“Friends, Lovers, Ex Lovers, Whatever” is the song that launched SUSTO. A demo that frontman Justin Osborne posted on Valentine’s Day to his personal Facebook page in 2012. We were lucky enough to record him playing this song live for us just a month later when we partnered with Dan McCurry and his newly reinvented Hearts & Plugs record label which he was then bringing back to life.
SUSTO was then just a faint idea. Mostly lofi demos on Bandcamp as Osborne searched for footing as a musician for the first time in his life without his band mates in his high school formed group Sequoyah Prep School by his side. SUSTO was never a project he rushed. A slowly formed idea that’s found its way into one of South Carolina’s leading acts that truly started to take off once the band committed to the road, and secured their current lineup, one that before was a rotating cast of local musicians. It’s really clicked too. It’s hard to even imagine Susto without Johnny Delaware swinging his hair back and forth, Corey Campbell’s on point guitar playing, and Marshall Hudson and Jenna Desmond holding down the rhythm and the groove.
Much has been spoken and written lately about the emerging Charleston indie music scene, anchored by bands like Susto, Stop Light Observations, Heyrocco, Brave Baby, and championed by Hearts and Plugs and many others. A new company called Wav aims to give us the inside view. It was at Hearts & Plugs third annual Summer Shindig where Dries Vandenberg and Matt Zutell, both of the band Human Resources and the duo behind Wav, filmed this video. This is the first from their new series called SUSTO sessions, which focuses on the members, and gives a glimpse into the community aspect of the developing Holy City arts scene. Both Vandenberg and Zutell are ardent supporters of their local scene, both through their own band, and Coast Records. Zutell handled the live audio recording, while Vandenberg shot and edited the video.
The video is full of cameos from many movers and shakers in the South Carolina music scene, from booking agents, to producers, to hardcore fans sporting SUSTO tattoos, the video captures the essence of what’s going on down in the lowcountry. It’s that family vibe. It’s that supportive feeling. It’s a scene that there’s no easy recipe to create, but something the bands and fans there have created organically by being supportive of each other, and it’s one that shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
Catch SUSTO at a town near you
August 27–Athens, GA–Wildwood Revival
