The Sleepy Jackson - Biography
By Marcus Kagler
As an Australian alt-country by-way-of indie rock artist the world had never heard of, The Sleepy Jackson shot out of the gate strong with a universally acclaimed debut album, Lovers (2003 Astralwerks), that only hinted at greater things to come from vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Luke Steele and his revolving roster of pranksters. Then a full three years went by with Steele barely making a peep regarding a follow up and indie rock’s innate popularity contest shifted once more toward the ilk of The Arcade Fire and Elephant 6 collective, leaving The Sleepy Jackson to drift into forgotten memory. Infamous for his eccentric perfectionism, Steele finally delivered the epic overbearing homage to George Harrison’s pop rock vision with Personality – One Was Spider, One Was A Bird (2006 Astralwerks), an album forged out of solid ambition. Yet the long hiatus between releases had already done the damage, and Personality sank along with Luke Steele, who set The Sleepy Jackson on the shelf indefinitely shortly thereafter.
Hailing from the south western coastal city of Perth, Australia, Luke Steele came from a musical family. His father is a blues musician and his siblings also playing in various bands, so Steele was ostensibly preordained to pursue the family business. Taking the band moniker, Sleepy Jackson, from the knick name of a former drummer suffering from narcolepsy, the band’s official early line up consisted of Steele’s brother Jesse on drums, Matthew O’Connor on bass, and Steele on guitar and vocals. As the principal songwriter, Steele’s vision of the group was to blur the lines between orchestral pop, alt-country, and alternative rock sometimes all within the same song. After releasing the EP, Miniskirt (Mi Music) in 2000 the band was picked up by the major label EMI. Jesse Steele left the group soon after and The Sleepy Jackson essentially became Luke Steele’s one man band, with the frontman often working with session players for recordings and a revolving door of touring musicians for live performances. Steele recorded the follow EP, Caffeine In The Morning Sun (2001 EMI) with session musicians in Sydney, a city he relocated to a short time later. The Sleepy Jackson gained some much needed exposure in Australia on the strength of their third EP, Let Your Love Be Love (2002 EMI), and embarked on a series of tours including stops in the U.S. and Europe. While on the road Steele wrote the majority of the material for the debut full length, Lovers (2003 Astralwerks), released the following year to a strong critical response and spawning the stomping garage rock single “Vampire Racecourse” and the sing-a-long orchestral pop single “Good Dancers”. As one of the most critically lauded albums of the year, Lovers garnered The Sleepy Jackson buzz worthy status throughout the U.S. and Europe while becoming one of Australia’s biggest bands, earning four ARIA nominations for Album of the Year, Best New Single, Best New Artist Album, and Best Rock Album.
The following year Steele put The Sleepy Jackson on hold to concentrate on a new band called Nations By The River with brothers Edo and Nadav Kahn of the Australian band Gelbison and Ohad Rein of Old Man River. The band only released one album, the lo-fi country-folk tinged Holes In The Valley (Astralwerks) to an indifferent audience in 2005. The decision to put The Sleepy Jackson on hiatus just as the band was gaining an international momentum proved to be a costly one for Steele. By the time he released the long awaited follow up, Personality – One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird the band’s audience outside of Australia had waned significantly. Critically mixed reviews didn’t help either, and Personality quickly slid off the charts. Undaunted, Steele toured the album and stopped by Amoeba Hollywood on July 27, 2006 for an in-store performance with a full band. Steele has remained relatively quiet ever since, leaving the future of The Sleepy Jackson in serious doubt. After collaborating with the Australian electronica outfit Pnau on the track “With You Forever”, band member Nick Littlemore announced he and Steele were working on an as-of-yet unnamed album together as a new (also unnamed) band. Steele has neither confirmed nor denied Littlemore’s statement. He has since embarked on a solo acoustic tour of Australia called The Luke Steele Roadshow in August of 2008 and announced he has been working on two separate collaborative albums, although he neglected to mention who he was collaborating with.