Empire of the Sun

"Walking on a Dream" sounds today as though it had always been there, and that is why almost nobody remembers how long it took. It came out in August 2008, was a respectable hit in Australia and stayed there for eight years. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2016, pushed along by a car advert, more than seven years after its release. That delay is the story, and it is far better than the compressed version usually told. Like Daft Punk, Empire of the Sun understood before almost anyone else that the costume could be half the work. And there is a second fact that changes how they ought to be talked about: the duo records as a pair, but on stage it has been one man alone for years.

Two Australians who already had bands

Empire of the Sun was born in Australia out of the crossing of two musicians who came from projects of their own: Luke Steele, a high and instantly recognisable voice, who led The Sleepy Jackson, and Nick Littlemore, half of the electronic duo Pnau. This was not a beginners' debut but a partnership between two catalogues already in place.

From the start they presented themselves as characters. Steele took on the role of the Emperor, with enormous headdresses, capes and a stage design somewhere between cheap science fiction and expensive psychedelia, and that wrapping worked like the one around Gorillaz: a closed world that makes it unnecessary to explain who plays what. Underneath there was warm electronic pop, full of layers, with melodies that land on the first attempt.

Two waves eight years apart

The single came out on 30 August 2008 and the album Walking on a Dream in October of the same year. In Australia the result was good and contained: number 10 on the ARIA chart, number 4 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2008, double platinum, Single of the Year at the 2009 ARIA Awards and Dance Work of the Year at the 2010 APRAs. Beyond that, barely a number 8 in Belgium and Ireland. A solid Australian hit, not a worldwide phenomenon.

The second wave arrived in 2016 with a Honda Civic advert. That is when the song became ubiquitous and entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, at number 65, more than seven years after its release; it also reached number 1 on the Dance Club Songs chart. In Australia it has accumulated 15 platinum certifications. Which is to say: the global classic everyone takes for granted as a 2008 record was in fact manufactured in 2016, with the song intact and the world changed.

"We Are the People" did something similar, but with a different geography. Released on 20 September 2008, in Australia it only reached number 24. Its real success was European and late: number 1 in Germany in December 2010 after a Vodafone campaign, number 2 in Austria and number 14 in the United Kingdom. In the United States it never entered the Hot 100.

The two songs share the same mechanism, and it is worth naming it without euphemisms: a brand paid to use them and that gave them the scale radio had not given them. It does not make them any less good. It explains why they sound like anthems of an era that is not exactly their own.

The emperor tours alone

Here is the detail almost every piece of writing skips over. Nick Littlemore has not toured with the band since the first shows of 2009. He has explained it himself: "I always felt that once you make a record it's not yours any more". He records, writes and produces, but the show — which is precisely the central argument of any text about Empire of the Sun — is held up by Luke Steele.

The group made the joke before anyone else did. On the 2024 tour, the stage design included a giant sculpted bust of Littlemore, presiding over the stage he was not on. It is the most honest joke available about a project where the visual myth is shared and the physical work is not.

That division has held up fairly well. After Walking on a Dream came Ice on the Dune (2013), Two Vines (2016) and Ask That God (2024), the fourth album and the first in eight years. Through 2026 they have been touring, with a stop at Lollapalooza Chicago, and Littlemore has said the fifth record is coming "within the next year". For the sake of comparison, the case resembles that of INXS in reverse: there the band played and the singer was the magnet; here the singer is also the entire band.

What to remember

Empire of the Sun is a good reminder that success does not always happen when the song is released. "Walking on a Dream" was an Australian number 10 in 2008 and an American number 65 in 2016, with a car advert in between; "We Are the People" was number 1 in Germany two years after coming out and never entered the United States charts. None of that shows up when it is described as an instant anthem, and the long version is more interesting: a song can sit waiting eight years for the world to need it.

The other thing worth correcting is the plural. The kingdom exists, the headdresses exist, the Emperor exists. But when the house lights go down, the one who walks out to hold up the fantasy is a single man with a giant bust of his partner at his back. That joke, which could be a bitter one, is in fact the best definition of the project: two people built a world and one of them stayed on to live in it.

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Sources

Empire of the Sun is an Australian electro-pop duo formed by Luke Steele, of The Sleepy Jackson, and Nick Littlemore, of Pnau. The single "Walking on a Dream" was released on 30 August 2008 and the album of the same name in October 2008. In Australia the single reached number 10 on the ARIA chart, number 4 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2008 and double platinum; it received the Single of the Year award at the 2009 ARIAs and Dance Work of the Year at the 2010 APRAs, and reached number 8 in Belgium and Ireland. After its use in a Honda Civic advert in 2016, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time at number 65, more than seven years after its release, and reached number 1 on the Dance Club Songs chart; in Australia it has accumulated 15 platinum certifications. "We Are the People", released on 20 September 2008, reached number 24 in Australia, number 1 in Germany in December 2010 after a Vodafone campaign, number 2 in Austria and number 14 in the United Kingdom, and never entered the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Nick Littlemore has not taken part in the duo's tours since the first concerts of 2009 and has stated that "I always felt that once you make a record it's not yours any more"; Luke Steele leads the live show as the character of the Emperor. On the 2024 tour the stage design included a large sculpted bust of Littlemore. Their discography includes "Walking on a Dream" (2008), "Ice on the Dune" (2013), "Two Vines" (2016) and "Ask That God" (2024), the fourth album and the first in eight years. The duo toured during 2026, with an appearance at Lollapalooza Chicago, and Littlemore stated that a fifth album would appear within the following year. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Billboard, ARIA, Wikipedia and other press coverage.