Empire of the Sun: Post-Glam Raconteurs

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  16 Jul 2013 in Interview

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You guys look very post glam, and we noticed a lot of acts these days are more outré in their image. Do you feel like there’s a resurgence of an era when pop and rock stars used to look completely different from regular folks?
I just feel like it embodies more of what the music says, and just the music itself. I think it’s very important to cloaked oneself with colours that’d liquefy the music, if you will. I think it’s a huge part of music than anything else.

Do you think that’s something that’s missing from the pop world now, the mythical aspect of it?
Yeah I do, I think that maybe because of the time that we’re living right now, what not with reality TV and reality stars. I want more from my stars than just the reality of what they had for lunch, I’m not interested in the minutiae and the details of their life, I’m interested in their imagination and what differences they can make to the world, wonderful stories that they can tell us, and what innovations and ways of seeing the human condition, and explaining that to us. That’s what I’m interested in. I’m not interested in where they’re going or where they buy their toilet paper from.

On the same note, based on your’s and Luke’s previous projects, you guys didn’t have much of an image. How did that happen – the transition from what you did before to Empire of the Sun?
I think we were just growing and getting more opportunity to do bigger things, I think we’ve always want to do these things but the opportunities had not arisen yet. We were just kind of responding to the responsibilities that we were allowed to have which is fantastic. It’s a real privilege to work on a huge scale.

Do you miss smaller scale projects?
No, I’m doing a solo record at the moment with a singer from New York City. It’s a very low key thing, like a little sextet jazz thing.

We were reading the press release and you guys referred to yourselves as Lord Littlemore and Emperor Steele. How did those personae come about? 
Well, Luke’s the voice, he channels the song straight through him and shoots out like an arrow from his mouth and rose from his lips while I am the scribe, the writer, so I write the words and you know, I think it seemed fitting that the Emperor would be the sound and the light and the kind of Chief channel by which all light and goodness come through. I’ll just try hard to write right messages and put out positivity out there. I think that’s very important.

Do you feel like pop music these days don’t really promote positivity? Is it more desolate and depressing now?
I think pop music lacks the conscience often, and I think it can often corrupt and send the wrong messages to people. I think it’s very delicate and I think there are songs I’ve loved through life and I haven’t learnt until much later on what those songs and their messages were. I mean I got my own thing coming but still you don’t want to be walking along the street seeing something that maybe of what your belief is about. I think we want something positive and aspire to be greater, to be good and kind to each other and something we all aspired to. Humanistic beliefs… it has to do with putting a good foot forward.

You guys used a lot of ‘60s and ‘70s equipment and also a few inventive instruments. Was it the same as this one or was the process different?
We had more and many more instruments to choose from and we brought in amazing players and percussionists and all sorts. But the central musical elements were kind of the same, a series of keyboards from the mid-‘70s with a special sound. We used them a lot.

Since you guys are all about positivity, what message do you want to send to our readers?
I’ve never been to Malaysia but I’ve had the best curry of my life in Hong Kong and it was Malaysian curry and I’ve wanted to go there for such a long time. But for whatever reason, I’ve never made it down there, and I hope very much to be there and come and experience life there and I’m totally excited by food, I love food from your region and I’m totally excited.

Time for you to experience authentic Malaysian curry.

Sophomore Ice On the Dune is out at all good record stores. More on the band at www.empireofthesun.com.