Pnau

Pnau formed in Sydney, New South Wales by Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes. The two met at secondary school at the age of 12 years old and began performing together in the mid-1990s, initially playing acid, house music, and trance music.[3] Littlemore recalled meeting Mayes when he was 10; "He tripped me over. We hated each other for a couple years and then we started sneaking out and going to raves when we were about 13 and we formed a bond over intense music." Littlemore and Mayes created their first album when they were in their mid-teens. "It was called Fractal Geometric Spaces Made of Light," Littlemore remembers, "Which is probably why it was never picked up."[13]

The duo's first commercially available tracks were a pair of nine-minute tracks, "Frisk" and "Anthropophagi", that led off doof@cybersonic.aust.com – an underground acid trance compilation album distributed by cult electronic label Creative Vibes in 1996.[14] Pnau would then feature on another Creative Vibes project, 1998's compilation record Evolutionary Vibes III: The Evolution Will Not Be Televised, with the song "Discone".[15]

In July 1999, Pnau released their debut album Sambanova under the independent label Peking Duck. It was recorded in a bedroom studio and they state they only expected it to sell "a few thousand copies".[16] The album was pulled from record stores for using uncleared samples, but re-released in June 2000 and peaked inside the ARIA top 40. In October 2000, at the ARIA Music Awards of 2000, the album won Best Dance Release. In a 2003 interview with The Age, Mayes said that they had no understanding of sample clearances due to their naïveté in the music business.[17] Mayes claimed that the album's recall did seriously affect their commercial sales.[17] Littlemore later contested, "They screwed us over for $300,000. Warners didn't; another third party did. But that happens. We're still here, we're still doing it."[18]

Pnau went on to make many live appearances at music festivals like Big Day Out in 2001 and Homebake in 2002. During this time, they garnered a reputation for their lively performances.[19]

In October 2003, Pnau released their second studio album, Again.[20] The album was not a commercial success and Littlemore was later quoted as Again being "the worst record I've ever done".[21] Littlemore has since retracted the statement. When asked if he still considered Again to be his worst record, Littlemore responded, "Well next to Soft Universe. They're sort of on par." Littlemore further explained that his opinions are influenced by the albums' commercial success, which is an easy headspace for him to get into since "everyone loves Empire of the Sun, it's sold 1.1 million records."[18] Despite the seemingly unfavourable album response, several tracks received considerable acclaim - the most noteworthy being "We Love the Fresh Kills" which was a significantly popular single for the duo at the time.[6] However, because of Again's lackluster success the pair parted ways for some time to work with other artists such as Robbie Williams,[21] Van She,[22] and Lost Valentinos.[23]

In 2007, the duo reunited and wrote over two-hundred songs together and started to lay down an entire album with Nick Littlemore's brother Sam Littlemore as producer. They sent a work-in-progress track to long-time friend and collaborator Luke Steele, who sent back the track with his own vocals. After receiving the track, the Littlemore brothers and Mayes agreed to scrap almost everything they had laid down to focus on a more vocally centered album.[24] The track became known as "With You Forever" and the finalised album was released under the self-titled name Pnau. The album not only featured vocal work from Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore himself, but also had many guest appearances such as Ladyhawke, Feadz, Nik Yannika from Lost Valentinos and Michael DeFrancesco from Van She.[25] The album was released to high critical acclaim[6] and gained unexpected favorable attention from Elton John,[7][26][27][28] declaring it to be the greatest record he'd heard in ten years.[29][30]

Inspired by their track "With You Forever", Pnau began work on a collaboration with Luke Steele, which would call themselves Empire of the Sun.[31] Originally titled Steelemore,[28] Empire of the Sun released it debut single in August 2008 titled "Walking on a Dream" and its debut album in October 2008 with Walking on a Dream. Nick Littlemore and Luke Steele took the roles of bandmates, while Peter Mayes assumed the role of producer. Some critics were quick to note that the band sounded more like a work of Pnau than Luke Steele's band The Sleepy Jackson.[32] Empire of the Sun has achieved international success having been certified 2× Platinum in Australia[10] and gold in the United Kingdom,[11] as well as winning eleven ARIA awards.[12] Pnau makes it clear on their Myspace numerous times that not only is Empire of the Sun a side project of theirs, but that they are also the producers.[33] Regarding Empire of the Sun, in early 2009 news began appearing that Nick Littlemore had disappeared.[34][35] The reality had been that Nick Littlemore had left Empire of the Sun to begin work on the fourth Pnau album along with Elton John.[8]

In 2010, Pnau's track "Baby" (Remixed by Breakbot) appeared in the release of Sony Computer Entertainment's "Gran Turismo 5", in the Background Music (BGM) playlist.

Pnau – Nick Littlemore (left), Peter Mayes (right) – performing at Sir Stewart Bovell Park, Busselton, January 2012.

In February 2011, Pnau released "The Truth", the lead single from their forthcoming fourth studio album, Soft Universe. Soft Universe was released in June 2011 and peaked at number 13 on the ARIA Charts. Littlemore has described it as a very "emotional" album, inspired by the breakup with his long-time girlfriend.[36] With input from Elton John, the album features Littlemore singing all the vocals on the album along with tracks co-written with fellow Aussie artist Martin Craft and producer Mark Saunders.[37] The album was positively received, although mainly critics expressed discontent with the lack of the "endearing weirdness of previous Pnau and Empire releases."[38] The Soft Universe album received the Australian Independent Record (AIR) Award for Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album.[39]

On 10 March 2012, the first remix track from the anticipated, upcoming Elton John rework album commissioned for Pnau was leaked, initially airing on Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 broadcast.[40] In July 2012 two singles were released from the album, "Good Morning to the Night" and "Sad", while the album Good Morning to the Night was released and reaching number 1 on the UK Albums Chart.[41]

In November 2013 French duo Faul & Wad Ad released "Changes" credited to vs. Pnau. The song samples Pnau's "Baby" and reached the top ten in numerous countries across Europe.

In November 2016, Pnau released "Chameleon" as the lead single from the upcoming fifth studio album. The song peaked at number 4 on the ARIA Charts and was certified 4× platinum. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2017, the song won the groups their second ARIA Award for Best Dance Release. Changa was released in November 2017 and peaked at number 11 on the ARIA Charts. The album spawned two more singles "Go Bang" and "Changa". At the ARIA Music Awards of 2018, "Go Bang" won the group's third ARIA Award for Best Dance Release.

The band released the single "Solid Gold" on 2 May 2019. The song continues Pnau's collaboration with Kira Divine on vocals, and also features additional vocals by Marques Toliver. The band hosted a live chat on their Facebook page to support the release. In August 2019, the band released the single "All of Us".[42] In December 2020, the band worked with Ladyhawke again and released the single "River".

In August 2021, Pnau produced a remix medley of several Elton John songs along with Dua Lipa, titled "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)". The single charted in many countries worldwide, becoming their 3rd top 10 in Australia and their second in the UK, as well as their first song to chart in the US. Over the next few years, Pnau releases singles with Budjerah, Troye Sivan, Khalid, Bebe Rexha and Ozuna.

In October 2023, Pnau released ""AEIOU"" with Empire of the Sun and announced the titled of their sixth studio album, Hyperbolic, scheduled for release in 2024.[43]

Notes

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Pnau have won 3 awards from 17 nominations.[100]

The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually.

The J Awards are an annual series of Australian music awards that were established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J. They commenced in 2005.

The MTV Europe Music Awards is an award presented by Viacom International Media Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture.

The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are a broad recognition of Australia's diverse live industry, celebrating the success of the Australian live scene. The awards commenced in 2016.

The Rolling Stone Australia Awards are awarded annually in January or February by the Australian edition of Rolling Stone magazine for outstanding contributions to popular culture in the previous year.[110]