On paper, Luke Steele may seem like a true singular entity. He’s a prolific, versatile and multi-faceted songwriter, whose 20-odd years in the game have seen him go from indie-rock wunderkind to the most unlikely pop star on the planet.
Were one to look a little closer at the different stages of his career, however, it’s quickly realised that Steele operates best when he has a direct one-on-one collaborator to see the project through – someone who can creatively complement Steele’s larger artistic vision.
For The Sleepy Jackson, it was drummer Malcolm Clarke. For Empire of the Sun, it was PNAU’s Nick Littlemore. Now, with DREAMS, it’s none other than erstwhile Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns – in turn, finally bearing fruit for a collaboration that has been promised for well over a decade now.
“You can never predict chemistry,” says Steele of his collaborative partnerships. “It’s like when you’re dating – you’ll get told this girl’s great, and that she likes all the same stuff you do. You meet up, and five minutes in you’re talking about the weather. I’ve had that with so many artists where, on paper, it really seemed like we were going to hit it off.
“I feel like you definitely need to work with people that are willing to explore alongside you. You need to have resilience, and you need a thick skin. If you don’t have those things when you’re making music, you’ll be finished pretty quick.”
If there’s anyone who exudes resilience, surely it’s someone like Johns. Having battled through crippling illnesses and personal struggles, DREAMS marks Johns’ return to the limelight following his severely underrated solo LP, 2015’s Talk. Johns and Steele, as is well documented, have made several attempts at a full-length collaboration in the past. It’s only now that we’re finally seeing that come to light in earnest with the release of DREAMS’ debut LP, NO ONE DEFEATS US. According to Steele, the album was inspired by the pair’s fondness for the nightlife. “Every time we would throw parties, we would end up in this dance party mode with all of our friends,” he says.
“I think both of the records we’d made previously were in a really different vain, so we realised that we wanted to make something that would slip comfortably into a typical playlist for these sorts of nights. That’s seriously how we worked out what to do with some of the demos – if we put them on and people started moving, then we knew we were on the right track.”
Fifteen years on from albums like Lovers and Diorama, Steele and Johns have made one of their most loftily ambitious LPs to date in NO ONE DEFEATS US. If the all-caps title didn’t give it away, the album thrives on defiant mantras, chest-rumbling synth, and booming electro-pop beats. It’s named after one of the songs on the album, which Steele notes as being the catalyst for the entire project. “With all of these songs, we kept going around and trying to light fires,” he says. “That song ended up being like the Olympic Torch.
“It had all of this power and imagination to it. It sent us into this clear direction, where we knew exactly what attitude this album had to have.”
It was a breakthrough moment for the two, who would often find themselves not on the same page at all insofar as creative inspiration was concerned. “For a while, we were living in completely different parts of the world,” Steele explains. “We’d only see one another every six to 12 months, and by then everything would be different.
“I’d be into Japanese electronica, while Dan would be into orchestral arrangements. It was difficult at times to get on the same track, but it all ended up being a part of the journey – the same way everything else this past 15 years has been.”
Indeed, Steele and Johns’ relationship dates back to around the early 2000s, when Silverchair and The Sleepy Jackson first went out on tour together. At the time, The Sleepy Jackson were riding high on the momentum of their 2003 debut, Lovers. Having recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of its release, Steele is endlessly grateful for its surviving legacy. “It’s amazing looking back on just how much attention it got,” he says.
“People are really drawn to things when they’re so young and new like that. It came out in 35 countries around the world, and I toured on the back of that album for years. It doesn’t matter where I go – I could be doing press for Empire in Russia to Lithuania, and I still get asked about The Sleepy Jackson. It’s a real blessing to have made something that has such an impact on people.”
It’s now been 12 years since the last Sleepy Jackson record, 2006’s Personality, and a third album from the band has turned into the Aussie rock equivalent of Chinese Democracy. “Most of it’s done,” Steele confirms. “It just lacks something.
“Sometimes, you might just feel like you’re lacking something in your life – a deficiency. I think that’s what this album has. I feel like it just needs the right anointing of time. It needs another round of fire over it for it to be properly finished,” Steele says.
For now, the fire burns under DREAMS and NO ONE DEFEATS US – and that’s more than enough.
