Busy bee, Anna Lunoe, is one of the country’s biggest producers who is proudly representing Australia abroad while revealing to our editor, Larry Heath, about all the excitement from SXSW, her travel tug-of-war, upcoming releases and much more!
We tried to catch up during SXSW, but as always it was a pretty crazy time for us all! What was your SXSW experience like?
SXSW was very busy and totally disorganised! I feel like I could have gotten about 50% more out of it if I had planned a little ahead but having moved countries in the days before I had other things on my mind in the lead up!
I missed a few showcases that I was really hoping to see but I did manage to do a bunch of cool gigs including a super weird last minute filling in for John Mayer at Stubbs on a bill with Mumford and Sons and Fiona Apple – new winner for strangest show ever for sure. But the other gigs were cool! I played an after hours rave, the Myspace showcase, Nylon Magazine/Guess showcase (with fellow Aussies Flight Facilities). Was good fun!
Any other shows you got to see that are worth a particular mention?
Besides SBTRKT, Sinden, The Young Turks showcase, A-Trak vs Craze and a few others, I managed to miss quite a few of the acts I was hoping to catch unfortunately. I couldn’t get into see Fiona Apple, Grimes and heaps of others. I consoled myself by eating heaps of amazing Texan food.
What advice would you give to any artist – be the band, DJ or circus performer – who wants to play the festival?
Going to SXSW you never know what can happen, but I would say expect to possibly perform to eight people- no matter how big you are! I have seen lots of big bands play to tiny crowds there!
You hit Miami straight after, how did that city treat you?
It almost killed me! Going there straight off of SXSW is something not for people with a weak constitution… it is literally DJ Summer Camp. Parties from midday to 5am every single day. A million things on, so much so that no matter how good your party is, you wake up with that feeling that you missed something amazing! Eating, sleeping is something that is tricky to schedule in.
OK enough retrospective, let’s talk what’s happening now… you recently released a cover of “Tom’s Diner” – seems like that came together almost as a spur of the moment idea. Can you talk a little about that?
Yeah! Basically I was recording vocals for a track of mine at my friend Adam Bozetto’s studio, and my radio partner/bud Kato was there and commented that some of the vocals sounded like the ‘do do do’ hook in Tom’s Diner and before we knew it we derailed our other projects for the day and knocked together that little cover!
You made a mix for Fool’s Gold recently… can you talk a little about how you put the tracks together for that one?
This was a quite tricky a mix as it had to be done within two days of returning from WMC so although I tried to reach out to a bunch of Australian artists in the lead up to mix dates make sure I had a bunch of new stuff that represented many aspects of Australian dance music, I still was scrambling to make the mix make sense up until the last hour! It was a great project though and I am really happy with the mix!
It’s really nice to help pass on the good word of some of the amazing producers we have back home. The international dance music community definitely sees Australia as having some killer emerging producers. We got a buzz going for sure and it’s something that I don’t feel like the Australian dance music really understands. There are artists that have quite massive followings overseas that are quite unsupported in the Australian market. That is something I would like to see change – a little more musical diversity supported back home.
You’re going to be spending a lot of time in the USA… what brought on the move?
Plenty of reasons, both personal and professional. I was looking for some new challenges, I was paying way too much rent in Sydney, I had a few great US tours since signing with Windish Agency and I decided it was worth the gamble. I have toured Australia constantly for over five years and felt like I had grown as a DJ as much as I was going to in the current climate. I also have been producing a lot more in the last few years, writing top lines and singing (on my tracks and other peoples) and I was just lured by the exciting opportunities for writing in LA.
What’s coming up for you, in terms of touring?
Well, I’m writing this to you after coming back to Australia briefly for some shows and now I am headed back to LA for a bit of a writing lock down! I have a few little gigs here and there though still, I have a bunch of LA shows and super excited to play in San Francisco with Switch and Sinden later this month (they are two of my all time favourite producers!) next month is Denver, Nashville and more but mostly writing!
What should we expect to hear in the near future, release wise?
I have an EP about to come out on Future Classic, plus three more releases that should drop over Australian winter/spring! I am in talks with some big labels on those but it’s not signed, sealed and delivered so I shouldn’t mention them just yet.
And most importantly… will we see you back home anytime soon?
Literally writing this from the plane back to LA! But I would say I’ll be back home in September, or hopefully earlier if I can get on a festival tour or something!
