AUSTIN, TEXAS – MAY 14: Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun performs in concert during the “Ask That … More
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Australian electronic duo Empire of the Sun just wrapped a hugely successful before now heading overseas. They’ll return to the US in October to play Austin City Limits festival. Among the US shows was a sold-out LA date as part of the immersive Cercle Odyssey run, which also included Moby, Jungle and more at dates in LA, Mexico City and Paris.
It was after the Cercle Odyssey show in LA that I connected over Zoom with Empire’s Luke Steele to catch up on the tour and more. In a profoundly moving conversation, Steele talked about the power of music and the tour. Having lost his father a few months before the tour being with the fans each night took on a much deeper meaning for him.
Steve Baltin: We’re going to have fun to start with because I just finished interviewing Christian McBride, the jazz great bassist. And later today, I’m interviewing Willie Nelson. And I am sure that I’m the only person in the history of the universe to interview you and Christian McBride and Willie Nelson in the same day. So, if you guys are playing a benefit together and it’s the all-star finale, what song do you want to do with Willie and Christian?
Luke Steele: Oh, Willie’s song, “Something You Get Through” from a record he did a few years ago. It just broke my heart cause I found that song right as the pandemic hit and all these people from the older generation, the ’70s and ’80s were losing the loved ones, and it was just so heartbreaking. These people had been married for 40 or 50 years and he just released this song, “Something You Get Through.” I think I posted it on Empire where I just thought, “Wow, it’s not something you can explain really. It’s just really something you get through.” So, that would have to be the song. Willie would have to take the lead on that one.
Baltin: I like the way you put it though; it’s just something that speaks to you. I was listening to your stuff again last night and I’ve always loved the song “Alive.” Having nearly died twice, it takes on different meaning. For you, are there stories you’ve heard that really resonate with you, or they have similar effects for other people that’s “Something You Get Through” had for you.
Steele: Exactly. I came back to that song because my father passed away a couple months ago. We had the funeral and then I’m on this world tour, but my mom was like, “Your dad was a musician his whole life and even by the end in his eighties, that’s two and three shows a week.” And mom said, “You have to get on the road. That’s what he would have wanted.” So, I was sitting in the back of the tour bus. And then that song for me, when I heard in the pandemic, it came back up. It’s amazing, music it’s like a beautiful friend, like a close friend that stays with you.”
Baltin: For you, what are those songs from childhood because I know exactly what you mean. There are songs like “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor is one for me. The songs that have been with you for like 30 years and you don’t know why, you don’t know what it is about. It hits you when you’re a kid and that’s your song.
Steele: Incredible, yeah. I always loved John Lennon, I remember going through my dad’s vinyl collection probably when I was 10 or 12 or something and just not knowing anything about any of the artists, which is kind of a beautiful thing and then always coming back to Lennon, going, “Man, the melodies with this guy.” Yeah, Lennon, Carole King, James Taylor, John Prine, all those old great artists.
Baltin: I lost my dad two years ago. So, I’m very sorry about your dad. I know it’s something that hits you each day and it resonates in a different way. I’ve talked about this with a lot of artists and grief is not a linear thing at all. It just comes about in very weird ways. So, for you have there been moments when you’re on stage and there’s just this catharsis from tens of thousands of people out there singing back to you?
Steele: I know exactly what you mean. I hear about your dad as well, man. Yeah, there are certain moments and triggers. We do the song “Ask That God” in the show, on the stage set there’s like this big rock and I go and I stand on this rock and it hits the chorus on the visual, this giant hand comes across the stage and always that moment it takes me to the very time when he went to be with the Lord. It’s quite incredible, it always takes me to that exact same place of crossing the Rubicon to the next side.
Baltin: Does the song change for you or has the meaning changed?
Steele: Yeah, that’s what is so beautiful, the lyrics just take on a whole different meaning. Yeah, I think for that one because it just felt so heavenly. The songs called “Ask That God,” don’t ask the world, ask the father. I think it’smore powerful now for me. I’ve been reading this C .S. Lewis book about grief that my agent actually gave me. They said, love is the price of grief, and you get all these different quotes, and stories about it andwhat’s been quite amazing is I always wondered about people delivering food to your house. But I realized what that is now like when someone really close to you passes away your food and cooking and everything is such a bizarre thing. With us it was hundreds of dishes and pasta and all this stuff and that’s I now see like that in the movies. So, I understand that it’s quite an amazing experience to understand that someone bringing a lasagna or something means so much. It’s so warming to your heart.
Baltin: What was the comfort food during all of this process?
Steele: There’s onions and bread and all that kind of stuff. It’s incredible to see the array of people my father touched, from young musicians to he worked with some disabled people. He worked with the Vietnam veterans. So it was like that film, Big Fish. It’s got the circus and this guy, and then at the funeral, they’re all there and I just keep thinking about that film because it was like blues players in Houston, Texas to a choir that was put together and people from the street and stuff. He worked with this choir and then he worked with the veterans and all that. So, it was quite amazing to see the different fabrics of life and all the different people’s hearts he touched.
Baltin: That’s got to be so interesting though, to see all the different lives he touched, and then you get to be out there and see all the different people who come to see you and all the different lives you touch.
Steele: Especially now on this tour there’s a real urge for people to escape the world and to live in that place. I ended up saying that quite a lot on the stage; this is our place, this is where you cry, where you laugh, you dance, you give it up to the Lord. This is the time of letting go. The shows took on a whole elevated meaning for that, cause it’s not just music. It’s never just music. It’s always so many breakthroughs and spiritual overcoming’s and things.
Baltin: Who first did that for you when you were a kid? I remember seeing the Nick Cave shows after he dealt with loss. And those were transcendent.
Steele: I can’t think of the one show cause I’m just funny like that. But yeah, the show we’re doing, it’s taken on a whole other meaning. But everything from The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to obviously seeing the boss. I remember flying back in from LA actually and had super jet lag and someone was like, “We got three tickets to the boss.” And it was one of those, I drank a few wines and ended up just making it as the boss comes on, that was just incredible. BB King, I love BB King. I love that because it was just such classic Southern American showmanship, like this big basket of obviously fake gold watches, but he had necklaces, and he walked down the front and handed them out and it was just so rich, reverent kind of blues. That was like Al Green first time. I wasn’t married at the time, but it was in LA doing a remix of Yoko Ono actually. I’m starting over and actually got the original vocals from Double Fantasy and we finished the session and then Al Green was at the Hollywood Bowl and I’d never been to the Bowl and managed to get some tickets and at the time I was carrying a little speaker on my hip, you know, one of those little amps with I was wearing the iPods around 20 years ago. And all the church groups from the South have come up, so there’d be groups of 10 or 15 all walking in, singing “Let’s Stay Together.” But that was another show with real reverence. Like, he’d come down the front, take his jacket off, and he’d go, “Oh, half the ladies want me to keep it on, half want me to take it off.” That was just such another memorable concert.
Baltin: Let’s come onto the Cercle show then for a second. How much fun was it to be the one who helped start something off? It’s like when you play a festival. I know you guys are doing ACL. It’s a good challenge because it’s not just your crowd. They’re your fans there, but there’s also people there to see Olivia Rodrigo.
Steele: Yeah, it was pretty incredible, being able to step into something so immersive and so new. We designed our show called the Miracle Room. I built our show based on you’re walking through the desert, and you find this giant box and you walk into it and it’s like the new church of the future. It’s early days all around you on the roof and you fall into this transcendental prayer which goes through a whole cycle of songs and ends with the cleansing and healing and that’s what our show was designed about.