Interview: St. Lucia Banters with Afterglow While Discussing Recent Single, “Fear of Falling”
St. Lucia spoke with Afterglow about the duo’s recent singles, “Fear of Falling” and “Falling Asleep” ahead of their performance at Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Written by Rachel Joy Thomas
Photo courtesy of Adal
St. Lucia, a band composed of married duo Jean-Philip Grobler and Patti Beranek, is gearing up for a return to the musical world. The band set itself toward a high-energy performance at Austin City Limits Music Festival as a debut for new singles “Falling Asleep” and “Fear of Falling,” releasing the latter the same day as their esteemed electronic performance. Before taking the stage for its ACL performance at the IHG Hotels stage, the band took time to speak with Afterglow about its musical inspirations, South African visuals, and personal development.
Afterglow: You are both performing “Fear of Falling” today. It’s your first time performing it at Austin City Limits. I wanted to ask, what inspired performing and releasing it today, here and now?
Patti: It [just] came out today. It’s the first time we’ve ever done that, and it’s perfect timing.
Jean: We’re actually [performing] two songs: our previous single that also just came out, “Falling Asleep,” and “Fear of Falling” for the first time. “Fear of Falling” is just the one that actually came out today.
I got a chance to listen to it this morning. It has a beautiful, hopeful sound to it. The strings, the synths, the delicate harmonies — it’s all wonderful. I absolutely adored it. What inspired the songwriting direction for “Fear of Falling?”
Jean: I wrote it around the time that our first child was born. And it was just, I think anyone that has kids can understand — it's this moment where you suddenly have this being that's yours and you're responsible for everything. It's partially fear, it's partially hope, it's partially wonder; it's all these things in one. The song kind of [came] through to me and I was very inspired experiencing these very strong emotions. I just had this image of when [my child is] a bit older just lying somewhere in the middle of nature on the ground, staring up at the stars next to him. It was just this emotionally overwhelming moment, and that's what it's like.
Patti: So skip a few years ahead. We didn't really do anything with [“Fear of Falling”] and we’re just working on it. It didn't feel quite [ready]. And then when the pandemic hit, we saw a lot of fear happening in all sorts of directions and I thought it was really apt and I think we then continued developing that song.
Jean: It felt like a very hopeful sound. [We were trying to] embody [the] sound of hope over fear.
I noticed the two singles you released, “Fear of Falling” and “Falling Asleep” both have falling in them: deliberate or is it just a coincidence?
Patti: Deliberate or subconscious? [It’s] subconscious, [if anything].
Jean: The songs are written more than five years apart, so there was no intention [behind it]. On our first record, we had “Closer Than This” and “Too Close,” so sometimes there's something that is going through. This morning, I was doing the post to say, “Oh, ‘Fear Of Falling’ is out.” I was trying to add the song to the post. I searched for “Fear of Falling” at the top for [our song]. And literally the song right below it was “Fear of Falling Asleep” by some other artist, I don't even know who. We need to listen to it. It could be our walk-by music today.
Photo courtesy of Bandcamp
“Falling Asleep” has a ‘70s psychedelic sound to it. It differentiates itself from other albums and work that you've done before. What inspired that sonic direction for you?
Patti: You picked up on some good stuff there, actually.
Jean: I think we just said “Italo Disco!” We love a lot of different music. Our music taste [has] evolved over time. I think over the last five years we've really gotten into more slightly obscure Italo Disco and Habibi Funk and Habibi pop from the Middle East. [We’ve also gotten into] composers like Ennio Morricone, and we are huge fans of Abba. It almost feels like an undiscovered, novelty pop gem from some far-off land. I think that's also where these outfits are. It's like [we’re] these desert troubadours.
Patti: Yeah. It’s a little surreal in parts.
Speaking of the desert, I saw the visuals for “Falling Asleep.” You have a beautiful South African landscape and I absolutely adored the music video.
What drew you toward those visuals?
Patti: We've been working with Zander Ferriera, a friend of ours who's also from South Africa. He's been a good friend of ours for a long time, and [Jean] sent him some of our music. He just picked up on “Falling Asleep” actually. He was like, “Dude, I really, I love this and I really have some cool ideas.” So, we've been working with him for the last year and a half or something. [We’ve] just [been] getting together and having a little brainstorming; this idea came from that.
Jean: It's the first time we've actually basically produced the music videos ourselves. We took it upon ourselves because we were doing social media and trying to do higher-quality social media content than the average [person]. We just started learning more about cameras. We realized that we could do it better ourselves than [if we paid] someone else with the budget that we had. We just went about doing it with [no] budget [or funds].
Patti: Yeah, but it's been so good. That's been such a good journey. We've learned so much on the way and we've been able to go to these incredible places.
For no budget, it's a really beautiful music video. You've got sandy desert horses and a piano burning. I have to ask, what inspired that specific visual?
Patti: That was Zander. He was like, “I want a burning piano!” And I was like, “Why do you want to burn a piano?” It's actually an AI shot.
Jean: He was fighting to get Patti to work in the desert [longer]. It would have added an extra three days to the shoot and doubled the already minimal budget that we had. So, we just ended up working with an amazing AI visual artist [for] it because we felt like [we wanted] all cards on the table. I've said a lot of negative things about AI visuals, but there was something about the guy that we were speaking to, Pierre Zandrowicz. Zander thought it would be cool to marry these cool [elements] with AI visuals. We're bringing these two worlds together.
To shift gears, I've glanced at your Instagram, and I see beautiful cooking and baking content. I saw a pistachio rosewater cake, Peri Peri chicken, and sound explainers. You talk about the instruments you use like the Prophet 10. What compels you to share those little moments with your community?
Patti: What compels you to share those moments, Jean?
Jean: What compels me? Necessity compels us. I think there is something cool about sharing, and that's what we try to do with our social media: not just put trash out there. That is just a distraction. Can we try and do things that way? Feel like they're a compliment to the music that we make in some kind of way, and show the world who we are as people and expand the world of St. Lucia and who we are. That’s just why we do it.
Patti: I feel like as a mom and dad, we don't have that much time to spend [on socials]. I don't know how other moms do it, but I don't have that time, somehow. I guess [we’re] just being selective over what we're doing, because I want to have my whole life on social media.
Jean: Social media has taken on a negative side. I think it's done some positive things too, but [more] on the negative side. The reason we do music is because we want to do something with our lives that inspires us and that we feel good about. I think if you focus too much on social media, it just turns into another chore, and I think you've gotta try and find that balance between using it as a marketing tool, as a way to connect with your fans, and as a way to expand your universe.
Patti: [We can’t] let it take the joy out of making art and making music. This is our art. I know a lot of people are very creative and say a lot in their socials, and they use them, and that’s great for them, but not for us.
I'm glad y'all found that balance. What is one thing going into this performance tonight that you’re excited about?
Jean: Live performance for us is really where the whole project comes together, I think we spend a lot of time and energy in the studio. We started before social media. [I suppose] Facebook existed in the yonder days of 2011. I think for us, being in a place like this is what we strive for. This love [we have] for playing with the guys in our band. It’s connected all around. This is also something we have talked about much, but we’ve been a band for 12 years?
Patti: More, I think 14 [years].
Jean: Yeah, but with us at this point, we [can say] 12 years. We are closer than ever. We are closer than ever; we love each other. I think this has just grown into more than the music as a band —It really feels like family. I feel like us being able to perform together with the vibes happening on stage and sharing that with an audience is the ultimate connection. There's obviously all these vibes happening on stage and sharing that with the audience feeds into that. It's the ultimate connection. I think that that's why I love it so much.
This article was minimally edited for clarity and length.
You can follow St. Lucia on Instagram and stream his music on Apple Music and Spotify.