AFTER years of “neglecting” Europe and the UK, Aussie duo Empire Of The Sun return for three sold-out nights at London’s Alexandra Palace next week, proof they are making up for lost time.
“The Empire surges on,” says singer Luke Steele in a quiet moment away from the tour.
“Empire still feels as intense as ever. It’s like being in a vortex. It’s like Lord Of The Rings when they put the ring on, or when you’re surfing and you’re caught in the wave. Being on this tour is always like that.
“We’ve changed a few things and added a few new songs, and suddenly it changes the ripples of everything else.”
Nearly 20 years after track Walking On A Dream first introduced Empire Of The Sun’s fantastical universe, Steele and non-touring band member Nick Littlemore are bigger than ever.
“It’s incredible because these are our biggest shows and it’s the biggest following we’ve had,” says Steele proudly on a video call.
“It’s exploded in a completely different way, to a whole new generation who are my son and my daughter’s age.
“My daughter Sunny is about to turn 18 and Walking On A Dream came out the week she was born. Nearly 20 years later, it has hit that next generation and it is so reinvigorating. I’m running into kids who are 15 asking, ‘Who’s this new band?’.
“A lot of people have been asking about the band’s outfits — they’re fascinated by the fashion.
“But for so many people, they just hear the songs on the radio or at a party and don’t even know what the band looks like. They’re just captivated by the melodies.”
Steele is in Budapest to perform, and he has just got back from a scooter ride around the city’s sights on a rare day off.
The pair have survived near burnout and band tensions, but Steele says the music always pulled him back and now he feels the healthiest and sharpest he has ever been.
“We always had great shows in the UK, but it felt like we’d lost a bit of steam by not touring there frequently. Then the pandemic was tough — five years not being able to tour and stuff — so maybe now we’re making up for lost time.”
Last summer’s sold-out Labyrinth On The Thames show at Greenwich’s Old Royal Naval College was Empire Of The Sun’s first London performance in more than six years.
“That was special. It was amazing,” Steele says. “So it’s great we are coming back to the UK — to London and also Cardiff and Halifax — which I am told is right at the top of the UK but not as far as Scotland.” His music is better than his geography.
Empire’s return has meant more than just filling venues. It is about the band’s influence on the fans, who have found their own lives reflected in the songs.
“The music is so important. It’s important for us, for our sanity, but it’s amazing what the records have been doing to people,” he says. “I feel a bit more like a conduit now. I’ve been handed these keys, and it’s like, what are you going to do with them? What doors are going to open?”
“I have to harness that power of influence in a clever, natural way.
“Coming back with the new show and writing new records post-pandemic, it feels like the songs need to have new revelations and new messages in this crazy world.”
Steele reckons part of the success of Empire Of The Sun’s performances has been down to his live band, which includes former Gomez guitarist Ian Ball and drummer Olly Peacock.
“They are the greatest players — really seasoned musicians, which is incredible to have,” says Steele. “People with experience are worth everything in touring. Ian is my right-hand man. The one and only.
“You rehearse for three months, then you get up in front of 80,000 people and suddenly my in-ear pack goes down, or the pedalboard dies. Ian is so calm. He just mooches over, cool as a cucumber, sorts it out and comes back before I’ve even noticed.”
Steele says having a great team behind him means he can execute the ideas he has been inspired by.
“There are quite a few songs from Ask That God in the set.
“We always play the hits, like We Are The People and Alive, because that’s important for people’s memory, and then there are a couple of throwbacks from the earlier records.
“It’s about trying to fit it all in without it becoming an exhausting meal for people.
“The first show probably had too many songs — like eating that last chicken wing at the Chinese buffet, where you walk out thinking you’ve had too much. It’s a fine line.
“I don’t like those shows where bands play for three-and-a-half hours. I want to see a concert, get blown away, and go and put my pyjamas on. You don’t want to lose people.”
Almost two years into the Ask That God tour, Steele is still pushing the show forward.
He says: “It’s so exciting and exhilarating, and then there are the fans who mean so much.
“It always sounds so cliched to me, to talk about ‘the fans’ but as I’ve got older and seen their dedication they become like your friends. It’s more than someone buying an album. The music seeps into their lives.
“The other day I met this girl who showed me a video of her three-year-old kid dancing to one of our songs. It’s amazing to be so far away from home and see how much the music touches people.
“We played Poland recently and this girl had spent months making these elaborate Salvador Dali and Escher-style collage illustrations for each song. She printed them all in a book and had written a personal note at the end.
“People really go on the journey with us, so I’m pretty thankful.”
Being away for long periods from his own family in Australia is what hits Steele the hardest.
“I’m not really going home until Christmas. We go from here to the American tour and it just keeps going, but they’re all coming out to the UK shows.
“I find it hard. I go through different stages of exhaustion and depression, excitement and exhilaration. It’s like a wave.
“I feel quite fragile because I’m so emotional. Being on the road is a real vortex. And when you get home it’s not easy — this pipe burst in the front bathroom of my new house I bought in Perth, and 700,000 litres of water flooded the whole house.
“When I came back from tour in January from Miami, it was just like a swimming pool, so everything’s been gutted now. It’s just all concrete, so we’re in a rental for a while — we’re pretty much homeless now.”
After living in the US then New Zealand, Steele moved back to Perth to be closer to his family.
Steele, who was living in America during Donald Trump’s first presidency, says the country’s extremes fed into his songwriting.
“I had to go because I was writing so many aggressive songs. Now I’m back where I grew up and it’s been awesome,” he says.
“I haven’t lived there for 20 years, so it’s a perfect amount of time to get over the regret, you know?
“And it’s been good to be the hometown hero.
“Walking On A Dream became the soundtrack for Tourism Western Australia’s global campaign and it is even named after that song.
“There’s also a music room at my school named after the family. It feels kind of cool to be given the keys to the city, where it all started.”
Steele lost his dad, blues musician Rick Steele, last year and he recently paid tribute to him with a night of blues.
“It was the one-year memorial and it was awesome to come back together, remember him and play the blues. The blues club he belonged to is stronger than ever, which is great.
“I didn’t want him to pass away and then the club to fall over. His legacy moves on, and we’re about to do a grant the Steele family has started — the Rick Steele Music Grant.
“We’ve also got a plaque on a park bench just down the road from his house, where he lived his whole life. He used to go there most mornings, get a coffee and sit on that bench. I think he’d think that was pretty cool. He’s got his own bench there.”
For Steele, that sense of legacy, home and survival has fed back into the music.
“It’s a good spot to be, because I feel the sharpest I’ve ever been and the healthiest. I got rid of all of that garbage, all the drugs and alcohol, years ago.
“It was music that helped me to heal by writing every song and playing, recording and mixing it myself.
“Music is still such a powerful phenomenon and medium. It’s a healer. It brings renewal, hope and vision.
“Music was always the vessel, even after I said the band was done and went off to write a solo record.”
That sense of purpose also seems to have softened the creative tension between Steele and Littlemore.
They have not always seen eye to eye, but time, distance and their separate lives have made the partnership easier to understand. It’s like a marriage that works because both know when to step away.
“I think Nick and I have been good at that,” he says.
“We probably spend more time apart than together and, when we come together, it’s quite focused on the job at hand.”
After side projects — Littlemore is the frontman of electronic trio PNAU — and an eight-year gap between third album, Two Vines, and the release of 2024’s Ask That God, time apart now seems to be part of how Empire Of The Sun have survived.
Steele says: “When we came back, it was like, OK, we’re older now — what are we actually talking about? What’s the real meaning? So we’re trying to bring more of that into the show and the theatrics.
“But I think now we can sit back and soak in the fruits of our labour a bit.
“For a while, you’re just trying to hold on to it, because you spend your whole life trying to get to a point where people are actually listening.
“Now we have people’s attention, we have to treat that with respect and not take it for granted.
“I haven’t spoken to Nick for a while, but we’ll probably start talking more now we are about 45 songs into the new record and trying to finish a huge batch of songs. It’s definitely going to be a little bit more edgy.
“We’ve been working with different producers and in Hawaii, LA and Sweden. Each territory brings different colours.
“Working with these different people, from different places gives you beautiful ingredients.”
But before new music arrives, there is the small matter of shows in Halifax, Cardiff and three sold-out nights at Alexandra Palace.
It is surely a pinnacle moment, which Empire Of The Sun have been building towards for nearly 20 years.
“We’re going all out on that,” he insists.
“They’re going to be massive shows.”