Tolerance is sustenance for Susto
Indie rock band plays Songbirds Saturday
Susto’s backstory is as unique as its name.
It begins with frontman Justin Osborne becoming fed up with music at the age of 26, moving to Havana to study anthropology, getting married then divorced months later, attending a couple of ancient Latin American rituals, and entertaining aspirations of working for a nongovernmental organization or joining “some kind of leftist movement.”
Fast-forward four years and you’ll now find the South Carolina native and his Wilco-esque band back on the road on what has now been a year-plus tour. Saturday, May 5, that tour stops in Songbirds Guitar Museum for a 9 p.m. show.
It’s another opportunity for Susto to promote its sophomore album, “& I’m Fine Today,” an eminently listenable collection that transcends genre boundaries through the adventurous additions of strings, horns and synthesizers.
In addition to being more musically experimental, “& I’m Fine Today” also finds an increasing earnestness in Osborne’s lyrics, a marked departure from 2016’s whimsical single “Chillin’ on the Beach With My Best Friend Jesus Christ.”
When he sings of nightmares in which he’s lying next to a dead person’s body with his limbs blown off, he’s really had those nightmares, although he says they’re happening less often these days. When he sings of watching a friend die from drugs, that’s also happened. And when he manages to find something hopeful among it all, that’s real, too.
All of which circles back to that name: Susto is a term used to describe a Latin American malady in which the spirit is said to separate from the body. And while Osborne is neither Latin American nor religious, he still felt that, on some level, he could relate.
“I was broke, I wasn’t sure what I was doing, I wasn’t on good terms with my parents,” he says. “I just kind of lost my religion and stepped away from it, and was constantly very angry about that. I felt like some part of myself was somewhere hovering over me, but I couldn’t get it back.”
Osborne is happier now, although he expects that an element of what inspired the band’s name will always come and go.
The most poignant song on Susto’s new album, “Gay in the South,” is about people who are devastated by societal intolerance.
“The song is kind of a reaction to a very literal thing that happened,” says Osborne. “There are people who find out they have a life-threatening illness, or find out they’re pregnant in a society that does not allow them to see abortion as an option. And that sometimes turns people to darkness and they start doing drugs or whatever.
“It’s kind of an encouraging letter to just say, ‘Hey, pick yourself up, it’s OK, don’t let this ruin your life. There are people who will love you and understand you no matter what happens,’” Osborne says. “I think as long as you’re alive and breathing, there’s always going to be hope.”