When you spin The Aces’ sophomore effort, you’ll notice an immediate stylistic upheaval. The indie-pop four-piece are still unapologetically them, sinking their songwriting teeth further into sweeping heart-wrapped honesty, but their musical chops are equally strengthened. With Under My Influence, vocalist/guitarist Cristal Ramirez, guitarist Katie Henderson, drummer Alisa Ramirez, and bassist McKenna Petty bound away from their first album’s slicker constructs for funkier grooves, catchier melodies, and overall productions that explode into the ears.
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“From the time we were kids and started this band, we’ve always wanted to push ourselves to grow,” Cristal tells American Songwriter over a phone call earlier this month.
The band, initially called The Blue Aces, now splitting space and time between Utah and Los Angeles, began when Cristal and Alisa were still in elementary school. As they grew into their teenage years, Petty and Henderson soon came aboard, and their sense of self, identity, and musical technique morphed along with them. Having grown up with religious backgrounds, the band had to untether from the past before they could really fly.
As queer women, alongside Henderson, who also identifies under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, Alisa and Cristal needed to explore and discover what life had in store. They’ve each fallen in and out of love with any number of suitors, picked up their shattered hearts, and now pour it all onto their new album. Under My Influence sees the band using pronouns for the very first time, a decision which could very well have outward ripples inside and out of their adoring fanbase.
“Having not used pronouns, I don’t know if we could have gone as deep and personal on this record as we did. That is really just the truth,” Cristal remarks. “It was this obvious thing that had to go hand in hand. To get more personal, you have to get more specific and actually bare your soul. Those were the stories of our life. We were dating women, and I was having a lot of different relationships start and end. It had to happen to make this album.”
The bluesy juggernaut “Kelly,” released at the start of Pride month this year, recalls a particularly nasty fallout. “Please stop playing with my heart / Before you tear it right apart,” Cristal cries. The hurt spills off her tongue, simply existing as all heartbreak songs do: smack dab in the anger and misery and never letting up.
Most importantly, it’s the authenticity of the lyrics that cuts to the heart. “I’ve already seen so many messages of ‘oh my god, thank you so much for this. This really feels like a special song to me’ and ‘I see myself so much in it.’ People newly out have reached out to us, too,” says Cristal. Such representation, especially for queer women, could not have arrived in a better time in this country’s history. “It’s been really important for this fan base. At the same time, our fan base has always been so inclusive, and so many fans are part of the queer community.”
With 2018’s debut, When My Heart Felt Volcanic, the band had already proven their worth, confessional songwriting embroidered with glossy production. But Under My Influence levels up left, right, and center. A lofty 14 songs bares heart-sore themes of finding one’s self, addressing archaic religious beliefs, and loneliness wrought in the music industry.
In actively challenging their craft, excavating deeper for richer reflections, they cracked a code on delivering a record that completely side-steps the sophomore slump. Songs like “Cruel” and “My Phone is Trying to Kill Me” embody creative and personal liberation, and they are simply basking in the moment. Their approach, as they’ve found, has directly oozed into their everyday lives.
“When you put your whole heart into your art, and you push yourself to really be fearless, you have to stand by that everyday,” offers Cristal, whose vocal prowess hits new highs here. “I have to sing these lyrics, and when we tour, I’ll have to sing them every night and really immerse myself in those stories and commit to them. It becomes an attitude and overall feeling you can take into your everyday life.”
Henderson chimes in, “We always joke that the song passed the test when we all relate to it. We’re all so different. That’s exactly what this album is. By Alisa and Cristal being so authentic when they’re writing, that is why it’s so genuine and relatable. The more authentic you are, the more people relate to that.”
From Cristal’s more decisive vocal swerves and dips to Petty’s sweltering bass lines, feeling urgent and evocative in a fresh way, their musicality grinds and pivots between blues-rock, R&B moodiness, and ‘60s starlit pop. And they command each variant with ease.
It is the confidence they’ve unearthed that allows them to swing big and hit home run after home run. “I think we have a lot more confidence as artists after this record. It took us to a whole new place that we didn’t even really expect when we started writing. To end up with this music we’re so proud of and feels so personal and vulnerable, it feels like we, as a band, will always be ever-changing,” observes Cristal. “We never want to be doing the same thing. Once you start doing the same thing over and over, that’s when it starts to get boring.”
“Because of what this album is, I can’t wait to see what the next albums bring,” she adds. “I know we’re always going to be pushing ourselves to be uncomfortable and make something completely new.”
Under My Influence bursts at the seams, a lightshow emitting from their collective fingertips and onto their recordings. A silkiness in both melody and vocal, “801” is among the set’s most critical, a sultry mid-tempo in which they relive their upbringing and deconstruct ideas and notions so far removed from their own. Based on a poem Alisa once wrote, after going partying at the only gay club in their hometown of Salt Lake City, the track sticks Cristal’s presence with an R&B rhythm.
“Leave your church shoes and your Sunday clothes / But bring your guilt and we gonna let it go,” she sings with an obvious smirk. It’s not that they condemn their childhoods; they’ve simply learned and grown into who they really are.
“Now, we’re adults and finally breaking out of these molds and ideas, and we’re living our best life,” says Cristal.
Petty, whose bass shoots like lasers through the mix, notes the difference in their upbringings, each band member able to fuse their own frustrations and personal revelations into the story. “We are all so different in how we navigated growing up religious,” she says. “Our generation, whether religious/spiritual or not, is navigating and dealing with things so much differently than generations before us. A lot of people can relate to the sentiment of [this song].”
Cristal then takes a moment to offer this advice to all young queer people, currently living in small town U.S.A. and struggling to balance faith and identity. “You will find your place. It takes time. The biggest thing I’d go back and tell myself as that young girl is that all these things just take time. Keep looking forward and find your community and what brings you so much joy,” she extends. “It doesn’t have to be next door to you. It can be online or a few states over. But they’re there. Don’t lose hope. You’ll look back on your teenage years and that struggle and feel so far removed from it. As a 24-year-old, I look back on 17-year-old me and think, ‘That was a brief moment in time.’”
Under My Influence tallies up their whole journey, from unsure teens to strong, fierce women with a singular perspective. Elsewhere, songs like “I Can Break Your Heart Too” showcase sharp abilities to tell raw human stories inside compelling production. Written with a slightly beachside vibe in mind, the song’s languid nature stands in contrast to some of their most venomous lyrics.
“Set it up to break me down / You don’t want me / Then you want me now,” Cristal balances on a tightrope, an emotional push and pull before letting her ex have it. “But you can’t have your cake / And eat it too / My life isn’t always about you / I can break your heart too.”
“We wanted it to feel very relaxed, and a ‘I don’t give a fuck’ feel. I love how the verse goes into the pre-chorus and settles into that almost light, unexpected chorus,” she says. “It’s more laid back than you expect when you first listen to it. Lyrically, we wanted to pepper in this empowered feeling.”
The bridge, Petty’s favorite moment of the whole record, further punctuates emotional exasperation. “Wondering if there’s something I could have said / ‘Cause I just can’t shake this feeling / Staring at the ceiling / Play it like a movie back inside my head / Nah, nah, never mind…” Cristal trails off into the haze.
Later, “Thought of You” arrives with a near-waltz swing with a chorus melody feeling timeless, as if ripped right out of a ‘60s ballroom. “So I’ll hang on, hang on / Hang onto the thought of you,” Cristal’s voice is tangy-sweet. The heft here lies in the band’s combined electricity, somehow transportative and magical.
And it turns out, it’s Cristal’s favorite song. “That is such a special song because lyrically, I really dove into basically my journal and feelings of talking about somebody you’re dreaming of and want but not somebody who’s actually real yet,” she explains. “That was a unique, cool concept I hadn’t really heard anyone talk about before in that way. I’m proud we were able to make this beautiful love song about this person who is a figment of your imagination.”
Such melodic perfection, referencing Destiny’s Child and Doo-wop music, doesn’t come easy. Of course, some songs evolve easier than others, but it always comes down to instincts. “We’ll go in with a producer and write melodies over a track, or I’ll pick up a guitar or Alisa will play on a keyboard, and we’ll get something going,” says Cristal. “It’s pretty apparent for us when there’s a special melody. And we’re also pretty aware when we can do better. We’ll push each other to strengthen it and challenge it.”
Naturally, the collaboration is an exercise in trust. “We’ll riff off each other and sing back and forth until someone pulls out something that makes us go, ‘Wow! That gives me chills,’” Alisa comments. “You get a feel in your bones when you know a melody is so beautiful or catchy.”
“Thought of You” makes a distinct reference to a classic pop structure named “call and response,” in which either more than one voice exchanges lyrics or a single voice and instrumentation bandy the melody back and forth. “I remember when Cristal and I were writing it. We were working with a producer called Mike Green,” recalls Alisa. “I remember him being so confused that we were doing a call and response ‘50s thing. We were playing it on the piano. He goes, ‘Why?’ He was trying to make it more modern.”
But they went with their gut. And it all worked out in the end.
Under My Influence is a next-level career definer. In working with a slew of songwriters, including Justin Tranter, Christian Medice, and Jesse Shatkin, the quartet channel their deepest and most heartfelt experiences into the year’s finest pop music. As such, a song like “Lost Angeles” also rings as an important moment.
“Lost Angeles, I’ve had enough / Go ahead and take me home / Lost Angeles, you’re the loneliest city I’ve ever known,” they confide on the hook. Sun-baked instruments warm their skin, but their worried minds can’t be consoled.
Taking stock of their career to-date, Cristal compares the music industry to “pixie dust,” she says. “It’s smoke and mirrors. There’s so much to uncover. What it really comes down to, and the most important thing I’ve learned, is grounding in your sense of self and purpose and why you make music. Make sure those reasons are important reasons. I feel super lucky that we have each other and all come from the same background. We really ground each other. When one of us starts to get overwhelmed or sad or tired, we keep each other on the path. At the end of the day, make shit you like. That’s all that matters.”
Apart from an ever-suffocating industry, coming into young adulthood also offers its own set of barricades. “We’re all in our early 20s, and that’s right around the time most people spread their wings and leave the nest and maybe move to a big city and face independence for the first time,” reflects Alisa. “It’s really easy to get fucked up at this age and involved with a shady crowd or get into the wrong relationship. ‘Lost Angeles’ is baring all those feelings from that typical, young adult experience. It starts off exciting and fresh and fun, but then it goes somewhere sad and lonely.”
initially slated for a mid-June release, the record was postponed after an honest conversation about the state of the world ─ as they reflected upon the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s tragic murder. It’s been “tricky,” Cristal says, but it was a no-brainer to take the foot off the pedal for a moment, sit on the sidelines, and listen to and amplify Black voices.
“We do feel so strongly that there are horrible things happening, and have been happening, in our country that deserve the attention. That’s why we pushed the record. We didn’t feel right putting the spotlight on ourselves when we could be using our platform to not only educate ourselves but to spark those conversations in people who follow us,” explains Cristal. “It feels so human. A problem like racial injustice, it likes to pass as politics. It surpasses that shit. It comes down to… Are you a good person who cares about other people?”
This year, The Aces have done much more than simply post a black square in solidarity or offer performative gestures. They kicked off a Let’s Do Better Tour last month on their Instagram page, featuring important conversations with David Johns, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition; Jordan Siev, partner of Reed Smith Law Firm; Dr. Jess Clemmons, board-certified psychiatrist; and Jessica Jackson, Chief Advocacy Officer at the Reform Alliance.
When all is said and done, and their fans dive into the new record, a calming strength emerges. Under My Influence is no longer only their creation. It’s a statement piece on queerness, identity, and authenticity in an angry world. “We hope they know they can do anything they want to and feel empowered to go for their dreams, whatever that may be,” concludes Petty. “That’s something we always want to inspire.”
