Bubblegum Popping 

• Gia Harris

The idea of following your dreams can be scary and intimidating. What if you don't succeed? What if things don't go the way you planned? Often questions like these will swim in your head, ultimately leading to not taking the chance. For pop artist Suchii, he decided that taking the chance was worth it. In 2020, he came to Salt Lake ready to start on a new path.

Suchii was offered a job here in Salt Lake City in July 2020 and accepted, having visited the city before and loving it. But since he was relocating from Indiana smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, things weren't as festive as normal in SLC with COVID in full swing. "It was so strange, I got here and nothing was going on," he said. Still, moving to the state capital city was a necessary restart for the pop singer. "It's been paying dividends ever since," he says.

Though he always had a deep love for music, Suchii says didn't get serious about creating until earlier this year. "I've always been a writer in my heart," he says. "I was always around music a lot growing up, I played music throughout school and sang a bit, but I was scared of taking that leap to actually have music recorded and have a good enough inspiration to make music. Life events in 2022 told me to get my ass up and the fire was under me, and I took it and ran with it."

Discovering new music and branching out from our parents is a rite of passage, a big part of growing up. Suchii recalls starting to find music that really resonated with him when he was in middle school—and it was bubblegum pop and R&B artists like New Edition, Boyz II Men, Hi-Five and Destiny's Child that made a lasting impression on his musical interests, guiding him on his own journey as a musician. "It really resonated with me as a young kid, and it was super appealing to me," he says. "Being a teenager and going into a deep dive and getting to choose the music I want to listen to, and it's not just based on my parents and it's not their influence."

Suchii made his debut earlier this year in April with his single "Pit a Pat," an emotionally-charged song about an ex, and not being over them. Soon after, Suchii released his next single, "White Angel," a "chill-pop track with a catchy chorus and distinct background effects. "I feel like this is becoming my niche," he told City Weekly back in June. "With 'Pit a Pat' and 'White Angel,' you have the two spectrums of my songwriting. On a good day, I could be more methodical, but with 'White Angel,' I just wanted to write a song about cocaine," he said. "I wanted it to be super fun and catchy."

His new EP, Summer on Venus, exemplifies this range that Suchii utilizes in his writing. Some tracks dig deeper and with more meaningful, while others remain at surface level, but still allow listeners to have a good time. The overarching theme of the EP is summer and the wide range of feelings that come with it; especially if you had a romantic fling. "Summer on Venus is a play on astrology signs, where Venus represents love, so it's a summer of falling in and out of love. Through the track listing I wanted to have that high of somebody having a crush, and then that crush developing into love, and then reaching that climaxing point where they fall out of love with their crush and the rest is just heartbreak," he says.

Being a queer artist, Suchii considers representation important, and he wanted to see more of it reflected in his music. The title track "Fila Fila" is a love song, with a little bit of a twist: Each verse has different pronouns used—"he," "she" and "they"—so that those who identify with different pronouns each have a verse to sing. "They may not have the whole song," he says, "but there's a section that they can sing."

Following "Fila Fila" is the aforementioned "White Angel." The EP starts out with the sweet love song made for all, then goes into the catchy dance song that's more geared towards having a good time. Then we start getting to the heartbreak Suchii mentioned. "LMOR (Interlude)" starts out with a voice speaking, "Hey, is this what we're doing? I gave you everything you wanted and... Just text me back." Listeners will feel the frustration in the track, as most have probably experienced this a time or two—especially those who have been jilted.

As a Black, queer pop artist in SLC, Suchii feels like he's found a good community and is excited to build his fanbase. Intersectionality is important to him, and he implores those with similar backgrounds to follow their dreams. "Take a bet on yourself," he says. "If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will. Of course there will be peaks and troughs, but as long as you keep on believing in yourself, you're going to achieve results that you never thought you could."

Future live performances are yet to be scheduled for Suchii, but the best way to keep up with him is on his Instagram, @suchiisound. He wants fans to know that he loves making fun music for them to enjoy. Hopefully his music can help heal those who had a tumultuous summer love. "Sometimes you just want to dance the tears away," he says. "I think that represents my music to a T."