Photo by Elinor Kry

Can the sound of shoegaze swell up an entire football stadium? That will be the question answered later this summer when the next gen of the genre’s biggest viral sensation, Wisp, opens for System of the Down, Korn, and Deftones in a series of mega shows this August across the the tri-state, Chicago and Toronto. But more importantly, this will prove to be the ultimate test for turning underground clout through the power of TikTok into a major label deal, as it coincides with the release of her debut full-length, If Not Winter (she’ll be headlining her own tour surrounding those opener dates in support of the effort as well.)

Recent singles “Sword”, “Get back to me”, and “Save Me Now” have already suggested a higher definition embossing on Natalie R. Lu’s penchant for reverb-drenched vocals and a heavier density in dreaminess since last year’s listmaking EP, Pandora, but its final preview “Breathe Onto Me” is really where her widescreen vision on the Whirr-influenced modern shoegaze sound is fully exhaled. “Your youth is mine,” she sings at one point. This is to say that in looking how far the genre has come today, there comes with it the realization that is officially a younger person’s game.

Wisp’s If Not Winter will be released August 1st on Interscope Records / Music Soup.