Empire Of The Sun

Fri 5th Mar, 2010 in Features

When I first begin chatting with Luke Steele, he gives off the vibe of an affable but dopey stoner. A long, drawn out “yeeeeeah” peppers nearly every sentence; think Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, or perhaps Brad Pitt in True Romance as he pulls on that low-fi homemade bong. There are moments of complete incoherence, where it felt like I wouldn’t get a lick of sense from the man who fronts the huge success that is Empire of the Sun. But then funnily enough, he breaks out with an extended spiel that’s crystal clear in its clarity, and captures precisely what the band is on about. Who the hell is this enigma? You begin to quickly wonder what of the wafty demeanor is genuine, and how much of it is carefully crafted by Steele in order to create a mystique around his music. Truth be told, he probably wouldn’t get away with it if there wasn’t something special and grand about Empire of the Sun.

“Initially it was pretty much about just bringing colour and life and a positive mindset back to the music world, with imagination pretty much sitting at the top of the list,” says Steele, referring to the fact there’s something fairly special going on here that really managed to strike a chord. When their debut album Walking on a Dream landed in the closing months of 2008, its impact wasn’t immediate, but it built up some devastating momentum fairly quickly. By January the lead single had reached the farthest corners of commercial radio, and before long it was being picked up all over the world, getting licensed and featured in BMW commercials all over the place.

The reason for its success was fairly simple; in its finest moments, the album was nothing less than sublime. With tunes like We Are The People, Half Mast and the title track Walking On A Dream, the quartet of Luke Steele, Pnau frontman Nick Littlemore along with Donnie Sloan and Peter Mayes had crafted the sort of pop music that never veered into saccharine or felt contrived, but carried enough of a catchy punch to get most of the world singing along. Musically, they’d managed to conjure an air of mystery with their sonic mix of acoustic instrumentation and ethereal electronica, lending it the sort of resonance that was uplifting, but still hung around to leave a haunting afterglow. It was all underpinned by Steele’s spine-tingling vocals and piercing falsetto, which saw him reach the potential that his work with Sleepy Jackson had always hinted at.

Empire’s broad musical appeal is fairly obvious, but still, nobody could really have predicted how successful the project would be, and how much it’d transcend the “side project” status the group was initially tagged with. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone did, even ourselves really. We knew we had a good chemistry from the work we’d done over the years, but it took around six years of mulling around to finally do a masterwork.” You could even drag out some overdone musical metaphor to describe the magic; catching lightning in a bottle, the pieces all coming together perfectly. “I think we probably did the Empire project at the perfect time,” Steele says. “We’d gotten to the point where we were professional in what we were doing, we’d all toured quite a bit, and we always talk about our early 20s when it seemed like we were still trying to filter out some of the fads and themes of the music world. Now we’ve ended up at the point where it really is just about the songs.”

Of course though, if you take one look at the high drama that adorns the front cover of their album then you’d have some idea it’s about a lot more than just the songs; there was a whole other level of Empire of the Sun mythology created to go along with it. Those elaborate costumes, the silly headpieces, and the far-away fantasy land they’ve conjured up for their video clips in. All that wistful talk of ‘standing on the shore’ and ‘waiting for the ship to come’; Littlemore and Steele peering out into the horizon in their music videos, looking pensive, mysterious and a tad confused. The LCD spectacle fantasy we were treated to when they debuted their live show at Parklife last year, which brought the Empire fantasy world to life, and of course… those lady swordfish dancers. It’s fairly obvious Steele and cohorts were using Empire of the Sun as an opportunity to craft something just a little larger than a few blokes hitting keys and strumming on acoustic guitars. “Yeah pretty much,” Steele says. “You need the other side of things to weigh up to the expectation of what your ears are hearing. I think we were getting on a bit, so it’s kind of time to push the boat out, really.”

We were made to wait a long time between when Empire of the Sun’s debut at Parklife last year was announced, and when they finally hit the stage, and it was during this time that the oddness really got amped up. Steele muttering on triple j about attending dinner parties with Angelina Jolie, the “exclusive online broadcast” that was timed to coincide last year with the 21st century’s longest eclipse of the sun (or the brain, as it may be), as well as Steele revealing he’d been forced to scale down his plans to include tigers and elephants in his live show due to financial constraints. It was clear he was reveling in the silliness of it, all the while playing the role of the mad scientist while putting the live show together.

“I was pretty full on with it, probably to my own detriment! I think the initial setup was probably the hardest, because we tried for our characters to be born in Australia before we went to Shanghai, and it didn’t really happen at all. I got this jacket made and I ended up looking like a gay super hero, so that got scrapped. I was searching around in shops for fun designers but it never really happened, until we landed in Shanghai, and then everything was born. It was a bit frustrating in the initial stages, but you know, once you open your mind to imagination nothing is too wild really. So it was quite liberating from that point onwards.”

When it comes to his wobbly relationship with Empire studio partner Nick Littlemore, who exited stage left to London after the album was completed to recommence working with Pnau, Steele remains vague and impossible to pin down, though he’s seemingly more than happy to encourage speculation. “I mean he’s still a part of it, and the journey continues really,” Steele says. “The whole ‘movie’ of Empire’s been written in real time you know, so there has to be another scene, really.” Can he see Nick coming back to do some work with him in the future? “I don’t know really… I’ve never been that good at prophesizing on the future.” Is it something they’ve discussed? “No, I haven’t spoken to him for a long time, but there’s no anger or turmoil, it’s just a departure.” Righto, then. Looks like we’re gonna remain in the dark over that one.

If and when we eventually get ‘act 2’ of Empire of the Sun, then we can also expect to see the movie’s other major players returning to recreate the original dynamic. Donnie Sloan was another member who had an extensive musical background before joining the party, having played and produced with Sneaky Sound System, and last year he ignited controversy when he sledged Steele and Littlemore with allegations of plagiarism. “I created these tracks, on my own in 2005, long before Empire of the Sun existed… Musically, the template for Empire of the Sun is mine. They pulled the rug from under my feet and took my sound.” However, Steele insists the comments were taken out of context and blown up into a “tsunami in a tea cup”.

“It’s all been done pretty honestly as far as how everything went down with credit and who did what. It’s always been pretty open that Donnie was a big part of it, along with Peter Mayes.” While the press ruckus might suggest otherwise, Steele insists there’s no love lost between the four musicians, and there’ll need to be the original dynamic in order for another Empire of the Sun album to happen. “I mean, to get that sound it just needs to be everyone. You can’t buy that kind of chemistry at Wal-Mart.” Oddball or not, you’ve gotta give him that.