Photo: Shervin Lainez
"I think lyric writing is most interesting when there's a free-association randomness element to it. And not just lyrics but the music as well," Jean-Philip Grobler (the man behind St. Lucia) tells us when we meet him on a chilly morning in Shepherd's Bush.
"I think one of the biggest challenges of being a songwriter is getting out of your own way," he continues. "I think the moment you're too conscious of the process too early on, that's the moment you stop the flow of interesting ideas. When you can be in the moment and not worry too much about categorising it, that's when the best stuff comes out."
Anyone familiar with St. Lucia will recognise this freedom from over-analysis in his music. Grobler is admirably unafraid of a big chorus, especially on new album Matter, and everything he does feels completely free of cynicism. He cites the music scene from the late eighties as an inspiration for the boldness and lack of inhibition the new album showcases.
"What I love about that period is that there was this kind of naive, expansive quality to the music," he explains. "I feel like the industry had never really experienced a down point at that stage. They were just making these big records and there's a sense no one was ever thinking in the back of their mind, 'No, that's too much'."
It's refreshing to hear someone hark back to days of limitless potential and hope without going on to compare it to the fractured state of the industry today. And Grobler comes across as an overwhelmingly positive personality. He grew up in South Africa, in which much music was banned by the Apartheid-era government during his youth. Partly as a result of this, he was left with the least subversive music the West had to offer. Phil Collins, Sting and Lionel Ritchie soon became firm favourites.
After four years studying at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, he moved to New York in 2006, where he still lives today with his wife and St. Lucia collaborator Patricia Beranek. He says that in recent years there has been "an exodus" of bands from the city, with those who didn't grow up there abandoning it for Los Angeles or other new artistic hubs.
St. Lucia was in some way a reaction to many of those non-native New York bands who flocked to the city between 2005 and 2010 and hoped some of its kudos would rub off on them, according to Grobler. "A lot of those bands were making very insular music," he explains. "I was a fan of a lot of it, but I just didn't think there was any point to me making that kind of music. I realised that there was this whole other side of my influences that weren't necessarily considered as cool but were just about being fun and connecting with people in a positive way. I decided what would be the most interesting would be to take that and do it in a way that was progressive and new."
And progression is something St. Lucia achieves with his second full album. Grobler admits he was conscious of wanting to come up with a slightly different sound with Matter, after feeling some "had us nailed down as this kind of tropical pop band".
"It was important to me that the new album covered new ground while also keeping a connection with what we've done in the past," he says. "I felt that, while there was nothing wrong with the trop pop sound, there was a lot more to what I do and I wanted to show that to the world. I wanted it to be different, maybe not so much of the dreamy ambient pop of the first record, but still be recognisably St. Lucia."
One thing St. Lucia invokes, certainly more than most bands around today, is a sense of internationalism. Grobler won't be tied down on whether he sees himself as a South African artist or belonging to any other nation musically. But he does harbour a desire to go back to South Africa one day and give back to the culture that gave him so much as a child.
"I'm definitely interested in being more involved in the music scene over there; it's something I've been thinking about for the last few years," he says. "I feel if you've gained a bit of a foothold in the international music world, you have a responsibility to help other artists from your home country. Especially with South Africa, which isn't the most prominent on the musical map." But as much as Grobler has a social conscience, he has been reluctant to write songs with an overtly-social message.
"I've never been a huge fan of lyrics like that because I've always found them corny," he says. "But I've also realised that that stuff actually does make a difference because not everyone feels the same way. A lot of the music from the sixties was like that. I'm more of a fan of more ambiguous lyrics, but however it's done I think it can really help to drive change, and has done in South Africa."
South Africa will never be too far from what St. Lucia does, with the world rhythms coursing through the shamelessly sunny and bold music. But it's more than just a cliché to say he is an artist with truly global appeal. You don't have to be overt about your intentions if you want to make things better. Sometimes just making art that makes people happy can be incredibly powerful. As the UK is about to find out, St. Lucia is a master of doing just that.
