From the dress-up box

He was lying on his hotel bed in a kaftan, smoking a cigarette. His hair was untamed -” Pnau’s Nick Littlemore was a rock god personified.

His music partner, Luke Steele (from Sleepy Jacksons), entered the room in tribal headgear, wearing white face make-up and a radiant blue Chinese-styled garment with cotton wool buds taped around his fingers.

No, it’s not for Mardi Gras or some type of warped drag act. It’s new Australian act Empire of the Sun’s unique aesthetic as they aspire to break the barriers of what it means to be a true rock star.

It’s fun to dress up and it’s becoming its own animal, if you like, and creating this army of colour around us. Every place we go, we buy a lot of things, Littlemore said.

They use the word -˜androgynous’ when guys dress up. I don’t think we are trying to look like women or debasing men. There aren’t as many good men’s clothes as there is women’s clothing. We want to blur all those lines and just use everything that’s beautiful.

The electro pop duo have stormed up the charts with their album Walking on a Dream and have just finished filming their new video, We Are the People, in Mexico. Steele said the album is more of a mission statement.

We haven’t been pushing anything or making people believe in this. It feels good, man, not really having to worry about any of that stuff. From when you’re a kid you’ve got a lot to prove, so you try and make it all quite concise but it really just all comes down to a good song, he said.

We have been incorporating all the great things from around the world and it’s amazing how well it all works together. It seems that the days of the skinny jeans kind of indie rock Lou Reed wannabes are over and it’s time to celebrate grandeur and opulence, Littlemore added.

We are learning as we go along and it’s amazing how colour and dress have been such huge parts of ancient cultures all around the world, and how similar and different things connect and it’s a wonderful opportunity to see the world.

The band plans on travelling the world and will film each single’s video in a different country. An Australian tour will be scheduled for sometime this year and is likely to be a theatre-inspired production.