Sierra Spirit’s music feels like an open road stretching through the heart of Oklahoma—wide, raw, and deeply connected to the land that raised her. Hailing from Tulsa, where her Otoe-Missouria and Keetoowah Cherokee roots run deep, Spirit weaves her lived experience into hauntingly beautiful folk-pop confessionals. Since the release of her debut EP coin toss in October, she’s been turning heads with her deeply personal songwriting, blending the storytelling traditions of her Native heritage with the modern melancholy of artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Ethel Cain.
Now, as she gears up to hit the road with David Gray—including a stop at Oakland’s Fox Theatre on February 10—Spirit is bringing her intimate, soul-baring sound to a bigger stage. Before she embarks on this next chapter, Music in SF caught up with her to talk about her roots, the making of coin toss, and what fans can expect from her upcoming tour.
Your music has been described as blending all sorts of genres including folk psychedelic rock and even R&B. How do you approach blending those sounds while still keeping your signature style?
I love inputting influences from a lot of my favorite artists and genres in the instrumentals and keeping the lyrics true to what I feel is right and not fighting too hard on that. By creating a harmony between these different genres and vibes and creating something that still feels honest to me is the easiest and most fulfilling way to keep my style.
What kind of energy can your fans expect at your upcoming show at the Fox Theater? Any surprises in store for Oakland?
It’s been such a welcoming and story-driven tour. I think people can expect to connect with the lineup, with me, with David, and enjoy a sweet moment together. Oakland’s going to be great – amazing energy and there’s an enjoyable cover in the middle of the set that I think you guys are going to love!
You’ve recently released an EP entitled “Coin Toss”. What was the most challenging or rewarding part of creating it?
The most challenging and rewarding part of my EP is writing about a lot of difficult topics for me. Thinking about love and loss and heartbreak and moving away from home. Finding a way to get closure for a lot of things I didn’t want to process was a special thing in creating this EP.
Your lyrics are often deeply personal and poetic. Is there a song on this tour’s setlist that you feel particularly connected to right now?
Right now I’m connecting with “I’ll be waiting (pug)” because it is about my late grandmother who was an incredible storyteller and I would not be a musician or a writer without her. Sharing the story of why I wrote the song and about her every night with the crowd and getting to play it and see people connect with it has been so special.
Fashion is a big part of your stage presence. Can you give us a sneak peek into what kind of visual aesthetic you’re bringing to the Fox Theater?
For Fox Theater I’m going suited out. I love an excuse to dress up and being on stage is incredible. I get to have a fun outfit every night and I feel like you guys are going to love it.
The music industry can be tough, especially for emerging artists. What motivates you to keep pushing boundaries and evolving as an artist?
What motivates me to keep pushing boundaries and evolving as an artist is why I am an artist. Being an Indigenous person in this field and just always pushing to find ways to make people see Indigenous people as human and as normal and as lively and vibrant as they are. It’s been tough kind of pushing to create a space for myself in one that doesn’t exist. I don’t see many native artists on TV in movies or on the radio and that’s just starting to change and it’s definitely the hardest part but the thing that keeps me going.
If you could collaborate with any Bay Area artist—past or present—who would it be and why?
If I could collaborate with any artist from the Bay Area that’s so easy it would be Green Day, hands down. One of my absolute, top-tier, most looked-up to bands. Incredible stage presence, incredible energy and they’ve just stood the test of time. That’s my answer.
What do you hope your audience feels or takes away after experiencing one of your live performances?
I hope the thing the audience takes away from this set is that we are all just as human. We all share these experiences, we all experience love, we’ve experienced loss, we’ve experienced heartbreak and I think it’s gonna be a healing and communal experience. I hope that people can take away a sense of peace and feel like they’ve connected on some level.
David Gray // Sierra Spirit // Fox Theater – 2/10 – Doors: 7:00 pm | Show: 8:00 pm
