Not many artists are as interesting as Luke Steele. From the very beginning, “Glasshouses” from the Sleepy Jackson’s self-titled debut, he was doing something a little outside the ordinary. That, when it came, Lovers stamped itself as one of the great debut Australian albums of all time merely cemented the fact that, allowed to grow and develop, music as art could find its niche if given time and space to be created as such.

Personality (One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird) is the sort of sophomore album that defies the second album jinx syndrome, upping the musical ante to broaden the sonic palette of its visionary composer. The record is a weird oddball concoction, all over the shop in terms of musicality, with a plethora of strings in abundance, and is a leap up on the previous sound.

“I was trying to get as many melodies into three minutes as possible,” Luke drawls of each magical moment. “I could have probably got a few more in but then it probably would have turned into white noize and been ‘crrrrrrrrrhrrrrrrr’.”

Spending time on it, he explains that it wasn’t so much a task as a labour of love – he simply poured himself into the creative aspect of it, without letting anything be restricted. As such, risks were taken and benefits resulted. “It was the first time I had that reality of being able to go and do exactly what I wanted to,” he explains, “without anything really restrictive, which it has been in the past. There were times where I would say to Scott [Horscroft, co-producer] that I wanted to do an extra twenty or thirty parts with a lot of layered harmonies – sort of like a Spiritualized thing, with 100 violins – and he’s be saying ‘well you’re sitting here; off ya go!’.”

If the process of recording was a joy, then mixing was more problematic. Originally, the plan was that Mercury Rev member and the Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann would mix it, but Luke wasn’t happy with the results, so immediately scrapped that and went back to doing it in Sydney. “It was hard to build the energy and love and everything that was built in Surry Hills,” he says of his time in Woodstock. “For Dave to really pull it off he would’ve had to have been the opposite of a tarot reader and someone who could look into the past. He only did a few tracks and I kind of knew it wasn’t the right place, and the songs cried their way home basically. After four tracks I said I needed to go home, and we mixed in Sydney and ended on New Year’s Eve.”

Now Luke has been treating the Personality listening parties in New York and London like his New Year’s party – he’s been handing out party poppers and trying to get as much joy as he feels towards his creation across to the multitudes. “But I was also trying to explain to them that I was quite depressed as I still feel like I’m pregnant with music from this era,” he cautions.

“It’s getting conceived in all weird and bizarre places,” he says of future recording plans for the Sleepy Jackson. “There’s thirty of forty tunes that I’ve been writing, and I’m writing every day these days. I want to try and cut at least two records every year and keep it a lot more frenetic.”

Luke talks about art, and fashion, and uses it as a way of describing his own future vision for the Sleepy Jackson. “I’m working in new designs at the moment,” he states enthusiastically, “and a few have like Johnny Cash coats on, and I guess David Bowie hairstyles. I’m really getting a mix of the `30s and the future – a hundred year span from 1920 to 2020. I look at how it can be done, and how it can be drawn and put into the future.”

But for now, the hype is building for Personality, of which he says that it was about combining romantic 1930s models with the brushstrokes of Brett Whiteley, and the rhythms of Prince. “Snappy but romantic at the same time,” he says. Luke is excited to hear that people have been waiting to hear what he comes up with this time after Lovers. “It’s a real big honour that people are eager to hear what you create; that’s like the dream for an artist really.”

Given that Lovers was so well received (with this writer being known to claim it as ‘one of the truly great debut Australian albums of all time’), some level of pressure must have been felt in terms of following it up. “There was,” he stammers, “but I think that I got everything I asked for on this record. Lyrically it’s a lot more powerful and melodically it’s a lot more diverse, so it surpasses my mind a bit now that I’m surrendered to it.”

Perhaps the strangest decision made for it was to hide the vocals away in the mix, but even that as it turns out was a deliberate approach. “It was more of an approach of creating an oil painting as opposed to a colour printout,” he alludes, “so it was really trying to have everything in its right place and you have to read the lyrics to know. It’s kind of like a coat of painting where you have to really look at it and really listen to it, and it’s a strange record – on some systems it doesn’t sound good but on other systems it’s really direct, and it’s got ghosts in it.”

It’s clear that Luke takes his music seriously, and that for him it’s a be-all and an end-all. “I always thought if you don’t nearly die making a record…” Luke pauses, thinking for a time as to how he wants to phrase it. “It takes so much out of me and I’m so emotional about everything. It’s pretty strong this time, and it got drawn out, but I’ve been pregnant and I’m about to have a record born and it’s been nine months – and once it is it’s just a success that you’re still alive really.”

The Sleepy Jackson’s Personality is out now, with in-stores taking place. Dates:
Saturday 1st July - 78 Records, Perth at 2pm
Sunday 2nd July - Jive, Adelaide at 4pm (deets at Big Star)
Tuesday 4th July - JB Hi Fi, Melbourne (Bourke St) at 4pm
Thursday 6th July - Red Eye Records, Sydney at 5pm
Friday 7th July - Rockinghorse, Brisbane at 6pm