‘Nu-gaze' rocker went viral before her band even had a name

Washington Post

2 days ago

'Black Swan,' one of the standout tracks on Wisp's new album, 'If Not Winter,' includes a section in which the singer-songwriter reads from her journal. Her recitation is buried in swirling guitars and electronics. The effect suggests that her voice is traveling through water, and that's entirely apt.
'I grew up near the beach, and being able to incorporate elements of feeling underwater is really important to me,' the San Francisco native (a.k.a. Natalie Lu) says from Los Angeles, where she has lived for nearly two years.
Lu's style, which matches whispery vocals to stormy instrumentation, descends from Britain's 1990s shoegaze alt-rock and is sometimes called 'nu-gaze.' The musician began her career on a lark in 2023 by adding her vocals to an existing track by a producer who goes by the name Grayskies. The song, 'Your Face,' quickly became a hit on social media and music streaming services.
Grayskies is one of more than a dozen producers and songwriters who worked on 'If Not Winter,' an album that follows the contemporary mainstream-pop protocol of supplementing its star with multiple sidekicks. Yet the album, Wisp's long-form debut after a 2024 EP, has a unified sound.
'I think it still sounds cohesive because we all share similar styles,' says Lu, who recently celebrated her 21st birthday. Also, she adds, 'I just take it away and make it my own at the end of the day.'
Lu's songs usually start simply — with her voice and acoustic guitar. 'It feels more natural because I grew up, during covid, writing acoustic songs,' she says. 'I'm able to write better vocal melodies to acoustic guitar. It just feels more me, I think.'
'If Not Winter' takes its title from a collection of verse by the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho, whose work survived only in fragments.
'Just skimming through the book really inspired me to write better lyrics,' Lu says. 'And also to realize that people have been writing about the same themes for centuries. Themes of love and infatuation are always going to be immortal. I thought that was really cool.'
Although the words are important to Lu, she tries to create them quickly. 'I usually write my lyrics the day of writing the songs,' she says. 'I don't really like writing my lyrics beforehand because I tend to overthink. If I go into the studio and I write it while we're writing the music, it feels a lot more natural to me.'
Sometimes music comes first, which can shape the words. 'If the music sounds a bit sadder, then obviously I have direction to write more melancholic lyrics,' she says. 'But most of the time I write around the lyrics.'
Lu's cooing voice sounds intimate, but few of her songs are autobiographical. One exception is 'Black Swan,' a last-minute addition to 'If Not Winter.'
'I thought it was perfect because most of my songs on the album were about other people, and this was one of the few songs that I wrote about myself,' the singer says. 'It's about how difficult it's been to grapple with finding self-confidence and self-love, especially being in the spotlight a lot more than I'm used to.'
Lu will be in the spotlight again with a tour that begins next week in D.C. at 9:30 Club. Her band features guitarist Max Epstein and drummer Zach CapittiFenton, both of whom worked on 'If Not Winter' as producers and songwriters, and bassist Ryder McLaughlin. Although the album features lots of synths, there's no keyboardist in the touring band.
Instead, the electronic textures will mostly be generated by guitar pedals, the devices that inspired the term 'shoegaze': Guitarists who often looked at the gizmos at their feet seemed to be eyeing their footwear.
Such gear has been essential to Lu's evolution from acoustic to electric guitarist. 'I started using pedals right when I started Wisp. I've been collecting them ever since and been getting really into them,' she says. 'It's been fun.'
Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. (doors) at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. 930.com. $40.30.