Luke Steele is humming in my ear when I answer the phone. He’s as excited as a new born pup. “I found a new chord last night,” he says before commencing his funny little hum once more. “It’s weird with songs – you have to be ready, hey – or they just pass you by.” He laughs to himself and tries to explain: “They’re sort of just in the room with you – you have to wait for them to decide to talk to you and then you can get a relationship going and then the relationship flourishes,” he finishes in a rush.

Since completing the new Sleepy Jackson album, Personality: One was a Spider One Was a Bird, Steele’s been taking a well deserved rest in his hometown of Perth, hoping to catch up with family and friends. Unfortunately when you’re a member of the Steele family – you seem to spend a lot of time on the road – sister Katy (of Little Birdy fame) is “in LA recording with the Dust Brothers” and Steele’s younger brother (aka Yarhkob) ”has started two new bands,” says Luke. “One’s a Beastie Boys sound alike – and the other is glitchy and electro – plus my old man has a record coming out too.”

Definitely a musical household: Steele agrees: “It was always in the house”. His first musical memory then? “It was John Lennon… Christmas time you always hear Happy Christmas – The War is Over…”

“And yours, Cec?” He counters

“My first record was Patti Smith,” I say, “the one with ‘Pissing In the River’”

“A bit of early teen rebellion,” he laughs.

No such teen angst for Steele though, his teenage rebellion went as far as skateboarding, and even then that was short lived. “I hate wasting time,” says Steele. That’s why I started playing music… We were in New Zealand on holidays and we were there for six weeks and I broke my arm on the second day.

“It was New Years Eve – and I broke my arm on the halfpipe – so that put an end to most of my holiday plans so I ended up getting a guitar and I spent my whole holidays playing. Strumming guitar with my thumb. By the time I got my cast off, that was it, hey. It was all about the music.”

While his strum might have been up to a professional level – his picking skills still left something to be desired – Luke set about educating himself on musical nuances.

“I fully got into ragtime,” says Luke,”Coney Island Calkwalk – and Sister Kate.” Slowly his repertoire built: “You know you start on all different phases. I thought I was Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Al Green, JamesTaylor.” He laughs.

You were one supermusician.

“Yeah, but then you start to realise Django Reinhardt has his own things going – but I want to go this way – and you convince yourself – deep down you really just can’t play it – but you can’t tell yourself that – so you let it slide a bit…”

These days there is nothing questionable about Steele’s musical abilities. In fact I wonder how he keeps up with his desire to achieve musical greatness without cannibalising his talents.

“It’s hard,” says Steele. “It’s on my mind, every second, every conversation – every thought – it’s hard when you’re two years behind what you actually think you could be at – so you constantly work at that – I can never catch up with my mind.”

Understandably then the recording process can be frustrating for Steele.

“Sometimes you have this thing in your head – this exact sound. But the music – it’s like they become different people – they’re like ‘I don’t want to go out to the public looking like that man’... They start to become really demanding – so you have to listen to them, listen to the song…

“Songs are very powerful,” continues Luke “and lyrics can make or break a person. Girls are quite sensitive I’ve noticed,” he says as though it’s a thought that has just occurred. “Once, a girl said to me once, ‘I was going to work and I was so depressed and I listened to your record and the tears turned to tears of joy’.

“The whole day changed perspective for her – and that’s the greatest thing in the world – that you can inspire and enhance someone’s feelings. That’s always the quest to find that perfect niche that can weave and dive into a lot of different people’s minds and ears…and that’s your reward really.”

It’s a quest Luke takes very seriously. “It’s about always looking further. How high can this go? Your favourite band in the world should be your own band,” he says simply. “What you can do yourself is only limited to your imagination. When I put on a record I like to hear that we’ve created something that takes you higher.”

So what kind of music takes him higher?

His answer is immediate: “Prince and James Taylor”.

“Last night I had the biggest Prince revelation that I’ve had. He so just has his own world of sound – the wigged out pianos and crazy vocals – it’s so ambitious – like a crazy sex scene bought to tape.

“It’s what I respect most about the guy. With music you have to take your heart and put it on a platter and suitcase it around the world – and so you can never care what people think…”

It sounds like Steele has developed a thick skin over the last couple of years. However if you ask him, the answer is Yes and No. “You definitely find out who your friends are in the music industry I can tell you that much. You think you know – but you don’t.” Still Steele remains optimistic “You still just have to put the trust out there and if the trust is broken you just have to move on.

Perhaps this newfound optimism has something to do with the fact that Steele is in love… “It’s good when you get that partner – the one that gets you. Sometimes you forget how special they really are – they’re always there so sometimes you forget… but you gotta work as a team – if one falls you have the other to help them up…”

It is something Steele seems to be able to do for many people with his music.

“I want people to feel good,” he says. “I know that the world is full of confusion – but there is hope. There is time – like Ben Lee says ‘surrender’. I want people to be inspired.”

He finishes: “I read this quote on the plane – and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dad had said to him ‘an artist’s job is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed’. And I thought that was brilliant.”

Personality: One Was Spider One Was A Bird is out now through Capitol Records on Virgin/EMI

You can see luke Steele and his band The Sleepy Jackson performing at Falls Festival

For full coverage of Falls Festival go here