Supo, aka Supriya Gupta, will officially release ‘Crushed’ during a performance Monday at The Pyramid Scheme. Get the back story on this emerging artist and listen to one of her latest songs.
A Pop-Rock Exploration: Supriya Gupta’s new album under the Supo moniker. (Courtesy Photo)
SCROLL DOWN TO LISTEN TO THE TRACK ‘REEL IT IN (LIVE)’
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In the Midwest, cars are more than simply a means for transportation. They’re communal spaces. They’re decompression chambers. Companions through the many seasons of life.
While writing her new album under the moniker Supo, Supriya Gupta spent a lot of time in cars. Sometimes traveling. Other times parked having a deep conversation with another person in the driveway.
The album, “Crushed,” reimagines those car conversations on songs like “Drive,” with warmly nostalgic melodies and slowly burning instrumentation.
“This album that’s coming out is thematically laced with this yearning feeling. Like an unrequited crush. It revolves around a lot of questions. Do they like you? Do they not? Do they feel the same? So you’re crushed,” says Gupta, the songwriter and musician behind Supo.
On Stage: Supo performing at last summer’s Small Foreign Festival. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Supo performs an album-release show at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids on Monday (Jan. 26), alongside openers Emma Bieniewicz, Isobel and Giza Was Here. Tickets are $12 in advance, available online here. Doors open at 7 p.m.
First mesmerized by music in elementary school, Gupta recalls singing along to her favorite songs. In high school, she began writing her own songs, backing herself with chords on the piano. She admits that her early material often contained lyrics about things she hadn’t actually experienced.
“I deleted everything from that era. I was talking about things as a 16-year-old that I had no clue about, like smoking cigarettes or love and romance when I’d never been in a relationship. So I think that’s where I cringe when I listen to old stuff. I wasn’t writing from experience. It didn’t feel real, so I deleted it,” Gupta says.
After college, she began writing again, this time from her ever-evolving experiences as an adult interacting in the world. She started Supo with a clean slate in 2023, creating dreamy soundscapes, laced with introspective lyrics.
“Crushed” was recorded at Electric Moon Studios in Grand Rapids with Ryan Jamgotch. The album was co-written with poet Alaina Taylor, a friend and creative collaborator of Gupta’s. It’s a colorful collection of songs, drenched in guitars and wistful longing.
EXPLORATION THAT SPAWNED A ‘VERY POP-ROCK’ COLLECTION
On the song “Tunnel Vision,” muscular guitar riffs intersect with shimmering vocals. “Reel it In” smolders with angst and a grungey, ’90s guitar progression. Then there’s “A Conversation I Never Had,” which begins as a twinkling piano ballad, but builds to a triumphant, synth-laden, drum-driven crescendo.
Musicians on the record include Ryan Jamgotch, Makenzie Mattis, Garrett Cabello, Lake Brown (just for the song “Reel It In”) and Emma Bieniewicz (just for “A Conversation I Never Had”). Sydney Taylor is featured on background vocals on a few tracks, while Alaina Taylor performed spoken word and background vocals on “Daily Attrition.”
“I wanted it to feel kind of cinematic, though for the most part, it’s very pop-rock. With this album and this project, we were kind of trying to find a balance of keeping it on theme, but also allowing the process to be an exploration of what I wanted to sound like,” says Gupta.
Monday’s Show: Excited to ‘hang out with friends.’ (Courtesy Photo)
“I learned a lot about patience during my time writing and recording the album. Patience is a great skill in creating.”
As for the swiftly approaching album-release show, Gupta is especially amped about her live band, which features Lili Bulkowski on drums, Donovan Estep on bass and Myles Lawton on guitar. Together, Gupta and her crew hope to curate the mood for an evening celebrating live music.
“With this live band, it almost sounds warmer and at times garage-y or more homemade than the album. And I think I draw more to that sound. My band takes what is written, interprets it, and makes it their own. There is something organic about how it sounds now. I’m also excited to be on that stage because I’ve seen a lot of shows there. I know how it feels to be in the audience but not on stage. So that’ll just be a fun kind of perspective switch,” says Gupta.
“For the most part though, I’m really excited to hang out with my friends. I feel like it’ll be this huge collective of all of our friends gathered and it’ll be a nice celebration. I think everyone can expect to feel very welcomed by all the artists and by everyone there that night.”
LISTEN: Supo, “Reel It In (Live)”
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