Empire of the Sun

The dynamic duo of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore met in the year 2000 having both been signed to EMI and being introduced by A&R representative Simon Moor. The pair collaborated on their solo projects with Littlemore providing songwriting assistance on Steele’s band The Sleepy Jackson’s debut album, and Steele assisted on Littlemore’s art-rock project Teenager.

Littlemore is also of the electronic dance outfit Pnau alongside guitarist and producer Peter Mayes. Pnau’s self-titled album reunited Steele and Littlemore and the three crafted a luscious vocal-centred album, which led to the creation of Empire of the Sun.

The band’s name which has long been attributed to the J.G. Ballard novel “Empire of the Sun” or the Spielberg film of the same name, actually refers to empires of civilisations where the sun is the theme of worship, that the band feels connected to.

Despite living in different parts of Australia the two entered the recording studio with Peter Mayes and produced their debut album “Walking on a Dream” in October 2008. The album debuted at No. 8 and peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Albums Chart, led by the singles “Walking on a Dream” and “We Are the People”. Empire of the Sun earned mainly positive reviews for the album, drawing comparisons with MGMT.

The band’s follow-up, 2013’s “Ice on the Dune” was led by the single “Alive”, which featured a music video produced by Kelvin Optical, Inc., of Bad Robot. The album received slightly poorer reviews than its predecessor however along with the release the band announced they would be scoring the soundtrack for the Jim Carey sequel “Dumb and Dumber To”.