Anna Lunoe will be a guest DJ on Aaron Monty’s show at 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 7. In a prerecorded interview with the Australian-born DJ, Lunoe shares her deep connection to Nashville, her journey from community radio to global stardom and her dynamic approach to live performance. Reflecting on her past visits to Music City, she fondly recalls honky-tonk nights and the lifelong friends she’s made. As she prepares for her December 13th show at Night We Met, Lunoe expresses a unique blend of nostalgia and excitement for the city’s distinct vibe.
Lunoe also opens up about the pivotal role community radio played in shaping her career. Volunteering at a station in Sydney, she forged collaborations and connections that continue to influence her work today. With her new album Pearl now released, Lunoe discusses how she carefully curates her live sets to ensure they resonate with audiences, blending fresh tracks from her album with crowd favorites.
Beyond the stage, Lunoe teases an upcoming wave of remixes from Pearl, hinting at surprise collaborations that fans won’t see coming. She also shares her excitement for the rising talents she’s working with, like Notion, who is reshaping the musical landscape. From digging through her overflowing inbox for new gems to crafting live performances that tell a story, Anna Lunoe continues to thrive on authenticity, collaboration, and the ever-evolving thrill of music.
Listen to the full interview here and read the transcript of Aaron’s conversation with Anna Lunoe below.
A Q&A with Anna Lunoe
Aaron Monty: You’re bringing your sounds to Night We Met on December 13 here in Nashville. What’s your take on the city that’s known for its country music roots? And are there any local spots you’re hoping to check out while you’re in town?
Anna Lunoe: I’m so excited to be coming back to Nashville. I’ve been there twice before. I played there years ago. I wanna say, like, 2013. And the promoter from that night, shout out my coach, Jeremy. We have stayed friends ever since his wife, Joy, was having a baby the next week, so it was a crazy time. So the next time I came back to Nashville, maybe five years later, they took me and my husband out dancing. We went to a honky tonk. You know, we did all the things. We were hitting up lower Broadway. We were walking through the park. We went on bush walks. That’s what we call, like, hiking. Yeah. We just had the best time. So I am familiar with Nashville and have really, really fond memories there. I would love to go back to a honky-tonk if I have time, but also hit up that barbecue. I forget the name that of the place that we went to, but incredible fried chicken. So good. I’m not leaving Nashville till I get some fried chicken. Sorry if that’s, like, a stereotypical answer, but it’s kinda true.
AM: You’ve performed in massive spaces around the world, but what’s the one thing you absolutely need to do to ground yourself before a show? Is there a specific moment or action that helps you transition from Anna Lunoe, the producer, to Anna Lunoe, the performer?
AL: You know, I don’t have too much of a pre show ritual. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I come in prepared. I need to feel super prepared and have a game plan for what I want to do for the show. I always come in with a really strong energy of what I’m trying to get across. So as long as I feel prepared with the music, I’m good. If for some reason I’ve been called up to the plate last minute or unexpectedly, then I ground deeply in, like, what I know I’m good at and just let the years of experience take over. But I easily flick between Anna Lunoe the person, and the producer, and the mom, and the wife, and the friend to Anna Lunoe the performer. It’s I feel like they’re intertwined. If anything, Anna Lunoe the performer, is just a place that I get to let out all the energy that I’m holding all the time. So it’s kind of it’s kinda great. I’m always ready to go.
AM: Nashville is ready, too. Anna, you’ve mentioned your love of farm life in interviews before. Have you ever experienced the chaos and charm of Bonnaroo before? What’s your take on festivals like that, where the vibe feels like a blend of music and an entire lifestyle? And are you planning to play Bonnaroo anytime soon?
AL: Oh my gosh. Bonnaroo is one of those festivals that’s eluded me every year. I’ve had an offer to play a couple of times, and it hasn’t worked out for whatever reason. And I just hope I get the chance to do it. I would absolutely love to. No. I’ve never experienced it firsthand. I mean, I’ve been to a lot of festivals in country areas and, you know, really rural remote festivals, so I know what that feels like. And there’s always a very unique energy in those festivals. They really have their own vibe, and you can tell that all the people that are working the festivals put so much love and energy and community into building it. So that’s my favorite thing about playing festivals like Bonnaroo.
AM: Anna, tell me why you love community radio and why you think it’s important.
AL: I started in community radio back in Sydney in the early 2000 straight out of school. I absolutely found my world in community radio, and I never stopped singing its praises. I think that it’s if you have any interest in working in music or being a musician, then the first thing you should do is volunteer at your community radio station because that’s where you’re gonna meet every like minded kid in your area. The people that I met in community radio went on to be my best friends, my greatest collaborators. I just released my album with my best friend who I met on the front desk volunteering at community radio. So I really can’t say enough good things about it. Most people know me now because I broadcast to over a hundred countries on Apple Music 1 every single week, and I have done for over 9 years now. And the reason that I got that job was because of my years doing community radio for free. So when you love something, you just gotta put your passion and energy into it. And the first place that’s gonna welcome you into music is gonna be your local community radio station.
AM: Amen. Do you have any first memories of being behind the mic or early memories of being on radio for the first time?
AL: In terms of how it felt to go to air for the first time, oh my gosh. Like, I was doing all nighters. I would stay up. I would prep what I was gonna play all day and then just stay up all night. I was really sweaty. I was really nervous. I also felt like I had a secret because I’m sitting there in the middle of the night alone in a radio station speaking to the whole city, and you just it feels so incredibly intimate just to have you and the mic and the whole city at you know, in front of you. I was so nervous every mic break, but I just pushed through over the years, and it became like second nature. I absolutely loved doing community radio, and it’s really where I learned how to interview artists as well. That became something that I’ve gone on to do all over the world.
AM: So here at WNXP, we are Nashville’s music experience. So what’s your music experience? What’s your soundtrack? If you had to pick a few songs that were important to you, helped shape you as an artist, or just have, some personal meaning, what songs are in your music experience?
AL: If I had to pick 5 songs off the top of my head right now whenever I get asked to do these, I overheat. So I’m just gonna pick 5 songs off the top of my head. It’s by no means definitive, but this is what we’re going for today.
I’m gonna play Underworld, “Born Slippy.” I’m gonna play “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix. I’m gonna play “Spiral Staircase” by Kings of Leon, Nashville’s finest, and “Sweet Thing” by Chaka Khan.
I am definitely the kind of person who who’s been exposed to everything from Jimi Hendrix to Bob Dylan to Whitney Houston to Earth, Wind and Fire to Hall and Oates to Violent Femmes to The Strokes to A Tribe Called Quest. I really grew up absorbing music from everywhere. My brothers and sisters, my mom and dad, anyone I met along the way, you know, friends. It’s just been my language, and I started making mix tapes and recording songs off the radio and hosting mix tapes when I was, like, 7 years old. It just was an instinctive thing for me to commentary, for me to add commentary and take interest in music.
I don’t know what drew me to it, but it just seemed like something that I needed to do.
AM: You just released your album Pearl Into the World. How do you fit songs from that album into your live sets?
AL: Oh, man. It’s so exciting having so much music to add to my set. And what is crazy is that my whole album is kind of filled with club bangers. It’s been surprisingly great, actually. And the reason that it’s worked is because I tested out these songs for a year in clubs at festivals. So if a song wasn’t working at a festival, I went back and changed it. I made it work because it was I knew it was really important to me that these songs are playable. I’ve been releasing music for a long time, and I hate the feeling of when a song that’s gone really well and I know people want to hear it does not fit in my sets. So that’s something that I worked really hard to bridge that gap when it came to having an album and making sure that the songs work in the set. The only song that I’m struggling to play right now is “Look My Way” because I usually only get, like oh, and also “Going Home.” Those two songs, I haven’t quite worked out how to fit in the set yet, but I will. I’ve only done two shows on the tour, and by the end of the tour, I will have worked it out.
AM: I love remixes as you probably do too, and I play a lot of remixes on my show on Saturday night that you’re guest DJing on this week. Are there any upcoming remixes for your album Pearl that you’re excited about?
AL: Pearl remixes. There are so many Pearl remixes coming. The cool thing about being a DJ is that I’m always talking to other DJs so when they’re like, “Hey, I love this song,” I just send them the stems back and I’m like, make a remix. So I’ve got to say there’s a lot of remixes coming. I cannot wait to hear what people have been doing with that, and I also made a deluxe version of the album. There’s a couple of surprises up my sleeve. Maybe some names that you were not expecting to hear on my deluxe album, you’re gonna hear. So I’m really excited to share that with everyone at the top of next year. But if you come to the show, you might just hear them out in the club in advance.
AM: I will definitely be at your show on December 13th here in Nashville. I wanna ask a little bit more about remixes because I am obsessed with them. What are some of your favorites?
AL: I don’t think I could pick a favorite remix ever. There’s certainly remixes that have redefined genres, completely broken songs. You know? Like, you think about Kid Cudi “Day and Night,” the Crookers remix. That that song literally changed club music in America. Like, I’m not joking. Hearing having a song that took hip hop and made it into big room house, I watched it change what was played in big rooms around America. It was insane.
And then you think of songs like and then you think of a remix like “Heads Will Roll,” the A-trak remix, that song will never die. Like, it is eternal. It’s incredible. He absolutely brought an entire energy to the original by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’ve done a couple of remixes I’m proud of too.
I don’t know if anyone’s heard my Blu DeTiger remix, but I’m really proud of that remix [of “Lemonade”]. It’s something that I worked really hard on, and I’m so happy to see how well it’s gone. And I’m actually about to release a remix of Jayda G that I’m stoked on as well, so hopefully that does well too.
AM: We’re seeing more electronic music producers stepping into country, Americana, and beyond. Are there any genres outside of dance music that you’ve been itching to explore but haven’t had a chance to yet?
AL: I always say that I actually should have been in a band. I am so much more suited to making music in groups. I love collaboration. I love making music with people. I love playing guitar. I play bass guitar a little bit, but I love guitar music. I grew up loving indie rock, and I also have a dream of doing, like, a downtempo electronica project or, like, almost a trip hop project. Honestly, name a genre, set me a challenge, and I’d give it a go, which I think is no surprise. Because when you listen to my album, there’s everything from drum and bass to electronica to house to down tempo. It’s all there too. So, yeah, definitely a multi genre artist.
AM: You’re so connected with your fans, and it seems like a natural progression to involve them in the music making process. Have you ever thought about a direct collaboration with your audience, maybe co-creating a track or remix? What would an open source Anna Lunoe look like if your fans had a hand in shaping it?
AL: I think a great way for fan collaboration is to let people have access to my stems and have a go at remixing it. I mean, people don’t need permission these days. There is incredible software where you can basically strip the stems off a track yourself. So as long as soon as you put music out into the world, you pretty much open yourself up for collaboration with anybody. I really would love to do some kind of interaction where I do a remix competition, and then people win a feedback session with me. So, like, a year’s worth of feedback with me. I think that could be a really fun way of collaborating and sharing creative energy.
AM: We thrive on music discovery here on 91.ONE, and you’ve worked with artists like Genesis Owusu and Channel Tres whose careers have really taken off recently. Is there anyone you’re currently working with who you think is poised to blow up in the next few years?
AL: There’s so many incredible artists going around. I am really excited about Notion who made a remix for “Deep Blue Sea,” and he is absolutely blowing up.
He has the most viral remix on TikTok this week. Everyone that I chose to work with from the album has an incredible work world around them. Even if it’s not, quote, unquote, blowing up, it’s really interesting and unique and genuine, and I feel really proud to be associated with all the collaborators that I have on the album.
AM: As we wrap up our conversation, from DJ to DJ, I’m sure your inbox is flooded with promos with new music every week. How do you sift through the noise and find the gems? Do you have a method for discovering new tracks, or do you rely on your intuition, to pick ones that make it into your sets?
AL: I gotta say sorting through promos has got to be one of my greatest skills in life. It’s for some reason, you know, I was never good at school. I never wanted to do my homework at school. But when it comes to sorting promos, I, firstly, am still motivated to do it. After all these years, I’ve been checking promos, maybe, like, 500 plus promos every week for maybe 17 years, and I still love doing it. I still really hope that the next song I click on blows my mind, and I still get my mind blown every single week. I’m pretty quick. I can get through 500 songs in, like, 3 hours, and I move really instinctively. I am a really big fan of big energy over perfect production. I love to hear an idea that blows my mind, and I take it really seriously. I get the privilege of sharing music with people and I want to make sure that the best ideas win. It doesn’t matter how much promo they’ve got. It doesn’t matter how popular they are or who made the track. The best ideas always win.