Los Angeles-based songwriter Terra Lopez AKA: Rituals of Mine and percussionist Adam Pierce, have announced their album, Sleeper Hold, will come out on October 4th via Carpark Records. Along with the news, the band has shared a video for album track “Burst.” The video was directed by Kris Esfandiari (King Woman) and was created by a majority queer, women, and trans crew. Over nightmarish, staccato instrumentation, “Burst” reconciles with childhood and past traumas. The concept of the video stems directly from Lopez’s tendency to use basketball as a coping mechanism when she was younger, and represents herself overcoming the obstacles of being a queer woman of color in the industry.

From Terra Lopez

“With this new material, I’m confronting a lot of personal issues I haven’t addressed before.” says Lopez. “I made a promise to myself that I’m no longer going to play small or hide behind metaphors, that I’m going to really lean into self-confidence, self-reliance and take up space. “Burst” is the beginning of that.”

The album is the follow-up to previous release Devoted. Lopez began writing the songs that would eventually inhabit the EP during one of the most harrowing and self-reflective times in her life. “In 2016 my father committed suicide, and six months later my best friend died in an accident,” recalls Lopez. “Both of those losses were incredibly devastating, and it was massive for me because these two people who were such important figures in my life were gone. These new songs all derived from the past three and a half years of my life and what those losses made me confront.”

Lopez flew from California to Florida to work with her longtime collaborator and producer Wes Jones, and began developing a brooding sound that would match the emotional intensity of her writing. Having the intimate space of a studio, occupied by only her and a producer, meant that Lopez could write from the heart in a way that didn’t feel possible when there were more people in the room. Over the course of a few months the two would craft some of the project’s most cavernous and vulnerable songs to date. “This new material is very direct and focused on what I want to express with things I’ve held in for so long.” says Lopez. “It’s finally me addressing all of that trauma because I finally had the space to do so.”

Rituals of Mine
Live

Sat. Aug. 31 – Tuscon, AZ @ HOCO Fest (DJ Set)
Fri. Sept. 6 – Elizabethtown, NY @ Otis Mountain Get Down
Sat. Sept. 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Thu. Sept. 26 – Boise, ID @ The Olympic
Fri. Sept. 27 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
Sat. Sept. 28 – Everett, WA @ Scuttlebutt Taproom
Sun. Sept. 29 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Sat. Oct. 5 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
Fri. Nov. 15 – Seattle, WA @ Freakout Festival