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 Two albums into their career, underground dance heroes PNAU hit it bigger than they could ever have imagined when their third, self-titled album struck a chord with the Triple J crowd and the mainstream alike. Having decamped to London for an extended stay, the band’s NICK LITTLEMORE catches up with ALASDAIR DUNCAN to talk about what’s coming next.
When most young Australians do their year in London, they spend some time working behind a bar, and maybe take off on a drunken backpacking trip around Europe for a few months. Pnau’s Nick Littlemore, though, is not the typical young Australian in London. Following the huge success of his band’s last, self-titled album, Littlemore decamped overseas in an attempt to break the massive UK market, and maybe get a little creative inspiration. So how has he been spending his time there? “At the moment I’m in Shoreditch in Hoxton Square,” he says, “but we just took a house for a year in West London. Sir Elton is building us a studio, and we want to be close to that.” Erm, sorry ... what was that last part again?
“He’s just really cool,” Littlemore continues, somewhat coyly, explaining his band’s unlikely friendship with Sir Elton John. It seems that a few months ago, the flamboyantly-dressed pop icon heard some of Pnau’s new tracks and declared them to be the best Australian band he had encountered in decades. A creative partnership quickly blossomed; “he’s been in Vegas doing the Red Piano tour, but we’re having lunch with him on Friday, at his castle,” Littlemore continues, persistently coy. “We talk every week – he checks in on us to ask how we’re going. He’s kind of looking after us now. We’re going to get in and do some writing with him, which is going to be great, and he’s hooked us up with a lot of other people to write with – he’s opened a lot of doors for us. He gave us his back catalogue the other day – we’re only up to album number twenty, and we’ve got thirty or something to go ...”
London has had a profound influence on Littlemore’s music, and the way he sees Pnau’s future prospects. “I don’t think we ever took it seriously enough before to change our lives, but then Sir Elton came along, and said, basically, if you want it, it’s there for you, you just need to make it happen. I think that’s what we’ve done.” As well as a new Pnau album, building and expanding on the electro sound of their last, Littlemore is producing tracks for Paul Steele, a singer-songwriter from Brighton whose music he describes as having “a male Sade kind of feeling ...” Intriguing stuff, for sure.
When Pnau return to Australia for a series of shows this month, they will be bigger and brighter than ever before. When I ask Littlemore how these shows will be different from the last ones, he puts on a raspy whisper and tells me: “It’s a surprise.” Several new strawberries will appear to supplement the ever-popular costumed dancers, and new songs will feature, including, perhaps, Ordinary People, a track recorded with Ladytron’s Pip Browne while in London. “It’s going to be bigger and better than you ever thought it could be,” Littlemore continues. “We’re not just going to do a show and then keep putting it on – we want to make it better every single time. We’ve gotta stay interested in it. That’s even more important than the audience staying interested, because we’re a lot harder to please.”
PNAU play The Tivoli on Thursday Aug 7, with support from Operator Please. If you are one of the lucky ones you can also catch them at Splendour (sold out).
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