By Selena Haynes • Photo Credit Jason Lee
Headlining your own national tour doesn’t leave a lot of free time. The Aces know this well. The band, comprised of guitarist Katie Henderson, bassist McKenna Petty, and sisters Alisa Ramirez (drums) and Cristal Ramirez (lead vocals and guitars), are in the midst of their second headlining tour. Cristal was kind enough to take some time out of her busy schedule to speak with Connect about the band, being on the road, and how they hope to inspire and uplift the LGBTQ+ community.
How old were you when you started playing music?
We started playing music together when we were like ten years old — so very young. We were just babies! We got into it because we’re all best friends who went to the same schools together and started playing music when we were really young.
What is the creative process for writing your songs?
The creative process for writing our songs has typically been that Alisa and I will go into a studio with a producer and we will write a song together. If we all really like it, the girls will come in later and we’ll finish it with the band. For the music we’ve been creating lately, it’s been a lot more carefree and very childlike in the approach. We’ve all just been sitting down in the studio in a room together and like jamming and writing. It’s been a lot more fluid this time around and we’ll see how that evolves.
Being on the road for your tour with back-to-back shows, how do you re-energize?
Oh my God, so that’s a great question because, to be honest, I don’t really know yet. [laughing] I am trying to figure out how we re-energize. I think mainly what we do is make sure that we schedule enough “off” days. At least every two or three shows we make sure that we have a day off and then we just kind of lay low. We nap. We get dinner together and just kind of do very low-energy activities. Like we will see a movie or we do yoga. I’m trying to stay off my phone more and more on my days off just so my brain has a break. So yeah… I’ll let you know when we nail that cuz I don’t know if we have yet — but we are trying!
What do you plan to do during your break between the North American and European legs of your tour?
We finish touring right before Christmas so we’re going to go home. We’re going to eat a bunch of Christmassy snacks and food, then we’re going to sleep and then we’re going to do it all over again.
Our upcoming issue is all about equality. How do you feel The Aces is making an impact on equality in the music industry?
I think that we’re doing our best to just be, you know, ourselves and to keep showing up. We are four women and three of four of us are queer [McKenna is a strong ally] and we are on stages and opening for all different types of bands. Our band existing and being on stages, getting up on stages every night and being out and proud and on stage talking about queerness and talking about the fact that we are all women is hopefully making an impact on equality in the music industry. I just think we are trying our best to bring up other all-female bands and put them on our stages together –– changing the narrative from trying to compete against one another to we are friends and building a massive strong community that all uplifts each other.
You all have tremendous influence on LGBTQ+ youth. What is it you hope they see/learn from you as individuals and/or a band?
I just hope they feel seen and heard and safe and loved when they are around us. You know we come from a small suburb in Utah, a very religious suburb, and it was difficult to be taken seriously and to be respected in that town as, not just queer women but before we were out, as women who wanted to tour and travel and play music as a full-time career. There was definitely some type of mixed opinions on that and I think that hopefully by doing what we do we can show other young women or queer individuals that they can do what we did. They can break out of any preconceived ideas or projections put onto them by the society they are in if their society isn’t accepting. So I hope that they just feel like they can do whatever the fuck they want!
What advice would you give LGBTQ+ artists trying to break into the music industry?
Find your people. Speak from your heart and find the people that really fuck with you because they’re out there. It’s not going to be everybody but it’s going to be a lot of people. It’s going to be more people than you think. And the more authentic you can be to yourself and just speaking from your heart and soul, those people will show up — I promise. Just make your best music. Just be as outspoken and proud and yourself as possible.
What are your aspirations for The Aces?
World mother-fucking domination! We want to do everything. We want to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. We want to be playing arenas. We want to do it all. Obviously, ultimately we want to remain happy and make the music we really love. We want to keep connecting with our people but we would love to do it on the biggest scale we can possibly do. So yeah.
The Aces are about halfway through their 24 city “Under My Influence” North American Tour. To see the tour dates and to purchase tickets visit https://theacesofficial.com/.
