NOTE: this is all very tentative, and I'm Still Figuring It All Out If That's Okay (reference)? therefore, don't copy/copying is very much not advised. also this is becoming Spit 2 albeit with less sources. good god

If Not Winter
Studio album by Wisp
Released	August 1, 2025
Recorded	May 2024 – June 2025
Studio	Sunset Sound (Los Angeles)[a] Venice Way (Los Angeles)[b] Sleeper Sounds (London)[c]
Genre	Shoegaze nu gaze dream pop alternative rock
Length	38:13
Label	Music Soup Interscope
Producer	Aldn Darcy Baylis Colin Brittain Zach CapittiFenton Julian Emken Gabe Greenland Grayskies Elliott Kozel Kraus Photographic Memory Stint
Wisp chronology
Pandora (2024) If Not Winter (2025)
Singles from If Not Winter
"Sword" Released: March 14, 2025 "Get Back to Me" Released: April 18, 2025 "Save Me Now" Released: June 6, 2025 "Breathe Onto Me" Released: July 18, 2025 "Serpentine" Released: July 29, 2025

If Not Winter is the debut studio album by the American musician Wisp, released on August 1, 2025, through Music Soup and Interscope Records. Wisp began working on the album after finishing touring in support of her debut extended play (EP) Pandora in May 2024 and completed it in June 2025. Recording primarily in Los Angeles, she collaborated with a variety of producers including Aldn, Colin Brittain, Grayskies, Gabe Greenland, Kraus, Photographic Memory, and Stint.

If Not Winter is a shoegaze, nu gaze, dream pop, and alternative rock album that expands upon the style of Pandora, incorporating greater pop and electronic music elements alongside those of various genres. Wisp intended the album to move her beyond categorizations as a shoegaze act, believing they had been creatively pigeonholed by their early releases. Its lyrics, mainly inspired by Wisp's personal experiences following her rise to fame and relocation from San Francisco to Los Angeles, explore themes of love, fear, insecurities, guilt, personal growth, self-love, and self-doubt. The lyrics and visuals also drew influence from medieval fantasy, movies, poetry and Greek mythology, with its title being derived from the Sappho poetry collection If Not, Winter (2002) by Anne Carson.

If Not Winter received generally positive reviews from music critics, who viewed it as an improvement from Pandora and highlighted its ambition, songwriting, and lyrics, though they were mixed on whether it diverged significantly from Wisp's established sound and shoegaze as a whole. The album was supported by five singles and an accompanying world tour of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia that took place from August 2025 and February 2026, with Wisp briefly supporting System of a Down for six shows on the former leg. Commercially, the album peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Current Albums Sales chart.

Natalie Lu a.k.a. Wisp [...] began writing songs after being giften an acoustic guitar by her mother during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] In February 2023, she released her "Your Face" [...] uhhh The song achieved viral success on TikTok, where it garnered more than one million views or smth^[3] [...] "the first overnight success in the almost four-decade history of shoegaze", according to Kristen S. Hé of NME.^[4] [...] and entered the Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs chart,^[5] peaking at number 8 during three-month stay on the chart.^[6] Following its success, Wisp dropped out San Francisco State University (SFSU), where she had been working towards a degree in in computer science,^[3] and signed to (Music Soup and) Interscope Records. after which she began working on her debut extended play (EP), Pandora (2024), which [...] (describe what it did) [...] During its production, she relocated from San Francisco to Los Angeles in January 2024.^[7]

Following the release/success of "Your Face" and Pandora, multiple media outlets presented Wisp as [...] the leader of shoegaze or something yada yada. (clash, idk about elsewhere, maybe in reviews interviews; probably though.) [...] clash: "The poster girl for a fresh generation shoegaze / nugaze artists"^[8] At the same time, Wisp's attracted scrutiny from Reddit users, some of whom questioned her artistic merit on "Your Face" due to her purchasing the rights to the song's instrumental and accused her of being an industry plant; Wonderland's Douglas Jardim described the site's shoegaze subreddit as having become "a toxic environment, one rife with plagiarism and industry plant accusations" following her success. [...] elaborate if need be [...]^[3][9] Wisp felt that their lack of input in the instrumentals of their early releases led them to be pigeonholed and subsequently sought complete creative control over the music of her debut album.^[10] In interviews, Wisp said that although she did not reject her association with the label, she aimed to move beyond categorizations as a shoegaze act and preferred to be categorized as alternative rock, citing a desire to experiment with her sound and not be constrained to a specific community or definition,^[3][11] and because of other people perceiving her as contributing/(being a cause of?) to a "watering down" of the genre caused by a "lack of knowledge".^[12]

Wisp spent more than a year and a half working on If Not Winter.^[13] After finishing touring in support of Pandora in May 2024,^[13][14] she began writing songs and recording demos for the album at Greenland's childhood home in Brentwood four days a week, collaborating initially with Max Epstein (a.k.a. Photographic Memory) and later Aldn and Greenland.^[15] She felt that the mountainous scenery surrounding the house helped with the songwriting compared to if she had been working in a "claustrophobic" studio in Los Angeles.^[15][10] [...] Wisp usually wrote songs on an acoustic guitar, which she felt helped her come up with vocal melodies and different ideas,^[16] with their lyrics being penned the same day within 20^[17] to 30 minutes.^[7][8] was solely responsible for writing lyrics (another source also?).^[18] The songs written in Brentwood, which included "Sword", "After Dark", and "Mesmerised",^[2] were titled after books Greenland's parents owned.^[10] [...] The album's songs were (all but one) largely written from scratch; Wisp recalled that Epstein would ask her and their collaborators for three words to help them establish the direction of their songs, and that [...] "I still feel like that makes it broad in a sense where we can turn a bright feeling song into something sad, just purely based on lyrics or the chord progression. We just build off each other."^[3]

The album's production was handled primarily by Aldn, Greenland, and Stint,^[19] alongside Epstein, Zach CapittiFenton, Julian Emken, and others.^[20] Wisp said that she felt initially felt stuck creatively but gradually began to experiment as she worked with more artists and producers,^[21] and felt each song became a "melting pot of everyone's taste and style".^[16] Compared to her early output, much of which she recorded at home using instrumentals, Wisp worked with the album's producers in person and subsequently sought to exert greater creative control over her music (redo.. again.).^[10] Wisp cited Aldn, Epstein, Greenland, and Grayskies as the producers who shaped the album's sound the most,^[22] and in particular credited her experiences working with Aldn with changing her outlook towards making music: "once I met Aldn, it was always like, 'Oh, I can't wait to make music today.' And I would wake up with so many ideas in my head, and always leave every studio session with a song."^[13] (summarize: wisp enjoyed collaborating basically) "Save Me Now" was the only song on If Not Winter that was not written entirely from scratch;^[3] after initially collaborating with Linkin Park drummer Colin Brittain, she changed its melodies and reworked it with Stint.^[23] "Serpentine" was written by Wisp and Epstein and primarily produced by Darcy Baylis.^[23]

Recording sessions for If Not Winter took place primarily at Sunset Sound Recorders and Venice Way Studios in Los Angeles.^[1] The album's songs were produced entirely in a studio setting aside from their vocal melodies, which Wisp developed at home through listening to their instrumental tracks with her earbuds and singing over them, after which she recorded them properly with a microphone.^[24][d] In an interview with Guitar.com, she estimated that 85% of the album's instrumentation was recorded and performed live using pedals, with the remainder filled out by digital and MIDI-programmed synths.^[7] Whilst recording at different studios, she used Fender Stratocaster, Fender Jaguar, Les Paul Goldtop, and Harmony-branded guitars.^[7] "Guide Light" was recorded at Sleeper Sounds^[1] in London with Grayskies.^[2] The song was initially recorded using a live band setup^[7] with bassist Daniel Phillips and Bar Italia drummer Liam Toon,^[2][25] after which Wisp recorded additional guitar and theremin parts.^[7] "Black Swan" was recorded shortly before Wisp was due to submit If Not Winter after her team encouraged her to add another song to the album;^[7] recording it in a few days with Kraus before reworking its lyrics and vocal melodies with Stint.^[12] Despite feeling burnt out, she felt the song "was exactly what the album needed".^[7] Wisp selected songs for the album's tracklist from (word??) of 60 songs based on whether she still enjoyed listening to them months after they were recorded.^[26] Lars Stalfors mixed most of the album's tracks at Lankershim Studios in Los Angeles,^[e] and it was mastered by Ruairi O'Flatherty at Nonographic Mastering in Los Angeles.^[1]

If Not Winter is a shoegaze,^[27] nu gaze,^[28][29] dream pop,^[29][30] and alternative rock album.^[20] Expanding upon the style of Pandora, the album incorporates greater pop and electronic music elements,(MANY) alongside those from folk (rock), bedroom pop,^[27] and nu metal.^[27][28] Kristen S. Hé of NME described its style as "pop shoegaze" with Wisp's "crisp vocal melodies" at the forefront of its songs, followed by lyrics and atmosphere.^[4] In interviews leading up to the the album's release, Wisp expressed a desire to move beyond shoegaze as she found the genre limiting,^[31] preferring to categorize her style as alternative rock instead.^[3][11]

Wisp intended If Not Winter to be a cohesive^[32] and story driven album with greater pop and electronic influences that would move her past the shoegaze label earned early in her career, which she now found limiting,^[33][11] [...] The album's songs feature [...] marked by [...] GUITARS. [...] dynamics (or at least, alterations) between light and dark^[34] [...] what else (do more) [...] idk. Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan opined that [...] "major label-y" feel [????]

(should mention the use of pop music producers as mentioned in some reviews... the names of which i'll find but i have seen it like uhhh)

Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan felt that the album bore a "major label-y" as a result of Wisp's collaborations with "pop-friendly" producers and cowriters, but said it was a "shoegaze album through and through".^[27] smth like that, anyway. redo or scrap. i feel its relevant, but... man i dont know 23 fdxgfdbstt dfb6t

Wisp [...] intended to showcase her interest in other genres, including emo, hyperpop,^[10][33] pop,^[33] jazz, and hardcore.^[32] [...] She drew musical inspiration from the Cocteau Twins' The Moon and the Melodies (1986), Justin Bieber's Journals (2013) and Purpose (2015),^[33] Chappell Roan,^[9] Whirr and Slowdive,^[35] and cited the Deftones as an influence on If Not Winter's heavier tracks including "Breathe Onto Me" and "Save Me Now".^[8] In an attempt to improve her lyric writing skills and handling of narritive and metaphors, Wisp began and drawing inspiration from poetry,^[15] reading the works of Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, Ocean Vuong, and Virginia Woolf, alongside the writings of authors Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, and Oscar Wilde. (strikethrough??? idk)^[11] She was particularly inspired by the works of Sappho after her manager sent her If Not, Winter (2002), a collection of her poetry by Anne Carson.^[15][18] which became a major source of inspiration. [...], (sources, more?) In an interview with Atwood Magazine, she expressed admiration for the perceived timelessness of her poetry, stating: "I liked the fact that she existed centuries and centuries ago, and her poetry and her words read like modern art. I think that’s really special… people in the past have felt exactly the same way we do. It’s really special – that love, and limerence, and sacrifice, and infatuation. They’ve been a thing for so long, and they’re just parts of being human."^[26] She also expressed admiration for Adrienne Lenker's artistry and songwriting, crediting her with "really push[ing] me to just write better lyrics".^[10][11]

Wisp said she aimed to present a story (emphasis: NARRITIVE. Interludes were thus important to this)^[24] of her and that

do we have any sources that discuss the use of transitions and interludes in reviews?????? i have not properly dug deep enough

The lyrics of If Not Winter are all based on Wisp's experiences in the time she spent writing the album,^[26] (also the relocation;^[15]) and see her reflecting on her personal growth, interactions with others, and stress from making music and touring.^[21] [...] explore themes of love, fear,^[3] guilt,^[11][36] insecurities,^[11] self-love, and self-doubt.^[3] The lyrics feature (other word for "replete") water metaphors inspired by Wisp's interest in mermaids and experiences growing up near Ocean Beach,^[8][36] and are were exceprted and "workshopped" from her personal journals/morning pages, which she felt gave them stream-of-consciousness qualities (?).^[13] [...]

Matt Young of The Line of Best Fit interpreted the album as either an "escapist or protectionist" response to Wisp's sudden rise to fame, and an attempt to "[craft] emotional clarity from any potential chaos" from it.^[37]

check other stuff for sf/la transition as influence on lyrics

Line of Best Fit:

Most of these stories came from her move to L.A., the strangeness and sadness that came from watching family relationships, friends, and romances shift before her eyes as she navigated notoriety in a new city. At the outset of the Wisp project, Lu was inclined to lean into that sadness, falling into that old but troublesome adage that the best art comes from pain. As her recording process continued – and as she found her footing in her new surroundings – she pressed herself for more. She wanted to write great songs not just about anxiety or loneliness but about positivity and presence. Tapping into that positivity was a direct result, she says, of refining her artistic practice. “Some of these songs on the album have a more positive outlook on life not necessarily because I found love or something specific to look forward to. It was just being present,” she explains.^[15]

(how visuals influenced lyrics/album overall) (i.e. the ALBUM STRUCTURE. VISUALS BECOME ONE AND THE SAME YALL.)^[24]

In addition to poetry/writing, Wisp's childhood dreams/daydream fantasies, leading her to (narritive?) inspired the use of transitions between If Not Winter's songs and the interlude "Latvia".^[24] drawing from princess movies,^[24] World of Warcraft (the films or the games?),^[3] Game of Thrones,^[13] The Lord of the Rings,^[15] Harry Potter and Barbie film series.^[24] The album's (visuals/lyrics? where applicable) were also influced by "dark gothic" works including Nosferatu (2024), and the Bay Area, Ocean Beach.^[24] [...] Pinterest images also used for visual/lyrical inspiration.^[24] rolling stone interview... yeah^[13] harry potter??? (stuff about the album cover)^[10] [...]

[...] "I didn't really know what I wanted the album to be about—I feel like I was trying to create blueprints and write a story about the album before I was even making songs. The more songs that I made, the more I put the pieces together and it naturally fell into place. I found meaning in the way that the songs are intertwined with each other."^[17]

Wisp likened the album ('s presentation?) to a short story collection,^[13] and its songs to "different chapters that tell a story".^[38]

did not want them to be fictional/well written, specific scenes.^[26]

Wisp [...] decided to title the album after it as a homage.(perceived timelessness of its themes)^[18]

An accompying press release presented the album as a medieval fantasy quest involving Wisp collecting "magic talismans or holy grails from villages she can now call home";^[39] when asked by Somersault about how she viewed the album in this context, Wisp said that "all of these things that I'm collecting and putting into my music, it's, you know, just me learning about the way that I handle my own emotions and the way that I feel other people perceive me and the way that I perceive myself [...] everything that I write about contributes to my character and how I want to grow".^[21] Wisp viewed some of its songs as being more positive due to her "just being present [sic]."^[15] Kieran Press-Reynolds of Pitchfork described the album as a "musical hero's journey" that, according to him, ends with Wisp appearing to "realiz[ing] that the pain she's endured was worth it".^[40]

"Sword"

Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal likened the progression between the verses and choruses of "Sword" to an electronic dance music-style beat drop.^[28]

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"If Not Winter"

i really really really wanna but idk mannn

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Problems playing these files? See media help.

If Not Winter's opening track, "Sword", details feelings of shame, confusion and insecurity from being hidden by a romantic partner.^[2][41] The song begins with acoustic guitars and "electronic washes"^[42] before breaking into a "wall" of overdriven, swooping power chords, in a manner that Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal likened to an electronic dance music (EDM)-style beat drop.^[28] "Breathe Onto Me" features "wailing" guitars and powerful drums,^[20] over which Wisp describes the alternatingly "innocent and lustful" nature of physical relationships;^[43] Olivia Abercrombie of Paste likened its "sweet lyrics of complete devotion" to a hex.^[20] Wisp intended the song as a tribute to their early fanbase,^[21] and to showcase her growth from her previous releases in "connect[ing] a new sound to an old sound".^[2] "Save Me Now" was inspired by a crush Wisp who they did not recognise as being unhealthy for them at the time,^[21] and is about [...] becoming desperate for attention and love from a "savior" and subsequently sacrificing one's wellbeing.^[44] [...] also see paste [...]^[20] "After Dark" details the end of a relationship^[8] and struggles of not knowing how to deal with the feeling of falling out of love.^[2] [...] unrushed, unhurried pacing [...]^[20] "Guide Light" sees Wisp confronting her feelings of self-doubt over their growth and career^[15][45] over unsettling keyboards, "hazy" guitars and trip-hop beats,^[42] with its hook featuring an ominous, "UFO-like" synth.^[15] The ambient interlude "Latvia" was intended to capture [...] ethereal mood of recording "Sword" [...]^[2][24] featuring bird sounds, church bells, and echoing piano yeah.^[42]

"If Not Winter" is an emo ballad^[4] that opens with soft synthesizers reminiscient of steel guitars and "death march" drums.^[20] [...] before fading into a solo piano.^[4] [...] Wisp considered it thematically similar to "After Dark" albeit with additional themes of guilt and resentment.^[2] [...] no, the song basically centers on guilt over ending a relationship.(many sources, i'm sure) [...] "Mesmerized" is about a person Wisp was obsessed with.^[2] Press-Reynolds felt that the "crystalline static" that opened the song hinted at My Bloody Valentine's "wonky feedback sampling".^[40] arena-sized hooks^[37] metal and alternative-pop influence.^[20] "Serpentine" is a summery love song^[2] [....] Clash: "'Serpentine' may come off as expertly executed 90s guitar pop, but the push-and-pull of relationship politics is genuinely affecting."^[46] [...] 2000s pop-punk^[20] [...] "Get Back to Me" is about "greed for chaos" and being trapped in a cycle of "desperation, recklessness, and limerence" [...] and progresses into "pedal-warped heaviness", according to Neville Hardman of Alternative Press.^[47] Wisp wrote the song after observing a turbulent relationship between two of her friends, and considered it an "exercise for me not to just write about my own experiences, but other people's experiences as well."^[2] "Black Swan" [...] details Wisp's struggles of being in the limelight or smth like that.^[2][18] [...] journal recital. directly from the journal^[48] [...] Murray compared the song's "barbed sonics" to Mogwai.^[46] If Not Winter's closing track, "All I Need", is a whispered acoustic ballad^[28][40] that Wisp intended as a homage to her beginnings as a musician and songwriter.^[2][26]

See also: If Not Winter Tour

Wisp served as If Not Winter's creative director,^[49] mythology/medieval route [...] Wisp said that she was unsure of what the album's aesthetics would look like until "Sword" was selected to be its lead single (and its video inspired..).^[50] [...] visuals were unsure until i video synopsis ... ^[3] The album's cover artwork features Wisp in a white dress lying down beneath a "looming" forest, which AllMusic's Heather Phares considered to be "an apt visualization of the massive forces [Wisp] holds in check on her debut album, whether it's the towering sounds that surround her, or the pressure to continue the viral success" of "Your Face".^[42] The cover was photographed by in Topanga, California, by Elinor Rey, who shot the cover through a glass dome to give it a "foggy" watercolor effect and feel like it was taken from a story book.^[10][1]

"Sword" was released as the lead single from If Not Winter on March 14, 2025.^[41] "Get Back to Me" was released the album's second single on April 18,^[47][51] five days after Wisp debuted the song live at Coachella,^[52] with "Save Me Now" following as the third single on June 6, 2025.^[44] On June 23, 2025, Wisp announced that If Not Winter had been completed^[53] and unveiled its release date, alongside a visualizer for "Save Me Now".^[54][55] "Breathe Onto Me" was released as the album's intended final single on July 18, 2025. Although the song was advertized as being the final single from If Not Winter,^[43] "Serpentine" was released as its fifth and final single on July 29, 2025.^[56] The album was first released on streaming services through Music Soup and Interscope Records on August 1, 2025,^[55] alongside a music video for "Black Swan".^[57] The album was released on CD on August 29, 2025,^[58] after which it debuted at number 37 on the Billboard Top Current Albums Sales chart,^[59] and on vinyl on December 5, 2025.^[60]

Wisp embarked on a headlining world tour in support of If Not Winter , the If Not Winter Tour. Her live band for the tour featured Epstein on guitar, Ryder McLaughlin on bass, and CapittiFenton on drums.^[48] [...] live visuals: "That full live experience includes dreamlike visuals, including white lights, drapery, and keyhole and window-esque projections."[...] (you could spin off into another article... not now though)^[13] The tour commenced in North America from August 22 to October 8, 2025, in between which time she played six shows supporting System of a Down.^[61] She then travelled to Europe, where she toured until November 2.^[54][61] On November 13, she performed a show at UC Santa Barbara.^[62] Wisp toured Asia from January 18 to February 1, 2026,^[63] after which she performed at the Laneway Festival in Australia, alongside two side-shows in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, from February 5 to 14.^[64] On April 18, 2026, Wisp released an a limited edition EP for Record Store Day, If Not Winter: The Demos/Live Version,^[65] featuring live recordings of "Breathe Onto Me", "Save Me Now" and "Get Back to Me" from The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas, and acoustic demos of "Sword", "If Not Winter" and "Serpentine".^[66]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.2/10[67]
Metacritic	75/100[68]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[42]
Clash	8/10[46]
Kerrang!	4/5[34]
The Line of Best Fit	7/10[37]
NME	[4]
OndaRock	5.5/10[29]
Paste	7.3/10[20]
Pitchfork	5.8/10[40]
Spectrum Culture	60%[31]

On review aggregator website Metacritic, If Not Winter holds a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."^[68] AllMusic's Heather Phares stated that the album "secures Wisp's place as one of the acts defining the sound of shoegaze in the 2020s" and praised its improvements in structure and songwriting from Pandora. She also felt its lyrics' jointly poetic and personal nature impacted and shaped the mood of its songs.^[42] Abercrombie of Paste praised Wisp for largely avoiding the formulaic songwriting of her earlier works and highlighted its "unique genre bending", [...] thing bout vocals/collaborators^[20] Annie Parnell of FLOOD described Wisp's lyrics as being "standout" across the album, describing them as "fitting homages to a genre that often depicts love as dissolution, and a poetic evolution for her own writing."^[30] Andie Kirby of Paper praised the album as "[Wisp's] strongest project to date, solidifying her sharp, seductive stake in the alternative scene", whilst describing its sonic range as "singular and stunning."^[5] KEXP's Chris Sanley called it both "compelling" and "an exceptional first outing",^[69] whilst Kristen S. Hé of NME labelled it a "triumphant debut" showcasing "the sound of a young artist who's still growing into herself", though felt its "emotional details" were occasionally "swept up in the wall of sound".^[4] Matt Young of The Line of Best Fit believed it listeners would have to "forage and find [their] own touchstones" on the album or "be left wandering around the realm she inhabits admiring the craft without feeling its warm embrace."^[37]

Robin Murray of Clash similarly praised the album's growth from Pandora and emotive songwriting, concluding that "If this is the next wave of shoegaze, then the legacy of My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive et al is in creative hands."^[46] Micah Phua of Vogue Singapore and Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal both praised If Not Winter for "updating" shoegaze for a modern audience;^[70] Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan felt that its incorporation of elements from older and newer variants of shoegaze alongside those of other genres showed Wisp was "doing something new with the [shoegaze] genre" and broadened its appeal.^[27] Richardson believed that whilst older listeners of shoegaze would see the album as "well crafted yet overly familiar and unadventurous", newer listeners of the genre would appreciate its "subtle technological updates and integration of new influences".^[28] Emma Wilkes of Kerrang! felt that the album's sound was "by no means a reinvention, but it's not regurgitation either – it is still hers", and viewed it as marking the start of her developing an "an even more individual" one.^[34] Less favourably, Holly Hazelwood of Spectrum Culture felt that despite Wisp's promises in interviews to diverge from the shoegaze genre on the album, it "doesn't sound all that interested in deviating from the path" and "sounds like if Pandora was a bit longer".^[31] Press-Reynolds of Pitchfork criticized the album for "[simulating] the thrill of reckless, no-holds-barred rock without actually fucking with the formula", viewing its songs as being either derirative or lacking impact.^[40] OndaRock's Peppe Trotta likewise remarked that despite its "focused" arrangements and "meticulous" direction, the album failed "to offer real emotional peaks, much less elements of innovation."^[29]

Dork ranked If Not Winter at number 91 on its list of the best albums of 2025.^[71]

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer
• All tracks are stylized in sentence case.

Credits adapted from liner notes^[1] and Tidal.^[25] (these are not all the credits: reread liner notes again for musicians/technical)

• If Not Winter on YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)

Wisp was stylized in a white Givenchy dress for the cover by Marta Del Rio [...] (coveteur)

coveteur on writing lyrics:

I'm always daydreaming while writing my journal entries. My mind wanders almost instantly when I'm reading or writing words, so the visuals come naturally. I grew up loving mythical creatures—like mermaids, centaurs, witches. And a lot of that ties into nature and natural elements that help me write more visceral metaphors. I find reading to be a really good practice too, because it's up to you to paint a picture of what the movie of that book looks like, page by page. The writing styles I consume, the visuals I grew up with...all of these things have helped me find my own unique writing style that I can now tie into my own childhood fantasies.

i actively despise the idea of citing "zoomergaze" here because why date this shit? stop infantilizing gen z. but... aghhhhh fuck,

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4-artists-to-introduce-you-to-zoomergaze-shoegazes-alternative-little-sibling/

https://www.behindtheblinds.be/love/ethereal-soundscapes

tmrw's archive pages dont really work/are incomplete, so... avoid?? not too sure about this one:

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/wisp-cover-green-day-last-night-on-earth-triple-j-like-a-versio-1236180188/

Kira Imani Andrews of Melodic Magazine [...]

idk what to do with this its choppy af:

By January 2025, she was still in the early stages of writing and recording.(dork's hype list 2025)^[1]

(fuck yeah wisp lesgo!!! improvement queen. this is WHY i love wisp. has head on taken the challenge and WON BY A MILLION FUCKINHG MILES)

Every morning after waking up, she wrote down her thoughts and feelings on morning pages/diary/journals (clash)

review??

https://www.onestowatch.com/en/blog/welcome-to-the-gauzy-dreamscape-of-wisps-debut-album-if-not-winter

https://www.kexp.org/read/2025/8/4/new-music-reviews-84/

https://www.ondarock.it/recensioni/2025-wisp-ifnotwinter.htm

https://www.onestowatch.com/en/blog/welcome-to-the-gauzy-dreamscape-of-wisps-debut-album-if-not-winter

news

https://femmusic.com/2025/07/31/wisp-if-not-winter/

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/hear-nu-gaze-rising-star-wisps-debut-album-if-not-winter/

(also check UMG press things)

interviews

https://www.tmrwmagazine.com/en/news/wisp-ethereal-power-shoegaze-dreams

https://www.clashmusic.com/features/morning-pages-wisp-interviewed/

https://floodmagazine.com/200941/wisp-if-not-winter-in-convo/

https://coveteur.com/meet-wisp-the-shoegaze-princess-2673790188

https://www.altpress.com/wisp-if-not-winter-song-breakdown/

https://atwoodmagazine.com/wisp-if-not-winter-album-interview-music-feature-2025/

https://www.somersaultmagazine.com/interviews/wisp

https://www.thelunacollective.co/journal/qa-wisp-2025

https://www.ssense.com/en-gb/editorial/culture/wisp-natalie-lu-if-not-winter-interview (NOTE: THIS CANNOT BE FUCKING ARCHIVED. GO FIGURE i did save a pdf tho)

https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/core/wisp-iv/105666492

https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2025/09/15/wonderland-meets-wisp/

http://guitar.com/features/interviews/wisp-interview-if-not-winter/

https://www.russh.com/in-conversation-with-wisp/

Conversely, Olivia Abercrombie of Paste opined that despite descriptions of Wisp's music as (medieval descriptions), had more of an "eldritch quality" to them.

Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way confirmed.

According to AllMusic's Heather Phares, "While writing Wisp's debut album, Lu continued to push her music's boundaries, pairing everyday problems mined from her journals with mythical imagery and the work of poets including Sappho and taking musical inspiration from Mazzy Star, Mojave 3, and William Basinski." (couldn't be more succinct if i tried)^[2]

TMRW ON AESTHETICS

4. There's this underlying fantasy concept to the album—magic talismans, emotional quests. Was that always intentional, or did it evolve naturally?

It was very intentional when diving into the creative direction and world-building during my first singles, ever since 'Your face'. I grew up loving mermaids and lived by the beach my whole life, so using imagery of water was a no-brainer and just felt right. I figured if I could live out my fantasies of being a mermaid, I could be an angel too…and a princess, a knight, and so on. Every visual aspect of Wisp stems from my childhood dreams. It's the world I've built in my head years before Wisp even existed, just now- it has a home.

10 magazine aussie on writing/wisp's plans to produce songs themselves

I will produce time to time, but I mainly work with other producers just because I am terrible at using DAWs, especially Ableton. I've tried so much, like I've invested a lot of time in learning them, but I don't think I've invested enough time just because there's so many elements that go into producing, and I like having a fresh perspective and different styles from different producers on my music. So being able to just write the guitar riffs and write my lyrics in vocal melodies is, is enough for me to create myself express myself the way I want to.

etc DORK: "I feel like if I listen to too much shoegaze, I won't have that experimental mindset that I want to go into the studio with." [...]

gonna enbolden this because its fucking important: IF NOT WINTER IS THE FIRST WISP (ALBUM/RELEASE) WHERE WISP HAD COMPLETE CREATIVE CONTROL. REMEMBER THIS YOU FUCK. (10 magazine australia)

Andie Kirby of Paper [...] "The album is her strongest project to date, solidifying her sharp, seductive stake in the alternative scene. She spins stories of defeat at the hands of passion, with lyrics that pair effortlessly with orchestrations ranging from soft piano melodies to hard drumlines and walls of electronic guitars. Her sonic range on If Not Winter is singular and stunning."

tmrw, on "breathe onto me"

I feel like 'Breathe onto me' serves as a homage to my past work but reflects my artistic growth. It's a good blend between my old sound and my newer sound- what people were attracted to initially but with a more mature outtake. It's challenging to find a good balance between what you think or know your listeners will like and what you truly want to make yourself. I feel like I allowed myself full creative freedom on this album, but 'Breathe onto me' roots back to my older music which I think is sweet to have too.

unrelated/etc

somersault, the medieval themes:

Something that strikes me too on this album is the blend of like a shoegaze, heavier sort of sound with mythology and fantasy. I feel like I haven't seen those two paired together that much. How did those medieval themes, and I guess like fantasy world-building, find their way into your writing? Was it something that you had intentionally sought after or did it sort of just end up unfolding?

Wisp: I think it came to me naturally and I didn't have a very clear vision of what I wanted the visuals or the world around the album to be until we decided that Sword would be the first single coming out for the album. And I ended up going down this medieval, almost princessy, romantic, novel kind of route because it's something reoccurring in my childhood dreams and all of the books that I read growing up. And I think now that I am able to exercise my creativity in more ways than just one, meaning more than music, I can creative direct and bring in this visual world that I've always wanted to live since I was a kid. So it's kind of a chance for me to bring my dreams into reality. And by tying that into my music, I think it's the perfect reflection of myself as an artist now and where I came from and how I grew up

wsj on wisps vox performance on "sword"

Her high, thin voice conveys the feeling of something delicate and vulnerable that has been caught in a destructive vortex as she sings of fear and crippling shyness.

uhhh guitar.com

Lu's taste in oddball guitars stretches to a non-standard attitude to lyrics too. Her songwriting process is all about an organic, unforced approach.

"I usually start with guitar, and [writing the] lyrics depends. I might think of them on the way to the studio and write them into my phone, but at other times I'll write them after the guitar and bass are tracked and I'm feeling out the landscape of a song. As long as lyrics come to me naturally and I'm not taking more than 30 minutes to write them. The less time I have with them, the more raw and honest they sound."

BREATHE ONTO ME (FLOOD)

I wrote ["Breathe Onto Me"] almost two years ago, around the time I released "See You Soon" and "Once Then We'll Be Free." I was writing more simple and broad lyrics—not that I think they're less in value than what I write nowadays, but I think the music I've been making for this album has so much more depth and vulnerability to it. But "Breathe Onto Me" is fun to include on the album because it's a mixture between my old sound and new sound, whether it's how I used to write lyrics and bringing in a new sound on the instrumental side or vice versa. I feel like the lyrics are simple and fun, but sometimes that's needed as a break, especially when the album covers such deep topics.

THE PROCESS:

One thing that helped me a bunch was to begin writing a song on acoustic guitar. I feel like playing acoustically massages my mind to think of not necessarily more complex ideas, but just different ones. Something I would've never thought to write on electric guitar. I feel like listening to an instrumental that is purely acoustic helps me come up with better vocal melodies too. Another big part in blending sounds into one was collaboration. When you have different artists and producers working on a song, the song becomes a melting pot of everyone's taste and style. I love working with people who don't make the same music that I do. It gives me such a refreshing perspective on things.

[...] lyrics written here: "Each day Wisp wakes up and scribbles down her Morning Page – an exercise where she writes three pages every morning, then puts them away and doesn't revisit for at least eight weeks. This is the bedrock of creative practise, a means to both expunge and memorialise her thoughts and feelings. "Being able to jot things down – how I'm feeling, or the weather that day – really helped me find an anchor, whether that's the words in my lyrics, or just a vibe."^[3]

cut thsi down; line of best fit:

so: "continues and expands on the direction of Pandora"

In college, she got that first taste of musical freedom. And once the Wisp project took off, she pushed those boundaries even further with a move to L.A., where her world expanded dramatically. "Once I moved to L.A., I realized that those kinds of people were literally everywhere and all I had to do was put myself out there, open my eyes, and just wear my music on my sleeve more and not be too afraid of people judging my taste," she explains.

So much of Wisp's allure, after all, isn't just her recordings but her world. Those luscious guitars are escapes as much as earworms, and her project to date has been as heavily rooted in fantasy as it has been in shoegaze or metal. Lu's imagery often shows her in Medieval costume, embracing a knight in armour or laying like a pixie in the grass. "Being able to write music that can also be attached to a visual world, I'm able to bring my own childhood fantasies into it," she tells me. The only kind of project she wants to make is one her inner child would have loved – the kind that draws from the stories of mythical creatures and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. "I'm kind of building out a movie set in my head."

Working with both longtime collaborator Max Epstein and new faces including Elliott Kozel, Gabe Greenland, and aldn, Lu's traditional sound gets the avant-pop treatment. Welcome electronic tints are added to the layers upon layers of guitar that usually fill Lu's mixes, around which her vocals and lyrics also come more into centre stage.

"This time around, I actually knew what I wanted to say," Lu tells me of working on her record. "Being able to write lyrics and get things off my chest and have the urge to write not just for someone but because I'm feeling a certain way and that writing will help me is how I gathered all of this material."

The transition from wunderkind to career artist can be fraught, at times. Some get lost in the hype, failing to find their voice inside all the noise. Others, like Wisp, go the opposite direction, leaning even more into themselves and what they think is cool, knowing that the rest will follow. With social analytics often acting as a prerequisite to record deals and big opportunities in the industry, the role of the artist as the tastemaker can easily be forgotten. Lu, however, is not one to forget.

"My songs [on this record] are more vulnerable and more connected to myself and my life stories, whereas I feel like on a couple of my past singles, I did write from my heart, but I wasn't as connected to the things I was writing about and a lot of the lyrics were solely for the purpose of being catchy or being relatable to other people, or just so that I could have a song out. All the tracks on this album actually mean something to me," she continues.

yeah

coveteur

On the note of fashion, you're wearing vintage Givenchy on the cover. How did you source the dress, and what drew you to it in particular?

W: Marta Del Rio styled me for the album shoot and brought a bunch of looks to choose from. The vintage Givenchy dress has such a princess-ey flow, which caught my eye right off the bat. We tried the dresses on in my apartment, and when I sat down on the floor in the Givenchy dress, it created this circle of flowy fabric around me. Simple and elegant, and it made me feel so pretty.

Fans have fallen in love with your sense of visual storytelling—are there any designers who you love in particular?

W: I feel like I didn't find my personal style until earlier this year, so being able to be more hands on with my styling and getting to play around with my stage outfits has been really fun and makes me feel more confident when I'm performing. Some of my favorite designers right now are Marc Le Bihan, Elena Dawson, and Ann Demeulemeester. I love to play with textures, layers, and dresses—some with a darker mood and some very feminine, almost baroque in style.

You've talked about letting go of things even when they're good—a theme running through If Not Winter. As your platform grows and your audience expands, what are you consciously holding onto, and what are you learning to let go of?

W: "I feel like I'm still holding onto the over-romanticization of things that happen in my life. I tend to blow things out of proportion just so I feel more inspired to write better lyrics. I think balance is necessary, and I can't let my maladaptive daydreamings and false fantasies cross the line of inspiration into delusion.

A big thing I'm currently learning to let go of is guilt. I get in my head about my actions, things as minuscule as a sentence said. Sometimes I view things as having more weight than they actually carry, and if I see it in a negative light, it eats away at me. It's good to remind myself that sometimes I'm just getting in my head. Accidentally forgetting to say goodbye to someone is not a reflection of my character. Being too friendly doesn't mean I was subconsciously being fake. Navigating my new life alone in LA and in the music scene can feel like walking on eggshells, but all I need to do is wear my heart on my sleeve and not calculate my every move."

I love "Black Swan" on your new album, where you sing, "How do I see myself now?/Shed all of my skin. But I grasp onto/The beauty laid within." Can you tell us more about this song and how it came to be?

W: "Black Swan" was a last-minute addition to the album, and I was kind of freaking out because of deadlines. I didn't have much faith at the beginning stages of this song, just because I was so fixated on the feeling that the album was done already. But I'm so glad we saw it through, and now it's one of my favorite tracks on this project. Kraus produced it and we spent a couple of days working on it, then I took it to Stint and wrote some more and revamped all my lyrics/vocal melodies.

I wrote this song about struggling with my imperfections and the harshness I gaze upon myself with because of my physical attributes. I've never been the type to be [in front of] the cameras, so adjusting to being in the public eye and seeing pictures of me from different angles under different lighting has really warped my perception of what I truly look like. I forget that I need to be kind to myself and have been through phases where I'm keeping my body in check or consistently overthinking minuscule details in pictures of myself. This song was a way for me to release these feelings and to also serve as a reminder that there is so much more value beyond physical appearance."

What do you hope someone listening to the album for the first time learns about you?

W: "hope they learn that versatility comes with time and experience. My music is a reflection of every stage of my life, from the music I listened to when I was younger to the people who have built me up or tried to bring me down. And it is also a reflection of my listeners. I hear their stories and the relatability that aligns with my music, and that makes me want to write not just for my own healing, but for theirs as well."

wisp, washington post

"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."

unrelated

https://web.archive.org/web/20130516111051/http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20070125235105876

interestting...

https://www.10magazine.com.au/articles/ten-talks-to-wisp

https://www.nopalitymag.com/concert-reviews/wisps-if-not-winter-houston-tour-debut

https://blurredculture.com/wisp-fonda-theatre-live-review-2025/ wisp, hero magazine interview

The inspiration behind the narrative of the album comes from my daydreams that I wanted to live out as a kid. Watching Harry Potter, Barbie, and all these princess movies growing up. I even had a princess-decorated room in my childhood home. Growing up with this media and how immersed I was in these fantasy worlds, I wanted to build an aura that other people could be immersed in, and not just children, but people of all ages. So, having the transitions in the album was really important to me – having the interlude Latvia was also very important. I wrote and produced that track with Stint, and I told him that I wanted it to feel exactly how I felt when I was in Latvia recording the Sword music video and walking up to the gates of a castle. When we were filming that scene, I was hearing the bell chime, and waltz music coming from that castle. It was just a huge coincidence that all of these sounds were happening at this exact moment. I think it was the only time in my life where I genuinely felt like I was living in a dream. Nothing felt real and I felt like an actual princess. That feeling really inspired the themes of the album.

wonderland

Together they [the producers] bring high fantasy to life, inward-looking imaginations are made a reality through grander, complex reverb-soaked compositions and a more mature approach to plaintive mythical storytelling. "I wanted to not just write about romance and relationships this time, I also wanted to write about self-doubt, my insecurities, my fears. Being able to break out of the box and write about self-love instead of my love for others."

and:

Making whatever music Lu wants and not having to label it shoegaze was a dominant strategy in the shaping of "If Not Winter". "As much as I love the shoegaze community, a lot of the purists can be very specific about the sound that comes with the label," she adds. "I don't want to restrain myself to a specific term or to one specific community. Taking my inspirations from shoegaze and adding my own twist into them, I kind of just label it all as alt rock now, and I'mable to now have this weight off my chest and experiment more with pop vibes and electronic vibes."

AND;

"Most of the songs, besides "Save me now", we all wrote from scratch. Max likes to do this thing where he'll ask for three words. Different adjectives that help guide us towards the direction of the vibe of the song, that could be solace or melancholy, nostalgia, childhood. I still feel like that makes it broad in a sense where we can turn a bright feeling song into something sad, just purely based on lyrics or the chord progression. We just build off each other."

flood

What do you think has changed in your writing style to show this vulnerability?

I just started to care more about what I wanted to say. Back then, I was really adamant about making good music, obviously, and I was very hard on myself whenever I'd release something. I felt that the stuff I was releasing still wasn't good enough. During the whole process of making the album, I've been exorcising everything I can out of me to not feel that way anymore. A big part of that was writing better lyrics and finding my own voice in my own writing style and making sure what I was saying lyrically was a good representation of myself.

SSENSE (is citable)

How would you describe the narrative of If Not Winter?

I think that the narrative really just follows the way I felt while creating the album. It isn't in the order of, you know, each song that I make, but I think that it still showcases, you know, the indulgences I had in making music and the people that I met, the relationships that I've been through, my self-doubt, my self-pity and insecurities that kind of came out and almost had to come out and become music because I felt all these things so strongly to make songs about them. So being vulnerable and putting my heart on my sleeve, I think pushed me to make the best art that I've made so far.

last donut of the night

In terms of what you write about lyrically, how personal do you feel like you're getting? Do you prefer to be a little cryptic?

I try to find a good balance between the two. I always write based off of personal life experiences, or things that people around me have experienced. There's always going to be a very direct connection to my life, and people can interpret my music however they want. When I write, I like leaving room for people to connect their own experience to my music, because that's what makes music enjoyable—and healing, too.

Do you feel like there's moments where you're pulling back or worried about revealing too much of yourself?

Oftentimes, no—and I think it's just because I feel like I don't really have anything to hide. Some of the tracks on the album show that I'm writing from a place of guilt and reflecting on my character. I've made bad decisions and bad mistakes, and I'm writing about my bad character. People will be able to decipher what I'm writing about, and I think that kind of accountability is really important when you are writing from a place of personal experience—because you're not always in the right, and not every single song is going to be about how someone wronged you. It could be about how you handled a personal experience or a relationship. Being vulnerable with that side of myself is very healing, and it also helps me reflect on my life. I just hope that when people listen to it, they can relate to it—because we're not all perfect, and finding that feeling in music is a really special thing.

You mentioned your "bad character." Talk to me more about scrutinizing yourself.

Self-scrutiny is a really difficult thing to comprehend, internally. What you may see as bad character could be seen as something completely different in someone else's eyes. So a lot of the things that I write about are me being hard on myself and wanting to be a better person, and working towards that goal. I always tell people that I think the meaning in life is to become the best version of yourself, and by reflecting on my experiences and the way that I handle my emotions...there's definitely a level of harshness that that comes with that, and people listening to my music and hearing my lyrics on how I feel about myself, whether it's my own insecurities or the way that I treated other people—or the way I treat myself, even—to be seen as almost in a pitiful light, or with sympathy or empathy, I think that is really cool and special, because they may feel the same things about themselves too. But to me, and to other people, we don't see it that way.

y

rolling stone

Lu's journal-like songwriting anchors the mythical, otherworldly atmosphere depicted on the album cover and Wisp's viral music videos. Take one of the album's highlights, "Sword," which has an accompanying visual where Wisp sits in a field in a flowing white gown and dances with a set of armor before donning the metal suit herself, sword in hand, standing in front of the ocean. Much like Wisp's other projects, the video looks like it could double as a chic fantasy series, albeit one with a cooler soundtrack.

"A lot of the creative direction from my music videos just come from things that I want to be real in the world," Lu says. "I wish that princesses were real, and I wish that mermaids were real. I wish unicorns were real, you know? And it's like all of my childhood fantasies, because I grew up watching a lot of movies, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones." She makes a lot of these themes part of her artistry. "I think that all of that really inspires my visual world because I want it to be just completely unreal. It's really fun because I get to kind of live out my childhood fantasies when I'm on set for the music videos and that's also a super sick feeling. So it's like directing my own movie that I wish I acted in when I was little. I wanted to be part of the Harry Potter cast so bad. And now I'm able to kind of fulfill my fantasies."

[...]

WHEN WISP FINALLY hits the road for the tour, all of the songs that felt new to Lu will have become far more familiar. This time around, Lu has a front-of-house and lighting crew, and even new molded in-ears, too. "I really want it to kind of feel like you're watching a movie and the band is like the soundtrack at the same time," Lu says. "I think it's really cool because I grew up going to watch ballets with my mom. I want my live set to feel similar to that, where you're getting a full experience."

That full live experience includes dreamlike visuals, including white lights, drapery, and keyhole and window-esque projections. Beyond finding the aesthetic for the tour, Lu explains that she's "so pumped" about the group's sound. "We're getting more tight as a band," she says. "You know, the more we play together, the better we'll be, the more synergy we'll have."

rushh (interesting)

https://www.russh.com/in-conversation-with-wisp/

Her stages, lately, have been shared with acts that lean towards the masculine end of the sonic spectrum, a key to her sound is how she threads her own femininity through such male-dominated genres. "I think it comes naturally," she says simply. "I love girly things, and it shines through in my voice and what I write about. Hearing lyrics from a woman's perspective in this space is rare [so] it changes the light the songs are seen in."

atwood

Wisp: I didn't necessarily want to tell a narrative or a well-written story, just because I feel like if I wrote characters or if I wrote specific scenes, it wouldn't really pertain to my life. If we do view it as kind of like a storybook, I would say I'm the only character, and the story I'm trying to tell is showing people my diary entries, my journal entries, and letting them have a personal look into my life and my experiences. I'm giving myself the opportunity to be very vulnerable with my lyric-writing and my songwriting as well, because all these songs are very personal to things that happened to me, my situations, and the people that came into my life and left my life. I'm showing my own story of personal growth and reflection on who I am as a person, and how I've grown over this past year of writing the album. That was my goal.

the writing of "serpentine"

Wisp: I wrote "Serpentine" with Darcy and Max, and originally, it had this vocal melody that Darcy wrote. I wasn't super attached to it, just because it didn't fit my voice. I kind of rediscovered the song a couple of months later, and we rewrote a bit of the drum parts, the guitar parts, I wrote new vocal melodies and lyrics, and it became what it is today! I think the reason why we looked back on that song was because it, originally, from the start, had this very summery feeling, like you said, and I felt that that was exactly what the album was lacking. I really wanted the album to have at least a couple of feel-good songs that people could dance to and just not take too seriously.

Sappho (left) and Adrienne Lenker (right) served as major influences on the lyrics of If Not Winter.

.... uhh ....

featured article albums i may use as a reference guide... again

Alicia (album)

Windswept Adan

Weird Faith

The inspiration behind the narrative of the album comes from my daydreams that I wanted to live out as a kid. Watching Harry Potter, Barbie, and all these princess movies growing up. I even had a princess-decorated room in my childhood home. Growing up with this media and how immersed I was in these fantasy worlds, I wanted to build an aura that other people could be immersed in, and not just children, but people of all ages. So, having the transitions in the album was really important to me – having the interlude Latvia was also very important. I wrote and produced that track with Stint, and I told him that I wanted it to feel exactly how I felt when I was in Latvia recording the Sword music video and walking up to the gates of a castle. When we were filming that scene, I was hearing the bell chime, and waltz music coming from that castle. It was just a huge coincidence that all of these sounds were happening at this exact moment. I think it was the only time in my life where I genuinely felt like I was living in a dream. Nothing felt real and I felt like an actual princess. That feeling really inspired the themes of the album.

Wisp went into writing with the intention of moving herself beyond categorizations as a shoegaze act, which she found creatively limiting,(wonderland) (explain/redo)

SCRAP TEXT

wrote many lyrics bc of if not winter book; which is why it became the title. write about it HERE yall. (SOURCE??) [...] decided to name the album after writing its title track(???) [...] which Wisp's manager reccomended to her / became obbsessed w and definite influence n all that.(LOBF)

HOW SHIT WAS WORKED ON! also they used Pinterest for aesthetic inspiration sometimes lol (hero)

atwood, on the if not winter title and how poetry relate to le album (i.e. wisp liked its timelessness)

"I liked the fact that she [Sappho] existed centuries and centuries ago, and her poetry and her words read like modern art," Wisp professes her admiration for Sappho's poetry, which the title of her debut project draws from. "I think that's really special… people in the past have felt exactly the same way we do. It's really special – that love, and limerence, and sacrifice, and infatuation. They've been a thing for so long, and they're just parts of being human."

Did you know that... the medieval aesthetics of Wisp's debut album were initially inspired by the title of a book? (10 magazine)

10 magazine. uber important

Which producers have you worked with who have helped to shape your sound, especially on this album?

Definitely Max, my guitarist. And then another very big one was Alden [Robinson] and Gabe [Greenland] who produced After Dark, If Not Winter, All I Need, Sword. And then grayskies, of course, because he actually produced Your Face, but I hadn't met him until a couple months ago and we met up in London in person and wrote music together, which was fun.

Is your environment really important to your writing process?

One hundred percent. I feel like usually when I'm holed up in a studio with no windows and it's really sweaty in there, which is a lot of studios in LA, I feel very claustrophobic and it almost feels pressuring. It's not always a good vibe to be around. So being somewhere more refreshing like in the hills, like Gabe's childhood home was where we produced a lot of the songs and it was just so serene and peaceful looking out to the landscape and being able to sip tea with everyone before we started the writing process. So I think environment plays a very, very big part in me writing my music.

So with this being your debut album, did you have an intention going into it or a non-negotiable that you really wanted to express through this music?

Yeah, I think that the main priority for me was to just show people, especially because it's my very first album, that I am capable of more than the sound that they attach me to. I think that's just because when I started out making music, a lot of these were instrumentals and I didn't have full creative control because I was making these from my bedroom back at home. I was in college and I didn't know how to produce at the time. So now being able to work with these producers and work in person, I wanted full creative control over every aspect in my music. As a music enjoyer, I listen to so many different genres, so I also wanted to incorporate folk elements and emo elements and hyper pop elements into my music. I'm actively growing as an artist.