Despite the intangibility of her name, Wisp gives listeners a whole lot to grab onto.
Whispered vocals break through harsh guitars and pounding drums on many of the singer's biggest tracks, like “Enough for you” and “Pandora.” The interplay between Wisp’s gentle, airy voice and the darker, enveloping instrumentals around it has enamored everyone from hardcore and nu-metal heads to fans of edgy dream pop.
Natalie Lu, the 22-year-old multi-instrumentalist that is Wisp, has been enjoying ascendency since her breakout single, “Your face,” caught fire on TikTok in 2023. It was one of the first songs she put out under the name Wisp. A lifelong musician, Lu is proficient on the guitar, bass, synth, violin and drums — usually wielding just a guitar and mic at live shows.
Like the songs they depict, Wisp’s music videos are peak melodrama, often featuring tattered clothes, desolate landscapes, a soft white glow, plenty of underwater scenes and other goth hallmarks. Influenced by an array of shoegaze, electronic and emo bands, such as Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Beach House and Luster, Wisp is viewed by many as a positive indicator of the promise of alt rock’s future.
“For the most part, all of my past releases are very wispy,” said Lu of her style thus far. “They’re a bit dark, but they’re still ethereal and soft and floaty as well.”
While she may have established a firm foundation for Wisp, Lu promises something unexpected from her forthcoming second album. Even if it's not done yet.
Hinterland and American Football
Wisp loved the weather on Hinterland’s second day. It was mizzling around her afternoon set's start time, with a slight breeze nudging the rain into a diagonal slant. Overcast, doom-filled clouds not only blocked out the sun, but also helped put Lu at ease.
“I think that darker, intimate venues are really fun, and I’m able to connect with my fans a lot easier,” said Lu. “Whereas festivals and daytime performances are fun in their own ways. They’re just so different — because I can see everyone’s faces, sometimes I’m a bit more nervous at festivals.”
More often than not, Wisp’s show is an indoors one with low lighting. So, getting to see Wisp in the daylight was a rare treat.
With her own guitar in hand, Lu joined her guitarist, drummer and bassist onstage after a complementary performance from Saint Avangeline, who opened the second day of the fest. Lu’s axe was accented with lavender on the bridge and tuning keys, and also featured a coquette ribbon design in the neck, providing one of the few pops of color on the largely monochrome stage. She wore a black top with short sleeves, allowing the unicorn tattoo on her left bicep to breathe over a long, muted pink skirt.
In addition to must-plays “Your face” and “Enough for you,” both off her 2024 EP, Pandora, Lu performed songs from her debut full-length, If Not Winter, which celebrated its one year anniversary that very weekend.
“It feels like it was so long ago that I put that album out,” said Lu. “Three or four months I was touring that album. It lasted for a while and I’m honestly really sad that that era is almost over, especially once I start putting out new music. She had a good run and she will still be my baby. It’s my debut album, you know. I love it.”
Forgetting her performance at Red Rocks in early August, her Iowa debut at Hinterland in July, and The Gov Ball before that, Wisp was already having a big summer. When Midwest emo stalwart American Football released their fourth LP together on May 1, it came as a surprise to many fans. Among those fans were Lu, who helped make the album’s seventh track, “Wake Her Up,” the morose masterpiece that it is. On “Wake Her Up,” Lu and AF singer Mike Kinsella brightly deliver a somber tale about a French girl at the bottom of the Seine.
“I love them,” said Lu of the Urbana-Champaign emo veterans. “I actually didn’t know that [LP4] was gonna come out. I had recorded vocals for that song over a year ago with Sonny [DiPerri], who was mixing their whole album. And it just randomly came out and I was like ‘Oh my god, it’s the song that I did and completely forgot about!’ It was so cool getting to listen to the album and perform that song with them at the LA show. They’re a great band, I think that LP is amazing.”
Lu was in great company as one of the album’s three guest vocalists, alongside Turnstile’s Brendan Yates and Rainer Maria’s Caithlin De Marrais.
"Latvia"
For non-headliners, time on the Hinterland stage is fleeting, so we can forgive musicians for not playing all of our favorites. Such was the case with Wisp's short, transportive composition, "Latvia." On “Latvia,” If Not Winter's wordless interlude, Lu sought to recreate her own romantic memory of the small northern European country through church bells and chirps.
“I made that song based on the feeling that I had when i was in Latvia shooting a music video,” said Lu, referring to the visualizer for “Sword,” shot in an outrageously lavish 18th century castle designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. “The first scene was me walking up to Rundāle Palace. And I didn’t know this, but when I was walking up, that was exactly when the castle gates open. So I’m walking, the castle gates are opening, there are bells playing, there are birds tweeting in the background. It was just so dreamy and beautiful and I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. I really wanted to encapsulate that feeling in the interlude.”
With "Latvia," Lu was able to bring the listener into her world, into a tender moment in her heart. She hopes to do the same with her follow-up to If Not Winter.
New Wisp album: What we know so far
Before heeding the siren’s song of shoegaze, Lu was a classical kid. She trained as a ballerina for “years and years,” all but confirming that her own song, “Black swan,” exists in the same universe as the Natalie Portman film. Lu’s first musical instrument was a classical guitar, handed down to her from her mother.
Said Lu, “I played a lot of classic stuff on guitar, finger-picking and then some Bossa nova stuff too.”
Somewhere along the way, Lu traded in Debussy for Deftones and — to paraphrase The Dark Knight Rises — adopted the darkness. Today, three years into a fast-rising career, Lu is beginning to push back on the ‘savior of shoegaze’ moniker bestowed upon her by many in music media.
Wisp's next album could signify a real shift in Lu's tone, with its decidedly softer focus.
“Well, it is a love album,” said Lu. “The themes, they circulate around the beginning stages of a relationship through the very end. So lots of wedding vibes. I’m still in the process of writing music for it. I have a good handful of songs that I’m really into right now.”
Lu is hoping to have her second studio album out by early 2027. Before that, Wisp will rejoin fellow Hinterlander Beabadoobee on her international The Powerlines Tour in October, including a show at Madison Square Garden.
