A good song can work in any genre, and Wisp has proved that once again by adding her own signature shoegaze vibe to the classic Coldplay track “Yellow.” The singer, who is in the midst of an extensive headlining tour, connected with the track in a meaningful way.
“‘Yellow’ to me is a childhood memory that I wanted to rendition into my present life,” the singer/vocalist explains. “A song that I never understood the depth of, to now relating to the lyrics and singing them with the emotion of my romantic journeys this past year.”
Wisp gives the song a new texture with breathy vocals, lots of ambient reverb, and a wall of guitar noise. Her version begins with just an acoustic guitar before heavy distortion breaks the sentimentality, only to bring things back down to a whisper.
Wisp rightfully calls the song a childhood memory. It was released on Coldplay’s debut album, “Parachutes,” in 2000, while the singer was born four years later in 2004. Although it was released 25 years ago, the song has stayed in the global consciousness ever since. However, Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin almost didn’t write it.
The band was working on “Parachutes” at Rockfield Studios in Wales during November 1999, but they hadn’t written the song yet. They also didn’t have much of a following since forming two years earlier. This recording session was going to decide the band’s fate.
“We’d done one session a few months before in London, which hadn’t gone so well. So we were going there ‘cause it was kind of a make-or-break session,” Martin said.
The session at Rockfield was more laid back, and the group had time to go outside for a break. It was a beautiful night, and producer Ken Nelson said, “Look at the stars.” That gave Martin the spark of inspiration to run inside and write what would become “Yellow.”
Watch the original video for “Yellow,” which has racked up over 1.2 billion views on YouTube:
Wisp released her debut album, “If Not Winter,” on August 1st and has been busy ever since. In addition to her headlining tour, she’s been on the road supporting System of a Down, KORN, Deftones, and Avenged Sevenfold. It’s a culmination of efforts on TIkTok and Spotify that have brought her worldwide recognition.
“Her debut single, ‘Your face,’ hit #10 on the Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs: a telling indicator of her immediacy and powerful melodic instincts,” a press release explains. “‘Your face’ now sits at over 110M streams on Spotify alone, she has amassed over 250M total cross-platform streams and has reached a quarter of a million followers on Instagram. In May of 2024, she played her live debut in Los Angeles to two sold-out crowds of die-hard fans wearing homemade merch. Just three months later, she played her first major festivals at Lollapalooza, Levitation, Camp Flog Gnaw, and Corona Capital. She’s even headlined her own sold-out shows on three different continents: North America, Europe, and Asia.”
Follow along with the sheet music for “Yellow”:
