The Aces are listening to a motivational speech in a hidden corner of the BBC's Maida Vale studios.
The engineer in the recording studio informs the band, "When the red light goes on, we're recording.". Each song will be performed twice. When it's good, you'll know it in your heart. ".
Singer Cristal Ramirez beams, saying, "We try to be good the first time.
The American quartet is currently recording their first session for BBC Radio 1, which has chosen their song Always Get This Way as the week's song of the station.
A drum sample isn't firing, and an autotune effect is acting strangely, so there are a few false starts. The band's guitarist Katie Henderson snatches their sound engineer's laptop, navigates through twenty menus, and adjusts the backing track.
When it goes wrong, autotune can be extremely frightening, she observes.
However, they are impossible to stop once they start their three-song set. Even when Cristal sings the song Always Get This Way's final chorus and "chokes on my own spit.".
They just released their third album, I've Loved You For So Long, and the reviews are starting to roll in, so spirits are understandably high.
According to their PR, "Seven out of 10 from The Line Of Best Fit.". "Clash received eight out of ten. ".
A brief, animated discussion ensues about how publications determine their scores and whether a score of seven is excellent or merely average.
Cristal concludes, "In the end, I don't really care about reviews.". But I'd like a 10. ".
The release could not be more dissimilar from their previous album, Under My Influence, which came out a few weeks into the first lockdown in 2020.
The band was still certain that when summer arrived, they would get to perform those songs live.
Bassist McKenna Petty chuckles, "We really were in denial for a while. "We believed it would soon be over. ".
Instead, they had their plans snatched from them. There was no word on the album. Greater concerns about their future emerged as the pressure to capitalize on the excitement surrounding their debut vanished.
Alisa Ramirez, the band's drummer and Cristal's younger sister, explains, "We were kind of mourning our career, not sure how that was going to go. "We entered a very dark space. ".
Cristal began to experience panic attacks and would ring her sister's doorbell at three in the morning every night. Alisa would try to console her by preparing oatmeal for her and talking her to sleep.
But the causes of her anxiety went beyond the pandemic.
The homes of the Mormon church are about 45 minutes away from Provo, where the four Aces were raised. Provo is a highly religious town in the US state of Utah.
In case you're not familiar with it, Mormonism is really just intense Christianity, according to Cristal. However, in Utah, it is a way of life. Your environment is what it is. In high school, we had no acquaintances who weren't Mormons. ".
The sisters, who have been "tomgirls since we were little kids," have "constantly been reminded we don't fit in," according to Alisa.
McKenna concurs, calling the culture "super patriarchal and homophobic.". There is a blueprint that women in particular are expected to follow, which includes getting married young, starting a family, and giving up their careers.
"Just to put things in perspective, Utah has the highest suicide rate in the nation for young LGBTQ people. So it's a really big problem, especially with queer youth. ".
In kindergarten, Crystal had her first crush, but she repressed it because she felt it was wrong. Before coming out to her sister at the age of 18, she tried to date boys in high school and prayed to be straight.
Oh, same, Alisa responded without even flinching. ".
They renounced their Mormon faith and left Utah for Los Angeles as soon as they could. Although their bandmates encouraged them, they remained a part of the church.
therefore, in 2016. As a "grand declaration" that God is tolerant of all sexualities, the song Loving Is Bible that the sisters presented to the band caused some internal conflict.
Because it upset Kenna and Katie so much, Alisa explains, "That song almost didn't come out.".
Because your salvation is at stake, McKenna says, "the church trains you to be terrified.". "I was very concerned about what other people might think. ".
Things have changed after five years. Along with coming out as gay, Katie also left the church. Despite getting married in an LDS temple in 2019, McKenna, the band's lone straight member, left Mormonism.
I really didn't enjoy myself there [at the temple]. That served as an indirect motivator for my departure.
"However, the girls coming out to me was my biggest problem. What the church is teaching doesn't feel real, and this does, I thought. There is a problem with the church. '".
The Aces haven't all been on the same page when recording an album until I've Loved You For So Long. But it wasn't until the isolation of the pandemic forced them to face their past that it became possible.
As sisters, it became apparent that we had spent the previous six years trying to avoid being associated with our upbringing and running away from our hometown, according to Alisa.
"We felt guilty and embarrassed about it. It had a significant psychological impact on us and continues to do so. ".
Cristal was hesitant to express those emotions in her lyrics at first.
"I told you I didn't want to talk about that. I would like to visit the studio. not. Discuss it because it occupies my entire existence and is miserable. ".
The breakthrough occurred while they were working on a sexually explicit pop song about lust at first sight, of all things. Alisa texted her sister with the idea to rename the song, which was originally called Don't Speak, to "don't freak," and to make it about her panic attacks.
The 27-year-old explains, "I was like, Wait, that's actually really cool. Furthermore, it sparked important discussions about identity, anxiety, and mental health. ".
The confessional tone of Don't Freak, which was released as a stand-alone single in 2021, is present throughout The Aces' newest album.
". Because good girls love Jesus—not that Phoenix girl—I'm told not to touch anything I care about. On the gritty Suburban Blues, Cristal sings, recalling her youth with justifiable rage.
As Cristal's mental state deteriorated, she wrote I Always Get This Way, which dealt with her guilt at "falling apart" and how it affected her relationships.
But the gorgeously catchy jangle-pop of Younger, where the singer tells her 14-year-old self: ", brings the album to a close. There is nothing I would change. ".
"At the age of 14, I was in a lot of pain about who I was and how my life would turn out, but all I needed was someone to tell me you're okay and you'll figure it out," she says.
The group, which is bound together by their shared experiences, attacks its brand-new material with a new musical ferocity.
The abrasive guitars on Girls Make Me Wanna Die are a direct nod to their early days, when they were just kids playing Paramore covers in a neighbor's garage. Other songs reference artists like The Cure and Depeche Mode, who they used to hear in their homes growing up.
The band's musical backbone is Katie, who is the quietest person in the room. She provides funky, staccato guitar riffs on the upbeat title track and shimmering shoegaze lines on the introspective Person.
The moment we added Katie, McKenna claims, "that's really what elevated our band.". "When things improved, that was. ".
Cristal concurred, "Watching her chase sounds and tones is just so cool.". We always just say, "Yeah, let's throw solo in there," because she is such an incredible musician. She will improve the song. '".
Katie questions aloud, "What is even happening?," unsure of how to respond to the compliment.
The Aces are special due to their comradery and shared love.
Cristal could definitely dominate if she wanted to, but The Aces are a gang and most bands push their lead singer to the front.
After forcing their Uber driver to play the new album at full volume on the way over, they move as a group in Maida Vale, exchanging silly jokes and dancing to their own songs. ("We'd better get a five-star passenger rating," jokes Cristal).
It's unsettling to consider where I'd be without this band, Alisa says.
"Our shared sense of not belonging and desire to create a space where we could hang out and feel like we belonged are what brought us together. ".
According to her sister, it has been an amazing support system for us throughout our entire lives.
"When people ask us how we managed to stay together, I think it's the craziest thing ever because it never even occurred to us to do so.
"We are The Aces," it simply said. We were made for this.
. '"
