Empire Of The Sun Already At Work On Third Album

This June sees the release of Empire Of The Sun’s second album Ice On The Dune, the long-awaited follow-up to their million unit-selling, ARIA conquering debut, Walking On A Dream, and though it took the synthpop duo of Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore five years to follow-on from their storming debut, it seems fans aren’t going to have to wait as long for new material.

In an interview with Street Press Australia, Littlemore reveals that work has already begun on a third Empire Of The Sun record, before their second effort has even landed with the wider music world. But Sydney-siders were amongst the first to hear material from Ice On The Dune live, as part of Vivid LIVE, with a performance at the Sydney Opera House last night, with a second airing tonight (Friday 31st May).

Among the crowd was in fact Littlemore himself, who does not play a part in the live show due to his commitments with main act PNAU, but was suitably impressed by what his other half had produced. “I think it was pretty electric, I think people are going to be blown away,” he said. “[But] I’m not involved in the show so I don’t know how much I can talk about it. [I’m studio based] for the meantime.”

Though he was tight-lipped on the live show, Littlemore was happy to discuss new material. “I’m just concentrating on working on the new album actually. We feel like at the moment we just want to keep coming, keep coming thick and fast.”

“We had a large hiatus, and for this to come together I think… it took 18 months to make Ice On The Dune,” he continues. “[A] lot of that time was spent getting to know what we want to do and the vision gets clearer every day.” “I’m just concentrating on working on the new album actually. We feel like at the moment we just want to keep coming, keep coming thick and fast.” – Nick Littlemore

Work on Ice On The Dune first began a year and a half ago in New York, where Luke Steele and Littlemore reunited with the latter’s other PNAU half, Peter Mayes, and Jono Sloan in New York to begin on pre-production. Though, it took time to deliver the finished product, Littlemore says that “it feels now we’re at a kinda level that we don’t want to get down from. So it was understood that I would spend more time in the studio, then I’ll be flying in and out wherever Luke is, and then we’ll be cutting tracks while he’s on the road and just keeping the energy levels up there.”

“It’s very important [to strike while the iron is hot] because there are so many ways you can go with something like this. We haven’t allowed us any boundaries or any limitations; I don’t think you can limit a dream. It’s something that defines itself, so I guess we’re half led and half the leader,” concluded Littlemore.

Luke Steele is also keeping creatively on point, with news that he’s been working with longtime friend, Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns, on a new album loosely “inspired by African music”, with the result “sounding a bit like The Clash, [a]bit Talking Heads.” Steele noting it’s “good to do some tougher, kind of hard-edge kind of stuff”.

Following the Vivid LIVE shows, Empire Of The Sun hit America for an appearance at Bonnaroo Festival and an American tour before returning home in July, playing a part in the mammoth Splendour In The Grass 2013 lineup, alongside other Australian acts with 2013 releases, including Bernard Fanning, The Drones, Cloud Control, Boy & Bear, The Growl, Birds of Tokyo, Songs, The Chemist and many more.

The Empire Of The Sun live show then rolls overseas once more, with appearances at LA’s HARD Summer Music Festival, Hungary’s Sziget Festival, the Wilderness Festival in London, Lowlands in The Netherlands, and the the Jay-Z-curated Made In America Festival.

You can view the artwork and tracklising for Ice On The Dune, out June 14th, below.

Empire of the Sun — Ice on the Dune Tracklisting:
1. Lux
2. DNA
3. Alive
4. Concert Pitch
5. Ice On The Dune
6. Awakening
7. I’ll Be Around
8. Old Flavours
9. Celebrate
10. Surround Sound
11. Disarm
12. Keep A Watch