On Working With Lindsey Buckingham & Hearing Their Songs In New York Taxis

We find him in Sydney today, but Empire Of The Sun's Nick Littlemore explains that these days he's "based in Los Angeles with all the other celebrities". When asked how he finds life over there, Littlemore muses, "I find it rather strange, but we have a beautiful garden and I spend most of my time in the garden so that's great".

The presser for Empire Of The Sun's new Two Vines album features a quote attributed to Littlemore that details the inspiration behind its title track: "...this image of a modern city overtaken by jungle, almost like mother nature taking back the planet." Littlemore explains how this image landed in his brain box: "I guess things and ideas that I have come through me, I would say - like a kind of channelling, for want of a better term - and I think that it came through in a dreamlike state. You know, I've recently had an awakening of sorts and I started meditating, and listening to the planet, and this record is really an extension of that awakening, for me. I wanted to take the opportunity that I have now - and it's a privileged one... And I wanted to have something to say rather than just act like a crazy person and talk about colours all night. So what I wanted to say was that we need to return to nature, that we need to start listening to it, and I thought, 'What better way than to make a record about that and just how wise and beautiful this planet is?' And let's stop ignoring it and trying to build car parks on top of it and start actually loving it!"

"I've recently had an awakening of sorts and I started meditating, and listening to the planet, and this record is really an extension of that awakening, for me."

Does Littlemore meditate in his "beautiful garden" in LA? "I do indeed," he confirms. On whether these meditation sessions sometime offer up songs, Littlemore offers, "All my ideas have always come through some kind of open channel, with the collective unconscious or the cosmic consciousness." So does he feel like a conduit in a way? "Yeah, like a lightening rod," he suggests, which definitely sounds a lot sexier.

Empire Of The Sun's third album Two Vines was recorded in Los Angeles and Hawaii, and Littlemore shares, "We went to Hawaii twice and it was Luke [Steele]'s idea, 'cause he's an avid surfer. And I had been to Hawaii once before on a layover to London many years ago, and didn't love it and was a little nervous about it. But then being there was utterly beautiful, wonderfully wonderful and, I dunno, it changed a lot of things, y'know? It's a very magical place, especially away from all the built-up areas; just into nature.

"And it reminded me a lot of Australia and the things that I love about Australia; you know, the ocean, for example. I think the ocean's in every Australian's eyes from such a young age and will always be a part of us." Although Littlemore says he doesn't surf ("I'm not that coordinated"), he adds, "I swim - I love swimming - but, yeah! I think I've been on a surfboard once... it wasn't really for me."

They recruited an impressive slew of guest artists for Two Vines, including Wendy Melvoin (best known for being part of Prince's backing band The Revolution) and the inimitable Lindsey Buckingham. "We always approach people continuously, whether we're on an album cycle or not... some people come back, often people don't and occasionally they're available," Littlemore tells. "And Lindsey Buckingham - who obviously was a very large part of our sound and our influence, or sphere of influence - came down to the studio and it was incredible! I mean, it was like he was a member of the band and played music with us; it was so easy and so natural. The only other artist that I've worked with of that calibre - who's been as generous and easy as that - is obviously Sir Elton John."

Sir Elton John "is still, in part, managing" Littlemore, who confirms, "He's a part of my life". John first discovered Littlemore after coming across a copy of his dance-duo outfit Pnau's self-titled third album. "He became quite vocal about it," Littlemore fondly remembers. "I found out through Toni Collette, who is represented by my agent. Toni was having dinner with Sir Elton, and Pnau came up, and she passed along my number and then, yeah! The rest has been history. And it's been quite a marvellous journey, I must say, from then 'til now."

"I found out through Toni Collette, who is represented by my agent. Toni was having dinner with Sir Elton, and Pnau came up."

So is there some new Pnau on the horizon as well? "We have a song called Chameleon," Littlemore enlightens, before sharing some specifics: "We have a wonderful singer we're working with, who's a Guyanese girl, a wonderful voice... I just shot a video in Los Angeles and it's pretty wild. I think people are gonna be excited, you know; Pnau has always been pretty bonkers and this I don't think will let people down on that front."

Now we're just gotta know what became of all those fabulous Pnau character suits. "I know! I loved all those," Littlemore extols. "I don't know where they are. I think we tried to give them away, we tried to do charity with them - all these things - and I don't know where they are right now. The Strawberry's probably getting up to no good wherever that is. They really... have [minds] of their own, you know?" We propose that locating all of these different characters, scattered all around the globe, would make an awesome music-video premise and Littlemore laughs and plays along. "I occasionally get postcards from The Lightning Bolt. I mean, I think last time he was in Bolivia or something, but there was some fuck-up with his visa."

Steele co-wrote and supplied vocals on the Pnau song, With You Forever, but Littlemore also took on lead vocals with this outfit. "I've never really loved my voice," Littlemore confesses. "I mean, I've been doing a lot more singing of late and I think... it's getting better. I don't know if it's a great voice; it's certainly not in the calibre of, say, Luke's voice, but I'm really enjoying singing and I would like to do more of that."    

When asked what his role is in Empire Of The Sun's live shows these days, Littlemore reveals, "At this point it's really Luke's baby; he's very particular about that, so I'm allowing them to just do their thing and, you know, I just stay home and just love my wife and compose with other people and try and, you know, pay it forward in different ways."   

After acknowledging "music has been so incredibly giving" to him, Littlemore says he's "trying to give back now". "I've just started a small independent record label and I'm starting to make collaborative albums with all sorts of people from Australia and the UK, and United States and other places too," he divulges, pointing out that he's not working exclusively with "people who haven't had many opportunities". He's also looking to work with artists who are already "part of culture", but hoping to perhaps "do something different and something freer, and not so commercially driven". "It's more about the beauty of music," he concludes.  

Littlemore is speaking of The 2 Leaves Project and Every Ocean Tells A Story - the debut LP from this collaborative project, for which Littlemore worked with Vera Blue (Celia Pavey to her pals) - is out on 11 Nov. "When I first found out about her about five, six years ago I just really, really wanted to do something with her," Littlemore admits of discovering Pavey. "I know that her music, that she pursues, is - I mean it's beautiful; it's more on a commercial end and I wanted to do something that was purely artistic, but still very listenable."

"I've been chasing Darren for a while to make a record with me, but, well, he works with Prince instead - which I understand, I can't argue with that."

We can't resist the opportunity to express our love for Littlemore's erstwhile Teenager project (with Ladyhawke's Pip Brown). And he seems chuffed: "Really? That's a very underground reference, that's cool!" When told Teenager came across very much as a one-off musical snapshot of where the pair was at, musically, at that particular point in time, Littlemore allows, "It really was a snapshot, yeah. And I think there were a lot of ideas on that Teenager album that were sort of - they weren't unfinished, but there was just so much... it was sorta saturated in our own 20s, and life, and all the mess of everything that goes on in that period of, you know, going out to bars - and doing shows in crappy venues - and all this sorta stuff. And it really saturated the record in that way... If we were to make another one, it probably wouldn't sound anything like that; it would probably be a lot more formalised."

As Littlemore learns more about production, does he think this makes it harder to leave a recording raw and resist the temptation to make it sound more polished? "You know, it is, and I wish it wasn't, because I love things that are raw and I'm trying to make things in a more raw [way] with this 2 Leaves Project. And I've done a number of albums now - I've done about ten - and I'm trying to retain that energy; that it's not completely smoothed-out. But, inevitably, you know what to do so things just end up being a little bit more polished."

During a recent interview this scribe conducted with Darren Hart (Harts), Littlemore's name came up and, when told, Littlemore enthuses, "I've been chasing Darren for a while to make a record with me, but, well, he works with Prince instead - which I understand, I can't argue with that. He's a tremendously talented young man. I've been watching his career and he's a lovely guy, too, which is a nice combination." 

Littlemore's name cropped up during a discussion about how songs can reach chart peaks years after their original release due to high-profile sync placements. Case in point? Empire Of The Sun's Walking On A Dream. "That's a good example of a song that feels like it's still living, in some weird way," Littlemore concurs. "We never had any radio play in America our entire career and then nine years - or eight-and-a-half years - after we released the album, we're finding ourselves on the radio! I'm getting into taxis in LA, or in New York, and there's Walking On A Dream. It's a bizarre feeling. 

"That song is all about love and light and it's wonderful to share more good thoughts with the universe, y'know?" Littlemore enthuses on said track, which "opened the door" for Empire Of The Sun to be added to Stateside radio playlists. "They've taken on High & Low [from Two Vines], which has been wonderful," Littlemore extols. Every artist/band secretly hopes to make it in America and Littlemore considers, "It always felt impossible to me, but it was somewhat of a dream to, you know, conquer the largest market in the world and just reach all those beautiful people."