7 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About St Lucia

April 6, 2014

Brooklyn outfit St Lucia, fronted by Johannesburg, South Africa native Jean-Philip Grobler and known for their cruisy yet emotive take on synth-pop, are in the country promoting their debut full-length release, When The Night, with an equally cruisy string of East Coast performances.

Following the release of two critically acclaimed EPs, St Lucia decided to ride the wave of hype that had formed underneath them and channel it into When The Night, a dreamy and nostalgic pop record released through NYC operation Neon Gold and premiered in Australia via the OAF Cube.

To get a handle on this unique outfit, who we discovered have ties to Haim, The Wombats, and Nelson Mandela, we got together with St Lucia to find out a few tidbits that even die-hard fans maybe didn’t know about, including which member of Haim had a crush on keyboard player Nicky.

1. Patti [Beranek, keys] was a kung fu world champion when she was 12 (for her age group, of course).

2. Jean was a jingle writer for a few years.

3. Ross [Clark, bass, guitar, keys, vocals], Nicky [Paul, keys], and Dustin [Kaufman, drums] are all jazzers, having studied at the New School in NYC. Nicky even did a few cruise ship jazz gigs.

4. Nicky grew up with the Haim girls in LA. At the first show we ever played together, Este Haim told the story of how she used to have a crush on him back at school.

5. Jean was a member of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir and was once flown to the top of a mountain to perform for Nelson Mandela.

6. Ross is a quarter Mexican.

7. Jean went university in Liverpool in the UK and had a band there called Ishkobar, who The Wombats used to support. He even had a short lived project with Wombats bass player Tord Øverland-Knudsen.

St Lucia are currently in the country for a string of East Coast tour dates which wrap up at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel this Tuesday — full details below.

Watch: St. Lucia – Elevate