Luke Steele

Australian singer/songwriter Luke Steele emerged around the turn of the millennium leading Perth-based indie rock band the Sleepy Jackson. A stylistically adventurous group as quirky as they were catchy, they enjoyed critical acclaim during the mid-2000s, after which Steele formed the ambitious electro-pop duo Empire of the Sun. With their grandiose mixture of cosmic glam and effervescent pop, Steele and collaborator Nick Littlemore vaulted themselves into the international mainstream with their multi-platinum 2008 debut album, Walking on a Dream. Steele’s high tenor vocals, bold songwriting, and elaborate stage costumes were at the heart of the project’s unique appeal, and he continued to build on his already eccentric reputation with two more LPs including 2016′s Two Vines. In 2022, he began a solo career with Listen to the Water, which melded thoughtful acoustic songwriting with bright and dreamy synth textures.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Steele and his family immigrated to Perth in Western Australia, where he spent his formative years and eventually began his music career. His father, a blues guitarist, instilled a love of music in Luke and his siblings, all of whom became active in the city’s music scene. While his sister Katy Steele went on to lead the band Little Birdy, Luke formed the Sleepy Jackson with his brother Jesse on drums. Another brother, Jake, also played in a later iteration of the group. A quirky and wide-ranging romp through numerous subsets of rock, their 2003 debut LP, Lovers, was a modest commercial success but earned widespread critical acclaim and went on to earn four ARIA Music Award nominations. Their 2006 follow-up, Personality - One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird, fared slightly better on the charts and came across as a more focused effort with a sound that harkened back to George Harrison’s semi-orchestral and pseudo-spiritual solo albums.
By 2007, however, Steele had already shifted focus to his next project. A joint venture with longtime friend and Pnau frontman Nick Littlemore, Empire of the Sun debuted in 2008 and went on to achieve massive success not only in Australia but on charts around the world. Led by its effervescent title track, Walking on a Dream went multi-platinum at home and earned comparisons to other maverick duos like MGMT and Daft Punk. Steele cut an enigmatic figure clad in elaborate costumes that fell somewhere between Sun Ra and 1980s sci-fi, a trait he carried into their 2013 follow-up Ice on the Dune. As cinematic and ambitious as their debut, it reached number three on Australia’s pop charts and made a strong global showing as well.
Following 2016′s Two Vines, Steele was again ready for a change. Scaling down from the thematic, arena-sized approach of Empire of the Sun and the theatrical rock of the Sleepy Jackson, Steele recorded his first solo effort. Released in 2022, Listen to the Water revealed a more personal and introspective style rooted in the acoustic guitar, but still adorned with lush synths and some of the quirky details that have become his hallmark. ~ Timothy Monger