Pnau member Peter Mayes has revealed to TheVine that Empire of the Sun are currently working on their second album.
In an interview with one-half of the dance duo, who are releasing their long-awaited third album
Soft Universe next week, Mayes (who helped produce the Empire of the Sun debut) revealed that co-producer Nick Littlemore and Empire of the Sun/Sleepy Jackson singer Luke Steele, have recently been working on the follow to their wildly successful debut:
TheVine: How much was [Soft Universe] affected by Empire of the Sun? You can hear some of the same soft-rock influences.
Mayes: "Totally. I think the ’70s soft-rock sound, and to a certain extent the songwriting associated with that, has been an influence on us for a while now. Maybe it’s only come out in the music in the last few years. But absolutely. The last [Pnau] record was still quite clubby I guess. The Empire of the Sun record was kind of an evolution of that, with more lyrics and song structures. And then this record again is where we’ve evolved from that. You can’t help being influenced by what you’ve worked on and who you’ve worked with, more importantly. Obviously working with Luke is an amazing experience. He’s incredibly talented and one of the greatest singers around anywhere."
Are there plans to work with him again soon?
"Yeah. Nick spent a little bit of time with him in the studio a couple of weeks ago. So they’re working on that. I don’t know yet, because everyone’s calendar is constantly changing, but I think in the next couple months we’re going to get together, hopefully in New York, and do some stuff. But it’s really exciting, actually, to head into a second Empire record. Because obviously [the first] did very well. We weren’t really expecting anything to happen, so it was a surprise."
Encouraging news for fans of a band who were thought to have become only a live act; Littlemore having "left" the band to Steele, who—after the albums release— went on to tour the world as a live act under the Empire moniker with great success.
The same interview with Mayes reveals that Pnau—extraordinarily—have been granted Elton John's entire back catalogue in multi-track format, with the order to create a new work.
Mayes told us:
"Basically a couple of years ago, when we first started working with [Elton], he and his manager at the time came up with this great idea of giving us all the multi-tracks [of Elton John’s back catalogue]. Not to make like a mega-mix record like other bands have done, but to do something new and make an interesting musical landscape out of different excerpts, or whatever you want to call them. Get all these musical phrases and incorporate them into new music.
"So that’s what we’ve done: we’ve made songs that weren’t recognised as traditional Elton John songs. Either because they have components that were more left of centre or were so obscure that people haven’t been exposed to them because they’re not the massive hits. He’s done so much great stuff, it’s really hard in a way. There’s such a great catalogue, and it’s all very accomplished music. (Laughs) It’s hard to improve on ‘Rocket Man’ or ‘Tiny Dancer’."
Nuts.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH PNAU HERE ON TheVine