6 Music - Music News

Empire of the Sun frontman Luke Steele let it to slip to 6 Music they will be playing at Glastonbury this summer:

"When I said that to the record company they were like 'really?' And I thought wow maybe i'm not meant to say anything."

While he may have let the Glasto appearance slip he is allowed to say Empire are touring Europe throughout May and June.

Glastonbury on the BBC.

Luke Steele will be touring solo

There'll be no Nick Littlemore on tour though, up until the night of the Brit Awards 2010, Luke hadn't seen him for a year.

"We never had a fight, he just kind of disappeared, but he is living in Paris, well between Paris and Vegas."

Nick seemed to go off the radar about six months after the album 'Walking on a Dream' was released. He didn't appear in their last two videos 'Standing on the Shore' and 'Without You.'

Last September, Luke told Australian TV station ABC he had no idea where Nick was and he'd been left "holding the baby. "

Luke told 6 Music, Nick is still very much a part of Empire of the Sun but his work is confined to the studio, mainly because of his touring commitments to his other band, Pnau.

As to how Empire of the Sun translates on stage - Luke says it is as theatrical as their videos.

"We have a bunch of dancers that travel with us and a lot of costume changes, there's a narrator in between certain songs that kind of threads the story about the Emperor's journey."

"We never had a fight, he just kind of disappeared, but he is living in Paris, well between Paris and Vegas."

Luke Steele

Icon Python side project

It had been suggested Luke would release three different albums this year. A follow-up Empire of the Sun record, a new Sleepy Jackson album and the Australian's new punk rock project Icon Python:

"I remember saying distinctly that there's pretty much three albums ready to go - I'm not really sure how many of them are going to make it this year," he clarified.

"Especially the Empire record, I think that will be next year. The Icon Python record and the Sleepy record are both looking pretty promising."

As for that third offering from The Sleepy Jackson: "I just have so many songs and so many different styles that have become a nightmare trying to fit it in" he explained.

Luke's hoping to have that one out after the summer but thinks his debut from new punk-rock project Icon Python could be good to go in the next few months:

"That's the record I started making when I got angry."

"It would be the complete opposite of Empire with no edits and no cuts and everything is quite bluesy, swampy, raw and a bit more dangerous, which is good."