The odds were one in 100.

Bridget Toll was a high school senior in Colorado, and her friends dared her to ask a new student from Switzerland to the winter dance. If Toll and her friend simultaneously blurted out the same number between one and 100, she’d have no choice but to ask the cute newcomer out.

Both girls said 73, and an embarrassed Toll officially had a date to the winter ball. But when the dance came around, instead having the miserable experience she expected, Toll fell in love.

The whirlwind of emotions within the blossoming and forced demise of their relationship became the inspiration behind the recent five-song EP from Bri Tolani, the freshman Bandier student’s stage name.

Released in January, the EP is titled “Reflections,” as all of its songs were thought up during Toll’s time reflecting on the different stages of her relationship with the Swiss student.

“Come Through” is the first track on the EP. Toll said it tells the story of when she and her ex met, and of that “I know we like each other” feeling she experienced during the dance.

The rest of the songs don’t tell as happy of a story. Once school was done for the year, the international student went back to his home country. Toll said this left her devastated, and regret and sadness loomed over her for months. The song “Dignity” was her attempt to pretend everything was fine, when in reality it was not. “Undone,” the EP’s second track, reveals the half of Toll that thinks, “I wish I never met you.”

Toll is working on an album now, and said she hopes she can start to move away from the sadness when writing new songs.

Despite having released her first material as Bri Tolani less than two months ago, Toll has already built up a fan base. Her music can be found on major platforms like Spotify and iTunes, and her most popular song on SoundCloud has more than 13,500 plays.

The nearly instant success isn’t too much pressure and hasn’t fazed Toll yet, and she said is eager to make her mark on an audience.

Toll’s brother Alex used the same word, “eager,” to describe his sister.

Alex produced nearly all of “Reflections” and wrote its third track, “Echo.” He said the songs started out very acoustic but then took a more electronic direction.

The acoustic roots come from Toll’s songwriting process. She said she tends to lay down a riff or chord progression on her guitar and the melody comes with time.

Although she loves her share of highly produced music, such as Justin Bieber’s new album, Toll said she has the most respect for acoustic artists who can make a name for themselves.

“That’s the most talent,” she said. “If you can sell out Madison Square Garden with a guitar, like Ed Sheeran, that’s impressive.”

In a perfect world, Toll said she hopes to follow in the steps of someone like Bieber or Sheeran with a career as a musician. It would be a long time coming for Toll, who said she does not even remember when she started singing, although she joked that her parents said she could sing before she could talk.

Toll even saw some worldwide success before she became known as Bri Tolani. She said her biggest fan base comes from China, when in 2013, she covered Bieber’s “Nothing Like Us.” To her surprise, people from the other side of the globe began making covers of her cover.

But for most of her life, music wasn’t everything for Toll. Growing up, she was a competitive soccer player. It wasn’t until her junior year of high school that she chose to pursue singing instead of soccer.

But now, as Bri Tolani, she said she made the right choice.

“I get this feeling when I sing that doesn’t happen when I do anything else,” she said. “When I do it, I’m so happy, I’m so focused and I don’t want to stop.”

Published on March 8, 2016 at 8:24 pm

Contact: jtbloss@syr.edu | @jtbloss