The disco ball is shimmering, the lights are down low, the floor is lit up, and Gold Star Baby is officially open for business. The Aces are officially back with their fourth album, Gold Star Baby—their first independent release—is a disco-infused celebration of identity.
Quartet Cristal Ramirez (vocals), Alisa Ramirez (drums), Katie Henderson (guitar),and McKenna Petty (bass) have poured their whole selves into the fourth chapter of The Aces, and their personalities shine. Featuring a heaping dose of humor, grooves for days, and unadulterated confidence, this is The Aces at their best. Frankly, the joy that permeates the tracks proves they needed this album just as much as we do.
Whether you need an electronic-tinged queer love song, a danceable breakup track, or a bop to help you dance the bullshit of the day away, this is the album for you.
idobi Radio had the chance to sit down with the dancing disco divas to chat about rediscovering confidence, tour fits, and what Gold Star Baby means to them and their fans. Grab a copy of the record here and catch them on tour this fall. P.S. Don’t forget your disco boots and leather!
Your previous three records had sonically explored indie, rock, alternative—those sounds primarily. Gold Star Baby is full-fledged disco. At its height in the ’70s, it served as this source of joy for marginalized groups. What ushered in your disco era?
Alisa Ramirez: Disco’s always been one of our earliest influences, especially me and Cristal really grew up on disco. Our parents were big disco heads, [they] were always playing us the classics all the time. And so, I feel like it’s always kind of been there in our sound, especially like with early stuff like “Stuck” and “Strong Enough,” like that first record’s really disco-coded and even onto Under My Influence with “New Emotion” and songs like that, but I think for this one, we really wanted to dive into that side of us, especially coming off of the last record, I’ve Loved You For So Long, being like way more our like kind of alternative, indie, new wave side. We kind of wanted to respond to that with the other side of us, which is full-on disco, because it’s always been a bit of a mix.
Me and Cristal being half Latina and us being queer, you know, disco was very much looked at as like a queer genre of music back then. And [that’s] why it kind of started getting shut down in the eighties and nineties. People were like, “Oh, this is music for gay people and brown people,” and it’s like… we are gay brown people, so we wanted to bring that back. It’s the most celebratory, fun, cool genre.
When you released “Jealous,” it was the first track you wrote and produced independently. You shared more on Instagram about how it was both exciting and scary to venture into this new chapter of the band. What steps did you take to evolve into your “sexiest, most confident, most fun” selves?
Cristal Ramirez: I think we built so much confidence because there was a lot of uncertainty when we started making the record [when] our entire kind of internal team of people shifted. We moved off of our label, we were independent for the first time in our professional career, we switched management. Like there was so much change going on, and we really didn’t know what the fuck was gonna happen. We were taking this really big leap of faith in so many ways. And I feel like that really translated to the music, as well, because Katie produced half this record, if not more than half this record. And it was just us in this small apartment studio room showing up and just writing and making music.
We didn’t have a label that was putting us in sessions, and we didn’t have a label that was funding anything. So we really had to rely on ourselves, and in the relationships we’d built over the last seven years with other songwriters and other producers we wanted to work with, and then really rely on ourselves and trust that we were capable and talented and experienced enough to make a body of work by ourselves. And so I feel like just through doing that, instilled this confidence and this “we don’t give a fuck” attitude that started breathing life into the record.
And it became about how [to] have fun, how do we just shake off the stress of the uncertainty of what’s going on right now in our lives and just make stuff together? I think that that really helped the music have this voice that I don’t know if it’s had before—where I think you can really hear our personalities. I think the lyrics on this record are like the most in our lingo, kind of how we would actually really talk to each other, especially on songs like “Jealous.” There’s like a reference to “Haterade.” There’s just like stupid, funny, lighthearted stuff that I feel like is very reflective of us as people, as a friend group, as musicians. So yeah, I think the confidence was built just through making the record together.
“Twin Flame” has a Latin influence; it’s incredible, super dance-y! Are there any other unique rhythms you wanted to experiment with on this record that you got to play around with?
Katie Henderson: I feel like Alisa really had such a vision sonically for what the album should sound like. I might’ve been the hands on the keyboard [producing], but this was like a group record together, which makes it so special. Most of it was just the four of us in the room, like really talking about what we wanted it to sound like and diving into different elements of different kinds of music to go through. I think especially percussion, like Latin percussion and congas.
It was cool to really dive into Latin influences that way. And then with “Twin Flame” specifically, it was really fun to rework those guitar lines because we did that song with Keith Varon, and then we brought it back between the four of us, and like got to just experiment with a lot of different things. And it was fun to make those guitars a little more Latin.
Alisa: We were really intentional about like making disco our way and like as a modern band, but it’s also, you know, I feel like disco has evolved into almost being a DJ genre a little bit. I feel like most of the artists that have really explored disco modernly are like big DJs like SG Lewis, Calvin Harris. And like that was like a huge part of like disco history too is DJs kind of birthed from the disco era.
To do it as a band, felt like it was like paying homage to like very traditional disco like Commodores and Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool & The Gang, Michael Jackson, like artists that like had bands playing disco, because a band playing disco feels different than someone programming a huge four-on-the-floor disco rhythm. We could never lose that indie rock feeling that we naturally have just because we’re a four-piece band, and also Katie and [McKenna] are just so rock and roll in their hearts.
“The Girls Interlude” made me laugh! Is this the ideal outfit for fans to wear to tour dates: glitter, cheetah print, boots?
Alisa: We really wanted that to feel like the world of what the fans would be talking about and doing coming to the show. And we actually did specifically want to slip in those keywords so that people kind of knew what the dress code is for Gold Star Baby, which is literally that. It’s animal print, leather, glitter, boots—just fun, sexy vibes.
Cristal: Whatever you feel really confident in and really sexy in is the dress code. Alisa actually wrote [the interludes] last minute and Alisa directs all of our music videos. So she’s like obsessed with film and is into script writing. And so she had this idea of having this old school, disco jockey intro and this phone call between girls who would be going to the show.
So, I just came over to her apartment and we researched old disco jockeys and pulled references. Actually, [Alisa] did that girl’s interlude call, and it’s so funny because it’s not the way she specifically talks, and so she was doing this whole acting like, “Oh my god, let’s put glitter on…” It was so ridiculous and so fun, and I do think it reflects kind of just the overall energy as queer women.
We really like to play with identity and androgyny. I think our last record [I’ve Loved You For So Long], when it came to fashion and sensibility around that, was a bit more masculine, a bit darker, a bit more brooding. And I think the fashion of this record is a lot more androgynous. It’s more feminine at times, especially for me, Katie, and Alisa, who are a little bit more masculine-leaning. It’s been really fun to go back to playing with that androgyny and letting our identities be whatever they feel like they want to be in the moment. I think those interludes are a really amazing way to give everyone permission to be whatever, do whatever, and experiment.
What does “Gold Star Baby” mean to you, whether that’s the album itself, the title, the single, the music video—what does that phrase evoke?
McKenna Petty: There’s just a lightheartedness to the energy, which I feel like is also what The Aces is for me. The friendship in this band, no matter what’s going on, no matter what shit is going awry, we can get together and it’s just like fun and light. And we have such a banter and humor, and it’s always been that way. Our friendship has been that way since we were 10 years old. And so I feel like that’s what’s so special about Gold Star Baby is we finally captured that like a desire to have fun and to dance and to feel sexy and to feel confident, and I feel like that’s what The Aces represents to me, too.
Cristal: Gold Star Baby is like a total celebration of identity. And I think on I’ve Loved You For So Long, there was a lot of like processing and working through stuff and kind of talking about where we come from and what it was like to come from a small religious town and be gay and also just maybe not agree with the religious territory we grew up in or whatever. And Gold Star Baby, to me, is the breaking out of that, the accepting your identity fully and being excited about your identity. I turn it on and I feel like I get to be the best version of myself. Like that’s the person I always wanted to be when I was a kid, daydreaming. It just feels like a celebration to me.
Alisa: I feel like Gold Star Baby feels like you’re almost channeling an alter ego, like the most confident version of yourself. A version of you that just doesn’t care, in your own energy, takes up space, and prioritizes having fun. Maybe there’s a bit of hedonism to it. I think ideally, I would want people to like pre-game to this record for a good night out, blasting [it in] the car on the way to the party.
And when they come to the show, just be ready to dance, meet people, get out of your comfort zone, get out of your shell, have fun. I like that there’s this confidence that almost verges on cockiness at times. This album feels like it’s kind of our “Sasha Fierce” type thing that we’re stepping into, which feels really exciting to me. It’s probably my favorite record, I think, we ever made.
Katie: When you buy a painting, it also represents what the artist was going through while they made the piece of art. I feel like Gold Star Baby, the making of it, we all went through so much individually and together as a band. And I love that it’s one of our most fun records yet, while going through some of the hardest things we’ve been through as a band. And I hope that that can be what this album feels like to other people. They could be going through something super hard, but they dance through the pain kind of vibes. Even the sad songs on this record, or the heartbreak ones, are groovy and dancey. And I hope it feels that way to our fans. No matter what’s happening, they can feel at home with The Aces and let the troubles go when they’re listening.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
