More about: Empire Of The Sun

Peter Mayes, one of the Australian stars behind psychedelic indie-pop band Empire Of The Sun has revealed the band are close to finishing work on their second album.

The producer, also part of dance band Pnau, spoke of his excitement about the band's second album. He revealed that after writing hundreds of new tracks, they now had a potential collection of tunes to serve as a follow up to their debut, Walking On A Dream.

"We've been working on the new Empire Of The Sun record since last November and I am so excited about that right now," the producer told Gigwise. "We're getting towards the end of that now. It is sounding amazing. It's really big."

He also added that the trio (Mayes, Nick Littlemore and Luke Steele) needed time to fully digest their new work before deciding which tracks would make the new record.

"We need a week to just digest it all," he continued. "We've written over a hundred songs. We do right now have a great bunch of songs that could easily make up a really strong record."

Luke Steele of Empire Of The Sun, live at Latitude festival 2010

Mayes also added that Empire Of The Sun would not be chasing current trends on their second release, and were aiming for a 'timeless' sound similar to their debut.

"One of the tricks with Empire is to have a certain sense of timelessness. Not nostalgia for the sake of it, but a certain musicality," he added. "Those sort of feelings go beautifully with Nick's voice. It can be really futuristic, it can be anything. It's not just a dubstep record that's going to be cool for three months."

The producer of hits such as 'Walking On A Dream' and 'We Are The People' also laughed off rumours that the trio's time promoting the first album was marred by in-band bickering and falling outs, saying that the band was really all about frontman Luke Steele (of Sleepy Jackson).

"Everyone has to be happy and obviously Luke has to be happy, because at the end of the day, Empire is really about him and his voice," he said.

Empire Of The Sun released Walking On A Dream in 2008. It reaches double platinum in Australia and gold status in the UK.

Watch Empire Of The Sun's 'Walking On A Dream' video below

Photos: Empire Of The Sun's Luke Steele (and his magnificent hat)

More about: Empire Of The Sun