SUSTO originated as the creative vehicle for singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Justin Osborne, whose uplifting alternative country-rock sound first coalesced in Charleston, South Carolina. Their recording career began in 2014, after which the sophomore LP & I'm Fine Today from 2017 secured positions on Billboard's Independent and Heatseekers album charts. The following decade opened with additional examples of the project's warm, spirited rock on Time in the Sun in 2021 and My Entire Life in 2023, both issued by New West.
SUSTO assembled in 2013 with Osborne and a rotating cast of players, adopting a name drawn from a trauma-related syndrome tied to Central American cultures. Americana influences shaped the self-titled debut, which Hearts & Plugs released in 2014. The next year brought the self-released live set Live from the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame. When the group recorded an Audiotree Live session in August 2016, the lineup comprised Osborne, guitarist/keyboardist/singers Corey Campbell and Johnny Delaware, bass player Jenna Desmond, and drummer Marshall Hudson. The second studio album, & I'm Fine Today, surfaced in January 2017 on Acid Boys/Missing Piece Records. With guitarist Dries Vandenberg having stepped in for Delaware, the band made its television debut on CBS This Morning: Saturday and joined the Lumineers on tour that same month.
Stories arrived in early 2018 as a set of stripped-down song versions, live recordings, and commentary drawn from a web series bearing the same title, which Osborne promoted through solo performances. Continuing as a solo project supported by various collaborators, the third official studio LP Ever Since I Lost My Mind marked Osborne's first release on Rounder Records. Produced by Ian Fitchuck (Kacey Musgraves, Drew Holcomb) and issued in early 2019, the album climbed to number ten on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart.
After signing with New West Records, SUSTO resurfaced in mid-2021 with the lead single "Get Down" from the deeply reflective Time in the Sun LP, which followed that October. Two years later the band delivered My Entire Life, another collection of warm, inward-looking songs and their second New West release.
