Fresh off the release of their 3rd studio album, The Aces talk about making queer music
MELISSA WHITLER | Contributing Writer
editor@dallasvoice.com
Ahead of their show in Dallas on Sept. 30, three members of the band The Aces, Mckenna Petty, Cristal Ramirez and Katie Henderson, spoke with Dallas Voice about their latest album, how the band has grown, writing queer music.
Dallas Voice: So, you guys released your third studio album, I’ve Loved You for So Long, in June and have been on tour since August. How has all that been? The Aces: The response has been really great! It’s so amazing to get to perform this music in front of everyone. When you’re writing, your experiences can feel really niche, like they’re only relatable to you. We were wondering, are people going to get it over in the UK? But we got such a response, it was really reassuring.
We’ve also been doing meet-and-greets on the tour, which has allowed us to hear way more from our fans. People have been sharing intimate personal stories, like about figuring out who they are, and it’s beautiful to experience. Our fans have just been even more personal and responsive during this tour.
I know that this album came out of your time in quarantine, were you all together or virtually in contact during the pandemic? A little bit of both. At end of 2020 and into 2021 we were mostly remote, not seeing each other in person. By the end of 2021 we were able to meet and started going into the studio a lot. Of course, we were doing daily testing to make sure everyone was safe.
How do you feel like your music has changed over the last seven years? A lot of the topics we deal with in this new album can really only be spoken about with age and maturity. When we started, our music was more gender neutral as we weren’t in a secure enough place to go all the way with queer music. Growing up Mormon meant we needed to spend a lot of time reflecting on where we came from and who we wanted to be going forward. Through music, through traveling we were able expand our worldview and make choices on who we want to be.
But the queer community was actively part of fandom since the beginning. Trans and nonbinary kids told us how much they loved our music because it was gender neutral.
How does it feel to have grown up together as a band? It’s really been a journey. We’re first-generation entertainers, so we’ve had to figure out everything ourselves. Thankfully all our parents were protective, and we didn’t sign anything too young. This has allowed us to build our career on our own terms.
Once we were old enough, we wanted to be thoughtful about it, as we didn’t want to hand over the band to someone that didn’t care about us, about the music. Of course, entertainment is a hard and uncertain job, but we’re so proud of what we’ve built. We’ve been able to cultivate a passionate cult following of the band. For us, there was no other option to playing music, this band is a thing that just was always going to be.
What was it like to make a choice to do something so different at such a young age? It definitely took some courage. In the Mormon church, it’s not encouraged for women to have a career. Even just being aspiring musicians went against the culture we grew up with. Thankfully, we had really supportive families. They were excited about us developing our talents even if they didn’t really understand what we were doing. They were excited to see that their kids had a passion and were pursuing our dreams.
Of course, our collective coming out was hard for our parents. They had to go through their own journey, but now are supportive of that as well. We’re so thankful for how encouraging parents have been throughout this whole thing. In some ways there never was really a choice; we just exist as this entity together, and are so lucky to have found our purpose on the planet.
What is it like to now be writing explicitly queer music? It’s something that happened pretty naturally as we continued to write music. We’ve always written for people who feel different as kids, and to be honest and candid, queerness has to be included. We just started to lean more into it. But were also intentional about how we did it, since Katie wasn’t out yet, and we want to be reflective of everyone in the band. But it also didn’t feel like it was an option to stay in the closet.
To be an artist means to be vulnerable and honest, to write about your life. Visibility felt really important, and that’s why it’s worth it to be publicly out.
The band has been a major part of discovering our identities; it’s what has allowed us to travel the world and see. The band created a safe space for us to be openly gay, and we want that for our fans as well.
How does it feel when you go back home or do shows in Utah? We all have a bittersweet relationship with our hometown. We appreciate the good things about it but also recognize how hard it was to grow up there. It was repressive, and we were expected to live life in a specific way. Thankfully, we were able to take a different path. Depending on where we are in Utah, we sometimes get recognized, and it’s encouraging to know other people who were like us.
How does it feel traveling and playing shows in the South, where anti-LGBTQ sentiment is so strong? It is hard. You often feel like you’re sticking out and know that the state generally doesn’t accept you. But playing the show is always so amazing, means so much to the fans. We’re often told that our band is the reason someone was able to figure out they were queer.
These shows can feel harder and scarier, but are so meaningful, and some of the most important shows we play. If we feel this way just traveling through, how do the people that live there feel? That’s what keeps us going.
To learn more about The Aces’ music and tour go to TheAcesOfficial.com.
