Rituals of Mine

Since 2010, Terra Lopez had been touring and releasing music under the moniker Sister Crayon. Her travels have allowed her to share the stage with DEFTONES, Tricky, Built to Spill, Antemasque, Le Butcherettes, The Album Leaf and many others, in addition to releasing the independent Bellow (2011) and Cynic (2013). Along the way, she has earned praise from The BBC, Pitchfork, The Fader, Rolling Stone and more for the project's ghostly 21st century trip hop séance of soulful vocals, heavy beats, and breathy catharsis. 

After the death of her father in 2015 followed with the unexpected death of her best friend only six months later, Lopez decided to put the name Sister Crayon to rest and start over by re-naming the project, Rituals of Mine. 

In the midst of everything, Rituals of Mine inked a deal with Warner Bros. Records in February 2016. They worked closely with producer Wes Jones and mixing engineer Dave Clauss to make some final moves before enlisting Tom Coyne [Led Zeppelin, Adele] to master their debut LP, Devoted. The album represents the realization of a vision the project possessed since day one. 

After cobbling together demos in the Oakland walk-in closet where Terra slept at the time, the core sessions for Devoted took place in St. Augustine, FL. The band spent two weeks in the studio with Jones writing and recording the bulk of material. They finished writing the final three tracks with Omar Rodriguez Lopez (At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta) in Los Angeles. Once the songs were chosen for the record, Jones dug in on production over the next several months, communicating across the country with the band until the album was a realized vision. 

As a result, the ten tracks comprising Devoted could be likened to gorgeously haunted transmissions from a bygone era where Portishead and Massive Attack summoned spirits via analog drum machines and battered keyboards. The first single “Ride Or Die” fuses a stark bass hum and droning synth with Terra’s ethereal and evocative delivery before building into an angelic refrain- “All I want… is a Ride Or Die.”

Meanwhile, Terra’s howl caresses an ominous sonic blanket punctuated by industrial undertones and glitch-y computer buzzing. “The word Devoted kept popping up in my head when I thought of our journey,” she goes on. “After all of the changes and hardships we had gone through, we were devoted to each other and our music. To me, it signified a theme for the entire record. I had just gotten through an incredible breakup. Instead of singing about heartbreak and loss, I wanted to transcend that and write about devotion in order to restore my faith in devotion.”

Ultimately, these Rituals are meant to be shared. 

“The music is created out of turmoil, and it’s genuine,” Terra leaves off. “It’s a passionate album. I want people to connect to it in a very human way and see that it’s raw. Maya Angelou said something that really connected with me. In regards to rehearsing or honing your craft, she said, ‘The process isn’t pretty, but it’s real.’ We create out of necessity. I hope that resonates and offers some solace.”