1990s: Beginnings Pnau formed in Sydney,
New South Wales by Littlemore and Mayes. The two met at secondary school at the age of 12 and began performing together in the mid-1990s, initially playing
acid,
house music, and
trance music. The duo's first commercially available tracks were a pair of nine-minute tracks, "Frisk" and "Anthropophagi", that led off
doof@cybersonic.aust.com – an underground
acid trance compilation album distributed by cult electronic label
Creative Vibes in 1996. Pnau would then feature on another Creative Vibes project, 1998's compilation record
Evolutionary Vibes III: The Evolution Will Not Be Televised, with the song "Discone".
1999–2002: Sambanova In July 1999, Pnau released their debut album
Sambanova under the independent
label Peking Duck. It was recorded in a bedroom studio and they state they only expected it to sell "a few thousand copies". The album was pulled from record stores for using uncleared
samples, but re-released in June 2000 and peaked inside the
ARIA top 40. In October 2000, at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2000, the album won
Best Dance Release. In a 2003 interview with
The Age, Mayes said that they had no understanding of sample clearances due to their naïveté in the music business. Mayes claimed that the album's recall did seriously affect their commercial sales. Pnau went on to make many live appearances at music festivals like
Big Day Out in 2001 and
Homebake in 2002. During this time, they garnered a reputation for their lively performances.
2003–2007: Again In October 2003, Pnau released their second studio album,
Again. The album was not a commercial success and Littlemore was later quoted as
Again being "the worst record I've ever done". Littlemore has since retracted the statement. When asked if he still considered
Again to be his worst record, Littlemore responded, "Well next to
Soft Universe. They're sort of on par." Littlemore further explained that his opinions are influenced by the albums' commercial success, which is an easy headspace for him to get into since "everyone loves
Empire of the Sun, it's sold 1.1 million records." and
Lost Valentinos.
2007–2009: Pnau and Empire of the Sun In 2007, the duo reunited and wrote over two-hundred songs together and started to lay down an entire album with Littlemore's brother Sam as producer. They sent a work-in-progress track to long-time friend and collaborator
Luke Steele, who sent back the track with his own vocals. After receiving the track, the Littlemore brothers and Mayes agreed to scrap almost everything they had laid down to focus on a more vocally centred album. The track became known as "With You Forever" and the finalised album was released under the self-titled name
Pnau. The album not only featured vocal work from Steele and Littlemore, but also had many guest appearances such as
Ladyhawke,
Feadz, Nik Yannika from Lost Valentinos and Michael DeFrancesco from Van She. The album was released to high critical acclaim declaring it to be the greatest record he'd heard in ten years. Inspired by their track "With You Forever", Pnau began work on a collaboration with Steele, which would call themselves
Empire of the Sun. Originally titled Steelemore, Empire of the Sun has achieved international success having been certified 2× Platinum in Australia Regarding Empire of the Sun, in early 2009 news began appearing that Littlemore had disappeared. The reality had been that Nick Littlemore had left Empire of the Sun to begin work on the fourth Pnau album along with John. With input from John, the album features Littlemore singing all the vocals on the album along with tracks co-written with fellow Aussie artist Martin Craft and producer
Mark Saunders. The album was positively received, although mainly critics expressed discontent with the lack of the "endearing weirdness of previous Pnau and Empire releases." The
Soft Universe album received the
Australian Independent Record (AIR) Award for Best Independent Dance/Electronica Album.
2012–2015: Good Morning to the Night On 10 March 2012, the first remix track from the anticipated, upcoming John rework album commissioned for Pnau was leaked, initially airing on Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 broadcast. In July 2012 two singles were released from the album, "
Good Morning to the Night" and "
Sad", while the album
Good Morning to the Night was released and reaching number 1 on the
UK Albums Chart. In December 2020, the band worked with
Ladyhawke again and released the single "
River". In August 2021, Pnau produced a remix medley of several John songs along with
Dua Lipa, titled "
Cold Heart (Pnau remix)". The single charted in many countries worldwide, becoming their 3rd top 10 in Australia and their second in the UK, as well as their first song to chart in the US. Over the next few years, Pnau released singles with
Budjerah,
Troye Sivan,
Khalid,
Bebe Rexha and
Ozuna. In October 2023, Pnau released ""
AEIOU"" with
Empire of the Sun and announced the titled of their sixth studio album,
Hyperbolic, released in March 2024. ==Discography==