AP Tobler’s Debut EP «Alternate Vision» Is A Melancholic Grunge Masterpiece

Teenage Grunge poet AP Tobler released her debut EP Alternate Vision on July 14th, just after her 16th birthday.

The talented multi-instrumentalist takes a dive into raw, honest songwriting influenced by grunge and alternative rock, and while most people shy away from what scares them, AP Tobler faces her fears in writing about it. The result? A catharsis for both her and her listener.

At its core, «Alternate Vision» is a project that screams honesty, transparency, and relatability. Through the five song EP, AP dives deep into overwhelming emotions from anger and betrayal to disillusionment and depression. «[The EP] is a collection of my strongest feelings and emotions when I wrote it», AP says, «so each track is a little piece of my soul encapsulated into a song». As a result, the listener can feel the emotions as if it were their own. This is a skill that most songwriters strive for throughout their career, but AP’s honest lyricism paired with rock drums and gritty guitars has helped her grasp the skill early.

AP previously teased the EP with her single «Eye for an Eye», released on June 23rd. The track utilises dirty electric guitar, intense drums, and an emotive vocal delivery to describe AP’s experience of being in a toxic friendship. The single is a bold track that demonstrates seething anger, and it is a standalone example of AP’s emotive music. The EP then moves into tracks like «Solemn Farewell» and «Vacant» which epitomise AP’s eloquent lyricism and painfully honest depictions of the darkness so many of us can find ourselves lost in. In «Solemn Farewell», a song that, at its core, is a suicide note, AP sings, «And I don’t have a choice//Something has to die to feel free//Choking, lost my voice//Who am I supposed to be?» The power in AP’s music is her complete and utter transparency of the intense emotions she describes. There is no downplaying or simplifying; instead, it is incredibly honest in the way AP bears her feelings on topics that many of us shy away from or fail to talk about.

As her debut EP, «Alternate Vision» is setting the bar high, and as a young teenager, AP has her whole career ahead of her. As she nurtures her obvious talent and continues to create boldly, AP Tobler could play a major role in the rediscovery of grunge and alternative rock.