Normally the meaning of the songs, if there is any, occurs to me after I've written the song. St. Lucia More Quotes by St. Lucia More Quotes From St. Lucia I try to not be self-conscious in my writing process. St. Lucia self writing trying I think I was just too young to even understand what was going on. When I was still living in South Africa, there was still so much racial tension. St. Lucia tension young thinking When I think back, I felt like I had the life that a lot of white American kids grew up with in the suburbs in the States. I started noticing, as Apartheid's grip weakened, that we had more and more black kids at school; I had more and more black friends. But I never really saw a separation between myself and the black kids at school. St. Lucia kids school thinking I think it's important to just be in your subconscious mind - at least when you're starting an idea. St. Lucia mind ideas thinking When I was developing St. Lucia - around 2008, 2009, at the peak of Pitchfork culture - what was considered cool was being as alienating to your audience as possible. St. Lucia pitchforks audience culture Normally when I'm writing, in the beginning I don't think of lyrics at all. I'm just improvising. St. Lucia improvising writing thinking A lot of the people I was writing with think a lot more about lyrics and a lot more about the details from the beginning. That kind of thinking made me a little self-conscious because I was suddenly having to judge what I was doing early on in the process. St. Lucia self writing thinking World music evokes a feeling. You don't have to think about the scene that it comes from. St. Lucia feelings world thinking The music that I listen to the most is probably world music, whether it's from African or South America or all over. St. Lucia south america world What I love about African-African music is how unselfconscious it is in so many ways. St. Lucia african-music music-is way Trying to be really dark and alienating just felt exhausting to me, so I started going back to the music that I grew up with, whether it was African music or pop music. It took me away from being overly self-conscious about what I was doing. St. Lucia self dark trying I had this perfect situation where my studio was a three-minute walk away, and every day I would go to the studio. If I had an idea, I could work on it at the highest level possible. St. Lucia three perfect ideas The racial conversation in the States is so multifaceted and multilayered. Obviously it's not always a positive conversation, but it's just so much more detailed than it was when I was growing up in South Africa. St. Lucia growing-up states conversation I was extremely frustrated, almost at the point of giving up on coming up with a name for the project (because I'm awful at it), when I decided to play the 'put a pen somewhere on a map with your eyes closed' game with South Africa. About the 5th try was St. Lucia in South Africa, which coincidentally also happens to be an idyllic sub-tropical seaside resort town. The name seemed to fit with the mood of the music, and so after a while it just stuck. St. Lucia giving-up eye games I decided to create a really good laptop recording situation and to learn how to write that way, rather than have the perfect stuff around. St. Lucia laptops perfect writing I'm really into a lot of different music, and a lot of stuff that sounds absolutely nothing like anything on the Mini-Album. St. Lucia albums different sound The moment you're too apologetic about something and people know that something isn't finished, they listen/look for the mistakes or cracks, but if you act like it's done people experience things in a totally different way. St. Lucia different mistake people Sometimes it's just the creative intent of an artist or band that inspires me. I'm generally drawn to artists or bands that put themselves out on a limb somewhat and do something that infuriates both the mainstream and the indie purists, but that can't necessarily be classed as either. To me it seems somewhat convenient to be on either end of that scale. St. Lucia creative artist inspire I met the guys at HeavyRoc through the drummer in St. Lucia, Nick Brown. He is Ben from The Knocks' cousin, and at the time we'd been doing some work together, but everything was still very much in the unsure developmental phase (even though I'd been in it for a year and a half). I told him that if he was going to play the music for anyone that he shouldn't say anything about it and should just play it and see if anyone says anything, and he did it one day at their studio and they loved it and got it touch. St. Lucia cousin play years Music has always moved me really deeply, and it's always been more about that than about the desire to rebel or annoy people (although, I've had my moments of that as well). I think it was just years of maybe moving slightly away from it but always coming back to it as the thing that I'm best at. St. Lucia years moving thinking
