St. Lucia and Parson James

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Grobler’s first taste of music came when he performed and travelled internationally with the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir. Since leaving the choir Grobler attending music school in Liverpool, England before settling in New York, U.S.

St. Lucia’s initial attempts at making music were strongly influenced by the likes of Boyz II Men, Michael Jackson and Phil Collins, however experimented with alternative and rock music in his later years wanting to create something big and bombastic, but has since returned to his eighties pop roots, with a combination electronic and acoustic instruments.

In 2012 St. Lucia signed to the label Neon Gold Records home to such artists as Gotye and Ellie Goulding and often credited with the discovery of Vampire Weekend and Lana Del Ray. Once signed Neon Gold re-released St. Lucia’s self-titled EP, which he previously had released independently. The EP had unintentional themes of loss that Grobler only realised after its completion, the eventual six-track EP was narrowed down from about 50 songs.

Grobler’s first full-length LP entitled “When the Night” was released in October 2013 and St. Lucia described as “an artist who has sharpened his knives, payed homage to his genre’s past, and created songs that are uniquely and rapturously his own”. Where his previous attempts lacked cohesion, the full-length, guides the listener through an exotic mix of unabashed indie-pop and synth-pop to a cohesive whole.

St. Lucia’s live performances have included a number of fellow musicians from Nick Brown, Patricia Beranek Ross Clark, and support slots for Two Door Cinema Club. Grobler has also shown a rather apt hand at remixing, for the likes of Foster The People, Charli XCS and fellow label-mates Passion Pit.