TThis was otherworldly about “Your Face,” the debut single by the artist known only as Wisp, which started appearing all over TikTok late last year. Guitars soar underwater in slow motion, drums cascading. Breathy, barely audible vocals peeked out from below like messages waiting to be unearthed. It suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then spread everywhere, racking up millions of TikTok views and streams within days.
This track was an example of an old formula refined to undeniable perfection. Shoegaze is a genre started by his '90s British and Irish bands such as Slowdive, Ride and My Bloody Valentine, characterized by walls of guitars and dreamy, yearning vocals, and has become popular among Gen Z listeners and artists. is experiencing a renaissance. Of interest is the heavier, more American side of the genre, blueprinted by the metallic romantics Deftones and developed by contemporary bands such as Philadelphia's Nothing and Norcal's Weir, its most influential. It turned out that there is. Young artists like Quannnic and Sign Crushes Motorist have already achieved viral fame outside of their genre. But once the gates opened, the faceless, nameless Wisps immediately charged straight into the upper echelons of modern shoegaze. Currently, “Your Face” has been streamed 50 million times on his Spotify.
On the other end of the Zoom call, NMEJust days after releasing her debut EP, Pandora, Natalie Lu, the 19-year-old San Francisco native who carries the Wisp name, appears on the scene. She wears her glasses, her septum ring, and has faded blue hair. She has recently been living in an apartment she started renting in Los Angeles, and it will be her first time living away from her parents. “It wasn't really intentional,” she says of gradually shedding her anonymity over the past year. “After I signed with my label, they liked the mysterious vibe that I had, even though that was not my intention. It has become much easier to show people who I am.”
When “Your Face” was released, Lou was a computer science student at San Francisco State University, learning guitar in his bedroom and diligently curating shoegaze playlists on Spotify. The song's origins were an instrumental by anonymous producer Grayskies. Grayskies sells hundreds of his alternative rock tracks of various flavors online. For fun, Lu used her cell phone and her AirPods to write lyrics and sometimes record vocals on tracks like this one. This time, she posted the results on TikTok, where he received 100,000 views overnight. She watched in disbelief as the number reached 1 million in less than a week.
Eventually, record labels started calling. She joined with caution, initially out of her sense of protectiveness over her own identity as a shoegaze artist that she wanted to join one of her independent artists. “I think shoegaze as a genre should feel really authentic,” she says. “I don't want to feel like I'm being scammed out of my cash, and I don't want to feel like I'm being marketed as a pop star.” She eventually signed with Interscope. [Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo]She felt the major would provide her with the best resources to quit her college courses and go on tour. But she remains adamant that her success as a Wisp comes with championing the shoegaze name.
“I don't want to belong to any other genre, and I don't want to move away from it. [shoegaze],” she says. “Even if in the future my music becomes something else, all of this fame is because of the shoegaze genre, and I'm a big fan of all these local bands and Slowdive and My. Bloody Valentine.”
“Shoegaze as a genre should feel really authentic.”
That said, Lou and her friends' shoegaze approach is decidedly non-traditional. They are mostly solo bedroom artists rather than bands. They plan to co-write with each other and various producers in a way closer to, say, hip-hop than rock music. Even the fact that Lou's biggest hits came from pre-packaged instrumental tracks, rather than ones she wrote herself, was anathema to some of the genre's older fans. I'm holding you.
Lou has had conversations with some of the skeptics on Reddit, where she posts semi-regularly on the r/shoegaze subreddit, but her position is surprisingly non-defensive. She said, “I understand where everyone is coming from, and I'm very emphatic about how me and the Wisps are contributing to shoegaze truly losing its footing.'' [that it had] At first,” she says now, “The most I can do about this is let you know that I couldn't have done this without all of my friends and all of the producers that I work with. I owe it to everyone, including the Grayskyes, but I definitely want to explore my sound and make older shoegaze fans feel proud.”
'Pandora' is Lou's first opportunity to make a full statement as a Wisp. Her five tracks continue in the vein of “Your Face,” filling the space with guitar and scientifically nailing tension and release. “Enough For You” and “See You Soon” also began with a Grayskies beat, but the remaining three songs saw Lu head into the studio for the first time. She primarily worked with Max Epstein (aka Photographic Memory), a popular producer of recent shoegaze artists, and Elliott Kozel, an LA producer who worked with Lizzo and Finneas.
Initially, the producer took the lead on the instrumental songwriting, but throughout the process Lou began to come out of his shell. “For a few months, people didn’t actually know I played guitar because I was just too scared to pick it up,” she laughs. “I was pretty embarrassed because I was always playing the guitar in my room. [her collaborators]Writing my own guitar parts and playing around with different tunings has become much easier. ”
“The most important part is [of playing live] I make the guitar sound as loud as possible.”
The most appealing track on the EP is “Luna,” the song she remembers being most passionate about. It's more of a pretty song than a storm, with a simple but memorable lead hook providing a well-crafted change of pace. Opener “Pandora” is another highlight for the opposite reason, with the guitars being the most poignant.
“I want the guitars to feel really full and alive. I try to add as many details and elements as possible and layer the guitars as much as possible,” says Lu. She says experimenting with guitar, bass and synth sounds was a freeing experience for her, a contrast to her experience learning to play the violin in her adolescence. “I had a practice sheet and had my parents sign it every night to practice for at least 30 minutes. It was a really great experience playing around with the instrument. [in the studio] And don't take it so seriously. ”
As we speak, Lou is preparing to play his first headline gig at the Genghis Cohen Club in Los Angeles in December and begin his first tour. It was great for Lou and her fans. “It was so rewarding to be able to stand on that stage and feel all the support, albeit in person this time. It was very, very surreal,” she says. She met some listeners who messaged her online, letting her know her music meant something to them. This time, they decided to have these conversations in person.
“It was very emotional for me because I've always been a huge fan of music that made me feel that way,” she says, crediting bands like Whirr and Title Fight for getting her through her tough times. He acknowledges this as an accomplishment. “It's so cool to see people feel that way about my music. So I was like, 'Wow, you guys really like my music, and that's what I want to continue doing. 'I realized that.
She may have found viral fame sooner than expected, but what Lou is most excited about right now is continuing to learn and grow as an artist. She said, “I would like to do more practical work in the future. [like] You can play all the parts and even learn how to play the drums,” she says. “I think it means a lot to me just to be able to look back and be really proud that this was my job and that I was able to put my thoughts into the music.”
And when it comes to performing live shows, her ambitions are those of a true shoegaze fanatic. “The most important thing is to get good sounding people together and make the guitars as loud as possible!”
Wisp's EP “Pandora” is released on Interscope Records
Listen to Wisp's exclusive playlist cover For Spotify, click here. For Apple Music, click here.
Screenplay: Mia Hughes
Photo by Kristen Zhang Wong
Glam: Ariel Park
Label: Interscope Records