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Mar 24, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Gabrielle Kannemeyer

Over the course of the 2010s, husband and wife duo St. Lucia have been honing a potent combination of funk, synth pop, and disco, crafting an escapist island of pop joys. These days, Jean-Philip Grobler and Patti Beranek are offering an open invitation to return to their neon-lit dancefloors with their new EP, Utopia I.

Inspired by euphoric dancefloor staples like David Bowie, The Weeknd, and Daft Punk, the duo has envisioned their latest work as a retreat from the darkness that has covered the world over the past few years. As Patti explains, “I feel really proud of the EP. I think there is purity in it that you can’t really describe. You just have to listen and feel it. I think that this comes from having another child, being parents, and being thrown into a weird time in our lives. It unleashes things, and I think we did a good job capturing that.”

St. Lucia shared their first taste of the EP with their lead single, “Rocket On My Feet.” Today the pair are back with another new release, “Another Lifetime,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Another Lifetime” is the pair’s latest glittery space-age odyssey, featuring spikey synth-laden passages, sweet swelling harmonies, and a pounding psychedelic disco feel. The band’s shimmering melodies offer a dose of pure retro-pop euphoria, calling back to classic ‘70s disco records yet casting them in a colorful futurist mold. As Jean-Phillip describes, “It’s about feeling the rhythm of life, almost like the force in Star Wars.” With “Another Lifetime,” St. Lucia are inviting listeners to blast off with them and land in the neon utopia of their dreams.

Jean-Philip explains of the track, “This track clearly marked the beginning of a new era for us. We’d just moved to Patti’s hometown, Konstanz in Germany, in February 2021 after spending 2020 in New York. We’d just had our second child, Charlie, and we were feeling hopeful about new beginnings after the darkness and confusion of the year before. Another Lifetime felt like watching the sun coming over the horizon after a long night. We don’t like explaining our lyrics too much because they are intuitive, and often we don’t understand them ourselves. But, it seems like the song is about listening to your own intuition and going within when the world outside seems too confusing to comprehend.”

Check out the song here, along with the video courtesy of director and animator Lauren Haug. Utopia I is out everywhere on April 29th via Nettwerk.