The Aces: A Beacon of Girl Power, Self-Love, and Sisterhood

Life on the road is what true rockstars blissfully reflect on in their memoirs. Amid their early morning tour routine, The Aces radiated moments of lively energy and laughter through a phone conversation from their current headquarters in San Diego. Following the release of their 2018 album, When My Heart Felt Volcanic, the band has cultivated momentum amongst the dance-pop scene. The four-piece band hailing from Provo, Utah is composed of Kenna Patty on bass, Katie Henderson on guitar, sisters Alisa Ramirez (drums) and Cristal Ramirez on lead vocals and guitar. Despite none of the band meeting me prior to the interview, they envelop the conversation with an easy familiarity as if you have just resumed a dialogue at an early-2000s sleepover with your fellow girl-gang.

The band’s formative years were etched in jam sessions where they rattled off lyrics while they strummed away on their guitars. There are YouTube videos of their grass-roots cover performances at school assemblies, where their guitars were a size too big for their 5’1 heights. Flash forward into the contemporary light, the band has worked alongside famous producer Dan Gibson to create an album (dosed) in muscality. They penned the potently dreamy track “Fake Nice” with a particularly minimal yet spaced-out ambiance. “We worked on this track with the only female producer on the record [Wendy Wang],” said Cristal, “She left it open for us to sprinkle whatever we wanted to. Often when you work on an album, some things can come out rushed, yet we got to really go in and take our time crafting this quintessential Aces song with a bit of that 80s pop and new wave,” Cristal said. The essence of When My Heart Felt Volcanic is a joyride exploration to reflective sentiments of love lost to those shower time solo ballads. The hodgepodge of the album is not genre-specific rather it explores realms of glistening glitter-pop to bathing in rock sounds.

The band’s dazzling hit that totalled in over seven million Spotify streams, “Stuck” is punctuated by Alisa’s drums, which are also readily fixated on throughout the entire album. At the forefront of the pop soundscape, “Waiting for You” allows Cristal to get away with a little name drop, “I thought I made it clear as crystal,” she sings off the first line of the song. Kenna’s bass acts as the bloodline of this song and the rest of the tracklisting, meanwhile Cristal and Katie’s guitars breathe life into the melody.

The angst-dwelling Paramore albums of Brand New Eyes and Riot carved nostalgic significance that wielded an instinctual desire to form their own band. “I remember gathering at my mom’s house and gathering in front of a PC to just re-watch all of Paramore’s early music videos like “Misery Business” and wanting to do what Hayley Williams was doing,” Cristal fondly recalled. Katie and Cristal’s guitar licks complement that definitive 80s glitz and glamour instrumentation.

The Aces have taken When My Heart Felt Volcanic on the road after 5 Seconds of Summer invited them to open up for their 2018 tour. The Aces explained that they are astounded by the earnest connection they have developed with the 5SOS audiences with appreciative words, “This has been the best tour of our career so far,” Cristal excitedly shared, “We’re surrounded by guys and girls around our age, so it all turns into one huge party.”

66A compilation of 2018 for The Aces would be coupled with photos of their goofy tour moments alongside 5SOS, giving each bandmate the moniker “mogul”, and performing “Last One” on the MTV “TRL” stage. Little, red “SOLD OUT” signs appear next to various tour dates on the The Waiting For You tour announcement, officially marking the exciting entrance into 2019 for The Aces, Starting in Seattle in early February and finalizing in their home state of Utah at a nearly 2,500 capacity venue, the band will embark on happily rocking out with the community of devoted fans that they have formed throughout the years.

Even within the winding world of a phone call, one realizes that they always have a sisterhood intact within them. They laugh at inside jokes and finish what each other was going to say, as if they have a symbiotic mind-reading superpower. That indestructible bond allows each of the band members to share their thoughts about empowerment, animatedly talk about their fans and excitedly look forward to the future and the plethora of shows they have yet to play.

“The sisterhood that we have maintained has truly captured our essence as a band,we create a safe space for each other,” shared Cristal.

“Even when we talk to other bands, we have noticed that people need to feel validatedand taken care of. We have been able to maintain the band because we careabout us and we care about each other,” she continued.

The album channels the painfully honest stages of enduring life, whether that be through the drawbacks of unrequited love or uncovering the intensely personal thoughts about oneself. The Aces curate music whose lyrics lament in the background yet in the foreground color ones world like a West Coast purple-hued sunset. “Even if we tried to write self-deprecating lyrics, we won’t. We always gas each other up, we always make sure to instill confidence in one another because our music is an extension of ourselves,” said Cristal.

The girls shared that the ability to interpret their emotions by making music will always act as a therapeutic outlet, not only for them but also for those that listen to their music. “Oh absolutely, our music is completely and totally our outlet,” shared Cristal. Katie Henderson added, “That’s what music is, it’s the power to heal. The more we do it, the more we have the power to do that.”

“We never get tired of playing the same songs because I personally relate to themso much and it’s so cool when you have that moment to translate that energy tosomeone you see in the audience belting out the songs,” shared Kenna.

Inclusivity is a subject matter that many musicians have tackled on to directlyspeak to the current situation of the world. The Aces created a Spanish version oftheir ballad, “Last One” for their Latinx fans to identify with.

“We were raised speaking Spanish and our own father (Alisa’s and Cristal’s) wasable to translate our song. It’s important for us and our culture and of course wewanted to have something special for our Latinx fans in particular,” said Cristal.

“Even though Mckenna and Katie aren’t connected to the Latinx identity on the basis of ethnicity, they still took Spanish classes in high school and most of all of our friends growing up in Utah, were Latinx, so they have always found that connection,” Alisa chimed in.

The Aces recalled vivid memories of seeing the audiences close their eyes and relate to their music, an energy transfer of sorts that embodies one of the principles why The Aces made their band—to empower others through the means of sound. The band even detailed an occurrence of meeting a fan after a show that shared that she got inspired to pick up the bass and start her own band after watching The Aces. Their awestruck reactions and moments of disbelief that fill the conversation are spurred upon by the disbelief that they truly are living in this moment, inspiring other girls shine through and show the investment and appreciative sentiments they have with their listeners and the harmonious bond they share.

Within the confines of the music industry, women musicians are often reduced to their fashion opinions on beauty and fashion, rather than being full-fledged instrumentalists. Early feature pieces on Paramore’s Hayley Williams often went into lengthy descriptions about her dyed hair rather than quickly arriving to the point about her artistic integrity. Cristal shared how she felt about being a part of a band with powerful women alongside her and what they can do to try to shatter the boundaries that the music industry has carved out for women.

“I think it’s going to be a process, we’re [female musicians] trying to break down those petty social norms. On our part, we can demand those spaces and stages. At the end of the day, what we can do is get up and show that we are authentic and honest musicians every night,” Cristal admitted.

Cristal shared one of the bands mantras when it comes to confidence and empowerment,“We are living in a time where things are changing and a shift is happeningbut we have to continue to work our asses off, and then we will see that payoff.”

The surefire star quality within each of the band members of The Aces is theirauthenticity and declarations of appreciation for their fans. They wear their heartson their sleeves and their sincerity and sisterhood within their lyrics.

The sisterhood that we have maintained has truly captured our essence as a band, we create a safe space for each other."