You were nominated for the International Breakthrough Act and International Album awards at the 2010 BRITs. Who beat you in both categories?
“Tough one! Was it Gaga?”
CORRECT. Lady Gaga won both accolades, with her debut ‘The Fame’ pipping Empire of the Sun’s first LP ‘Walking on a Dream’ to the International Album title.
“I remember that BRIT Awards, because on the red carpet, me and Nick [Littlemore, Empire bandmate] had a rift, and I pushed past the photographers and walked up to Kylie Minogue and asked her ‘Mind if I get a photo?’, and put my hand around her. That picture was all over the press the next day! At the time, I was writing a song with Robbie Williams, so I was hanging out with him at the afterparty. The track was called ‘Who are the Girls?’. [Luke sings its lyrics] ‘Who are the girls I often think about? Who are the girls in my dreams? Who are the girls who live in palaces? Who are the girls?’. We’d talk about the lyrics on his private plane. It never ended up getting cut, but he loved the song, so maybe one day we’ll come back to it.”
“When you’re fresh on the scene, there’s a honeymoon phase where people love your youth. You’re an untouched, aggressive wild animal that’s unpredictable and a chameleon in one, and you’re out of control which people are drawn to. A lot of wild writing trips and broken hotel rooms all combined in the early days of Luke Steele.”
“The most expensive hotel room I trashed? It cost £22,000 after I destroyed a room at London’s K West.”
Empire of the Sun’s ‘Half-Mast (Slight Return)’ was used by Mac Miller for his song ‘The Spins’ on his 2010 mixtape ‘K.I.D.S.’. What does ‘K.I.D.S.’ stand for?
“I should know this because that’s the biggest song of Empire’s right now, but I’ve no idea! Sorry! [Laughs]”
WRONG. ‘Kickin’ Incredibly Dope Shit’.
“A lot of people know it from his remix [‘The Spins’] that was in the [2023] film Anyone but You. Everyone else was telling me about it and I only watched it recently, but the whole song pretty much plays at the start of the movie.”
“I didn’t understand the remix for a while. He sampled it, and it was never cleared, and suddenly, it took off. Sadly, I never got to meet Mac Miller because he got taken so young by opioids.”
On Germany’s version of The Voice, two contestants battled it out by singing Empire of the Sun’s ‘We are the People’ in 2014. Can you name either of them?
“Oh no! No idea! [Laughs]”
WRONG. Ryan De Rama and Michael Antony Austin.
“Wow! It was used on a Vodafone commercial in Germany, which sent it to Number One there in 2010. Then Southstar did a remix of it last year and that’s taken it to this new club scene in Germany as well. I once sang ‘We Are The People’ with Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson. We’d had dinner in Malibu and they said ‘You’re not going home! We’re going to karaoke!’ and the next thing, someone pushed a microphone into my chest, and I’m singing ‘We are the People’ with Owen, Woody and film director Peter Farrelly doing backup vocals.”
“Surreal moments like that happen. After playing a festival in Australia once, we returned to our hotel where there was a wedding reception happening. ‘Walking on a Dream’ came on, so I walked up to bride with my make-up smudged and said, ‘Do you want to dance?’. Everyone looked shocked!”
Which artist sampled Empire of the Sun’s ‘Country’ for a 2012 track of the same name? Clue: she was a Glastonbury headliner this year.
“No idea! Who?”
WRONG. SZA – for ‘Country’, a cut from her debut ‘See.SZA.Run’ EP
“I’m crap at this! I heard her ‘Kill Bill’ track, which was pretty rad, but I haven’t heard ‘Country’.”
Who’s been the most unexpected fan of Empire of the Sun?
“I heard Trent Reznor likes Empire of the Sun, which made me think, wow, because he’s just so different to us, I’ve always loved how his production is so mechanical and bold. He’d make an amazing painter.”
How many swordfish people are pictured on the cover of Empire of the Sun’s 2009 single ‘Standing on the Shore’?
“Ooh, that’s probably gotta be two, right? [Laughs]”
WORNG. Four.
“Man, OK!”
Which two acts that you’ve written for are namechecked in the 2005 Ben Lee song ‘Catch My Disease’?
“Ah! Sleepy Jackson and then…oh! Beyoncé?”
CORRECT. The lyrics reference your first band The Sleepy Jackson and Beyoncé, whom you co-wrote the track ‘Rather Die Young’ for in 2011.
“Awesome! I finally got one! [Laughs] That namecheck was cool. Ben’s a great writer. The night before the first Sleepy Jackson record [2003’s ‘Lovers’] came out, he was in the studio with Claire Danes and told me: ‘This is a special night ‘cause as of tomorrow, everything’s going to be different’. And it was. It came out and changed my life.”
“The early days in The Sleepy Jackson were wild and unpredictable. We were trying to relive the Mötley Crüe book The Dirt and it was complete debauchery. It was mayhem, and there were parts where we nearly didn’t make it through. Yet there were so many incredible times. We played a NME show with Kings of Leon at The Garage in London in 2003. The next thing, they were on the cover of the NME and you guys sent them into the stratosphere.”
“One time, we played South by Southwest (SXSW) and our manager told us ‘You can only go to the club you played at SXSW’. We were 20 and the venue was closed, so the rest of the band took acid and started ripping out the flowers in front of her hotel while screaming ‘WE NEED BACKSTAGE PASSES!’, before getting arrested! [Laughs]”
Any memories of writing for Beyoncé?
“That was a beautiful moment because I went to write with an amazing producer, Jeff Bhasker. She only needed one more song to finish her album, ‘4’. I suggested: ‘Why don’t we write a song about her talking about Jay-Z? About how he drives too fast, smokes too much, and does all these things, but I’d rather die young than live my life without you’. It was a concept she loved straight away. There’s probably no greater singer around than Beyoncé.”
“I’ve never met her, but I worked with Jay-Z on ‘The Blueprint 3’ and been to dinner with him, so I’ve had a run-in with The Carters! [Laughs] We got a thing going! I’m waiting for a call for the next tunes! Headline: ‘Beyoncé – Steele’s ready!’”
An easy one: in 2013, you made headlines after telling NME: ‘They had a great marketing campaign but we’ve got better songs’. Which dance duo were you dissing?
“Daft Punk.”
CORRECT. Empire of the Sun’s second album ‘Ice on the Dune’ was released four weeks after Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ topped charts throughout the world.
“Never going to live that one down! That was funny. It was after five days of press where everybody asked ‘How do you feel about being overshadowed by Daft Punk?’. 99 of the answers, I responded, ‘The pioneers of electronic music Daft Punk are the kings’, then I threw the juicy stuff at NME! [Laughs]”
Ever encounter Daft Punk afterwards?
“No, but it’s hard to find those robots because you never know what they look like!”
You featured on Jay-Z’s aforementioned 2009 album ‘The Blueprint 3’. According to Stereogum earlier this year, which band were you a replacement for?
“I think it was MGMT?”
CORRECT. MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden claims Jay-Z replaced his band with you on the song ‘What We Talkin’ About’, enlisting you “to sing the chorus over the chords that we had written.”
“I remember hearing about that article. Don’t know what happened there! ‘Cause I did the track in my studio in Perth, ‘cause I couldn’t get over to New York with Jay-Z. After I did it, Jay-Z called me up and said, ‘Love it!’. It’s still hard to fathom that it happened ‘cause he’s a giant of hip-hop. He’s a skyscraper.”
In 2009, what bizarre excuse did bandmate Nick Littlemore give to NME for not speaking to you for five months?
“I don’t know. [Laughs] What?”
WRONG. He alleged his phone got wet after swimming with it in his pocket.
“[Laughs] That’s a good one! It’s funny, because now we have such a great relationship. We talk a lot more than ever. Everyone deals with their fame and newfound success in different ways. For us, certain cracks appeared and things started breaking apart when we started going on the road, but now we’ve found the formula of how we work. For us as a band, the pandemic was a great time because we stepped away from everything and let the studio become overgrown until we rediscovered our eternal passion of why we loved Empire in the first place.”
“After our 2016 album ‘Two Vines’, I thought the band was over. Me and Nick never specifically talked about it, but I told our managers, ‘Never again!’. The pressure had become too intense. Then, during the pandemic, I moved to a log cabin in northern California and was fighting off bears and wildfires, and I became a man. And Nick had a child. Things changed. Music’s so powerful and Empire’s so unstoppable that we felt like we were just conduits when recording our new album ‘Ask That God’.”
“We’re re-energised and already working on the next Empire album. There won’t be another eight-year gap. We’re trying to go Beatles style and get a record out per year – at least!”
Can you name four Pnau (Nick Littlemore’s other band) songs you receive a credit on?
“‘With You Forever’, ‘Go Bang’, ‘AEIOU’ and hmmmn, I don’t know!”
WRONG. You missed out your appearance on ‘Freedom’ from Pnau’s 2007 self-titled third album.
“Oh yeah, right! Sweet! I’d always loved Pnau, since I first saw them as a teenager watching music videos at 2am, and they’re such great electronic producers and sonic purists. My publisher at the time had said I should meet Nick [in 2000], and the next day, we went to the studio. When we did ‘With You Forever’ together, it lit the torch paper for the beginning of Empire, so doing the collaborative single ‘AEIOU’ [for Pnau’s 2023 album ‘Hyperbolic’ and Empire of the Sun’s ‘Ask That God’] brought everything full circle.”
The verdict: 4/10
“That score feels pretty average for a musician!”
Empire of the Sun’s ‘Ask That God‘ is available now