Longtime collaborators Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore say that the name of their group, Empire of the Sun, was in no way influenced by the celebrated 1984 J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, or by Steven Spielberg’s subsequent film adaptation of the epic novel in 1987 starring a 12-year old Christian Bale, btw…but we digress. What’s important here is that the Australian electronic music duo, Empire of the Sun, comprised of Steele and Littlemore has got us very excited.
Admittedly, we don’t remember much about the guys’ 2008 debut album, Walking on a Dream, but early buzz around their soon-to-be-released sophomore push, Ice on the Dune (“coming June 8th, 2013”) pretty much makes up for that. The infectious beats and melodies of the album’s first single, “Alive” – which is sure to be a summer ’13 anthem despite references to snow and velvet – are already stuck in our heads; and with all manner of feel-good lyrics like: “Freedom is within you”, “Giving makes us feel good”, and most importantly: “Loving every minute cause you make me feel so alive alive”, we really don’t mind.
With an accompanying music video that could very well have been shot in Westeros (as any self-professed Game of Thrones fan would logically consider), its clear that the guys behind Empire of the Sun are just as concerned with having fun as they are with being epic. So maybe; just maybe, they have a little more in common with an unintended namesake than they would like to admit. But then again, who knows?
What we do know is that we like Empire of the Sun. Very much. If you do too, you can check out the epic music video for “Alive” after the jump.
walk this way LA 