Empire of the Sun started as a side project for two people who already had other bands — Luke Steele had been fronting the Perth indie outfit the Sleepy Jackson, and Nick Littlemore was half of the electronic duo Pnau, before the two of them built something bigger than either: a cosmic-glam synth-pop project built as much around costuming as music, Steele's look falling somewhere between Sun Ra and 1980s science fiction. Walking on a Dream, their 2008 debut, went multi-platinum off the strength of its title single, which won the 2009 ARIA Award for Single of the Year.
Ice on the Dune followed in 2013, still committed to the same audiovisual excess, and Steele has since branched into a quieter solo career under his own name — 2022's Listen to the Water traded the costumes and cosmic scale for acoustic songwriting, though the dreamy synth textures never fully disappeared.