The Sleepy Jackson: Summer Loving.

The Sleepy Jackson play The Healer on Friday and Homebake at the Sydney Domain on December 7. Let Your Love Be Love is in stores now.

“I saw Velvet Goldmine last night,” Sleepy Jackson frontman Luke Steele remarks. “I’m going to try and compose some of that makeup for our photo shoot on Friday. The film was all right, but some of the make up was pretty dreggy.”

Make up or not, there’s little to hide behind when confronted by The Sleepy Jackson in full flight. The Perth based pop experimentalists have just released their new EP Let Your Love Be Love, and as well as setting the ears of reviewers alight, it’s found favour with many a punter.

As well as a slot on this year’s Splendour In The Grass extravaganza, the band have recently the band have hit the road with a number of big name acts, the payoff to come as the band hit the road flying their own flag.

“It’s all been pretty good. All the tours have been good. Supergrass were great, and Mercury Rev were a revelation. It was just amazing. I think out of all the tours we’ve done The Vines was the hardest one. We played in Perth with them, and it was pretty full on. We just got treated pretty rough, you know. It was a bit disjoint.”

“A lot of older musos have always said to me to just develop yourself and don’t associate yourself with mediocrity. Most of these tours have been the complete opposite. We were just humbled every night. We were just this little band from Perth, and these guys are just so good. Just the musicianship, especially Mercury Rev, it was pretty flash and very professional compared to everyone else. The look, the sound, the style. They’ve got a real spiritual thing going on, trying to take things to a higher level.”

Are there plans afoot to take The Sleepy Jackson those kinds of directions in the future?

“Oh yeah. We’re definitely wanting to try things like adding more keyboards. We did a show with Jebediah like that. When the album comes out it will bring it all in, but to get everything in is getting pretty expensive. We’ve got to establish ourselves a bit more.”

“We used to play with a piano player, but I felt we were relying on him a bit too much, because he was right into that Ben Folds kind of thing. Real low register of keys with all those big smashes and that. The band was just sounding a bit messy. He’s playing with Eskimo Joe now, and now we don’t have a piano player, but it’s really tightened up the band not having one.”

Is there much line up swapping going on over in Perth?

“Yes and no. I guess you can always add extra musos. We had a pedal steel player that would come in and just play a couple of songs. But with your core members you’ve really got to get to know each other.”

But for the time being, there are far more important musical matters to take care of.

“I’m gonna go get this new pedal today,” he enthuses. “It’s like a phaser. That’s the plan for the day.