St. Lucia Brings Intuition to the Studio in Newest Single Release “Rocket on My Feet”

Photo by Katie Friedman

St. Lucia (composed of Jean-Phillip Grobler, Patti Beranek, Ross Clark, Nick Paul and Dustin Kaufman) is fronted by husband and wife duo Jean-Phillip Grobler and Patti Beranek. The band made waves in the funk-pop realm following their latest single release “Rocket on My Feet.” The escapist-like single sends listeners to the nearest dancefloor. “Rocket on My Feet” has a darker edge to it compared to their previous releases – and let’s just say, we’re addicted. 

Staying culturally current, the single is about following intuition and tapping into a higher consciousness to drown out the loud noises that come through social media. The songwriting process was soul-searching, similar to a deep-guided meditation that allowed the band to tap into a fulfilling new realm of musical exploration that they haven’t encountered before. 

The New York band have been making their mark on electronic music since 2011, but the songwriters have kept a low profile on social media over the last few years after ending several tours for 2018’s Hyperion. St. Lucia returns with an optimism pulsating through their soundscapes with endless energy that makes dancing seem effortless.

"In a way, this [Rocket on My Feet] is my personal rebellion against the darkness of the world," says frontman Jean-Philip Grobler. "It's easy to feel depressed these days, so I'm trying to bring something joyous to the world. I was sick of seeing shit on the Internet, and I just wanted to feel good. That's what being human is about. We have to feel alive, despite whatever the fuck is going on."

[UNPUBLISHED]: Can you start off by introducing yourself to our readers and what type of music you make and how your musical journey started?

[JEAN]: Personally, I started making music when I was really young. I went to this boy's choir in South Africa and I grew up in South Africa. I was always attracted to making my music and having a band. When I was 11, I was already planning three albums ahead and had the whole track listing thing going on, even though it came to fruition.

[PATTI]: I always played the piano from an early age and I've always loved music, but it has actually been more of a healing, personal, very difficult journey for me. I always loved performing and the arts in general. I think it was just one thing that kind of led to another. It wasn't really until I met Jean and till I started doing more music that wasn't just for myself, when I started performing it with somebody else. Actually I'd never been in a band before, so that was like a whole new journey for me.

[JEAN]: Patti was studying dance when we first met, going to the same university in England, performing arts and dance, but she was always extremely musical.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Patti, would you say that music is your therapeutic outlet?

[PATTI]: It's like the language of the world. I would cry or feel sad and I would go and sit at the piano and it would be a healing process and it would feel like that's how I would overcome emotional pain often. I'm still to this day, very precious with the music that I write. I'm very, actually very shy about my music.

[JEAN]: Patti is extremely intuitive, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.

[PATTI]: I do get shy about my own music. Jean is not just an artist, but a producer and I think he just lives music. What’s really good about him, is that no matter who it is, he’s able to just see musically who the people are. He’s really versatile and can do it all. 

[UNPUBLISHED]: What are some artists that inspire your music, either lyrically or just stylistically?

[JEAN]: As a band, we love Michael Jackson, Genesis, Boys to Men and Phil Collins, and love a lot of different music. I think that's kind of where St. Lucia came from was, it was kind of allowing yourself to include the slight guilty pleasure, naive thing in your music. We sort of started rediscovering a lot of that music that was kind of this guilty pleasure side of it that just gives you a bit of a smile and it has a bit of a wink to it. And I think that's kind of what inspired St. Lucia, combining both those things and having a bit of a progressive element, but then also sort of guilty pleasures, appealing to people's kind of nostalgia and sound memory of what takes them back to their childhood before they became self conscious about what they were listening to in some way.

[UNPUBLISHED]: What does your usual writing or creative process look like? Does it differ for you based on the song or environment you're in or the emotions you're experiencing at all?

[PATTI]: I know that Jean will sometimes go out on a run, and it's really helpful for him to not be in the studio at all, and be creative in a different way. He'll come back from a run with the whole song in his head.

[JEAN]: Focusing on something else. Almost when you lose something and you look for it and can’t find it, but then the moment you stop looking for it, you see it. It's like that peripheral vision where it's not about trying, it's about just living your life and then something comes in some way.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Your newest single “Rocket on My Feet,” just released, congratulations. Can you talk us through the inspiration behind the single and what were some of the emotions you faced while writing this?

[JEAN]: Through the pandemic, we made essentially like a whole album, more than a whole album. It's definitely what you would expect a pandemic record to be like, it's kind of emotional,  it's not super positive and happy necessarily, although there's parts of that. We were looking for new labels and new situations where you sign your music. We had all this material. We felt really good about it, and we were in this very relaxed space. We kind of expressed this feeling of the pandemic and everything that went on in the pandemic already. I just think that there was a sense of release, and we just moved from New York, to spend some time here in Germany with the kids. It was the sense of arriving and kind of relief of being in a new place, and being with family. I think the music started coming out and has a certain lightness to it, and we want to just enjoy our lives. 

[PATTI]: And it was interesting because that song came together really quickly.

[UNPUBLISHED]: You said that “Rocket on My Feet” follows your intuition. What is the intuition you're describing? Does it derive from a creative sense or spiritual sense? What does it mean to you? 

[JEAN]: It's interesting because over the last year or so, I've been doing a lot more DJ sets and traveling back and forth to the states just because Patti never traveled as much because of our second little one. There's something about that feeling especially in the midst of the pandemic, an uneasy kind of thing. I did a DJ set on the first night in New York that people didn’t have to wear masks inside, and there was a feeling of release, but also a slight uneasiness. There’s a tension in that song in the sense that it’s enjoyable and fun, but also an intangible sense of melancholy in there. I’m sick of hearing everyone’s opinions on social media and the internet. Let’s rather feel the music because music has a deep intuitive way that we can’t exactly grasp and communicate deeper things that we can communicate with language. 

[PATTI]: There’s quite a spiritual journey for us of really spiritual, emotional and intuitive connection. 

[UNPUBLISHED]: What was the hardest process for you during either the writing or producing or the release stage for “Rocket on My Feet?”

[PATTI]: I think the hardest part is once we're done with it, it's like the releasing of it and the social media part. We don't really love the social media stuff, it’s become such a norm in this world and to live with it everyday. We actually went off all socials for a year and a half, and came up with this new material. We have to go back and post this stuff and it’s like a weird place to be in for myself.

[JEAN]: I think the weird thing as artists, at least for me, a really important thing is being able to be free and make my own decisions about my time and what I do and follow my intuition. I think Patti's very similar as parents and as a family. But then there's this thing with social media or like satisfying the algorithm for Spotify and everything where you become this fucking hamster on a wheel. You literally have to release things at a certain amount of time. There are good things about social media. It's great that you can communicate to your fans, but I just wish there wasn't a weird algorithmic part of it where you have to post a certain amount. You have to do all these things in order for people to see what you do, it’s very contrived.

[UNPUBLISHED]: You guys have been on a four year break from releasing music. What has this time taught you and how has that experience been for you either emotionally or career wise? 

[PATTI]: We were working the whole time. I think it was more about where we are in the world. Where are we emotionally? We have more material, new material. It takes that time to sort of find maybe the new path or when the time is right to release something.

[JEAN]: I think the biggest thing for us to do is to take our time. I think being a parent takes up so much of your time, it just does. If you want to be an active, present parent, you just gotta give your time to your kids because you’re investing in the future. We spend a lot of time with our kids, we're very present, we're not handing them off to a nanny every day for like hours. That's forced us to take more time to make our music. I think that time we've taken has actually really benefited the music in many ways and are feeling our connection to the process and to each other.

[UNPUBLISHED]: How has your sound evolved since the start of your break?

[PATTI]: It has actually changed a lot. For Jean, it just comes out of him constantly, and it’s interesting to see what sticks. He’s the kind of person where he has to try everything and he will go to any place in music. We don’t take shortcuts in our music. 

[JEAN]: We were really in this place of wanting to go away from what we were in the beginning which is being kind of packaged as synth-pop or 80s retro. I think we wanted to get away from that and show what we can do in our music. I think we're going more in that direction, and I think a lot of that will be released in the future. I think “Rocket on My Feet” coincides with doing what feels effortless and not doing the whole band playing in a living room because that’s what Fleetwood Mac did. It’s doing what is fun and good at the moment. I think it evolved from trying to be retro and very loose. To me, it’s really important that you allow yourself to go down every road and that’s what we did. It was a long process. We have over 200 songs to show for it. It’s just something fucking insane, but you eventually find the gold in the river.

[UNPUBLISHED]: Your EP is set to release in spring. I imagine that this upcoming EP is very vulnerable and heartfelt just because this is your first body of work since your break. Were you nervous at all to release this?

[PATTI]: It feels really right, like the time and going through everything and not leaving a stone unturned in a way. It’s so obvious and clear to us that it’s got to be right now, and it’s very exciting and I just want it out there. 

[JEAN]: I think we find ourselves in a very strange time in history. Like the world is divided, it’s almost as if the Tower of Babel has collapsed. People are talking different languages and can’t see eye-to-eye and families are falling apart. I think there’s a bit of seeing that and thinking this is insane how extreme everything has gotten in different directions. Acknowledging that, but also not trying to propose solutions and talking about finding freedom within yourself through meditation and ways of escaping by being present. Beauty is still possible in this insane time. You can’t rely on the outside world to give you that, that peace or freedom. You have to do it for yourself and it’s your own responsibility, but that’s a beautiful thing. It's actually the most freeing thing you can imagine. To me that's the inspiration, it inspires people to live their lives in this time where it's so easy to just hide under a rock.

[UNPUBLISHED]: If you can describe your upcoming EP in three words, which would they be?

[JEAN]: Uplifting, emotional and epic. 

[UNPUBLISHED]: Just from hearing you guys talk about following your intuition and being really in tune spiritually. I imagine spirituality does play a huge role in your songwriting process. Can you elaborate more on that?

[JEAN]: I think to both of us, spirituality is a big thing. It's funny because I grew up in this very Christian environment, but my family never went to church as a family. I always went to Christian schools and grew up in a town where everyone’s Catholic.

[PATTI]: ​​It's more about feelings I think for myself. It's very much about feelings and I think when you tap into a certain realm, you can't help but feel something. And that to me, is in a way spiritual. It's just an energy that you tap into and I’ve always been led by that in general. 

[JEAN]: There’s this thing that’s inside of you and I think every religion talks about this on some level. I think it's really about listening and trusting your inner voice. In terms of the creative process, I think it's really important to tune into what your core is telling you and only you can find that. I think Patti and I are both people that are very into doing that and make us do crazy things in our lives, like moving here or there, or having a band, and still being musicians.

[UNPUBLISHED]: My last question for you guys is, what is your wildest wildest dream as an artist? If you can have one thing happen to you, a milestone, or collaboration you want to accomplish in your career? What would that look like for you guys?

[JEAN]: It would be cool to win a Grammy, but this isn’t a huge thing for us. We don’t do it in order to get that, but I think having something like that would be a nice little thing to have in your bookshelf. I think we're pretty lucky with where we are that we get to keep doing what we do and that we still love it. It's an absolute pleasure. We wake up and we're excited to do this. 

[PATTI]: We're pretty fortunate to get to do what we do and still get to do it. And playing live and connecting with people in that way. So I’m looking forward to just having that back into our lives. Just wondering how that’s gonna go and looking forward to it.