“Before 2020, nobody wanted to call themselves a shoegaze band, and then I kind of got over that,” Ritchie said. “It is what it is, and I don’t know what else to call it.

The 30-year-old subgenre has found new life in the hands of indie rockers, digicore artists, TikToking teens, and reunited first-wavers.

Just when the 20-year-old singer/guitarist, founder of the San Francisco shoegaze outfit Wisp, cracked open Zoom for an interview about her ferocious rise in heavy rock, she was promptly mauled by ...