mind We don’t wanna go to your function

One of Tamko’s songs from Vagabon, “Water Me Down,” has been streamed 10 million times on Spotify, and the artist got to tour behind her album briefly before the pandemic began. “Carpenter,” which was released in January, was written before the pandemic, and Tamko says that Rostam came on to help produce as the upcoming album was nearing completion.

Rostam — a solo artist in his own right — worked on several of the songs, she says, and encouraged her to sing in French on one of her upcoming tracks. Previously, the producer had worked with acts as varied as HAIM and Hamilton Leithauser. Tamko says all of the songs were written by the time Rostam had come aboard and reflect the different songwriting techniques she’s been exploring.

“I stopped writing on guitar for a while and was enamored with the piano because it felt like I used all my tricks on guitar. That’s one of the perils of being self-taught,” she says. “I keep a log of interesting words and sentences or even poorly spoken sentences in my phone, especially when I’m working on lyrics. But most of the time, I like to have chords and melody first.”

The artist says she can’t yet share the upcoming album’s title or release date but is confident it will come out in 2023.

She tweeted last year that owning her masters is really important to her, and when asked about it by Pasa, she points out that “Bob Dylan sold his catalog for a gazillion dollars.”

While she isn’t comparing herself to Dylan, she says she’s prioritized control over her music and expects to for as long as she can.

“I’m still pretty new, but I felt like it was something that I wanted to have,” she says. “So that means going with partners who share that philosophy.

“It seems like it’s very rare nowadays to have that option. Like anything, it does come with compromises the same way that signing away your masters has pros and cons. It’s just the kind of decision you make, and you hope that you can find partners who align on that vision.”

Tamko, maturing in both her talent and her understanding of the industry, is just happy to be in this specific time and place. The pandemic was as tough for her as it was for everyone; it came right as her career was taking off and forced her to curtail touring for three years. She says she’s never performed in Santa Fe but has visited — and she was surprised to learn recently that the City Different is at a higher altitude than Denver.

In addition to Santa Fe, her tour will take her to 15 cities in March and April. She added that she’s grateful for the opportunity to tour with Weyes Blood as well as for the fans who fill the venues. She’s even grateful for how the pandemic impacted her.

“I’m really excited to be back and sharing music and going on the road with Weyes Blood,” she says. “It’s made me really excited to see how rest and pause will make all of these things feel new again.”