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No one else in pop does drama like Empire Of The Sun. The Australian duo burst onto the scene in 2008 with their debut album Walking On A Dream, and some of the most spectacular costumes in modern music.
Back in 2013 with spectacular new album Ice On The Dune, Empire Of The Sun (Pnau star Nick Littlemore and Sleepy Jackson frontman Luke Steele) are set to bring cosmic bliss back to the pop world once again, with a second collection of flawless, psychedilic pop gems from another dimension. Or at least, from their own surreal minds.
Ahead of the album release, we spoke to Nick Littlemore to find out how a recording studio for blind people brought the duo back together, their aspirations for the second album, what they have planned for their audience and trying to work through their creative clashes...
Hello Nick. Since we are speaking to you on the phone we need to know; are you in your full Empire Of The Sun regalia?
Always.
Good. When you're putting on your costumes for the millionth time, do you ever regret making Empire Of The Sun so theatrical?
When we become these characters, they're like our friends. I can talk about them as separate entities, because when we're in the full garb, it's a different feeling. We dress up that way because we want to match the melody, the harmony and the message. It feels like wearing normal clothing would be doing a disservice to what we're trying to create - which is from another world.
This time around the costumes you and Luke are wearing are noticably different. What was the concept between the new outfits?
This time around, we were basing it more on a story and we were in colder climates. First time around we were going through swealtering summmers in China and Mexico, this time around we wanted to be more covered up I guess, we're taking a very journey on the story we're unravelling. It works two ways.
If only Empire Of The Sun put a little more attention into their image...
How have things moved on from Walking On A Dream to Ice On The Dune?
Empire, to me, feels like an inner journey, and we want to spell that out in a road movie setting. Lyrically as well, we have some very fantastical ideas, but they are also very humanist. We're coming back to the very core of human life and the things that move us. There's a line I keep coming back to on this record on 'I'll Be Around', which is as simple as 'I'll be around for a while', and its all about Luke's voice. If you see it on paper you wouldn't think twice about it, but the way he delivers that line it means so much. The three years when we separated and he was living on the road, touring and doing all this stuff, there was that tyranny of distance that we always felt from the rest of the world living in Australia, but this time it was from each other. Those three years. A lot of the messages coming through on this record are about reassurance that things are going to be alright, that there's someone watching over you that will take care of you and deeply cares for you. I don't want to say we're creating some kind of God-like figure or anything like that, but I think this album is about a resonance that exists all around the world, it's like the leylines of synchronicity.
Watch 'Alive' by Empire Of The Sun below
You also described Ice On The Dune as an aspirational album. Considering the success you had with Walking On A Dream, what are you aiming for this time around?
The aspirations are for the audience. When we made the first album we were in a tiny room in a not-so desirable suburb of Sydney. We were dreaming of what this album could have been for us, moving to New York and working with these amazing people, and even down to names that came true - we did go and work with Jay-Z and Beyonce. We travelled, we made a record with Elton John and I had my first UK No.1, it was pretty crazy. All these things happened to us, and this time around we're really interested in inspiring positivity in the world and in our audiences. There's so much creativity, from people coming to our shows or posting things online and really having an interaction with the band. It's not even really a band, it's a concept we want people to be involved in. We want people to get more involved in that, for the shows to turn into another galaxy and for everyone in the audience to have their own costume. Then, when we do get more organised and make the film, we'll hire all the audience for the film and it will be a whole other world.
Listen to 'DNA' by Empire Of The Sun below
So there is a film coming too?
Oh everything's coming.
Between the two albums you released Pnau's Soft Universe album and the Elton John remix collection. What do you feel you brought from those projects to the new Empire Of The Sun album?
Soft Universe was definitely a very different record for Pnau. That record couldn't have happened if it hadn't been for Empire. I feel like every record I'm a part of, that I make, is the logical next album in my career. I feel that doing it with different counterparts, you have different results. You can listen to either Empire album or any of the Pnau record and they are markedly different in many ways. We're always going for the same thing, but it's always a different trajectory the way you try and get there. It really is about what Turner was painting, that sense of divinity. That hole in the storm. That understanding of hope. A shoulder to lean upon.
Littlemore (left) and Pnau bandmate Peter Mayes worked with Elton John in 2012
Why do you think Empire has captured the imagination and done so well - while Pnau's success has been on a much smaller scale?
I know right? Luke's voice is something to behold. I never understood it, because when we had the success with Walking On A Dream it didn't seem a million miles away from so many things I'd been involved in previously, but it got such a response that I thought I'd struck gold here and it had never happened before to me. Music is strange like that. Maybe people will come back in 12 years and think 'wow, that Pnau album was really good'. We're just finishing a new album now actually.
A new Pnau album? When are we likely to hear that?
It's such an emotional journey making a big record that I need to hot-step to another record or otherwise i'm going to fall. I always like to have a number of projects on the go. You've always got stuff to say, even if you are exhausted or whatever and it is always important to get stuff out.
Watch Empire Of The Sun perform new material live below
Considering how many projects you have on the go, how did you even find time to make a new Empire album?
We knew it was going to be a big thing, we ran into each other in New York city about 18 months ago. Luke was in town doing some shows, we got together and I thought the best way to do it after so much time was just to go into a studio. So I found this studio in Manhattan, and it was all run by blind people, or very partially sighted people. They have these enormous computer screens and they would be zooming all the way in and they could only see the tiniest amount. It was an interesting environment. All the equipment was very strange and were things we'd never seen before. We just started making music and it was our coming home. It turns out that journey of coming home, that unity, it took longer than that brief flirtation in New York.
We followed each other around the world for about six months and then pretty much settled in Los Angeles, close to where Luke lives now in Santa Monica. It was a natural flow. We talked about it early on, saying 'this is going to get full on, this is going to get intense' and we may fall in and out of each other and understanding each other, but no matter what happens we have to push on with the music we create. We're two quite definite minds working together, we have different idea and we come from different worlds - but when it works, it's so worth all the strain and the energy you expell. We understood it was worth it, whatever we were about to embark upon. In some ways we could have sat down and said 'lets go and write Walking On A Dream 2' but it doesn't work like that. You just make things.
Around the end of the first album period, there were rumours of big fall outs between you and Luke. Do you think clashes can end in a better end product?
If we look historically at the great partnerships and what they have created, they have almost always been volatile. What we are trying to do, and what the human race is largely incapable of doing, is learning from past partnerships and histories of relationships that had gone sour. We were trying to hold on and say, no matter what, we'll always make music together. With Empire, it's coming from that truely honest emotional place. You have to feel that real sense of centre within each other to create simplistic lines like 'I'll be around'.
Thank you very much, Nick Littlemore of Empire Of The Sun. Ice On The Dune is released 17 June, 2013.
