He recently swept up at the 2009 ARIA Awards, taking home several trophies via his debut album from the colourful, electro-pop collaboration with good pal Nick Littlemore, Empire Of The Sun. Now enigmatic Perth singer/songwriter Luke Steele has revealed that he’s working on a brand new album for his ‘day job’ – as frontman of indie-pop outfit the Sleepy Jackson.

According to the “Devil Was In My Yard” singer, the follow-up to 2006’s Personality – One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird is “pretty much written”, and should see the light of day sometime before 2011, Steele promises.

“I think I’ve pretty much written a lot of the new album, but funnily enough, the record company doesn’t seem too interested at the moment,” Steele confessed to music website fasterlouder.com. “That’s okay for me, though, buys me a bit of time for the moment. [The album should be out] definitely in the next decade but not in the next 12 months – I’d want to, but I don’t think so, no.”

What will the new Sleepies disc sound like? Steele admits the success of Empire Of The Sun has rubbed off. “Empire definitely changed everything; it set a new bar, really. I’ll have to do something different with my hair. Maybe I’ll go red-head next!” he joked. (Steele dyes his hair blond while working with Empire; for Sleepy Jackson, it’s black.)