Susto

Susto is a US indie rock band from Charleston, South Carolina, centred on Justin Osborne. Osborne has been writing music and recording albums since he was 15, and after feeling stuck in his earlier career he ends his previous band, Sequoyah Prep School, and moves to Cuba. While there, he keeps writing the songs that become Susto and is encouraged by musicians he meets to return to music rather than give it up.

The name Susto comes from a Spanish word for a folk illness in Latin America. Osborne learns the term while studying anthropology; it refers to a condition in which the soul is separated from the body and also roughly translates as a panic attack.

Formation and early development

Osborne has the first Susto songs in progress before the project becomes a full band. His producer, Wolfgang Zimmerman, introduces him to Johnny Delaware, a guitarist and songwriter who has moved to Charleston to make an album with Zimmerman. Osborne and Delaware develop Susto together, and Osborne recruits a live line-up that includes Corey Campbell on guitar, keys and backing vocals, Jenna Desmond on bass, and Marshall Hudson on drums and percussion.

Susto releases its self-titled debut album independently in 2014 and tours extensively to promote it. The band builds a strong local following in Charleston, with packed venues and regular airplay in bars around the city. Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses also becomes a fan of the record.

Albums and sound

The band’s second album, & I'm Fine Today, is released on Caroline. It continues the group’s country-rock direction from the debut, with layered keyboards, driving rhythms, noisy guitar solos and reflective melodies. Osborne says the first record focuses on his own struggles, while the second looks more outward at life beyond private difficulty and at coming to terms with personal place in the world.

As a group, Susto fits within indie rock and americana, with folk and country-rock elements present in its work.