Empire of the Sun are an Australian electronic music duo formed in 2007. The duo is a collaboration between Luke Steele of alternative rock band The Sleepy Jackson, and Nick Littlemore of electronic dance band Pnau.
members: Luke Steele
formed in: Sydney
labels: EMI, Astralwerks, Capitol Records
genres: electronic music, synth-pop, electronic rock, new wave, electronic dance music, alternative rock, glam rock
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Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore met in 2000 after being introduced by Steele's A&R executive, Simon Moor, in a bar in Sydney. At the time, both were signed to EMI and had already been working on different projects. Over the following years, the two collaborated on a number of occasions. Littlemore helped write the song "Tell the Girls That I'm Not Hangin' Out", which appeared on The Sleepy Jackson's 2003 debut album, Lovers, and Steele had some artistic input in Littlemore's 2006 art-rock project Teenager. After a falling out over the song on Lovers the co-operation ceased for a while, with Littlemore commenting "I'm a very intense person and I take things to heart".
Although the name of the final project has been attributed to the 1984 novel of the same name by J. G. Ballard, Littlemore denied this and offers an explanation. He stated: "the name comes more from the idea of ... the fact that we're traveling around the world going to all the places of empires of the civilization where the sun has been a theme of worship. It's not based on the Ballard novel nor the Spielberg film of the same name."
The band employs elaborate stage sets and headdress (such as wearing kabuto, war bonnets and war paint), which reflects the duo's background in visual art. Littlemore explained that "we did see Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain and it influenced the way we could think about visualization". The band has worked with a number of designers, including Jessica Huerta. Steele described the inspiration for the visual aspect as "the vision of this band, it's built on imagination, so it comes from studying the samurais in art school to digital graphics, to topography, to filming under the ocean, to oil paintings, anything really."
"Walking on a Dream" is a song by Australian electronic music duo Empire of the Sun, released on 30 August 2008 as the lead single from their debut studio album of the same name (2008). The track was co-written by band members Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore with Jonathan "Donnie" Sloan.
The full Sam La More remix was made available as a free download on the band's official website.
Luke Steele (of The Sleepy Jackson) and Nick Littlemore (of Pnau) formed Empire of the Sun as an electronic duo in 2007. Their debut release, "Walking on a Dream", appeared as a single on 30 August 2008 ahead of the album of the same name on 3 October. The song was written as a prayer dedicated to one of Littlemore's ex-girlfriends who had become sick during an expedition in the Amazon rainforest. Steele wrote the lyrics while living in a caravan near his parents' house. Steele had assisted on tracks, "With You Forever" and "Freedom", for Pnau's self-titled album, which was issued in December 2007. As Empire of the Sun, the duo recorded material for Walking on a Dream, including the title track, at Soundworks Music Studio and Linear...
The music video for the song was shot by Josh Logue on location along the Bund in Shanghai, China, in July–August 2008, just before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It features Steele and Littlemore wearing Eastern costumes and makeup, inspired by Peking Opera.