Although Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore’s dreamy electro side project Empire Of The Sun has copped a bit of negative press recently, what with hokey live stunts and plagiarism disputes, there can be no denying that the Empire lads are on a really impressive roll. With their debut album Walking On A Dream blowing up to epic proportions, Empire Of The Sun have secured a slew of headlining festival dates as well as a hook-up with the one and only Jay-Z for the rap superstar’s upcoming The Blueprint 3. But we’re pretty sure those achievements pale in comparison to the revelation that the US President, Barack Obama, loves your album.

Speaking to Australia’s own triple j radio yesterday, Emperor Steele himself let loose the mini bombshell that the leader of the free world was a big fan of the duo’s LP, reportedly giving it repeated spins in the White House.

“It’s getting pretty big and it’s feeling pretty crazy,” Steele drawled about the outfit’s expanding profile. “It was so crazy to hear about the Obama thing. Apparently it’s his favourite record at the moment,” Steele said. “Then I heard that Angelina Jolie was trying to get my number for a private dinner party. Okay that one I just made up, but the first one was true,” the frontman said in a slice of vintage Luke Steele weirdness.

Steele also rambled at length about his collaboration with Jay-Z for The Blueprint 3, explaining how the oddball pairing ended up coming together.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” Steele droned. “I heard that he heard our track on an episode of Entourage and then wanted to work with me. Either that or Beyonce has a crush on Emporer…,” he joked. “It’s quite difficult to get a flight to New York from Perth so I ended up cutting the track at home, sending back over to him at 3AM. Then he rang me up and just said ‘amazing. Perfect. I love it.’”

With Steele’s collaboration – and indeed the whole LP – having leaked online this week, we’d have to politely disagree with Jigga’s ‘amazing’ assessment. Check it out in the clip below and stay tuned for more Empire Of The Sun shenanigans as they appear.