Sweet St. Lucia

On the evening of October 23rd, as fans lined up down the street for the Two Door Cinema Club show at Oakland's Fox Theater I ducked inside the venue for a quick sit down with Jean Philip Grobler from the opening act St. Lucia. 

Q: I understand that you toured with Passion Pit this past summer is that correct?

A: We kind of toured…actually we did tour with them. We did this, um, Australian Festival like traveling festival. Um and then we had a support show with them back in ….May…or…no it was June! Which we didn’t actually make… because of a long story which I won’t get into but yeah.

Q: uh oh

A: But we made it up in Australia I think (laughs)

Q: Oh good, I’m sure you did!

Q: Awesome so you did some touring with Passion Pitt, you’re currently on tour with Two Door Cinema Club, I think I read that you were just confirmed for a festival next week here in Oakland? Or is it in San Francisco? Is it  The Wintersalt Festival?

A: OH! It’s uhh, it’s actually in December at the end of December.

Q: December, my mistake (laughs)

A: (laughs)

Q: I probably worried you “we’re playing a festival here next weekend?”

A: (laughs) I was like “next week?! Oakland?! What?!!” 

Q: you seem to be on the road a lot, is there a light at the end of your touring tunnel?

A: we, you know… we haven’t actually been touring that much, like, I’ve been spending…we’ve been touring a bit but I’ve been spending a lot if time finishing off the album, but I think that now that it’s basically finished we’re going to be touring a lot more then cause I mean…

Q: to push

A: Yeah, because you know cause there is so much music out there these days that I think the, the real way for people to notice you is you know a combination of things being on the internet and else where but also of just playing shows and people going to the shows and being like “wow this is great” 

 Q: Definitely. I don’t know if you have a say in what bands you do go on tour with but is that something you take into consideration to generate new St Lucia fans?

 A: Yeah yeah definitely. I think…..its important to think about the bands you’re playing with definitely. You know in terms of  who you want your audience to be  and that kind of stuff but at the end of the day I think if you, as long as you play with a band that’s vaguely similar in some vague way. It doesn't matter who likes your music you know? Its just good that people get into it in some way. But, and yeah I do, I have a choice. I definitely approve, like, like everything. 

Q: Gotchya, that's awesome. I was going to ask when we could expect the release of the full St Lucia LP which you alluded to earlier. So, we can expect the LP soon, is that correct?

A: Yeah I mean its basically finished like I said, um...but there's a lot of  label politics and things involved like, when the release date is and you know because we're on a major label they have all these other things that they're also releasing and that they've been planning to release for a long time and because we're like a new act we sort of have  to....somehow fit in between that and find...you know cause there are specific times if the year where less stuff is being released than other times of the year that's like a better gap for a new artist to release stuff so we'll probably look for one if those gaps, which I think should be early next year I would say, sometime. 

Q: Cool, looking forward to it!

A: Awesome (laughs)

Q: Have you ever visited the island of St.Lucia?

A:   I haven't. But, um, the band is actually named after the St. Lucia in South Africa.  I went there a lot as a kid and it's also kind of, sort of a sub tropical ocean-side town. 

Q: Has there been an album this year that you can't stop listening to?

A: Well at the moment I am really enjoying the Tame Impala album that just recently came out. Um, there's a few albums like, the Chairlift album I loved, The Chromatics album I really really like. I'm so busy making music and just being involved in it that normally the time I listen to musuc is when I have it on in the back-round while I'm doing other things and normally the music that's condusive to that sort of thing. It needs to have a certain quality and I find that The Chromatics album is really good fir that, just to be in the backround a create some sort of a mood. 

 Q: Very cool. All three of those bands have played in the bay area recently. I actually just saw Chairlift here at The Fox Theater last month. 

A: Cool, we were actually on that Australian tour with them.

Q: Oh really? Chairlift was on that bill ,too? Fun!

A: Yeah! it was so awesome hanging out backstage with all of these bands, and just be like "heeey what's up? What's happening?" 

Q: Would you ever consider doing work with St. Vincent?

A: I mean yeah, shes awesome. I really really like her music so yeah absolutely. The two islands are pretty close, so it's sort of inevitable I guess. (laughs)

Q: There you go, it'd be the vacation tour

A: Exactly. (laughs) a "vacation island tour..."

Q: What genre of music woud you say best discribes that of St Lucia and why?

A: Being so involved with it I find it sort of difficult to look at what my music is from a broader prospective, but I would say it's...I wouldn't say that it's super obvious pop but there are strong pop elements there and then there are elements that are a bit more unexpected and un-traditional. I  would say it probably fits into  something like indie-pop or electro-pop or just something like that.  I don't like to catergirize things that much but...

Q: It is what it is right?

A: Exactly. (laughs)

Q: Awesome. Are you excited for the show tonight?

A: I am yeah, This venue is amazing! its so beautiful. When we were soundchecking it felt like Led Zeppelin or something cause theres a huge like echo. When ever we would play anything it would just sound super cool. and all the Moroccan kind of decorative finishes and stuff is really really beautiful. 

Q: Yeah the Fox here in Oakland is one of my personal favorite venues to see a show and I can hardly wait to see your show here tonight! Thank you for taking time to talk with me before hitting the stage. 

A: My pleasure.

 No question, St. Lucia's touring efforts are paying off as the venue packed them in to see St. Lucia at 8:00pm, the first of three bands that night. In a pop of white pants and a cool pastel linen button up, Jean-Philip looked as if he were on a vacation island onstage under the splashes of gold stage lights.

Playing tracks, "Before the Dive", "Closer Than This" and "All Eyes on You" from the 2012 self titled EP, St. Lucia passionately and effortlessly soothed the audience into a  tranquil state with complex yet calming arrangements of synthesizers and calypso rhythms which sounded amazing at The Fox Theater.

After six songs Jean-Philip thanked and wished everyone a great rest of the night before announcing the last St, Lucia song of the night, the catchy single "September". 

St. Lucia will be touring the East Coast in December before returning to San Francisco the weekend of December 28th for a tropical holiday by the bay!