The Sleepy Jackson

Perth psych pop band The Sleepy Jackson was formed in 1998 by songwriting maestro Luke Steele with his brother Jesse on drums and Matt O'Conner on bass. Since then in excess of 30 musicians have passed through the band's ranks around Luke Steele. Legend has it he sacked his brother because Jesse was more committed to his girlfriend than the music. Justin Burford and Rodney Aravena left to in 2003 to form End Of Fashion rather than stay with Luke's musical “dictatorship”. Just before recording Sleepy Jackson's first major label release Luke Steele was the only member.

His autocratic single-mindedness has been just one of the contributing factors to the changing membership. During the earlier years of the band's life he was also an alcoholic. It contributed to bad behaviour, like smashing expensive eqipment. After the death of two close friends, Steele quit drinking and became something like a born again Christian. His passion for God then became a problem for some members. He describes his ideals for the band to make "music to meet God to." His efforts have seen him described as a “genius”, akin to Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame.

The Steele children - little sister Katy Steele rules her own group, Little Birdy - grew up heavily influenced by the influenced by their father, recording artist, performer and songwriter Rick Steele. When Luke was in his early teens his father was running a weekly blues night at a club, which Luke regularly attended, mixing with the musicians like an adult, absorbing their lifestyle and inspirations. He ended up playing drums in a jug band with a bunch of forty-year-olds, one of whom was his music teacher. When Luke left the band's original drummer, Leonard Jackson, came back. He had a serious case of narcolepsy, and they'd gave him the name Sleepy Jackson. Luke thought it was a cool name for a band.

In the beginning Luke's band played loud rock like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kenny Burrell, and Jimi Hendrix, until he realized he could turn down the volume and let the audience hear the melodies and lyrics. An independent self-titled EP (featuring the lead track 'Glasshouses') and a single caught the attention of national youth radio network Triple J. In March 2001, on the eve of the band signing a major recording contract, a gruelling tour with Magic Dirt and Motor Ace proved too much for the rest of the Sleepy Jackson, who decided they had had enough of being broke and sleeping in caravan parks. The band broke up. The others returned to Perth, leaving Luke Steele to complete the last 10 days of the tour on his own. He recorded the Sleepy Jackson's EMI debut 'Caffeine In The Morning Sun' with session musicians. It was during this time that Luke teamed up with drummer Malcolm Cooke, the one Sleepy Jackson member to remain with Luke for the journey to come.

With the afore-mentioned Justin Burford and Rodney Aravena the Sleepy Jackson recorded another EP ('Let Your Love Be Love'), toured Australia, the US and Europe and worked on the first album, 'Lovers', before Burford and Aravena split to concentrate on their End Of Fashion side-project. Cooke, also a member, decided to stay with Luke Steele.

July 2003's 13-track eclectic 'Lovers' album was lauded in Australia and internationally as an alt-pop gem, drawing those Brian Wilson comparisons. The acclaim sent Sleepy Jackson back on the road for more than a year and Luke Steele wished out loud about recording the second album with the help of some of his own heroes.

In the meantime Luke had recorded a spontaneous lo-fi folk country album with members of Gelbison as Nations By The River, an album of songs written on tour and then quickly assembled and recorded in Sydney with engineer/producer Scott Horscroft. So when trying to coincide schedules with potential collaborators for whom a new Sleepy Jackson album wasn't a priority threatened to bog the project down Luke decided he could just do it himself with Horscroft. Recorded over a twelve month period in Sydney, in July 2006 the Sleepy Jackson released Luke Steel's second major adventure, 'Personality..'

In 2007 Luke Steel teamed up with Nick Littlemore of Pnau to form the electronic duo Empire Of The Sun, named after the 1984 novel of by J. G. Ballard. Their debut album 'Walking On A Dream' was released in October 2008 and achieved platinum sales. Drummer Malcolm Clark, the other remaining member of The Sleepy Jackson in the meantime joined the Exploders with another former Jackson member J Cortez, casting doubt over The Sleepy Jackson's future.