LOCATING Empire Of The Sun’s Luke Steele is proving difficult.
One half of the award-winning Australian electronic duo is 20 minutes late for our video call and he’s locked in a studio in Hawaii. But when he does emerge, he’s in good spirits and full of apologies.
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“We decided there was no better time to start the next record, right as this new one is getting released,” says Steele who with Nick Littlemore releases Ask That God, their fourth album, today.
“We are recharged and ready to go,” he says. “After Two Vines (2016 album) we got quite exhausted and everything stopped working. Nothing was gelling.
“At the start of the pandemic, I was instrumental saying, ‘That’s it, I’m done, I’m leaving’,” he explains. “I told Nick, management, the record company that the band was over. That I was never doing another record. And I left.
“I made a solo record and moved to northern California, but then piece by piece, I started to realise what I was missing and what was so beautiful about Empire in the first place.
“I’d work with people and think, ‘That’s cool, but it’s not working with Nick,’ and then start falling back in love with Empire again.
“Then Nick and I got back in the studio, and it really has been great. The hardest part of being in a band that’s had success is there really is extreme pressure.
“With Empire, when the spirit is right, we sound like nothing else. We’ve made a few albums now and so we’ve broadened the palate with this record and it feels good.”
The multiple ARIA Music award-winning band who have also been nominated for two Brit awards, sold more than 5.5million albums worldwide, and generated 7.6billion streams.
Honour the love
Steele says: “You work so hard to get there, then when you get there, you’ve got to stay there, so it’s hard. We’ve been fortunate to have had some big songs, and success so we’ve opened the door and are writing with different writers including some Swedish writers who we’ve always wanted to work with.”
Steele is referring to production duo Vincent Pontare and Salem Al Fakir who have worked with Avicii, Madonna and David Guetta, and Pontus Winnberg of Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue producers and songwriters Bloodshy & Avant.
We feel like conduits. Empire is bigger than us and the audience own the song — you have to honour the love that people have for it.
Luke Steele
“Changes was the song we made with the Swedes and it felt like the quintessential Empire Of The Sun comeback song,” says Steele. “It’s a really great song and has transformed into something that’s not really ours any more.
“We feel like conduits. Empire is bigger than us and the audience own the song — you have to honour the love that people have for it.”
The video for brilliant song Changes also features Cruz, Steele’s ten-year-old son with wife Jodi (aka Snappy Dolphin), a creative also involved with the band.
“My kids are really into music and being creative,” says the proud dad-of-two. “They are best buds. Cruz is into Metallica and all the stuff I was when I was a kid — it’s pretty awesome.
“Sunny (his 16-year-old daughter) has got a band and she’s working on her own record. She really understands hooks and melodies and is a great lyricist — songs are written in the tongue of a 16-year-old going on 21.”
Standouts on Ask That God include recent single Cherry Blossom, the dreamy and futuristic Rhapsodize, the classic title track, album closer Friends I Know and AEIOU, a collaboration between Empire Of The Sun and Littlemore’s other band, PNAU.
“AEIOU was a great track Nick brought in. I’ve always wanted to do a song with vowels as it reminds me of a song the Maori kids sing at school,” says the singer who now lives in New Zealand.
“My wife said the album is a journey of someone’s life. All these songs have been collected along the way. Friends I Know was made in Japan in 2017 as was Rhapsodize and then Revolve was made when we were working with Wendy Melvoin from Prince’s band. I believe songs step into your life — they literally walk out of the computer’s hard drive and jump onto the album when they’re ready — like a life journey.”
As well as Melvoin, Empire Of The Sun have worked with Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham while with PNAU, Littlemore (together with Peter Mayes and Sam Littlemore) enjoyed a huge hit with the remix of Cold Heart by Dua Lipa and Elton John.
“I felt happy and proud of Nick with that song,” smiles Steele. “He works so hard. The other day he was in Uptown New York recording with a Brazilian guitarist. I then talked to him the next day and he was working with a choir. A couple of days later he was in LA with a guy who collects 70s synths, getting samples. I think doing our own thing and working with other people is so healthy.”
I have storage units for the costumes we wear in America, Australia and a couple here in Hawaii. I’ve got stuff everywhere. It really does take a village.
Luke Steele
So who would Steele say is his dream collaborator?
“Tom Waits, Lana Del Rey or the Oasis guys,” he answers. “Or Sir Paul McCartney — he would be good to put down some basslines.
“We’ve got a big festival (Corona Capital) in Mexico where we are playing with Sir Paul. The minute I knew that, I was like, ‘We’d better start rehearsing.’
“I met Sir Paul once at Henson studios in LA. I knew he was coming so I bought a vinyl along especially. When I got to the studio I saw him getting out of the car, so I opened the door and pulled out my vinyl like a magician. My voice started shaking as I said, ‘Here you go, Paul’. I’m a huge fan.”
The visuals and look of Empire Of The Sun are as striking as their music and for Ask That God, the narrative is that Emperor Steel and Lord Littlemore have come to save Empyreans after eight years away.
Steele says: “We still curate the whole thing but we have a good team of artists around the world to work on projects.
“I have storage units for the costumes we wear in America, Australia and a couple here in Hawaii. I’ve got stuff everywhere. It really does take a village.”
To help build the visual side of the album, Steele and Littlemore spent nearly a month in Thailand with Canadian director Michael Maxxis where they recorded stunning films to accompany the release.
“It was a beautiful adventure,” says Steele. “We’d been trying to find a director to make the videos for 18 months and met with 15 to 20 people from Tokyo, Australia and America but no one got anything close to what we wanted until we met Michael.
God of Instagram
“He sent five song treatments and they were all incredible. Then he said, ‘Why don’t we just keep going and make a music film?’ We shot nine music videos.
“We’ve worked with directors before but no one as genius as him. He has a beautiful, poetic mind and is an incredible director.
“All the jungles, beaches and locations we went to and the people we met made it a magical trip. At every location we’d stop and pray, blessing the land.”
Steele says his spirituality and faith “are everything”. He says: “People say they love that we are spiritual.
“Every soul under heaven breathing on this planet is a spirit, so everyone is spiritual. It’s important that rather than tap into the God of Instagram, people need to tap into the God of the heavens.”
And deciding to name the album Ask That God after the song on the album was an obvious idea for the singer. “Nick and I coming back together to make this album was us surrendering,” he says.
“It felt like we both surrendered things that we were holding on to. No one’s going to get the answers from the world — you must ask the divine. And we had a lot of songs pressing on that.
“The song Ask That God came midway through the record and felt like the message that Empire needed to come back with.
“It feels like we are going into battle with no weapons. It is a volatile time in the world and this is the message people need.”
A year ago Steele and his family moved from north California to New Zealand (where he was born before moving to Perth where he grew up) after feeling unsafe and unhappy in California.
“I felt like the whole ground in Los Angeles was shaking constantly,” he explains. “A kid was shot dead near LAX and I drove past just after he’d been murdered. I felt emotional the whole time I was in LA — like I could feel the pain. I’d be driving and start crying. Things had changed for me living there.
“There was the pandemic, the riots when Trump was president. I’m so sensitive, I just can’t deal with what’s going on in America.
Real work ethic
“I was so paranoid living there, so now we are back in the motherland and close to my family — it’s cool to be there. When you’ve been depressed you really value joy and after living in America, I really value peace.”
Once the album is out Steele is looking ahead to Empire Of The Sun’s live shows that begin in October.
Fans won’t have to wait another eight years for another album after Ask That God. We are trying to keep the train moving.
“I’m really excited to start the tour but it seems like you guys are last,” says Steele.
“We start in Australia and go up to America and so if not this year, we will definitely be in the UK next year. It takes six months to put the show together so I can’t wait. Someone said we should be playing Glastonbury and I’d love that idea — let’s see.
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“Right now Nick and I are here in Hawaii working on album number five.
“Our relationship is the best it’s ever been. We both now have families, so when we get into the studio, it’s down to business. Our earlier years were the hardest — there’s was so much built-up emotion, ambition and ego.
“But I love the way we work now — we are hungrier now more than ever and we know what we are doing now. We’ve made four records but we’ve made hundreds of songs. We have three or four folders of Empire rarities. We have a real work ethic and I am so proud of us. We are always trying to find the next rare gem.
“And that’s why fans won’t have to wait another eight years for another album after Ask That God. We are trying to keep the train moving.”
- The album Ask That God is out today.
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