I t’s just past noon on a Wednesday in North Hollywood, and Wisp only has a few hours left to rehearse before she leaves for a global tour the next morning. Tucked inside an unassuming rehearsal space complete with a bustling coffee shop, 21-year-old singer-songwriter Natalie Lu admits she’s nervous.

“I just really want to practice more,” says Lu on this brutally hot August afternoon. “I feel kind of scared about the newer songs that we haven’t performed yet.”

Those nerves make sense: Weeks earlier, Lu dropped her expansive debut album, If Not Winter . The follow-up to her breakthrough 2024 EP Pandora , the new full-length project is a celestial collection of shoegaze-steeped tracks featuring ethereal yet massive electric guitars and angelic pop melodies. All of it exposes deeply

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