underscores

Devon Grey Karpf (born April 21, 2000), known professionally as April Harper Grey and performing as Underscores (stylized in all-lowercase), is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Born in San Francisco, California, Grey began releasing dubstep music on SoundCloud at the age of 13. After releasing three EPs from 2018 to 2020 that incorporated other genres such as jazz and future bass, she rose to prominence with her hyperpop and rock-influenced debut album Fishmonger in early 2021. She released its companion EP and opened for 100 Gecs on tour later that year.

Grey performed her first headlining tour in early 2022, and released her second album Wallsocket in 2023 on Mom + Pop Music. It featured a wider range of musical styles, and was promoted with an alternate reality game and a tour of North America and Europe. In March 2026, she released her third studio album, U, to critical acclaim. Grey opened on tour for Charli XCX in the fall of 2026.

Grey's early influences include Skrillex and 100 Gecs. Her musical style has encompassed genres such as hyperpop, pop-punk, dubstep, dance-pop, indie pop, folk, rock, and emo.

Early life

Devon Grey Karpf was born on April 21, 2000, in the Miraloma Park neighborhood of San Francisco, California, to a Filipina mother and a white father. Her father, Ryan Downe, had previously worked as an audio engineer and released a studio album under Elton John's record label, The Rocket Record Company. Before coming out as a trans woman, she attended Cathedral School for Boys, a prestigious all-boys elementary school affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of California, for nine years, where she visited church three times a week. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Grey remarked that the Episcopal Church is "the chillest denomination" and that it was "pretty open" compared to its Roman Catholic counterpart. However, she has stated that her parents did not raise her to be religious like them. As a child, Grey wrote short stories, created films using iMovie, and ran a YouTube channel with Let's Plays of the video game Minecraft.

Growing up, Grey listened to artists like Jack White, Beck, Lucinda Williams, and Van Morrison, as well as pop stars like Madonna, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake. She has specified Madonna's Music (2000) as the first album she remembers listening to. Grey became interested in composing music at the age of six. As a child, she produced beat loops and burned them onto CDs using her father's computer. She also experimented with GarageBand. In the early 2010s, Grey discovered Skrillex and the dubstep genre and was attracted to its sound design possibilities, akin to "rocket science". Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic wrote: "In high school, [she] became a jazz-band geek with a penchant for music theory". She also listened to Midwest emo and math rock music during high school. Around this time, she co-founded the collective Six Impala. She attended New York University to study music, where she began performing under the pseudonym Milkfish.

Career

2013–2020: Career beginnings

At the age of 13, Grey began releasing dubstep music as Underscores on SoundCloud. For years, she released a stream of "one-offs", such as her 2015 single "Mild Season", but she eventually became bored of "using the same sounds" and began incorporating other influences. In 2016, Grey released several mixes as a competitor in the Monstercat Mix Contest, where she ultimately placed second. She released the jazz–EDM extended play (EP) Skin Purifying Treatment in 2018. It was the first project she wrote lyrics for and she has cited it as where her early style solidified. Grey followed it with the EP We Never Got Strawberry Cake in 2019. She designed its cover and uploaded it to DistroKid immediately after completion. She has noted it as the project she is most proud of, explaining, "Because I didn't give myself ample time to start resenting it". In 2020, Grey released the EP Character Development!. Grey created the YouTube channel 2ndgenbias in 2020, where she released videos analyzing K-pop song structures.