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Published on August 19th, 2016 | by Sasha Nycole

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Q&A With St. Lucia For #UberSummerSeries Finale

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New York, NY- As summer 2016 nears to a close, Uber is making sure to end it on a great note with a truly unforgettable experience. Having just wrapped up their 3-part summer concert series powered by Perrier and Hotel Indigo, Uber has successfully created a well blended atmosphere by fusing good vibes, refreshing drinks and ear catching music from some incredible acts.

Taking the stage for the final installment of the #UberSummerSeries were the fun, rhythmic sounds of St. Lucia, consisting of lead vocalist/producer/guitarist Jean-Philip Grobler, Patti Beranek (vocals/keys), Ross Clark (vocals/guitar/bass), Nick Paul (keys), Dustin Kaufman (drums). The band dances the lovers tango with influences from the islands and pop culture.

The Hype Magazine’s media correspondent Sasha Nycole was on the scene and had the opportunity to chat with the Jean-Phillip backstage, who talked about the growth of St. Lucia and more.

A lot of your songs seem to be island/Caribbean influenced and the instruments seem play a big part in that. What type of instruments do you like to use in your live performances?

St. Lucia- We use so many instruments but I wish we could use more, to be honest! There are so many textures and sounds on my records that to fully achieve that soundscape we’d need to add a percussionist, a brass section, and at least 4 more people who can sing. For now we have a few things on tracks, but as time moves on we’re working on figuring out ways of playing those parts live. Still, our show is very high energy and we have about 10 synths/keyboards on stage, live drums, everyone shares percussion duties, guitar, bass guitar, drum pads, etc., etc. I always feel bad for the person checking us in at the airport.

The crowd absolutely loved the performance that you and your band did last night. What do you think your fans/listeners take away with them after hearing your music?

I hear that people feel really positive and uplifted after our shows, which is probably the best thing I could ask for. I don’t set out to make positive or ‘uplifting’ music, I set out to make music that makes me feel something, and fortunately that feeling that I look for makes people feel good. If there’s any ‘message’ that I’d like to send, it’s that you should be yourself and that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. And if that sounds corny, it’s because it is actually true. I don’t explicitly say these things in my lyrics, because I don’t like to be preachy, but the way I make music and live my life is that I don’t follow anyone’s rules, whether it’s about how I should write songs or lyrics or make them sound or how I should behave as an adult. I follow my inner compass, and I feel that not enough people do that.

Being that you were raised in South Africa, a great deal of your music is influenced by your experience there. Do you ever find yourself going back to find more inspiration?

Absolutely. I always feel really inspired when I’m in South Africa. My family still lives over there, so I’m fortunate that I have other reasons to visit. There is such an interesting cultural tension in South Africa that, although it isn’t ‘good’, per se, it inspires a lot of thought and is really good material to explore with art. There is also a really unselfconscious beauty to South African music that inspires me in my quest to make music that is also unselfconscious and isn’t trying to be ‘cool’.

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You and your band seem to have a great chemistry in stage. How did you all come together?

Patti and I met about 14 years ago in Liverpool, England, and we’ve been together ever since. She understands my process better than anyone and is my most important sounding board with all the music that I make, literally new songs will live or die by the power of her opinion, so she is not to be messed with. We’ve also been writing together more and more. Always, from our most recent album, Matter, was written by us together. The rest of the band, Ross, Nicky and  Dustin all became part of the project when I felt I’d developed a cohesive sound and wanted to start playing live. They’ve become a very integral part of what we do, and we’ve also been writing together more.

Your latest project “Matter” was recently released towards the top of the year. What was the message/theme behind that body of work?

The themes of Matter all deal with the blurring of emotional lines that happens as you get older. The best thing I can liken it to is in the Pixar film ‘Inside Out’, when Riley starts to accept sadness as integral to her general ‘happiness’ or ‘wellbeing’, all her emotions start to mesh together. This happens more and more as we get older, in very strange and interesting ways, and Matter deals with that in Sex on ‘Physical’, Nostalgia on ‘Do You Remember’, Addiction on ‘Dancing on Glass’ etc., etc.

How was this experience, being able to perform on the #UberSummerSeries stage?

It was so much fun! The audience was having a great time and were well lubricated by the time we took the stage. We used to HATE doing acoustic performances but we’ve been having more and more fun doing it lately. We also had the Penthouse at the Hotel Indigo Lower East Side as our dressing room, and so we stayed on the balcony all night partying with our friends under the nearly full moon.

Have you ever taken an Uber before?

Oh man, are you kidding me? Just look at my account. I/we as a band should have shares in Uber! 😉

If so, what was your craziest Uber experience like?

We’ve had plenty but we can’t talk about them here 😉 This one time we tried to fit Nicky in the trunk.

Check out more photos from the event below:

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View the full event coverage below:

(Video footage by: Vixon J.)



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