Sydney-born DJ, producer, and self-professed club music obsessive, Anna Lunoe, is no stranger to knowing her own sound and collaborating with artists who uplift her creatively and sonically. She proudly sits on the boundary of electronic, dance, garage and hyper-pop, offering club audiences a journey through myriad emotions, from pulsating beats that make you want to move and dance, to pure catharsis.

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Her debut album, Pearl, which was released on 25 October, marks a milestone in her career, having worked with household names like Skrillex, Blu De Tiger, as well as leading a global club music show on Apple Radio, HYPERHOUSE. In this week’s Studio Files, Lunoe dives into the gear and tools used to build the record and offers insight into her creative processes with the artists that have shown her a new light as a producer.

Q&A

Congratulations on the launch of your debut album! How do you feel this release represents you as an artist?

AL: I think I’ve finally found my specific combination of pretty/euphoric texture, rowdy energy and vocal variation and songwriting styles. Well, for now anyway! It feels good to have settled in this place but it’s an ever-evolving balance and I can almost feel it already started shifting.

The electronic scene is often focused on singles and EPs rather than albums. Was that a challenge when piecing together the record?

AL: There were lots of things that were challenging about the idea of making the album. The way we rolled it out didn’t feel that challenging but it was tricky to feel like everything on the promo side had to be put on hold for the tracks until the full album was complete.

Tell us a bit about your studio.

AL: I did a lot of the writing in my home setup which is simple but works for me. It’s really a place for me to work every day, whether I’m making music, making mixes, radio or other work. It’s a fairly basic production setup of Dynaudio monitors, a large MIDI keyboard, and some other smaller keyboard bits as well as a Korg Minilogue, a Shure mic, CDJs and a space where I can practise with my live rig. It’s simple but I find it really efficient.

For the album I recorded my demos here, however, I also worked at my collaborator Jack’s studio a lot. He has heaps of hardware but pretty much everything we made was with soft synths and plugins. I think we put XLN Audio’s RC-20 Retro Colour on everything.

What’s your latest gear or plugin purchase?

AL: I love Omnisphere, Unison Drum Monkey, Future Audio Workshop’s Sublab, Arturia’s Mini V3 and Soundtoys plugins the most. I barely buy anything new because I’m ok with just pushing into those.

I find it fun to make unusual mid-range drum textures with Soundtoys Decapitator. I’ve been using iZotope Nectar for vocal production for years and had a few settings pre-saved for the different types of vocal performances I did on the album.

My favourite free plugin? Probably Kickstart by Nicky Romero and iZotope.

What’s been the biggest investment in your career/studio? Was it worth it?

AL: Putting the time aside to work on this album has been the biggest investment I could have given my career right now. Having two kids, my time costs me so much. Quite literally – childcare is crazy expensive! So when I decide to work on music I’m spending $300 a day before I even rent a studio or spend a cent on my gear which makes the time really constrained. Sometimes it’s really hard to give yourself permission to just have open and unfocused creative time. It’s also why I collaborate or outsource whenever I can because it comes down to efficiency. I can’t possibly keep up trying to control every tiny thing myself while trying to also raise two other humans.

Another big investment is spending that $300 and outsourcing some vocal processing that would normally take me a whole day, so I can instead spend that day writing a new song or two. This dynamic changes my creativity a lot, and often means producing a better vocal performance than I can achieve in my home studio anyway.

Let’s Go Home is based on voice notes recorded with your family. Where else in the album do you lean into your creative freedom as a producer?

AL: I would hope that every track in my album demonstrates that creative freedom, but both Body Heat and Look My Way also really show it. For both of these tracks, I experimented using the Korg Minilogue and with different vocal resampling. I just really had fun with it.

You’ve worked with many artists such as Y U QT, Iglew, and DJ Boring. How do you stay true to your style whilst also honouring your collaborators?

AL: Collaboration is my favourite thing. I love creating alone and having autonomy, too, but there comes a point where feedback and shared energy are so important and truly make the process so much more enjoyable for me. Over the years, I’ve worked out certain ways to keep songs cohesive to my sound, and also accepting that in collaboration there is always compromise too. But these days, I’ve learned to trust my gut for when something feels like it strays too far from my intention.

How do you see your sound and studio evolving in the next two years?

AL: I’m really torn. I have two paths I want to push — I want to get deeper into songwriting and push my concepts. I want to push my vocal production and experiment more with effects and resampling. And also I want to focus on using my voice as an instrument and keep honing into a sonic palette that feels aspirational and unique for me.

The other path is that I want to make a fully stripped-back and raw EP that’s strictly made for clubs with barely any vocals. This album was more of an electronic album, even though the tracks are club adjacent – so I think I have to go hard and club-focused next. I’m really craving it. This means I need at least one drum machine to play with – maybe the Roland TR-8S… but I’m open to suggestions.

Do you have a dream piece of gear? What is it? Why?

AL: It’s got to be the SP-1200 fantasy. I’ve not played with one but from what I can gather, I’d get so annoyed trying to program it but I also really enjoy random happy accidents as I’m not a perfectionist. I think I’d love it.

What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?

AL: The idea that “perfect” mixing/production is more important than bold ideas. I’d much rather create a raw mix with big ideas than another perfectly produced track that sounds like everything and everyone else.

Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career? Can you tell us about how it impacted you?

AL: It was probably Chris Lake when I was making 303. He really encouraged me to leave the track raw like the demo – not to over-produce, not to layer or to suffocate the original idea, just find ways to let the five main elements really hit in the mix. I still think about that when I’m developing a demo.

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