Ephemeral Love, Anonymity and the Resurrection of Lost Music: A Look into DJ Anita Lovemore’s Valentine’s Set
Cast against the typical Eugene rain, the sound of music invites the guests along a muddy path to the back patio, which overlooks your typical college backyard turned swamp. People in eccentric dresses, suits, and ties flow gently in and out of the glass doors, connecting the music to the pouring rain. Loud 2000s beats echo with every opening door until being fully immersed in the dimly lit room. Anita Lovemore commands the room, dressed in a vibrant red suit with gold accents while keeping to their unassuming DJ corner. Blending into her sprawl of electronic gear, she says little to the passersby while keeping a watchful eye on the dance floor, guiding our experience in the story that is music.
While the artist has been DJing for many years, this was the second public appearance of the persona Anita Lovemore. Her initial debut celebrated Halloween, indulging Lovemore's passion for horror, featuring heavy techno, jungle, and dark sounds. It was more than a night for costumes and sweaty dancing, but a love letter to her community. A day that also served to honor Lovemore's trans anniversary, this debut marked a special time to illuminate to her queer community. In this latest Valentine themed show, Lovemore opted for more bubbly pop sounds, highlighting soul house and R&B tracks from the 2000s. Hits like Kaytranada's "Be Your Girl" and Mariah Carey’s "Fantasy" shook up the dance floor, embracing the audience in a warm, soulful hug. Both performances felt fresh, unique, and daring in defying conventional party music norms.
The artist behind Anita Lovemore has long been deeply embedded in the music scene. Starting by experimenting on GarageBand to manually mix and master tracks, and later investing in a professional board, they have been DJing since 2020. Over time, their philosophy has centered around music as a vehicle for narrative. Thus, the character Anita Lovemore arises, conceived during a musical hiatus when the artist was exploring developing characters through her other creative passion, film writing.
This character draws inspiration from the artist's passion for films, particularly two notable movies: 'The Fog' by John Carpenter and 'Do the Right Thing' by Spike Lee. ‘The Fog’ is centered around a radio DJ trapped inside of a lighthouse, watching a fog take over the town. In the same right, she pulls from another iconic radio DJ character, Mr. Senor Love Daddy, played by Samuel L Jackson in ‘Do the Right Thing’, whose narrator role is integral in connecting various characters’ stories. The merging of these two tropes, spooky radio DJ and ubiquitous narrator, gave life to DJ Anita Lovemore.
Through her foundation, it is understandable when she explains, “Anita Lovemore is better understood within the online radio.” Lovemore’s comfort lies in her fictional radio show, where a certain level of anonymity allows the artist to bring the character to life. The character takes on a world of their own through the lens of online radio, cultivating an ambiguous underground space for these personas to connect with an audience that is both intimate and brief. “It's that instance of that random occurrence that’s supposed to be an exciting connection in conversation for people because there's a lore I create of like a weird ephemeral radio station that isn't here and is here," Lovemore explains. Anonymity is crucial to the fluidity of creation. When characters pursue fame, it often infringes on their musical narrative. The DJ identity acts merely as a conduit for the music and the story it aims to convey.
Introducing her to a physical dimension was new for the character and artist. Anita Lovemore, a character who is built off the belief that every song is a love song, felt compelled to create a space for the community to appreciate her narrative. By keeping her shows more underground and the character's face anonymous, Lovemore can concentrate on crafting experiences rather than pursuing a career. This also allows her to maintain a healthy divide between the character and her personal identity beyond Anita Lovemore.
Anonymity also plays into Anita Lovemore’s homage to and celebration of queer community. There exists a layer of secrecy and a code surrounding queerness, especially in music, which has historically been expressed in private under aliases. The Anita Lovemore persona not only honors this queer legacy but also defends the artist's identity in a world where queerness is policed. She looks to embody the spirit of Hannah Montana, existing in the best of both worlds, one personal and one performative.
Despite the veil of obscurity that surrounds Anita Lovemore the community she has cultivated remains clear. In this celebration of love, she gathers a group of impassioned young people to listen to and contribute to the story of music. When discussing her motivation for this set, she refers to the feeling of wanting to share a really great song with a friend—but in this case, it was a six-hour set. This set took four months to carefully curate, with each song acting as a microcosm of a larger narrative universe. Throughout the night, the music transitioned from house to jungle to R&B, all centered around the theme of love, specifically the expression of love through movement, curated by a track list encouraging audience members to dance until they could dance no more.
In responding to how she sources her music, she says it’s an exhaustive process, “I'll spend hours looking for like a song from like a 90s art house movie that doesn't have a title, doesn't have a music artist, only exists on YouTube, nobody can find it and I'll put that in there because I want people to know that there are songs that were almost lost and you're hearing something that could be lost.” Storytelling is an intentional process but for Lovemore the specialty lies in the experience. With many of her friends relocating in the summer, this set was especially meaningful to bring together community, perhaps this specific community for the last time ever. By curating this experience for her community, Lovemore resurrects lost music and cements the moment, though fleeting, into memory.
Although she’s not trying to push her character into the mainstream, Anita’s future is much like her character—ambiguous. “I’m not supposed to be a DJ forever; I’m not supposed to be doing any of this forever,” she says with acceptance. With roots in the online radio realm, where Anita finds comfort in anonymity, she may very well stick strictly to that domain. However, the physical manifestation of Anita has always been and will continue to be centered around community. Without community, there is no DJ; they share a symbiotic relationship. “It’s a dance, like all relationships,” she shares.
Recently, however, Lovemore questions if people have forgotten the art of slow dancing. She mentions her fatigue with sticking to a strict BPM rate, and she is playing around with the idea of turning the page on club classics and moving towards something a bit more experimental—Arabic pop music and Bollywood hits are two genres she has in mind.
To keep up to date with Anita Lovemore, including future shows and links to her recorded sets, check out her Instagram @anitalovemorenow.
Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7DAnXEAgeKhufQfx1f3U9J?si=21eabc76f61244b8