× SUSTO (solo) tours with Hackensaw Boys; does festivals- and headline shows this month

SUSTO (solo) tours with Hackensaw Boys; does festivals- and headline shows this month

02-07-2018

Justin Osborne needed a break. He'd been writing music and making albums since he was 15, and by the age of 26, he felt like he was spinning his wheels. He knew he needed a change, so he ended his old band Sequoyah Prep School and moved to Cuba. He thought he might be done with music for a while, but the songs just kept coming.

Osborne was already writing the songs for what would be SUSTO's 2014 self-titled debut when his producer Wolfgang Zimmerman introduced him to Johnny Delaware, a guitarist and songwriter who had moved to Charleston, South Carolina to make an album with the producer.

SUSTO is a Spanish word referring to a folk illness in Latin America that Osborne learned as anthropology student, meaning “when your soul is separated from your body,” and also roughly translates to a panic attack. For Osborne, the music of SUSTO was something he had to get out into the world.

SUSTO released their debut album independently and toured relentlessly to get the word out. They were an immediate hit in their hometown, packing venues, getting airplay at all the bars and even making a fan of Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell. "I got an e-mail from him, telling me he loved the record and wanted to meet with me and Johnny," he says. "That was actually the day I wrote my professor, and I said, ‘I'm not coming in.’"

The members of the live band that Osborne and Delaware recruited — Corey Campbell (guitar, keys, backing vocals), Jenna Desmond (bass), and Marshall Hudson (drums, percussion) contributed to SUSTO’s new album & I'm Fine Today, which is released via Caroline. "We just wanted to go further. We started something with the first record, and we want to keep going in that direction," Osborne says of the album, which finds them taking the spacey country rock of their debut into the stratosphere, piling on layers of sighing keyboards, galloping rhythms and frayed, noisy guitar solos atop wistful melodies and lyrics that examine growing up and growing into yourself. “We put the first record out, and we worked hard, and it just feels like a good place to be,” he says, noting that while the first record focused on his own struggles, & I'm Fine Today is more concerned with looking at the world beyond the struggles in your head. 

SUSTO (solo) is touring Europe these next few weeks, dates include support for the Hackensaw Boys, festival- and headline shows:

08/07: Weert (NL) @ De Bosuil º
09/07: Krefeld (DE) @ Kulturrampe º 
10/07: Gent (BE) @ The Cover º
11/07: Groningen (NL) @ Vera º
12/07: Berlin (DE) @ Privat Club # 
13/07: Oslo (NO) @ Revolver 
14/07: Oberhausen (DE) @ Static Roots Festival 
15/07: Lichtenvoorde (NL) @ Zwarte Cross 

º w/ Hackensaw Boys
# w/ Cordovas

 

Related artist: SUSTO back