Empire Of The Sun: 'This Is The Perfect Time To Come Back'

It’s been 23 years since singer and multi-instrumentalist, Luke Steele, and musician and record producer, Nick Littlemore, first met at an A&R meeting.

Both artists were already signed to EMI, albeit as part of separate projects before the two would collaborate on The Sleepy Jackson’s debut album, Lovers, released in 2003 – Steele’s alternative rock band, and in 2006 with Littlemore’s art-punk band, Teenager. A year later, the two worked together again on the self-titled Pnau record, the third album by Littlemore, Peter Mayes and Nick’s little brother, Sam.

In August 2008, Nick Littlemore and Luke Steele united as Empire Of The Sun and released Walking On A Dream, the lead single from the album of the same name. The song – which is now iconic in Australia – peaked at #10 on the ARIA Singles Chart, reached #4 on the 2008 triple j Hottest 100, and is certified double platinum. In 2009, Walking On A Dream won that year’s ARIA award for Single Of The Year and the APRA for Dance Work Of The Year in 2010.

Funnily enough, in 2016, almost eight years after its original release, the song was featured in a Honda Civic commercial in the US, leading to Empire Of The Sun experiencing their first Alternative Songs hit and eventually topping Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.

In 2013, Empire Of The Sun released their second album, Ice On The Dune. “Self-assurance and conviction guided the knife when the duo were removing the fat from Ice On The Dune. As a result, the album continues to throb forwards and holds a consistency cover-to-cover that – for all the acclaim and sales – their debut somewhat lacked,” The Music writer Benny Doyle wrote in an interview with Nick Littlemore.

Late 2016 saw the release of Two Vines, Empire Of The Sun’s most recent album which featured the hit, High And Low. The single also featured on the EA Sports game, FIFA 17. The band struggled to write music during 2020 and 2021, not getting much out of Zoom collaborations.

Last year, Luke Steele released his debut solo album, Listen To The Water, and this weekend, Empire Of The Sun will headline Now & Again festival in Werribee, Victoria, before playing a handful of shows in Sydney and Brisbane. It’s their first show in Victoria in almost a decade.

“I feel like this is the perfect time for Empire Of The Sun to come back,” Steele says after a flight from Auckland. He’s back in Australia now, preparing for the 75-minute Victorian exclusive at the Now & Again festival. “Post-pandemic, after everything that’s happened, there’s obviously been a very clear shift on planet Earth.

“I think there’s always been tremendous love for this band,” Steele continues, recalling the moments during lockdowns, “I had so many calls, emails, messages and requests from people yearning for the songs and the music. There were a lot of testimonies about what they’d been through, you know, from people getting over cancer to getting married to giving them hope during moments of deep depression. It became quite evident that we had become conduits or ambassadors and we have to honour that. This is the new era of Empire Of The Sun.”

Steele doesn’t seem at all nervous about headlining Now & Again festival alongside Gang Of Youths, and featuring Michael Bibi, Tones And I, Crooked Colours, German DJ Sven Väth, Peach PRC, Becca Hatch, and more excellent acts. “It’s gonna be so great. Festivals are one of the greatest experiences of music,” he proclaims. Performing at Werribee Racecourse, or “Being in a field or a dock or wherever with this huge amount of people all there for the same reason, the pulse and energy is undeniable.

“Everyone in the world of music felt that pull and those emotions in the two years when it was all taken away from us.” Empire Of The Sun couldn’t take the stage, and they struggled to write music while apart. Life really did shut down for Steele. “We work extremely well in the same room on a really fast, stream-of-consciousness kind of way of writing.

“It's quite strange how we write. I remember working with Lindsey Buckingham in Henson Studios in Hollywood, and we were writing and he was jamming along and he's just sort of stopped and said, God, this is so enjoyable,” he says with a bit of shock in his voice. “We’re like painters, throwing down 300 different melodies and lyrics. I love how Empire songs are formed because they become unique ways of talking about big issues, like hope and love and freedom and imagination.”

Those issues do indeed soundtrack Empire Of The Sun’s music. Visuals are also essential for the group and have always been intertwined with the music itself. “A lot of people take in art with their eyes, you know?” Steele asks – “It’s so, so important to make your videos and other art look beautiful. We’ve been given these precious eyes to see the magical things in this world. We want to make use of every sense a person has.”

This year is the 23^rd year of friendship for Steele and Nick Littlemore. “It’s definitely a unique relationship,” Steele laughs before adding, “but it’s powerful, you know? We understand the mission and the vision. It’s quite beautiful.

“We caught up last summer in LA – I really love the relationship,” he says. “Nick says, ‘How's your wife?’ I say, ‘Good, how's your wife?’ He goes, ‘Good. All right, should we get into it?’ It’s hilarious like that. We know the job at hand and we know what's at stake here and what our position is, so we work pretty hard and we work so well together.” There’s no small talk for Empire Of The Sun, Steele confirms, “Our small talk is literally four words: ‘Studio? Yes. Sounds good.’” It might sound weird, but it’s perfect for one of Australia’s most loved bands.

While Steele has collaborated with Littlemore, members of his musical family, and other artists, he went about his solo album, Listen To The Water, as a self-proclaimed Lone Ranger. “I mixed it myself and produced it all myself,” he shares. “When you're so entrenched in that path, you only really have yourself to blame or answer to when things go wrong.”

Steele admits that it wasn’t easy making the album, “I went through a couple of deep depressions,” he states, recalling the points when he’d listen to the mixes 600 times at different sound frequencies. He laughs at his inner perfectionist, “I had some real Brian Wilson moments.

“It was quite incredible, the way the songs were delivered to me. I would have a melody for a song, put down a guitar pattern, write the lyric, and cut the vocal immediately. And I'd finish the song the next day. So, every song was two days each, which was quite a beautiful process as I was laying these breadcrumbs along the path. I just had to keep journeying down that path to get to the next song.”

Steele is lucky because songwriting doesn’t always work like that. “Songwriters will tell you that,” he continues, even if you’re with the best songwriters or in the most beautiful place in the world. “Even then, your spirit might not be moving. You just have to be ready, and it just happened to be the perfect time.”

Perfect timing and overall, good for Steele as an artist. “[Making the album] did something for my soul. I proved that I was capable of writing, recording, mixing and producing a record.” Which will hopefully come in handy for the new era of Empire Of The Sun Steele has talked about.

For many in this country, Empire Of The Sun have been around for people’s entire lives, primarily thanks to Walking On A Dream – the album and single, and that’s something Steele doesn’t take lightly.

“At the point of writing that record, I was at the crossroads,” Steele begins. He wasn’t sure if continuing in music could be a possibility. “I think I had like, $35 to my name. I was living in a caravan in front of my parents’ house. I borrowed money from a lot of people [to make music]. It was at that point where maybe I would have had to get a real job.

“It's funny talking to my parents now, and my father-in-law and stuff, they all said the same thing,” he explains. “They were ready to have that talk and go, ‘You can't be serious about pursuing this music thing much longer.’ That song was a real blessing from God; the record came out the week my daughter was born.

“So we had this child, and then, literally a week after it came out, it had tremendous influence around the world and started moving at this rapid pace and the rest is history. It was an amazing blessing, but then for it to have been such an influential part of people's lives, that's the mission, for your songs to have an influence and to inspire people.”

Empire Of The Sun are headlining Now & Again festival this weekend. Buy tickets here. Tickets for the Sydney show are available through Frontier Touring – Brisbane has sold out.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

TOUR DATES

Saturday, 18 February – Now & Again Festival, Werribee, VIC

Tuesday, 21 February – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW

Wednesday 22 February – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW

Saturday 25 February – The Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD