An Introduction To St. Lucia

Nowadays he may be Brooklyn-based and making waves in Passion Pit-paved pools, but Jo'burg-born Jean-Philip Grobler aka St. Lucia kicked off his life in music in KZN's mountains at the highly-held Drakensberg Boys' Choir School. We even heard rumblings (via the man himself) that Grobler was one of those nicely voiced kiddos in this historic video, a young'n singing SA's National Anthem at the opening game of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Though it's easy to assume his tropical synth-pop project's namesake stems somewhere in the Caribbean, St. Lucia's roots are SA-grounded — a spot on South Africa's map that Grobler just so happened to land a pen on (as legend has it in this SXSW interview). With two EPs already under his belt and a debut album set for release October 8 via Neon Gold, we thought we'd highlight five tracks to get acquainted with St. Lucia.

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"Elevate" (from St. Lucia's upcoming full length When the Night)

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"September"

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"Before the Dive"

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"We Got It Wrong"

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"Closer Than This"