Unknown: I am Tonina Suputo and I am a bassist songwriter and vocalist from St. Louis Missouri (music) the majority of my family members are musicians, I would say my uncle was the drummer for Reba McIntire.

And I'm named after him because he died in the plane crash with the rest of her band.

And my father was in charge of the search and recovery for the crash.

My mom went there to see where her brother died.

And that's how my parents met.

I remember my dad pointing out the baselines and like really teaching me like what was happening musically.

And just opening up a conversation about the music.

I started bass when I was eight years old, but my dad told me not to because it was so big.

So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do it.

So I, I just like, wanted to rebel.

I felt like it was made for me and I was made for the instrument.

It never seemed like an instrument that was in the background it to me, it felt like the melody.

And that's why I'm so happy that I did choose it because I love so many different genres.

I love to perform so many different genres.

He says he got this.

In the beginning years, when I didn't have I felt like I didn't have a voice.

I felt like it was hard to navigate my passion and put that into words.

I didn't want to just like write poetry for no one to read.

And I was like, okay, maybe I can put this to a melody.

My father spoke Spanish.

When he would pick me up from school.

He was listening to like Celia Cruz, or like Nat King Cole and Espanol.

And then I ended up taking it in school.

So yeah, it was an easy transition.

Moving to Spain and writing my music in Spanish I was signed to a division of Sony Spain.

That's really what jump started my career.

Womanhood, for sure, is a theme in my in my writing along with like family issues and racial issues, since my identity is so that times hard to explain.

When you were young, you to ask good power.

Play with the ball.

And once I started getting more comfortable with electric, I mean, I'm in I could play with more people.

And I started a band with one of my good friends.

And I fell in love with it.

And I fell in love with CO writing and collaborating with people from different backgrounds.

I did an album in 2018.

It's my first album, with my band is all people from St. Louis.

And it was all in house St. Louis.

And it was all my songs.

I am in a quartet we have a lot of different musical interests and tastes.

But together we see something super interesting and nothing that I've heard before.

And nothing that I ever thought I would create, which is exciting.

I've learned to be patient with it and let the ideas come to me.

I'm super grateful that I have had this base here.

This home base of St. Louis.

The goal is to honestly just get paid for my music, be able to create and be able to have a platform to put it out on and then have creative agency and tour with my band my best friends.

There's nothing better than your music taking you to a place that you wouldn't have otherwise been able to go to