Empire of the Sun Shines With New Album ‘Ask That God’ | Billboard News

The eight year hiatus of The Empire of the Sun is officially over with the dawn of their new era, ‘Ask That God.’ The duo shares their reasoning behind dissolving the band then coming back, the intimate themes of ‘Ask That God,’ their thoughts on Mac Miller sampling their music for “The Spins,” working with PNAU and more!

Luke Steele:

So he’s gonna be on the next record. We’re gonna throw that out there Billboard 

Katie Bain:

Manifesting that here. 

Luke Steele:

Yep. 

Katie Bain:

It starts right here. Okay.

Luke Steele:

Paul McCartney, if you’re listening. Got some songs for you. Hello. We’re Empire of the Sun, and you’re watching 

Nick Littlemore:

Billboard News.

Katie Bain:

Very excited to have you here in the studio. Was it always inevitable that there would be a new Empire of the Sun album? 

Luke Steele:

It was a little bit touch and go there. 

Nick Littlemore:

No, it was always inevitable. As to when. 

Luke Steele:

Yeah. I guess-

Nick Littlemore:

That’s the question. 

Katie Bain:

Okay.

Nick Littlemore:

The Empire will go on. It’s not like there’s other empires before that have, all, you know, folded. We will keep going. So

Katie Bain:

Sure. Why was this the right moment? 

Luke Steele:

We’ve been working together for 20 years, over 20 years, so I think we had to get to that point where we said, enough is enough. I’ve had it with you, Nick, go my own way. You know, we had to turn all the computers off. We had to shut everything down. And even though the pandemic was, you know, horrible for the band, I think it was a bit of a blessing because we got to step away. You know, for 20 years we built this castle, and it was time for us to abandon, kind of abandon the dream and let it all get covered in raids, to then come back again and realize what we loved about it so much in the first place.

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