Natalie R. Lu (born August 6, 2004), known professionally as Wisp, is an American musician. She began releasing music in 2023 and released her debut EP, ''Pandora'', in April the following year. A track from the album, "

Your Face ''Your Face'' is a 1987 animated short film by Bill Plympton. It involves a man seated in a chair crooning about the face of his lover, and as he sings, his own face starts to distort in various ways. His song ends abruptly when a mouth opens ...

", went viral on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

and charted on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'''s

Hot Hard Rock Songs The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

Early life and education

Lu grew up in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Sunset District The Sunset District is a neighborhood located on the West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. Location The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park forms the neighb ...

. Her background is Thai and Taiwanese. As a teenager, she attended Wallenberg High School, where she drew musical inspiration from her modern band class and the yearly music and arts festival. Wisp was a computer science major in

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

when she started her musical career.

Career

Her debut single, "

", was released on April 4, 2023. Since then, her songs have been popular on the social media platform

. Wisp has been described to take inspiration from bands such as

Whirr Whirr (originally known as Whirl) is an American shoegaze band from Modesto, California. Formed in 2010, the group currently consists of vocalist and guitarist Loren Rivera, guitarists Nick Bassett and Joseph Bautista, bassist Eddie Salgado, an ...

Title Fight Title Fight is an American rock band from Kingston, Pennsylvania, formed in 2003. They released three studio albums —''Shed'' (2011), '' Floral Green'' (2012), and '' Hyperview'' (2015) — gradually shifting from a hardcore punk–oriented s ...

, and

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock music, rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981. In 19 ...

. In March 2024, Jonah Krueger of ''

Consequence Consequence may refer to: Philosophy, science and social sciences * Logical consequence, also known as a ''consequence relation'', or ''entailment'' * Consequent, in logic, the second half of a hypothetical proposition or consequences * Consequent ...

'' said that Wisp "Is the Next Leader of the Shoegaze Revival". She released her first EP, ''

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god cooperated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground '' ky ...

'', on April 5, 2024. Their debut studio album, ''Pandora'', was independently released in April 2024. In early 2023, a track later featured on the EP, "

", went viral on

, and charted at number 8 on ''

'''s

going for a run of 15 weeks. In 2025, she featured on Photographic Memory's single "Heartstyle", from his album '' I Look at Her and Light Goes All Through Me''. She is due to release her debut album, ''If Not Winter'', on August 1, 2025.

Musical style

Wisp's profile at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

says she blends

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such ...

and

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with dream pop) is a subgenre of indie rock, indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion (music), distortion and effects, a ...

. Wisp prefers to categorize her music as

nu gaze Nu gaze (sometimes called newgaze) is a form of alternative rock that originated in the 2000s that is directly influenced by the primarily British shoegaze scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. A renewed interest in shoegaze occurred in the ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

References

{{Authority control, qid=Q125546993, state=expanded 2004 births Living people American shoegaze musicians American people of Thai descent American people of Taiwanese descent Interscope Records artists Musicians from San Francisco