Hailing from San Francisco, Filipino-American artist April Harper Grey started making music as underscores in middle school. For years, she released a steady stream of one-offs via SoundCloud, which endeared her to like minded artists and a burgeoning community of fans, but it wasn’t until 2017, with the release of EP "skin purifying treatment", that the project stepped out of its solitary origins and began to capture the attention of a much larger audience. In 2021, underscores released the debut album, "fishmonger", written and recorded in that same childhood bedroom amidst the pandemic. She gained even more recognition with "boneyard aka fearmonger", a collection of seven tracks that manages to sound like both the climax of and the morning after the craziest night of your life. In 2023 "Wallsocket", became one of the critics' favourites, and this year's "U" dove deep into the exploration of hyper-pop and dance music, making it to the Top 5 of albums of 2026.
“When people listen to underscores, I want their initial reaction to be, ‘This is ridiculous’. But the more they listen to it, they should hear the nuance in it, the heaviness in it, and I hope they connect with it on some kind of emotional level”, says April. We are totally in for the ride with underscores at Open'er - July 3, Alter Stage.