Episode 179: Anna Lunoe

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0:28Anna Lunoe: Taste the Mediterranean at Whole Foods Market with a vibrant selection that captures the flavors of the region. Shop coastal favorites like responsibly farmed whole bronzini and jumbo white shrimp and pair them with specialty pastas, robust olive oils and aromatic sauces directly sourced from the Mediterranean. Want a fast and easy dinner? Grab refreshing Greek salads and tortellini from the prepared foods department. Taste the Mediterranean now at Whole Foods Market.

0:57Sophie Ellis-Bextor: We live in a culture obsessed with dieting, weight loss, and exercise. And that can make eating disorder behaviors easy to miss. But the reality is, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that take a major toll on your health and your life. But recovery is possible. Eating disorders are more common than you might think. Chances are you know someone who is struggling with one. Or maybe you're struggling yourself. If you're concerned about an eating disorder in yourself or a loved one, I want to introduce you to Equip. Equip is a fully virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment program that helps patients achieve lasting recovery at home.

1:33Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Every Equip patient is matched with a multidisciplinary care team that includes a therapist, dietician, medical provider, and mentors. And you get a personalized treatment plan that's tailored to your unique goals and challenges. Equip treats patients of all ages in all eating disorder diagnoses. It's covered by insurance, and there's no wait list. If you think that you or a loved one could be struggling with an eating disorder, don't wait to get help. Visit Equip.Health to learn more. That's Equip.Health.

2:09Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Hello, I'm Safiyyah DeSpexter, and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to busy working women, who also happen to be mothers, about how they make it all work. I'm a singer and I've released eight albums in between having my five sons, aged between seven years old and nearly 22, so I spin a few plates myself. Being a mother can be the most amazing thing, but it can also be hard to find time for yourself and your own ambitions. I want to be a little bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. Welcome to Spinning Plates.

2:45Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Hello, it's 9.04 on Saturday morning.

2:51Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And I'm actually feeling more tired than I was hoping for because during my weeks when I'm home, this week basically I've been getting up around 6am every day. And I was really looking forward to not getting up at 6. And you can probably guess what time Mickey decided was wake up time this morning. Yeah, it's around 6. So I stupidly stayed up a little bit later last night than I would have done if I'd known that that was definitely going to happen. It's all on me. I wasn't out doing anything ravey. I have been in every night this week. And it's been really nice. I've been working on a project in London.

3:28Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And it's meant that I'm out by day, home by night, all very sort of cozy and regular. And I've really enjoyed it. And it's been a really nice project. And frustratingly, it's one of those ones I'm not actually allowed to completely talk about yet in terms of what I've been up to. Which I know is really annoying when people do that. I do appreciate that. It's very irritating. you'll find out what it is one day in about a year I imagine I think that's when it's going to be revealed but it's been really cool it's really nice nice group of people and something a little bit different than my usual how I usually spend my days I've really enjoyed it and what else have I been up to well Richard's away on tour with the feeling he left on Monday so I've been thinking of them and hearing tales from how it's all been going on the road but Meanwhile, I don't know, whenever Richard goes away for work and I'm home, I have all these ideas of what I'm going to do.

4:21Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Oh, I might, you know, book some social time in with some girlfriends for the evening. When I am in, I'll get the kids all down and then I'll be like pottering and doing projects and get on top of stuff. And actually, I've just been incredibly scrappy. And the days have been really busy with work, with very head full kind of work. So I get in. Once the kids are in bed, I'm just a bit knackered myself. and so it's been very much more uneventful and it's much more cozy than I might have predicted but maybe that's what I needed this is about to be my I think this is my first weekend in about five or six weeks when I'm actually not working for the weekend so I'm very happy about that and you know I've got a Saturday with a party to take into and a theatre thing I'm taking to and a sleepover it's one of those days one of those weekends so that's all nice anyway look at us nearly at the end of the podcast series um but not quite and this week's guest is such a it's such a brilliant thing how this came about because about 18 months ago i was on tour in australia and i met a woman who was helping um to help the band get around perth she's called sim she had like a little minivan she was driving us around in to get from like the venue to the hotel and that kind of thing.

5:41And she and I were chatting.

5:44Sophie Ellis-Bextor: She was a very interesting lady herself. And she and I were talking about the podcast. And she said, Oh, I think I know someone for you and suggested the lady I'm speaking to today. So shout out to Sim for your suggestion. And Anna Luna, who I'm talking to, is a very impressive, very interesting woman. she is an EDM DJ very successful very influential she's hosted a radio show on Beats One the Apple Music radio show she's been doing that for over a decade so speaks to other DJs plays lots of dance music she's had a podcast in the past she has released she's done loads of remixes has been working as a DJ for years but she's released an album under her name called Pearl original material and also last year so Pearl came out in 2024 and last year she also collaborated with Melanie C another spinning place guess um Anna has two kids they are six and eight her daughter's eight son six uh she lives with her husband in Sydney they've traveled all over they were in LA and they're back in Sydney which is where we recorded this conversation which was super exciting because it's a historic moment.

7:00Sophie Ellis-Bextor: I've never recorded an episode of the podcast anywhere outside of the UK before. It was also historic because my guest provided all of the recording equipment. So big thanks to Anna for turning up at my backstage area in between Sand Check and Gig in Sydney's Roundhouse. And she had with her in her bag everything we needed to record the podcast so unprecedented times my friend but a really glorious chat and um it's nice for me to think back to it because we were sat in my in my dressing room both of us in sort of summer gear because it was summer in Sydney and it's actually a really nice thing to cast my mind back to but also one of those happy things where Anna and I'd never met in person before but it felt very natural and she has lots of really interesting things to say about her life as a DJ whilst raising a family.

7:53Sophie Ellis-Bextor: So here we are, back to us in sunny Sydney, and I'll see you on the other side.

8:03Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Well, this is the first, actually. I've never recorded a podcast outside of the UK. What an honour. And I feel equally really excited and also slightly dismayed that you've had to supply all of the recording equipment. Look, we get it done. Does it still count as my podcast if you like this?

8:25Anna Lunoe: We joked that I'd quickly edit it before I sent it back. Just like, here you go.

8:29Sophie Ellis-Bextor: I took the liberty. And also, I knew we were going to be in your home city, but I didn't realize we were actually going to be in a room from your university as well. Oh, Sophie. How funny is that?

8:39Anna Lunoe: I am having an out-of-body experience being in this space. I have not been here since I was at uni, like, whatever, nearly 20 years ago. It's crazy to be back here.

8:48Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Yeah. And what's it like being back in Sydney? Because how long have you been back since you had your time in America? Look, I've been back for five years now.

8:56Anna Lunoe: It's been five years. But it feels different. It doesn't feel because these last five years have been so strange that it feels like two years kind of but also ten years. It's a really weird feeling. But, yeah, it's been five years. I was in L.A. for eight years. Okay. And then I was in Sydney before that and I was born here and grew up here. Yes.

9:16Sophie Ellis-Bextor: So this must feel good to be back. Yes. I think it's a brilliant city Sydney I love it here I wish I had longer to explore again

9:23Anna Lunoe: yeah look it is stunning we were talking earlier because I slept at the zoo last night with my son for his birthday and we me and my husband I mean we've lived here our whole life and we were walking around the zoo just having these moments just looking at the city skyline and this experience and hearing lions and you know gibbons and orangutans like gorillas I should use the correct terminology because I know it now because the zoo guys told me. But yeah, just hearing all these incredible animals while looking at this city and at this beautiful night, it was just spectacular. It is an incredible city.

9:57Sophie Ellis-Bextor: You're having quite a surreal 24 hours then.

10:01Anna Lunoe: I'm going to need a lie down after this.

10:04Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Yeah, so this is to celebrate your younger little one, say just 10, 6. Yeah. You have an eight-year-old daughter as well. Yes. And what does your working life look like at the moment? What projects have you got on?

10:16Anna Lunoe: So right this week, we're coming off the back of our long school holiday. So we just had the kids home for eight weeks. So I am in the week where I get back to everyone's emails, do 17 loads of washing and actually just work that out. So I've spent the week redoing all my calendars and my to-do lists and my workflow and chatting with my team about what we are going to do. I tend to work with like three month blocks. That's pretty much where my head goes. and we have a good tour lined up for that hasn't been announced yet. We've got a good big tour in around April, May. So the tactic right now is just to set up for that tour and that's me supporting a bigger artist.

10:59Anna Lunoe: Yeah. So in Australia there's not as much work. I used to live in the States and tour probably three times more than I do now just by virtue of the fact that you have so many large markets at such a close range. So I do less shows now. So all I really need is one big tour, a quarter to a year to build my life around. I have two radio shows, one on Apple Music, one on Rinse. And I do a podcast occasionally. It's currently not in action. It's called Create, Destroy.

11:30Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Such a good title.

11:31Anna Lunoe: Oh, thank you. It's from, I stole it from the guy from Wilco. He wrote a great creativity book and the first chapter is all about how in life we have a choice if we create or destroy. And I think that just summarized so much about how I see the people in my life that I've met through creativity. They've just got this endless desire to create and to do things. And I just think that's such a beautiful thought. So that's where I got the name from. I love that. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's such a beautiful book, actually. I love his writing. I think he does a podcast too. So yeah, so do that. And then a few other things as well.

12:10Sophie Ellis-Bextor: So lots of nice projects on. Yeah. The create, destroy thing, I think, is interesting to me because I feel like I actually know people as well that do both all the time.

12:19Anna Lunoe: Really? Yeah. Actually, yeah, you're right. You get those people.

12:22Sophie Ellis-Bextor: They're quite turbulent. Yes. They'll create things, but then sort of build in an obsolescence with, I don't know, how they promote it or how they support it because we're not always very good at dealing with where those creative projects can take us. yeah and if you're deliberately uh sort of screwing up from the inside then it helps you control the narrative a bit more because it can play with your mind quite a lot can't it oh

12:49Anna Lunoe: definitely that's a really interesting angle actually yeah well sometimes it can feel quite

12:53Sophie Ellis-Bextor: risky just to put something out there with optimism in your heart and see what happens

12:57Anna Lunoe: absolutely you're quite vulnerable aren't you yes extremely yeah and tell me a bit more about i love

13:02Sophie Ellis-Bextor: i was um listening to you talk before actually about the three month blocks and i thought that was really intriguing and when did you start thinking that way about your working life?

13:12Anna Lunoe: Look it's always been a lot like that because with DJ bookings which I've been predominantly a DJ for my whole adult life you only really know what's happening up to six months ahead anyway so you have this trust that around the corner it's going to show up even when the calendar looks empty you just sort of have this trust and if you don't have anything in the calendar then you just think okay what am I going to do for the next three months to get me to that next point so that's the way I've always thought about it and then when I had kids it was even more solidified because every three months they're a different baby they're a different child they're a different experience they need different support systems so it just worked really well that it would be like okay this is the plan until May and then from and then we'll reassess from May to you know just break the year up just like that and I find that I can get my head around it and conceive of it and put a workflow in place for that time and it also means that when things come up offers come up opportunities come up I can look at it and say you know what that's really not for this quarter can we push it back to the next quarter and it gives you that framework to build your life around which you need when you're in charge of building everything every day yeah I mean in charge of building everything

14:24Sophie Ellis-Bextor: is very much how it goes if you're in music. So when you've got projects further away than three months, do you sort of compartmentalise them a little bit?

14:35Anna Lunoe: Absolutely. I don't think about anything until it's within a month. Okay. So if people are like, oh, my God, you're supporting, what are you going to do for that? I'm like, I don't know. And you're stressing me out just talking about it. I can't tell you that until a month in advance. And, yeah, that's the only, that's sort of how I chug through different, like different parts of my life being in charge at different times yeah and there's a pragmatism that comes along with with breaking it down like that I think it's so it's so healthy to learn

15:08Sophie Ellis-Bextor: as quick as you can what makes you feel good about the uncertainties that surround our diaries yes and those three month blocks not just for you for all the people around you as well gives a sort of anchor like that we've got 12 weeks and even if you've got some turbulence or things chop and change within that time you still know that you're kind of reset again when you reach the end of that segment to the next bit yes so it probably gives you a bit of a steadiness definitely look at things because there's so many times you don't really know what lies beyond that but it's like a deep

15:38Anna Lunoe: breath of like let's be in the here and now yeah and it's a really great I used to try to put like a two night break. When we first had the babies, we came up with this plan of like, okay, every three months or four months, both of us get two nights away to just stop and breathe and be alone and, you know, do whatever we need to do selfishly and work out what we even want for the next three months. Cause both me and my husband both work for ourselves and we can do that if we are smart about it. And if we, you know, we take a turn. So one of us goes at a time at that time. I wish we'd kept it up.

16:14Anna Lunoe: I'm not going to lie and say that we have, but that's what's behind it. So every, every sort of, you know, three, I'm not very strict about it, three to four months. It gives me almost a New Year's Eve type feeling where I get to then stop and decide, okay, these three months, this is my fitness goal. This is my, you know, body care goal. This is my work goal. This is my, you know, I can really just stop and take a breath and restart. And it feels positive and hopeful.

16:39Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And when you were doing the two nights away, when that was part of your world, how committed were you to what that looked like for you? I mean, would you be like, I'm not going to work in that time? Would it have to be a space of something other or could it be involved in a work trip or was it quite a...

16:58Anna Lunoe: It was very, for me anyway, because my work is my passion, it was more about connecting with my passion. So I would go away and I would have banked three different incredible uh what are they called documentaries that i wanted to watch yeah and a long-form article that i would not have time to read and all these things that i want to do and these interesting you know i'd look at where i was i'd find some great place to stay that had great sauna and baths and i'd just be so selfish and just listen and think and draw and want you know just reconnect with any kind of self-fulfilling energy that i could because yeah

17:35Sophie Ellis-Bextor: You took yourself away for a lovely date weekend. Yes.

17:39Anna Lunoe: And every time I tell this story, I think, why don't I still do it?

17:43Sophie Ellis-Bextor: I'm sold.

17:44Anna Lunoe: And that my friends is the bottom line of all of this. Even when we know what's right, we don't always do it too.

17:49Sophie Ellis-Bextor: No, and life gets in the way. It does. But the intention is good because even from the time when your babies were small, it prioritized somewhere in you that you knew that was something that you wanted to have there.

18:02Anna Lunoe: Yeah.

18:03Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And I think that's really healthy.

18:04Anna Lunoe: And I think the cool part about it is that now I'm able to regulate myself more efficiently. Yeah. I mean, you're not in the same, exactly the same place. Yeah. And maybe I just take the first half of the week to just stop and be a little bit more connected and just take those selfish moments when I can versus completely checking out and going away. But I would really like to check out and go away after eight weeks of having the kids at home at school holidays.

18:28Sophie Ellis-Bextor: I can tell you. Yeah. Yeah. That's a long time. and I don't know about your smalls but mine tend to look at me at the beginning of holidays like what do you got planned for today? Every day what are we doing today? Yeah what are we doing today? I haven't planned anything for today. Yes and what was going on in your life with your work when you had your first baby?

18:49Anna Lunoe: So when I had my first baby I had been living in America for about six years maybe four years four or five years and things had just finally connected. Everything was going really well. It really felt like I'd finally built the career of my dreams. And I finally felt like I'd arrived in some personal place of safety and confidence. And it just was really incredible. I remember when we started talking about falling pregnant, I really thought if I'm not ready now, I'm never going to be because I felt finally on solid ground personally and which is such a luxury I think that not many like lots of people have kids before they're in that place too which I just you know ultimately you end up completely falling into a new place when you have children but um I did feel solid ground underneath me to a certain degree before I fell pregnant um and I fell pregnant really quickly I would decided to start trying and I pretty much fell pregnant within a few months.

19:55Anna Lunoe: And there was a period where it was around New Year's Eve. And I said to my husband, Mark, I was like, you know, it's weird. I always thought, cause I was playing Coachella that year. And I was like, I always thought I'd be pregnant at Coachella. I just had this weird feeling that I would be pregnant at Coachella. I was like, but I guess it's not happening. Cause it was, I mean, it was three months away, but I didn't realize I was already pregnant. Like I'd fallen pregnant within the week of that. and so I found out I was pregnant like within a month I went on this I had to DJ on this cruise this you know three day all night all day thing and I suddenly was my body was starting to feel weird and oh you know you know the drill I do but I didn't really know the drill because I'd not had a baby before but I remember one day I'd done this huge long stretch of late night and early morning and I'm not a big drinker so it's not like I was out there drinking or anything but I definitely had this weird case of wanting to faint after I DJed oh wow I played this two-hour set at the end of my event so I'd hosted all day and then I played the last set and at the end I lay down and like started to cry got really emotional about it was beautiful and I felt really like emotional about it and I started to cry and that's not normal for me I don't normally do that and then I found out like a week later that I was pregnant also my nipples were sore

21:17Sophie Ellis-Bextor: so when you got to Coachella then you must have been sort of I was three or four months yeah and

21:22Anna Lunoe: I thought I was huge I was like oh I've got to announce this because it's going to be so obvious to everyone and then I look at the announcement photos and there's nothing there I just look like myself now it's so funny how you think when you had that first pregnancy like this is so obvious

21:37Sophie Ellis-Bextor: a beam on you like yeah exactly it must be written all over my face totally yeah and no it's not no on you and within the DJing world how how typical is it do you think that there's there's such a space for parenting as a conversation within that world because I think it's in my mind um a quite juxtaposition of life partly due to just the practicalities of the lifestyle really um I mean I do know DJs that have children but I suppose the sort of surrounding uh support system I don't really know what exists for that is it something where you felt like you have to just sort of work out of yourself or was it a very supportive environment it was both at times

22:32Anna Lunoe: uh I had my first child in 2016 I think that people who have been you know watching electronic music if there's anyone listening who's sort of been privy or parallel to it I think most people would consider 2012 to be peak EDM in the sense that it was dudes on big stages with pyro and And, you know, the mainstream scene in America from and, you know, in most of the mainstream electronic EDM scene, it was that image of a man on a stage with his hands in the air and pyro going off. And maybe the girls were dancing around on some podiums. There wasn't very many women on those stages performing. The year before, I'd been the first woman to play EDC main stage in the history of the 20 year history of the event.

23:23Anna Lunoe: Which is amazing. Which is amazing and crazy. and they've been to be history but also but while recent yeah very recent so that was only a year and a half earlier so definitely fresh you know definitely fresh to be a woman on those stages women have always been in electronic music definitely underrepresented they don't get storied as much as the men they get dropped out of the story in hindsight so many women were a part of every um we're all a part of each other's stories we've all broken down the barriers for each other and there's so many incredible women who've come before me um and who've set me up for that moment for sure uh I had a friend in Sydney a local DJ who'd had a baby so when I fell pregnant there definitely wasn't any women in my orbit in the scene in the touring circuits that I was in that was doing that Annie Mack had had a baby she was in the UK scene I'm I didn't know her well at that point so I called my friend Gabby who just lives down the road from here and I was like Gabby I don't know what to do I've just got pregnant I'm playing I've got gigs booked all summer like I was playing all these summer festivals I was like can I do I need to say no do I need to cancel all this and she was really great I mean she just said look you can DJ pregnant you will be fine when it gets too much start saying no when it gets too much and you feel like it's too much for you just cancel and it was so nice for someone to say that I was like fully I can just say yes yeah up until what I think I'm going to think about it okay up until six and a half months I'm going to say yes or seven months and then after and if I'm not feeling well along the way I'm just going to cancel and I've never canceled I don't cancel stuff but if I need to do it I'm gonna do it yeah everyone's gonna get over it yeah so I did and I just luckily I had a pretty um good run I mean I was sick and you know all that stuff but nothing that I couldn't get over and actually DJing while I was pregnant was really good yeah it felt like I was finally like all the morning sicknessy stuff lifted when I DJed because it I was dancing and like I don't know something about it just helped me anchor and feel better which was amazing

25:38Sophie Ellis-Bextor: that's very cool actually and I'm picturing as well like what an amazing representation of you know femininity within that world to be like standing there pregnant and absolutely controlling the atmosphere in the room yeah that's actually very powerful I think I think so and I also think

25:55Anna Lunoe: because I obviously played the whole time every week every week I was out there my body was so strong it never felt weird that I got bigger I didn't realize I didn't feel any different because I just grew until the very end when I started to really get big but I just my body knew what to do I was jumping up on the decks like I was standing on the decks or jumping off I was running around the stage I was on the mic I sing a few of my own songs I'm like on the mic singing and doing all that and I felt like me and then I look at the photos now and I'm like wow that's crazy that looks wild so yeah in hindsight and it was the reaction from so back to and was it supported so yes it was underrepresented and there were some very interesting conversations I had with promoters about what they would and wouldn't do with radio hosts about what it meant for me to have this child you know while I was living this life and like talking about you know obviously all these men have children too but you don't talk about it you've never asked them about it but you have to it's so obvious with me that you can you bring this into the conversation yeah obviously so it's just all these dualities that were existing within the scene and unpacking all those and then at the same time I had all these female DJs coming up to me being like oh my god I feel like I can do this now you know and they've they've all reached out to me every one of them as they've fallen pregnant over the years which they have and now there's been an incredible like amount of incredibly famous female DJs having babies and very publicly and DJing very publicly and it's it's really cool it's the conversation's really different now yeah eight years ago so that's

27:34Sophie Ellis-Bextor: thank goodness for your friend gabby actually because i think sometimes those conversations that can happen really early on when you're into the unknown you're thinking what's this going to look like and and knowing that you know if you're feeling hormonal or if you're feeling a bit vulnerable and someone asked you the wrong question at the wrong time you're just going to probably want to cry or feel like i don't really feel like i need to be being completely feeling strong in my decision making all the time because sometimes you do feel like different day to day when you're pregnant or when your baby's little you don't really know how you're gonna ride that but having your friend say right at the beginning it's absolutely fine if it feels right for you and if it doesn't just don't do it yes you can kind of cling on to that can't you like a little life like that will be the voice of reason and i've and it gives you permission because as you said you know at the beginning of that you were in a really good spot and where you the stripes you've through all of your years and experience had made you feel like, uh-huh, I'm in a really good place with my career.

28:32Sophie Ellis-Bextor: That's not really the thing I'm feeling wobbly about anymore.

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29:08Anna Lunoe: Taste the Mediterranean at Whole Foods Market with a vibrant selection that captures the flavors of the region. Shop coastal favorites like responsibly farmed whole bronzini and jumbo white shrimp and pair them with specialty pastas, robust olive oils, and aromatic sauces directly sourced from the Mediterranean. Want a fast and easy dinner? Grab refreshing Greek salads and tortellini from the prepared foods department. Taste the Mediterranean now at Whole Foods Market.

29:37Sophie Ellis-Bextor: We live in a culture obsessed with dieting, weight loss, and exercise. And that can make eating disorder behaviors easy to miss. But the reality is, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that take a major toll on your health and your life. But recovery is possible. Eating disorders are more common than you might think. Chances are you know someone who is struggling with one. Or maybe you're struggling yourself. If you're concerned about an eating disorder in yourself or a loved one, I want to introduce you to EQIP. EQIP is a fully virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment program that helps patients achieve lasting recovery at home.

30:12Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Every Equip patient is matched with a multidisciplinary care team that includes a therapist, dietician, medical provider, and mentors. And you get a personalized treatment plan that's tailored to your unique goals and challenges. Equip treats patients of all ages and all eating disorder diagnoses. It's covered by insurance and there's no wait list. If you think that you or a loved one could be struggling with an eating disorder, don't wait to get help. Visit Equip.Health to learn more. That's Equip.Health.

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31:16Sophie Ellis-Bextor: But I'm wondering if there'd been years before when you said women are not underrepresented in that world. You must have felt like you sometimes had to really overcompensate with what you were bringing to, you know, that when you took over to do your set and your level of prep and wanting to really show, give all the signals, not just to, you know, getting the dance floor, doing what you wanted to do, but to the people watching of like showing like I'm putting in these clever picks or I'm doing these tracks or this mix just to really show like at next level.

31:49Anna Lunoe: Yeah, it was, it is a good thing because it made me, I knew that I had to not leave anyone a question mark. I needed to tick every box to get every opportunity and there needed to be nothing that they could grab onto as a reason not to elevate me or to pick me for something or to, you know. So I was really diligent with my prep and every opportunity I got, I would kill myself preparing for and put so much pressure on. And even that, I resent a little bit now as I'm older. It was good in a way because it always got me to the next level. and it was bad because I was so I was so busy looking at the one meter in front of me that I never looked at the 500 meters in front of me I had the slowest build like I've done everything I ever wanted to do but I've done it week by week with no no one walked into my life and said hey you I'm gonna you should do that we let's go to this like let's go it was like building everything week by week taking you know I started here at the local pub and then I went to the local bar and then I worked at a restaurant every night of the week and then I got asked to play at a house club oh my god warming up you know the 10 p.m slot and then I got literally every single step of the career was one step at a time so I feel sad that I never felt like it was my place to dream bigger than that that's my only sort of the bittersweetness of looking back and I love that girl who worked so hard she was so diligent but it was also a bit like she was playing their fool's game she she knew that if she gave them any they had all the power still do you know what I mean yeah I still gave them all the power because I spent so much time catering to that instead of just skipping them entirely starting my own party and doing something completely bold and renegade yeah but there just wasn't that there wasn't the grounding or footing for that at the time and I

33:48Sophie Ellis-Bextor: guess you have to trust that young version of yourself because if you didn't see a representation of what that career path looks like how are you to know exactly what to what to wish for anyway totally and all that groundwork it comes back to to help when you get those opportunities that's

34:04Anna Lunoe: exactly right it does I think I say that because I don't want young girls listening to to fall into the trap of feeling like you've got to impress these men that run that the gatekeepers you do what you need to do to feel good about it for yourself and just know that they're they don't have the power yeah you have the power you decide what you do there's a place for you here dream big

34:30Sophie Ellis-Bextor: and go go grab it you know but also sometimes that that um uncertainty might surround the prep and the worries you would have about, you know, being really watertight with what you're going to do. But I bet when you actually stepped into, you know, being behind the decks, that worry would go and you'd get that power of like, aha, now I'm actually in control.

34:57Anna Lunoe: Yeah.

34:57Sophie Ellis-Bextor: So you remember all that feeling because that was more the sort of day-to-day. But once you got there, if you hadn't felt as prepared, it's like something you can read in people sometimes, can't you? And if that's what you needed at the time to feel secure up there, then take that.

35:13Anna Lunoe: Yeah, and it was.

35:14Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And you're the one pushing the boulder. You know, if like with so many creative jobs, it can be really hard in your psyche. But there's so many moments where if you said, oh, I've actually decided I'm not going to do this anymore. People go, oh, that's a shame. You seem to really like that. Anyway, what about this? But if you're not the one showing up for yourself all the time, then it's you're always the one like being your own cheerleader a bit, really. Yes. It's a bit relentless.

35:40Anna Lunoe: Yeah.

35:41Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And sometimes when there's not a lot of things to look ahead to, you can feel a bit like it tests your nerve. But I think ultimately it's why we're sat here talking about, you know, decades of work. Yes, decades of work. Like how cool is that?

35:57Anna Lunoe: Yes, it's crazy. It's good. And it really happened week by week. It just happened. Like whenever anyone says, oh, like, yeah, it's like I just never stopped and I don't really know why. I couldn't tell you why I kept showing up. I just did. And that is the story, right? You know, if you love something, you do it because you love it. And it teaches you so much. Even when you're so, you know, quote unquote failing, even when you're struggling. I mean, music taught me everything about myself and my confidence and my abilities in this world. Like I'm just it was just this incredible platform to learn about life, the world, myself,

36:38Sophie Ellis-Bextor: how to navigate it my confidence everything yes yes absolutely um what I've always wondered what is it like when you're experiencing the the highs and the adrenaline of DJing to thousands and thousands of people but you're up there without who you flanked by when you're in the booth who are your people that you can toast it with afterwards you're alone yeah and when you I

37:04Anna Lunoe: toured alone before I got a any kind of success I toured alone for over 10 years completely alone so I did multiple international tours completely on my own and when you say completely on my new literally no not even a tour manager or anything no one wow so I have like a degree in TED talks if I have any it's probably the only reason that I have any confidence is actually probably because I just watched TED Talks for 10 years on the road. Wow. Yeah, I really did. I toured for 10 years, like on my own completely. And that was some crazy making business. I mean, I don't really know what drives me to, what drove me to do that.

37:44Anna Lunoe: I had a lovely husband to come home to and lovely partner. We've been together since I was 19. So that was always stable and he was encouraging and I just had things that I really needed to do I don't know why I did it and so I'm

38:01Sophie Ellis-Bextor: thinking I'm like no wonder you when you're having a baby you're like can I make sure there's like two days where I'm on my own again yeah maybe once in a while yeah you must be very good at being in your own company as well though and actually really like that yeah I do like it I remember a lot of dark nights where I felt like I really would like to talk someone if I'd had a bad gig

38:21Anna Lunoe: and I felt completely wrecked by it or, you know, just those moments are kind of sad to think about. But there's been so many cool days in a weird city walking around and just living life and feeling alive and connected and having had an incredible night in a city I'd never been with a whole bunch of strangers and just walking away from it being like this connection. I think it's been a search for connection, honestly. So having that connection with strangers all over the world, it's truly I don't know there was something that was driving me from that it felt important well I guess you're yeah you've got the connection but also while you're traveling on your own you're also observing constantly so much and cultural observations so I was obsessed with music obviously so every city I went to I'm looking for music landmarks I'm looking I'm reading stories about the artists that walked before me I'm literally playing venues that I've read about my whole life you know just getting these experiences that is triggering brain waves brain pathways in me there's just that is what drove me that is where I was living in my fantasy world it was like I was living in a movie that I created wow that's very powerful and I guess also

39:31Sophie Ellis-Bextor: sets you up really well for when you're taking over and it's time for your set and you're like right I've got to read the energy and the chemistry and you've absorbed yourself into possibly what people have been up to during the day, what's been going on in that city, where they've come from to sort of harness that. Yes. It's exciting.

39:52Anna Lunoe: And something romantic about it. It might be like I'm thinking of a movie that I saw in this city and the mood of the movie. So I'm coming in with this energy and this mood. I'm going to take them somewhere with that set tonight.

40:03Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Yeah.

40:03Anna Lunoe: I mean other times I'm half dead and I'm sick and it's just a miracle I even get through it. But sometimes it really is that deep. When it all joins. just joins in and I still remember nights you know in Kansas City or in Toronto or in some place where I knew nobody and one person came up to me and like I knew he was the one in the head in the room yeah and he came up to me and said something about the song I was playing and I was like I did my job tonight you know yeah I read that I read the right room tonight and that's a really beautiful thing and it's not I don't think it's as simple as everyone was drunk and having a good time it is deeper than that it's definitely some deep connection because people are going there to let go of something and to feel free for the night and you're tapping in your freedom is tapping into their freedom yes and you're sharing freedom together and it's yeah I'll stop no but

40:57Sophie Ellis-Bextor: there's I totally agree with you there's real drama and that you've got to take a little journey of people and um the first time I ever saw a DJ properly I was actually in my 20s because I didn't grow up going to dance clubs I was more of an indie kid and so when I first went to a dance club I was like I get it now yes and I was absolutely sober I was going to be singing there at like four in the morning so having this DJ just absolutely sort of harness the energy and do the rise and the fall and then the rise I was like okay now I get it now I can see the skill in the right people reading that and bringing everybody into that yes powerful and there is a congregation feel to it as a communal aspect I do think humans like that we like that catharsis we like that escape um and I'm picturing that even though you're doing the before and after is you on your own for that moment your soul must be like it gives you gives you flight when it all

42:01Anna Lunoe: comes together I just want to point out that like I'm trying really hard not to think it's upside down day that I am sitting with you talking about me I haven't read I've talked to lots of world-renowned people on my radio show but they've never interviewed me and I want to interview you because you have such an incredible wealth of knowledge like you're an incredible interviewer you're so perceptive of what I'm talking about but also your knowledge and your story is just you're like a unicorn you know having the story and the experience that you have there's so much that you're saying that's resonating really deeply for me and like you being an indie kid and then for me I experienced you as a dance singer for the first time like in dance world when I didn't even have aspirations of being in that world I just remember seeing you and that version of you and being like wow oh really this is a powerful person with like so it's so cool I want to hear about your indie roots and how you became so you'll have to come on my podcast I would love that unpack that fully I would love that I just want to call that out because I'm sure the listeners are

43:05Sophie Ellis-Bextor: like she should be into this should be the other way around well no look I love it's a great conversation and also I think um you know we're both seeking out a similar thing and I don't know about you but I'm I'm actually quite introverted when I'm on my own and when I travel and when I tour even though I'm lucky enough to have you know my husband's with me my brother's with me um my lovely band and crew but during the day I need time on my own and I always whip off and I love just having that time and I honestly think it gives me like the head that I need to then go on stage and turn into the other version of me I don't live like that I'm not wandering around

43:41Anna Lunoe: at home in like sequence and stuff so how do you do it at home when you've got the kids there five kids yeah how do you take a breath away do you set mini boundaries do you sit in the bathroom and lock the door how do you find that space because that's the heart I think truly the hardest thing about parenthood is the suffocation of self like it's the yeah complete inability to even find those moments so how do you deal with five and I think particularly as well even for

44:09Sophie Ellis-Bextor: someone I don't think of myself as a particularly traditional person but you still fall into the quite traditional trope of being this sort of feeling like mother comes with a such like martyrhood of I've put myself bottom of the pile and this is what I should be doing and look I'm a absolute rag of a person

44:29Sophie Ellis-Bextor: I'm a little husk walking around but you guys are all fed and your beds are made and everything is right in the world my hair hasn't been dyed in 16 weeks my greys yeah so um I feel very grateful that I still have I have the creative world to step into because I honestly don't know what I'd be like if I didn't know that that was there at some point yeah like a little beacon but I think I also find family life very grounding and I don't think I realized quite how little space I had in terms of head space and that boundary you're talking about probably until lockdown and then I was like okay I might have I might have taken this a bit far and I started to push back a little bit and it's just not something that came that easily I don't think for a long time and before we started recording we were talking about how sometimes when you're doing a trip you'll make sure you get like the latest possible flight out the first possible flight home so you're running on empty and you haven't slept properly and I find that incredibly relatable

45:43Anna Lunoe: and you're not serving the best version of yourself to your crowd either so it gets to this place where you're like oh not only is everyone at home annoyed at me because I've been in a way everyone like I did not do the best version of me out there tonight like that was me you know I haven't planned my outfit my hair's not there like I feel unprepared I haven't prepped my set in the way that I normally would yeah you've duped yourself yeah deeply because you've put everyone before yourself including yeah your audience and your work it just no one says well

46:17Sophie Ellis-Bextor: done no one's like oh good job you didn't no you have two hours more sleep but weirdly you feel like you've done something impressive yes like can you see me i'm still standing and i've had three hours sleep but it wasn't in three consecutive hours and look at me at the school fair yeah look at me i'm here i mean the other moms here's what i want to know sophie alisbexter

46:40Anna Lunoe: what do the other moms at school think when you come to the playground do they all know you now

46:44Sophie Ellis-Bextor: or is it like not really no disappointing lack of uh any recognition to be honest are you i'm looking for more no literally no one bats an eyelid um it's a nice school it's our local primary the kids have all gone there my brother and sister went there before them uh and uh no they're very chilled um and you feel like you live a double life because a little bit yeah but i think I need a little bit of that actually I think I do and when I'm home I feel really good I do feel like very very happy um but how so when you were first going back to work after you'd had your babies how did you find that for your head and how have you managed to protect your your creative process within the demands of small children uh bit by bit sometimes unsuccessfully

47:43Anna Lunoe: I felt really creative after I had my daughter I felt really powerful I couldn't believe that I'd overcome this thing like having a child and my my pregnancies got pretty spooky at the end with some you know genetic stuff and some complications as they do they tend to get a bit bubbly sometimes um so I had tricky births and I had babies in the NICU uh but I found a schedule really quickly I think because of the NICU because they put the baby on your they you do pump and bottle feed mostly in the NICU because the babies are too little I had them premmy so I had my first year

48:23Sophie Ellis-Bextor: prem as well you did right how like yeah so like 31 and 32 weeks oh wow that's quite premier yeah

48:30Anna Lunoe: mine weren't quite so so premier like 34 and 35 weeks so they were little and they couldn't drink from um from me so we were pumping and bottle feeding which put them on this schedule and they were and it sort of it worked for me I'm really I was really good at building this schedule and I loved working in the middle of the night I'd wake up in the middle of the night to feed and if I couldn't get back to sleep I just start making song ideas and doing things it was very strange but I felt really motivated and energized and nice yeah so it was it worked well I think it's been more complicated as they've gotten older because they need different things they you don't just feed them and put them down to sleep again and it can't just be anyone who feeds them the bottle like I because I had this early freedom I think I got a false sense of security and then I booked a full summer of touring and then we had a 11 month old or a 10 month old who actually was really a hard work and yeah so we learned along the way and we I cancelled definitely more shows with a one-year-old than I did pregnant because it all got too much you know so and did you cancel

49:42Sophie Ellis-Bextor: them because you thought I can't be away or it just felt logistically hard everybody was falling

49:47Anna Lunoe: like if the nanny fell through or if that I was like I can't leave them at home without any help or, you know, we're sick again or whatever it was. It's just it got a little bit harder. Did you try and bring them along to things and then find your head

49:59Sophie Ellis-Bextor: or scrambled?

49:59Anna Lunoe: Never. I brought my daughter to Coachella two years later. So I played with her in my belly and then two years later I was on again and I brought her with me and that was so challenging. I was literally parenting on stage at Coachella because she kept ripping her headphones off and I was like, no put her headphones back on and she's in the ground she's in the VIP area in the pit and I'm yelling out to put her headphones back on like it was I just thought to myself you know what this isn't it never again never again and she did has since come but it's the same thing it's the whole time I've got one eye on on her um yeah and it feels very like you're letting everybody into this like other side of you like I can't look away from my daughter she's not got

50:45Sophie Ellis-Bextor: My rear is covered. I can't be cool. And then you're like, yeah, exactly. Oh, it's like just not fighting. Yeah.

50:54Anna Lunoe: Yeah, that's tricky. That's a tricky thing. And then doing the mini, the small baby, like the two-year-old with a pregnancy, that's another challenging mountain to climb. Yes. And I did okay, but I did get very sick with the second baby because my daughter was in daycare bringing home bugs and I just had no resilience. So I started getting quite ill. And that was mid-2019. And then, yeah, 2020, boom. Yeah. What do you say after that? I don't know. That's where the story gets very uncertain. You must have moved lots of years to last year as well. Yeah, exactly. So that last year, having a pregnancy and a little one made me realise how much I was lacking in a support system, definitely.

51:40Anna Lunoe: I had nice friends. I was still living in LA and I had great friends and I had, you know, everything I could have wanted with the career. And my husband was helping heaps. His business was taking off as well. So he has a homewares company at that point, which was doing really well. So we were really happy there, but we just couldn't get around the fact that we needed more help and we weren't. That gets to a point where you're just not sure how to plug that gap. Like you can't, we just couldn't plug it. And then we decided, okay, we're going to get an au pair. We actually wanted to get an Australian au pair.

52:16Anna Lunoe: So we put the call out to a friend. We thought, wouldn't it be nice if we had like a friend's little sister come live in LA with us? And like it was friend. It was someone we knew. It was like someone we'd grown up with. Yeah. They could have like an amazing. Sounds idyllic. You know, amazing year in LA and be our au pair. So we found this person, literally a friend's little sister who was like, I want to come to LA. We're like, great. We got her the visa. as she was arriving in April 2020 we had to cancel that so she was we had to tell her not to come so yeah it we were building up to build that life and then the pandemic came and we just she couldn't come and we actually just decided at that point okay we're gonna have to the best thing is probably just to go home because we just I just wanted my mom I just wanted to be close to home and and I realized how much I wanted my kid who was now coming up two and a half three I wanted her to know her my aunt her aunties and uncles and cousins it started to feel like I was keeping her away selfishly so I just wanted her to be with them and be a part I've got a really great family like I've got a big family and I've got passionate family I really wanted them to I felt like in the time when I'm gone wouldn't it be nice if she was actually getting like if they were both getting to know their world and giving them that grounding.

53:34Anna Lunoe: So in the haze of postpartum after a really challenging pregnancy and just at my wits end and the world being shut down, I just thought, okay, let's go. Let's go now before I think about it anymore. The calendar's clear. Let's go now. And we just left on a dime.

53:49Sophie Ellis-Bextor: That's quite exciting to do that as a family. Yeah. It felt. We're going home as well. It's different, isn't it, than just moving somewhere else? Yeah. It felt there was a yearning. You could picture yourselves there. Yes.

54:00Anna Lunoe: which helps I think yeah it was a spirit yearning I just knew that I needed to do that then at that point and within your work how how do you make sure that you keep your finger on the pulse of

54:14Sophie Ellis-Bextor: what's happening that's new because presumably with your work it's always evolving and having new influences so how are you keeping abreast of that is that through your radio mainly yeah my radio show is an incredible base so I have learned how to manage this workload with this radio show because I could do this radio show full-time it is such an incredible and daunting task to stay

54:41Anna Lunoe: on top of dance music dance music has increased in popularity and size yes on a really but not just that not just in the audiences and what it does the amount of music released every day is equivalent to a year's worth 10 years ago like with the accessibility of the programs and the internet and all the ways that productions become more accessible the amount of music released is just astronomical and to keep up with it is the task of all tasks it's really daunting and you could just lose your whole time to that. You have to set guard rolls, guard rails on doing that. So I've had systems in place with that for 10 years, long before I had the babies.

55:29Anna Lunoe: So I knew that in order to still have time to write music and do X, Y, Z, I could spend a day doing this and a day doing this, and then I deliver the show and it's done. So it's like a day of complete open digging a day of downloading and listening and then it's make the playlist and do it wow so I just sort of gave myself this I got faster and faster at it at first I'd give it the whole week and then I got it down to four days and then three days and then two days and then my systems got faster and at one point I had someone downloading everything for me that I had in my email because I had a promo email where people would send stuff so I had someone download it and put it in a folder for me and maybe put some best ones that they thought in like a folder so I could at least think like it get a little edit but then I'd still go through all of them but at least I went through them faster wow so I just had this system that I built and just shortcut shortcut how can I make this easier faster easier faster and now I really trust my system that it's efficient that I get a really good snapshot of dance music in those two days or in the time that I allow and yeah that's how I do it I just set the guard rolls and then I the guard rails and trust them yeah and that's how I do that and then that just sort of sets the tone for my understanding of the dance community at that point and what I can then bring to the table

56:49Sophie Ellis-Bextor: as an artist if anything um does it always feel inspiring it feels inspiring at times but also

56:57Anna Lunoe: sometimes every song makes me want to bash my head against the table because it just doesn't feel good that day yeah I don't want to listen to this today and just everything sounds terrible And then other days I listened to everything with such excitement and like, oh my gosh, this is such a good idea. How did they think to do that? Yeah. So it oscillates and that's, that's okay.

57:15Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Yeah. And actually I think it sounds like you're like me where the good stuff is the ones that really gets my juices. When I do more, but when I listened to bad music, I just felt like, what's the point? Sad, sad. I just felt like I'm bothered. I know. But when it's good, you're like, it's like you get like the thirst for doing more of your own stuff. For more creativity.

57:32Anna Lunoe: Yeah. More.

57:33Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Yeah, exactly. I mean, what I love, I mean, the more I was learning about your career, what I love is that you've got the sort of outside of it, you know, brilliant music and a very successful and very glamorous world that it's in. But I love how much, how open you're about all the hard work that's gone on behind the scenes. Because I think that that is really, that grit and determination is really what underpins the whole thing. And clearly you've never lost your passion for it either. it's such a big part of what makes your heart beat faster is being embedded in that world and

58:09Anna Lunoe: that music and get excited by it yeah I really do love it and I even love it when there's parts of dance music that don't relate to me I'm happy if there's a new wave coming through that isn't my thing like it's not gonna I'm never gonna be able to be a part of it or contribute to it personally but I'm so happy that everyone's found this thing that excites them and unites them yes it's like I just get happy when people are happy I just get happy when they're all enjoying themselves and feeling inspired by something like that's what actually inspires me to and I'll play it on my radio show and I'll talk about it and I'll talk about who's the figureheads in that yeah and bring that to the table and offer it to the listener because yeah but even though even if it doesn't personally deeply relate to me I just think it's beautiful to see connection through

58:54Sophie Ellis-Bextor: music that also probably is testament to your longevity as well because I think the people are driven more by the ego aspect of it um that that doesn't sustain your appetite for the whole time I think that that generosity of wanting people to get the feeling the good feeling that

59:11Anna Lunoe: tonic could be right well definitely helps I think and on the flip side of that I also have seen people become hugely successful by being incredibly egocentric as well so it's like a part of you is like oh should I be like that like should I be that driven and this is not my not necessarily my way so I couldn't do it but I've seen people get very successful doing that it's just that they may not it may not last forever it may not necessarily uh have the longevity that you get from being in a different playing a different role and that's the way I really think about it is that all of us play different roles in this culture like we all have a different role to play within it and for whatever reason I don't know why um that the role that I've I feel like a very cross-generational cross-genre person now like in dance music it's like I've been a part of so many communities there's not many people that stick around for 20 years so it's intergenerational it's like the female male crossover it's the um you know different background like cultural background crossover because you know you know coming from being born in Australia with different heritage and then living in America and trying to understand their culture and all the subcultures that exist within this mainstream American culture and then you know also loving and growing up and breathing UK dance music and always being fascinated with it and studying it from afar as this voyeur from Australia just like it feels yeah it feels like able to talk about this and also I was an indie kid Sophie so I was at gigs like I was in like I was like you know that person until I was I was in I wasn't even in dance music my way through that to dance music was uh really sideways like I did not I did go to raves growing up but I was in band I was more of a band girl in my late teens interesting yeah I mean I was in a band first before I was a DJ.

1:01:20Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Very cool. Maybe you like a little bit of the storytelling then that can go into dance music from coming at it from that side.

1:01:28Anna Lunoe: I think dance music just became the medium that I could most get my hands on the fastest. It was, you know, being in a band and being a musician had way more gates in my way that I had to get through somehow, especially from Australia, just for whatever reason dance music and DJing became my way

1:01:48Sophie Ellis-Bextor: and yeah yeah um I feel like there's so much we could talk about with all those things but I'm aware of our time so I just wanted to ask you what it was like doing your work with Melanie C who's also been on the podcast and is such a brilliant woman and it looked like the two of

1:02:02Anna Lunoe: you just had the best time I just love her yeah I don't know how she came into my life but it was just so beautiful so basically uh Melanie C is just it's like much like meeting you is it's meeting someone who you've always known of in culture and then you get to know a person behind it and they're wonderful and it's so beautiful to just be around that and really feel like their friend and it's yeah it's it's just brilliant and it's been one of the most wonderful surprises of

1:02:39Sophie Ellis-Bextor: my life yeah yeah I could see you guys have very good chemistry yeah it's really cool man I don't

1:02:45Anna Lunoe: think there's many people that wouldn't have chemistry with her because she's great she's just

1:02:49Sophie Ellis-Bextor: it's what you see on the box yeah she's very warm she's warm and brilliant and funny and she's she's

1:02:55Anna Lunoe: not taking herself too seriously and she loves her journey and she's not shy to talk about it and it's so inspiring and what I loved most about her which I'm not sure that I've got had the chance to even talk about much is how much I love that she's so still learning and she's moving into DJing and she's moving into so many different new forms in music she's a student and she is doing her live shows and she's DJing and she's not afraid to just try it and do it it's the coolest thing ever yeah you're right that is really cool it's so cool and yeah you can imagine when you've had the kind of story she has it could be intimidating to try and put yourself out there like we talked about earlier sometimes people aren't that nice about those changes and she just I mean I guess with what they experienced no one can touch her right like she's just she's climbed the highest mountains of that and she has some elite metabolizing that we can you know that she can teach us to get through the hard times when people aren't appreciating what you're putting down or being hard on it but she is that is I think people really gravitate towards her and see that in her because she is the eternal give it a go.

1:04:09Anna Lunoe: She's the eternal give it a go student and it pays off and she's extremely talented at everything she does too.

1:04:15Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Yeah, you're right. I like that tribute to her enthusiasm and to that as a good quality to have because you're right, that's quite infectious. Yes, it is. So I think when you're doing what you do and then someone comes into it with all this like excitement around it that rubs off on you and you're like, oh, yeah, this is fun and you're right, let's see what we can be playful within something that's familiar to you.

1:04:36Anna Lunoe: there's a little bit of sometimes I feel like we all I'm sure have moments where we're like oh can I still do this can I still try I just love it I just was really inspired by how much she was up for it and open yeah I mean some fresh blood is a good thing like that isn't that yeah it's exciting

1:04:53Sophie Ellis-Bextor: and talking of the fresh blood thing finally I wanted to know do your do you play music to your kids and watch what they respond to because kids can really respond a lot to dance music I think

1:05:04Anna Lunoe: Yeah, they're really into their music and completely different music. I love watching their experience in music. I actually at first didn't push it on them at all. Like I just – it was always in the background. I never talked about it and I think that a part of that was never wanting to push it when people would say, oh, do you get them on the decks? Do you do this? And I'm like, no, I never do anything like that.

1:05:28Sophie Ellis-Bextor: It's just – I think it's more like when it's around them, they're just watching them kind of – because I think dynamic shifts, kids can sometimes it can be quite an instinctive thing that they start moving their bodies and then like a couple of mine go really quite quite far out with the dancing yeah we'll put music on at home and we'll get like the laser thing on and the smoke machine going okay this is happening

1:05:49Anna Lunoe: and it's it happens and it's also so universal too like having all the kids over and they're all we always have dance parties you know my daughter hilariously has had she's only eight but two of her parties have been dance parties really yeah two of them and now I swear I didn't push it on her I swear she decided one I was supporting the Chemical Brothers two years ago and she was actually going through a phase she was probably about four or five at the time she was in kindy she was five and she was insanely jealous that I had a show and she didn't have a show because she'd recently been to a party of my friend of 40th where she had had a DJ Dex and mic on the stage and the kids were all dancing on the stage and singing on the mic so she's like I should be performing with you and I was like I agree but this is not my show I'm warming up for this band and I can't have you on the stage she's like I should do it I'm your daughter and people will want to see me it's like you're right people would want to see you pretty cute It would be pretty cute.

1:06:53Anna Lunoe: But I was also, they have incredible analog gear. So the thought of my child dancing on stage and like knocking out Tom's synthesizer or something. Oh, can you imagine? So I had to, I was petrified. She came to the show and she's tried to run on stage before. And I said to my husband, I was like, you can't let her on the stage because I thought they're going to let her watch from the front or the side. I'm not sure. If she's down the front in the pit, that's good because she can't run on stage. if she's side of stage you're gonna have to hold on to her because she will run and so I was petrified plus we've got Rocky who's like three so he's got to hold on to the both of them and yeah in the end sadly they weren't allowed to stay at the show because the venue freaked out that the kids were there and that's a whole other drama but they yeah her desire so then we had to do her party was I was like I'm so sorry about that look let's if and she's like I'm gonna to do my own show and I was like great let's get organized what do you need I need a stage I need a mic she sounds like my kind of girl yeah she's on her way she's on her way somewhere it's pretty cool so that part of it's really cool to see her this drive in her it's incredible and it's not just music it's art it's creating cards for the whole class it's a vision to bring everyone to do something she's got some kind of drive and then my son he recently out of nowhere I mean he was really musically inclined as a baby which sounds silly but I literally had him on a track when he was two years old because I went to record my daughter saying all right for this song I've got called all right it just says like key words on the drop when like the different points in the song so I thought I'll be cute to layer in their voices so I I went to record her and she she wouldn't really do it at that point she's pretty cheeky but he was only two and he his timing his pitch his delivery I'd be like okay more energy and he'd do it there's an if there's a video on my Instagram he was incredible and then didn't have him in any music classes and then suddenly he started getting really into this hardcore band called Turnstile there's a little yeah yeah so he loves this band called Turnstile so my husband is really into music as well and he was playing Turnstile in the house and Rocky got really into it and we ended up they were coming to Sydney like the week after so we went and they you know he met the he got a tour set list and he watched the whole set it was like 11 p.m at night we'd given him and we'd woken him up to take him anyway now he has a drum kit and he just sits there playing turnstile songs so with his headphones on loud so

1:09:28Sophie Ellis-Bextor: I think we've got something brewing over here you have um maybe I could I don't know do they have a manager we're open to discussion well let's finish broadcast I'll start discussing my terms thank you so much Anna what a pleasure it's so nice to talk to you so nice

1:09:53Sophie Ellis-Bextor: it is not often I finish a podcast episode chat by offering to manage the offspring of my guest so not sure what came over me but I just thought Anna's kids sounded very cool and I'm sure the bright future's ahead um but yeah what a lovely woman what a fascinating insight into that world and I think for me the thing one of my real sort of takeaway parts of the conversation uh well a couple I liked Anna's three-month rule where she says that she sort of thinks about her diary in terms of three months I think there's something in that that I can take a little bit of comfort from as someone who has an equally unpredictable work life but also um the sheer what it says about Anna's character that she's confident and resilient enough to have done all that traveling completely on her own turning up in a foreign land doing her DJ sets you know playing to thousands of people and come off stage and you are just a party of one you are not sharing that experience with people you are not you know making those casual reflections we make when we travel or we work that you would to someone if you're with sharing it with someone so that is pretty wild to me and I actually don't know if I'm cut from as strong a cloth as that I think I would really struggle I love my own company I love the times on my tour when I get to wander a city for hours on end and no one knows where I am for a little minute but traveling completely solo and experiencing a gig completely solo and having no one to say oh what about that moment oh and I that was a bit stressful or whatever it might be that is um that's super super impressive and very different uh that's where the difference comes i think from being on the musician side to the dj side what an interesting life anna is leading and still so much drive i can see that she's very much in the pocket of a very exciting part of her career so really lovely to hang out with her and as ever i'm so grateful to have been so generous with her wisdom and her stories because because it's lovely for us to listen to, isn't it?

1:12:01Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And yeah, so good to be taken back to that moment in Sydney. It's way so sweet. So Anna came along and was there for the gig, of course. And I met another lady for the first time when I was there, which was, she was known as the first female wiggle, Emma Memma. She's a children's entertainer. And Emma hopped up on stage with me for one of my songs, Freedom of the Night, where I do some dancing with a ribbon. And so did Emma. So it was a pretty glorious and memorable gig all round for lots of happy reasons. Oh dear, I can hear. So my 10-year-old's got up now. I can hear him and Mickey arguing next door.

1:12:36Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Do you want to sort it out? Yeah, raised voices but not angry ones. I'm going to let it roll and I'm going to go make pancakes for the big guy now he's up. And in the meantime, I hope whatever you've been up to for the weekend has been really lovely. Thank you so much as ever to everybody who's contributed to this week's episode. So my lovely producer, Claire, for her gorgeous production. My lovely husband, Richard, for editing the podcast and being so patient with me while I take until the 11th hour to give him all the things he needs to put it together. Sorry, darling. Much appreciated. Thank you to Ella May for her beautiful artwork.

1:13:18Sophie Ellis-Bextor: And thank you to Anna Luna for being such a brilliant, interesting, compelling guest. and of course biggest thank you of all you you're the ones with the ears sitting there joining this community and shaping it to be what it is please and now I'm repeating myself I'm going to say it till I'm blue in the face uh firstly I do check in on what little reviews I get on the places where you can leave reviews for the podcast so all your kind words all your support it really is good for petrol in the tank of the podcast as is more crucially i would say your suggestions of guests some of my favorite guests have been your idea you have some brilliant ones um they could be really high profile people they could be people with that we might not have heard of before but they've got really interesting lives they're leading anything i am open to it bring it on all right wherever you're up to have a lovely lovely time and you will have my little voice in your ears very soon if that's the sort of thing you're into which you've come this far you might as well say you are all right let's love fight

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