Empire Of The Sun
Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore met in 2000 in a bar in Sydney. Both were already signed with EMI and were working on their own projects. Littlemore helped write the song "Tell the Girls That I'm Not Hangin 'Out" for Steele's Lovers album The Sleepy Jackson, and Steele took part in Littlemore's Teenager project.
The duo co-recorded 2 songs ("Freedom" and "With You Forever") for the debut album of the Pnau project, which included Littlemore and Mays. Nick comments: “When Mace and I were writing 'With You Forever,' I clearly understood that I needed to send it to Luke. He called back a day later and sang it to me completely. " Steele's contributions influenced Nick and Peter so much that they revisited over 200 tracks and began to pick up more vocally oriented material. Recording "With You Forever" with Steele inspired the duo to start a new joint project. Littlemore: “We fell in love with music again [with 'With You Forever']; I think this is [Pnau ]'s first big song. " The release of Pnau received unexpected acclaim from Elton John, who called the album "the best he has heard in the last decade".
The new project, tentatively titled Steelemore, developed into what would become the Empire of the Sun. Since Steele lived in Perth and Littlemore in Sydney, the duo worked mostly independently of each other, meeting occasionally in Sydney and defining the style and direction of the forthcoming album. The band eventually went into the studio with Peter Mays to record the final material. Empire of the Sun was produced independently.
Littlemore denies that the band's name is linked to James Ballard's novel Empire of the Sun: “The name comes more from the idea (and you can trace it in the video clips) that we travel around the world exploring empires and civilizations in which the sun was worshiped. It has nothing to do with Ballard's novel or Spielberg's movie of the same name. "
Steele and Littlemore's costumes and colors (as well as album art) are based on posters for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.
On March 11, 2013, a trailer was released for the band's new album, Ice on the Dune. Also, to promote the album, the group gave performances at various festivals in the USA and Australia.
The first single from the album, "Alive", was released on April 15 and was certified gold in Australia. Video clips were filmed for this song, as well as on "DNA".
Ice on the Dune was released on June 14, 2013 in Australia and on June 18, 2013 worldwide. After the release of the album, Littlemore announced the band's intention to make a documentary film: “We hope that in the future we will be able to make a documentary and a show a la Las Vegas. We want to arrange everything properly, with animals and so on. We've always wanted elephants and tigers. "
In support of the album, the duo performed at festivals such as Splendor in the Grass and Made in America.
