Empire of the Sun member 'resurfaces'

Empire of the Sun's Nick Littlemore has revealed that he spent his unexplained absence from the band travelling and writing songs with his side-project.

Earlier this month, frontman Luke Steele confessed that he had not seen or heard from his bandmate for over five months. Littlemore has now broken his silence to say that he spent the hiatus working on new material with his band Pnau.

"We're making a studio album with Elton John co-writing on some tracks for the next Pnau album," he told NME. "We met Elton in Australia and his manager has now become our manager."

Explaining why he had not contacted Steele, he said: "I've been working with Cirque du Soleil in Montreal and writing and recording the next Pnau album in London, Atlanta and New York with [Pnau bandmate] Peter Mayes.

"I was recording in Atlanta and swimming with my phone in my pocket. I've never managed to replace it."