Terra Lopez is a Sacramento singer, songwriter and multimedia artist best known as the founder and frontwoman of the band Sister Crayon, described by Submerge as a "native Sacramento duo."[1] Beyond her own band she was active across the local scene as a guest vocalist, a DJ, and an organizer of all-ages and dance nights.[2][3][1]
At a glance
- Founder/lead singer and primary songwriter of Sister Crayon.[4][5]
- From Sacramento; Submerge calls Sister Crayon a "native Sacramento duo" and Lopez repeatedly refers to the city as "our hometown."[1]
- Sister Crayon grew out of the breakup of her prior Sacramento band, The Evening Episode.[6][5]
- Curated Warpaint Wednesdays (a DJ night) and hosted all-ages live music nights at Broadacre Coffee.[2][3]
- Featured as a guest vocalist on Sacramento collaborative projects (Tel Cairo's Voice of Reason).[7]
Local status
Lopez is local to Sacramento. A 2015 Submerge feature on Sister Crayon's album Devoted is headlined "Native Sacramento duo," and within it Lopez speaks of playing a hometown set ("It's always fun coming back to our hometown") and of being welcomed "home to Sacramento."[1] Earlier coverage consistently frames Sister Crayon as a Sacramento band ("local band Sister Crayon," "fellow Sacramentans").[4][8] Confidence: high.
Origins and The Evening Episode
Before Sister Crayon, Lopez performed in the Sacramento band The Evening Episode, which broke up in 2009.[6][5] Submerge's 2009 scene retrospective credits that breakup directly with freeing Lopez to create Sister Crayon: had The Evening Episode "not called it quits, Terra Lopez would not have gone on to create our beloved Sister Crayon."[6] When her prior band dissolved, Lopez was left performing solo for about a year, playing "very quiet" material as just herself and a guitar.[4]
Sister Crayon
Lopez founded Sister Crayon out of her solo work; the seeds of the band were "first sown three years ago when Lopez's prior band broke up and left her performing solo."[4] She began as the band's "high priestess" and sole songwriter before assembling a full lineup.[9]
- Formation and lineup growth. After about a year solo, Lopez met Dani Fernandez (drum machine and synthesizer), and the two "just clicked," pooling hip-hop and other influences into Lopez's singer/songwriter material; their first co-written song was "Lavender Liars."[4] The band added keyboardist Genaro Ulloa (also rendered Ulloa-Juno) and then Bay Area drummer Nicholas Suhr, who joined only a "week or two" before recording.[4] According to the East Bay Express, Lopez and Fernandez later relocated from Sacramento to North Oakland to gain a fresh perspective and challenge themselves, and Lopez felt the larger ensemble had restricted her creative freedom — she downsized Sister Crayon to a duo as a result.[10] By 2015 the project had pared back from a four-piece to the Lopez–Fernandez duo.[1]
- First performance. Submerge witnessed the band's first show as a full group at Luigi's Fun Garden on Feb. 7, 2009, built around material from Loneliness Is My Mother's Gun; the review compared the sound to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, CocoRosie and Björk.[9]
- Releases timeline. Loneliness Is My Mother's Gun — described by Lopez as solo "bedroom recordings" — was put out in 2009 by Chicago label Juene Été Records.[9][4] The band then recorded Enter Into Holy (Or)ders (titled from a line in Jean Genet), with engineer Scott McChane/McShane, logging 14–18 hour days at The Hangar ahead of an Aug. 21, 2009 CD release party.[4][5] The debut LP Bellow followed, released Feb. 19, 2011 at Luigi's Fungarden, recorded over roughly a year and a half at The Hangar with McShane.[5] Cynic was released as an EP on April 16, 2013 on Fake Four Records.[10][11] Devoted was released in February 2016; following the band's name change to Rituals of Mine, it was re-released on Warner Brothers Records in September 2016.[11][12] The band toured with the Deftones in October 2016.[11][12] In June 2025, Sister Crayon — reverting to that name — released Or., described as a lost album recorded in bedrooms during 2008–2009 and made available for the first time.[13]
- Recording home. Sister Crayon's records were repeatedly tracked at The Hangar, the Sacramento studio owned by Tape Op publisher John Baccigaluppi; Lopez mixed parts of a Sister Crayon record in the same engineer room where Sea of Bees later recorded.[4][8][5]
- Influences and lyrics. Lopez's lyrics draw on poets Jean Genet and Fernando Pessoa (she has a Pessoa tattoo and named her pug Ophelia after Pessoa's unrequited love); musically she cited Björk and CocoRosie.[9][5] Her writing is rooted in personal relationships, childhood and heartbreak.[5][1]
- Wider reach. By 2011 the band was working with celebrity photographers (Eliot Lee Hazel, Robert Ascroft) for album art and a music video.[5] Devoted (2015) was recorded with producer Wes Jones in St. Augustine, Florida, with additional production from Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta, whom the band met touring with one of his projects in 2013.[1] Lopez and Fernandez also used the Devoted track "Ride or Die" and its video to mark the 2015 Supreme Court marriage-equality ruling, publicly affirming their orientation.[1]
Scene roles beyond Sister Crayon
- DJ / night curator. Lopez originally ran a Midtown DJ night called Warpaint Wednesdays at the Townhouse; DJ Whores (Daniel Osterhoff) came on to assist and teach her techniques, and when Lopez launched Sister Crayon she handed the night over to him (he renamed it HUMP).[2]
- All-ages host. In January 2012 Lopez began hosting all-ages live music nights at Broadacre Coffee (1014 10th Street), starting Jan. 27, 2012, telling Submerge "this city needs more all-ages venues" and pledging covers of no more than $5; the first bill featured Exquisite Corps, Garrett Pierce and a DJ set by Lopez and Dani Fernandez.[3]
- Guest vocalist. Lopez appears on the Sacramento electronic duo Tel Cairo's debut Voice of Reason (2013), singing on "Twelve Paths Toward Movement" alongside local hip-hop artist TAIS; the article notes she and Tel Cairo's Cameron Others are "damn near best friends."[7]
- Touring partners. Sister Crayon shared the 2009 "Broke Bitches" tour with fellow Sacramentans Agent Ribbons.[4] The band also toured nationally as opening acts for Built to Spill, Maps & Atlases, and Album Leaf.[10][12]