Aussie dance trio Pnau recently collaborated with music icon Elton John on the hit track Cold Heart (Pnau remix) with Dua Lipa.
The song topped the charts in countries including the UK, Australia and Canada and won a Billboard Music Award.
Now, Pnau’s Nick Littlemore tells 9Honey Celebrity about how the collaboration came about – and how the group first met the Rocketman singer.
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Littlemore said they actually met John through another familiar face, none other than Australian actress and singer, Toni Collette.
Pnau and Collette, with her band Toni Collette & The Finish, shared the same live agents.
Littlemore recalls John was once in Sydney having dinner with Collette and “raved” to her about a CD he had just purchased – which was one of Pnau‘s.Pnau album.
“We met Elton quite a while ago now, 10 years ago, he was in Sydney. On Crown Street, there was an old French restaurant and every time he would come to Sydney he’d have dinner with Toni Collette,” he said.
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“They were having dinner and Elton was raving about this CD he bought that day and it was Pnau’s Pnau. She put us in touch, basically.
“We went to see Elton, I think it was the next day, and I was missing a front tooth and we walked in and he was so warm to us and so kind.
“We had an afternoon tea and had a chat and within a few weeks we were on a plane to England and never went home.”
Littlemore, who is also part of Empire of The Sun, also spoke about his time in the music industry as he promoted Pnau’s new collaboration with Red Rock Deli.
The Aussie dance music group, made up of Littlemore, Peter Mayes and Sam Littlemore, have provided fans with numerous hit tracks over the years, including Go Bang, Changa and In My Head.
The group have had great success, being three-time ARIA Award winners.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate… I try not to look back to much,” Littlemore said.
He also gave some of his best advice for anyone looking to enter the music industry.
“For young people, just try to finish things, even if you don’t think it’s the greatest thing you ever do, in the digital age, you can do a million things, but finish them off,” he said.
“I think David Foster was talking about it and I agree, networking is the best thing. You don’t know who you’re going to click with, try and write with a lot of people, even if you don’t think you’re going to end up a writer.
“I think it’s a good to start and to understand that side of the fence, it’s invaluable.”
Pnau is celebrating a new and unique collaboration with Red Rock Deli, releasing a new track called All Your Energy that uses sounds made from ingredients from the chips.
It celebrates the brand’s new platform called Awaken Your Senses.
“It kind of came out of the blue… It’s cool,” Littlemore said.
“We got to make a more underground kind of record and you don’t get to do it much in the age of streaming, everyone kind of wants a single.”
“We did attempt a lot of things, I will say that. Music is around us at all times, you have to listen to it and differentiate with different sounds.”