Like its gemstone namesake, Anna Lunoe’s debut album Pearl arrives after years of grit and patience. Over nearly two decades, the Sydney-based artist built a global reputation on the strength of her tastemaking DJ sets and radio shows (including Apple Music’s danceXL and HYPERHOUSE). But as Lunoe’s career expanded, she felt her own music had taken a back seat. In 2023, she redirected her focus to production, challenging herself to create 40 demos in a month. Her goal wasn’t to make an album—it was to see the artist she’d become when creating music for the pure joy of it. “I started creating a lot more,” Lunoe tells Apple Music. “Then after the first month or two, I sent these songs to a friend of mine and listened to them, and it became apparent: This could be a project. If not now, what am I waiting for?” Pearl is the culmination of Lunoe’s self-discovery, revealing an artist who’s adventurous and effervescent, yet deeply reflective. It channels the unpredictability of her DJ sets, connecting whimsical rave that recalls Madonna’s “Ray of Light” (“The Seed”), alluring tech house (“Body Heat”), sunrise-soundtracking ambient (“Keeping Secrets”) and cathartic drum ’n’ bass (“Going Home”) through its kinetic energy. Other moments highlight Lunoe’s more vulnerable songwriting, like the pensive “Deep Blue Sea” and the glittering title track, an ode to protecting your dreams. “These songs are all tied together by the idea of finding yourself through movement—through all the different places and moods that help you recentre,” she says. “When you go to a club to dance off your frustration, hopes and fears, you don’t want just one mood. You want to go through a journey of joy, ecstasy, questioning, stress and anger to come back to that place of resolution. That’s what I’m hoping to do on the album.” Read on as Lunoe breaks Pearl down, track by track. “Pearl” “‘Pearl’ is the spiritual North Star to an idea that encapsulates the journey of this album. It's a determined song that asks us to centre the pure hope we have for ourselves, our journey in this world and our community that I don't think we give enough airspace to in our day-to-day lives. It's my little mantra for tuning in to that. It's my hope that this will remind people to care for it, love it and nurture it, and hopefully it grows into something beautiful for them. I created it with Jack Glass, who is my main collaborator across many of the tracks on the album. I really wanted the chords to give me a physical reaction, to make my stomach pang when the chorus hit.” “Real Love” “‘Real Love’ is about being in your moment. That maybe you have found yourself exactly where you are meant to be. That gathering and moving in unity with a whole group of people has the potential to resonate inner love and acceptance on a scale we don't get enough of in our lives. This song is so euphoric and also gritty, gutsy and strong. I couldn't be happier with where this ended up. It was the first track finished, and it really became a sonic home base for finishing the rest of the album.” “Polite” (feat. Shanique Marie) “Shanique Marie added such a brilliant energy to the track. I created the instrumental with Jack and we sent it to Shanique with no guidance, just do what feels right. She sent back this incredible interpretation of not being too polite. That really resonated with me as someone who waited to get permission to do so many things in my career before I had the guts to take the reins myself, and who had to learn that no one was going to tap me on the shoulder and give me an opportunity to be whatever it was that I hoped I could be. That message was so pertinent that it needed to be on the album.” “Right Here” (with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) “This song has such a sassy little energy. This is a reminder to take up space and be the main character in your life and in your relationships, in your friendships, in your situation, whatever it is—take up space and know your worth. But there's also a kindness, like, we're on the same team here, but don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I'm strong, don't get it twisted. I wrote it at home on one of my early demo days, but at some point I sent the demo to one of my long-time creative partners Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, who had some ideas, and we finished it together.” “The Seed” “‘The Seed’ is one of the first songs that I wrote in those first few demo-writing days. Those days were really fun. I just spent an hour writing a song and then moved on to the next, but I instantly loved this idea. This song is about potential, and it's kinda the same idea as ‘Pearl’, but in a different way, like we all have this abundance within us. There's this abundance in nature where this tiny little seed actually wants to sprout. You just have to water it and love it and let it grow into what it's meant to be. There's something so inherently early-2000s rave, ethereal, hyperpop, hypnotic and cute about it. I actually had this big sign on my wall that said 'no cute' because I felt that in the past my work has been too cute, but I didn't care with this. That's how much I liked it. I thought about calling the album The Seed as well.” “Only Love” (with Y U QT) “This song was such a pure collaboration. I literally had this little vocal idea, and [Y U QT and I] had become friends online. I was playing all their songs, and I randomly was like, ‘Hey, I've got this idea. What do you reckon?’ And Darryl sent back almost the exact same version of what you hear on the record straight away—within a day, honestly. He took the spirit and ran with it. He also completed and sang the verse himself. He'd never sung on a song before. It was just completely unexpected and so cool! I love that we really created something that neither of us would've done separately, which is a sign of a great collaboration.” “Keeping Secrets” (feat. Iglew) “This is probably the oldest song on the record. I wrote it, I think, in maybe 2012 or 2013. I remember writing it in my first apartment in LA, and I think I was writing about an imaginary safe place that I created in my head. It ultimately echoes the same place that I talk about in ‘Pearl’, the place that we go to deep in our hearts where no one can get to us. When I was finalising the album order, this demo popped into my head. I'd actually sent that song to Iglew back in 2015, and he had written a beautiful intro, which had a similar vibe. So I wrote him out of nowhere, like, ‘Hey, do you still have that intro? I’d love to put it as an interlude on my album.’ He didn’t have the instrumental anymore, but we created this together in a few days.” “Deep Blue Sea” “Dance music is an interesting art form for deeper inquiry, because lyrics can only tell so much of a story. The instrumentation actually gives so much energy that is indefinable. With this, the sentiment is the power of finding yourself back home in nature, and its ability to wipe us clean, centre us, hold us in our darkest moments and tap into our deepest superpowers. ‘Deep Blue Sea’ isn’t sugar-coated. It's not all positive and light. The instrumental is holding us in a place of suspense, a place of tension. Lyrically, I wanted to speak to that tension. I wanted to speak to the need to find resolution. It says all that to me, but it also could say something different to somebody else.” “Trouble” “See, what we're not gonna do is not have fun on this album. This rowdy type of sonic is integral in my sets, and I needed to make sure I had that covered. It's definitely tapping a cheekier inner almost-teenage Anna on the record that I’m really glad is there. This spirit is at the core of what I do—like, we just want to have fun, man. We have no interest in drama, we just need to shake all this off and be together, and release all the shit that gets put on us that we don't want.” “Body Heat” (with J.O.S.H.U.A) “I've been starting my sets with this song. ‘Body Heat’ is what I like to call a great ear-breaker. Often you're playing on a lineup and people have been hearing heavy bass or heavy drums or all kinds of different sounds before you. And I like to have an ear-cleanser when I start to bring people into what I'm about to do. It's like it wiped out what was before. It taps us into our energy together and we're going to move forward from here. This track was created in collaboration with a brilliant creator and DJ from Bristol called J.O.S.H.U.A who brings brilliant raw drum energy to his tunes. I came with the vocals and synth refrains.” “Look My Way” “This is one of the songs that I wrote at home on a demo day, and in hindsight, I think it's really about patience. I mean, these last few years, there've been so many moments where I did not know what was going to happen in so many areas of my life. I wasn't sure if I would be ever living a life that was comparable to what I lived pre-2020. I missed my life, my friends, my career. When I listen to this song, I hear that uncertainty, that questioning.” “Let’s Go Home” “‘Let's Go Home’ is a bittersweet little moment in time from those strange years that melted together between 2020 and 2022. I'd taken my daughter out for ice cream. There were all these birds flying around and I was on a busy road, and I don't know why I decided to record a voice note of that moment. Listening back, it really felt resonant. You realise how important it is to be present in the moment because it’s never coming back. When you listen back, you hear the preciousness that you lived—and live—every day.” “Going Home” “‘Going Home’ started as a demo in probably 2018. I had been loving this track called ‘Kool Aid’ by Diana Gordon, and it was stirring up this idea of going home and what that meant to me. At the time I had been living away from home and my family for over six years, and although I was happy and driven, I still missed my family enormously. This vocal poured out of me, but I had no idea what to do with it. It was so far from the dance space that I was occupying. In 2019 I heard ‘Kerosene!’ by Yves Tumor, which hit me in the same place. The emotion was so raw, I couldn't let it go. When I decided to make an album, one of the first things that came into my head was, ‘I'll finish with “Going Home”’—finally, I knew where it belonged.”