With their new album, AHHCade, PNAU have leaned into the darker dance sounds reminiscent of the early days that saw the Sydney dance group go from local legends to global heavyweights.
So it seems ironic — and possibly fitting — that founding member Nick Littlemore is set to call time on live performances later this year.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ to discuss PNAU’s seventh studio record, the revered LA-based producer said the upcoming shows with bandmate Peter Hayes could very well be his last.
“I do feel like I’m probably gonna step back off the touring side of things,” he drops in the middle of the conversation. “I’m kind of more and more interested in being in the studio and just trying to write. I really just wanna write a good song. That would be cool. That would be a good challenge… I feel like this might be the last time for a while.”
Fans will know that Littlemore also doesn’t perform live with fellow dance juggernaut Empire of the Sun, which he formed with Luke Steele almost 20 years ago. He says between being with his family at home and a nearby studio, “I don’t want to do anything else.”
AHHCADE comes just two years after Hyperbolic, an album that saw PNAU riding high on the global success of their chart-topping “Cold Heart” remix with Dua Lipa, and work with the likes of Khalid, Bebe Rexha, Australia’s Troye Sivan, and even a reunion with New Zealand favourite Ladyhawke.
This time, however, Littlemore said PNAU made a conscious effort not to work with mainstream stars but with artists who inspired them. While dance fans will undoubtedly know Italian group MEDUZA, other features on AHHCade include EarthGang, The Warning, and The Flints.
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“I think we wanted to get younger people that were inspiring us, so we found different people through the interweb and just random sessions,” he says. “There wasn’t necessarily one that kind of opened it for us, it was more we were trying [out] sounds. This album feels more like a mixtape…
“It feels a little bit like this record is cleaning out the closet. It was like all these things that we had, and I wanted to get them together and make a body of work out of where we are today. It allows us, for the next body of work, to just kind of go bananas and just try all kinds of mad things.”
That work that Littlemore describes in AHHCADE taps into the dance and rave culture that first got him into music. “There’s a ravey sort of sense of things that we’ve always tried to touch on. It feels somewhat unattainable to listen to those early rave things that were so inspiring to us when we were tripping or whatever, and try and create them. Not being there and fully understanding the ethos of it… I guess this album was kind of about that, creating that ballistic dance experience.”
He continues: “[Hyperbolic] was really hip, and it was cool to meet those people, but I felt like we were serving, or chasing a pop thing, which just felt a little disingenuous to the ethos of PNAU, so I want to get back to that.
Littlemore isn’t kidding. In fact, he reveals that they’ve already started writing a follow-up to AHHCade this month that they intend to release as soon as possible. And recent live shows have encouraged them to keep chasing those sounds. “We felt that [nostalgia] when we’re playing on this last run, and just fill the whole room with smoke and strokes,” he explains.
“There’s moments where you just sort of lose yourself, you can’t even see anything on stage. I remember there was a young skater we used to hang out with when we went to raves, and he would have his head in the basement for the entire night.” He laughs. “We’re kind of riding it for him, you know?”
But what does this all mean for Littlemore? As of this writing, PNAU have just three live shows booked — Night at the Parkland in Brisbane and Night at the Barracks in Sydney in September, followed by a slot at Wollongong’s Yours & Owls Festival in October.
“I’m really looking forward to that too, and it’s gonna be one of the last things,” he says.
Then is that it for his onstage performances? He pauses and smiles. “It could. It really could. Obviously, Sydney is a big one for us, so that last one, the Barracks, is gonna be pretty special. It’ll be pretty special.”
PNAU’s AHHCade is out now.
