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photo by Dana Trippe

The Aces are ready to party! Their previous record, I’ve Loved You For So Long, was a reflection of their journey coming out and coming to terms with their identity. Now, on their new album, Gold Star Baby, they’re celebrating all parts of their identities and the fun that comes with living life loud and proud. All four members took time to chat with us about all things Gold Star Baby, celebrating identity, and signature drinks.  

 OnesToWatch: Where does the name Gold Star Baby come from? 

Alisa: Gold Star Baby comes from a song off the record, the title track of the record, and the song is just a really fun, disco forward, sexy, queer anthem that felt like it really embodied what the record is about. This record is really influenced by disco and that title felt very disco to us. It felt like it really lent itself to world building and creating a universe around this record. When we came together and spoke about calling the record Gold Star Baby it just kind of stuck.  

Cristal: The way it’s said in the interlude is the perfect way to say it, that’s literally how it feels. I feel like the whole record is confident, sexy, it’s really in your face. I don’t think there’s much room for interpretation as far as what we’re talking about ever. I feel like the word gaudy comes to mind for me.

 Alisa: Like flashy.

Cristal: Yeah, flashy! That kind of made sense as a full round up of the record. 

Katie: The first time we talked about it too, I remember everything made sense just from the title but also the visual. I think writing that song too was really fun. Everything about it just felt like the right title for this body of work.

McKenna: It feels like Gold Star Baby is an energy. It can mean so many things it’s just the energy of the record.  

There’s also such a positive association with gold stars, I’m thinking back to elementary school and getting a gold star on your homework, it’s so positive. 

Katie: We definitely wanted to play with every way you can interpret a gold star, which is like that, where it’s a token of good work but also with the term used in the lesbian community. We were kind of playing with both of those.

Cristal: It’s facetious. The lyrics are very like “I’ll be your gold star but also you’ll be my gold star.” I feel like for me as a songwriter you get these songs once in a while where the word play is really fun and really good. When we were writing that song and coming up with all those lyrics for “Gold Star Baby,” the songwriter in me was like “Yes, we did it!”   

McKenna: I have that moment on camera, that moment where you realized what you guys did. 

Cristal: I’m like “It can mean so many things! And it’s sexual but it’s not!” It’s so fun to find those concepts and so I feel like that song became a defining song of the record for many reasons, whether that’s title, whether that’s conceptually, it was just so fun and strong, the melodies, the disco influence, everything. It just encapsulated the record in a really good way.  

Speaking of the disco influence, it’s so clear throughout the record, are there any specific artists that influenced that sound? 

Alisa: All the disco greats kind of have a notch in there. There are moments that feel Bee Gees-esque and then there are times that feel more akin to Michael Jackson or Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s kind of just a mix, I think it’s more disco elements than one artist. Disco bands were often pretty big bands with horns and sometimes even strings. We’re a four piece band but we wanted to bring in a lot of disco elements in the way that we played our instruments through the grooves and the percussion and the melodies. We played with the core elements of that genre rather than specific artists.   

Cristal: We also listened to Latin music. Alisa and I’s dad is Honduran so we grew up listening to a lot of island influence like meringue music. We were listening to iconic Honduran band playlists a lot and Alisa was referencing a lot of Latin indie. Now Alisa’s obsessed with Rauw Alejandro and I’m on Karol G, music that’s really rhythmic and celebrational and mixing those Latin elements in with disco influence. We grew up listening to the Commadores, Bee Gees, Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, the Pointer Sisters, stuff where the music is a celebration and so fun. The music played in our house as kids was to dance to and to move to. When we were making this record, and any record we make but this one specifically, if it wasn’t making you tap your foot we were like “Okay just write another song.” That was the cut. 

Katie: I remember Cristal one time, we had a demo, she looked at me and she was like “I need it go like this,” (While Katie said this she moved both hands in a bouncing side to side wave) and I was like “Okay it doesn’t go like that.” The hips need to start moving, I need to feel it, it’s not about hearing it, I’ve got to feel it. That’s what this whole record is about. You gotta feel it, you gotta embody Gold Star Baby.  

McKenna: Even the slower tempo songs you gotta be able to move your hips.   

Cristal: We didn’t want to do disco in a way that wasn’t authentic to us. We’re a four piece band. We didn’t want to imagine ourselves into a different band than we are. We have a lot of roots in indie rock and pop. We still wanted to make it fresh, we still wanted to make it a band. There’s a lot of guitars across the entire record, which is quintessential to who we are. We just needed to put that flair, that dance, that Latin-disco inspiration. 

Katie: A quote keeps coming to my head, I think it was Dave Grohl talking about his days drumming in Nirvana and he was like “Even if it doesn’t sound like it I was totally inspired by disco.” Disco is such a father in so many ways with percussion and guitar. My dad and I were watching this Earth, Wind & Fire documentary and I think disco was so innovative in guitar playing and how percussive it is. I think in our first records you can really hear that but then to really go more heavily into that style of music while maintaining The Aces core sound I think was really fun in this record. I feel like we had a really clear vision the whole time we were making it about what we wanted it to sound like and what we wanted it to feel like. 

You touched on the Latin music you grew up listening to and there’s a little bit of Spanish lyrics in “Twin Flame,” can fans look forward to more of that in the future? 

Cristal & Alisa: Absolutely.  

Alisa: We got it in there on “Twin Flame.” I wanted it on so many other songs but we’re still brushing up our Spanish but that’s a huge motivator for our music going forward.  

Cristal: And a really special part of that is we grew up in Utah and we were half Latina. Utah is predominantly very white. I think as kids, not to get too deep but, when you’re a mixed kid and you’re in a very white community, that part of your identity you just don’t get to explore very much. Getting to do that on this record was very healing. To go and listen to these Honduran playlists and music that our Dad grew up listening to. I feel a real pride about that music and that part of who we are. Getting to claim it and put it in these songs and celebrate our identity in that way has been really special and really healing. I’m so excited to continue to get to do that on tour. We have a lot of Latin fans, and young Latin queer fans, and it’s a special part of who we are that we have not explored fully yet and I’m really looking forward to getting to do that. I would like to put out a full song in Spanish and continue to make music in Spanish. 

You also touched on the interludes that are in the album, the opener “Gold Star Baby,” and “The Girls Interlude,” which the first time I listened to it I was like “Did they hack one of my phone calls? What’s going on here?” What’s it like writing spoken lyrics as opposed to traditional sung lyrics? 

Cristal: I really have to give that to Alisa. She has such a film director brain, she directs all our videos. She was the one that came to me and was like “I want to create this whole world, I want to do these interludes,” and I was like “Okay, let’s go!” I sat down with her and started researching classic disco jockeys and Alisa really wrote that whole script. I have hilarious Tiktoks of her doing the whole monologue and coming up with it off the top of her head. That was her brain child really. 

Alisa: Thanks for saying all that, that was sweet. I think the biggest difference between writing dialogue versus lyrics, they’re really different honestly. It’s like trying to write a conversation. Lyrics, you’re coming from one angle, versus with dialogue you have to anticipate what the other person would maybe say. That was fun. I felt like I just needed to close my eyes and really pretend to be a fan for a second. It was so fun to channel that and be so girly, too. I’m excited for what the fans are going to experience coming to this tour because the energy around it is just party, just get dressed up with your friends and go party.  

Katie: I feel like we’re always making music with our fans in mind. They are one with us. We always keep them in mind, we really want them to have so much fun on this tour. The way Alisa wrote that phone call, even the intro, the energy of it, it really pulls the record together. It gives it those finishing touches that it needed.  

McKenna: This record especially while we were making it we were really thinking about touring and playing it live. That’s why we wanted the songs to be so fun and have a certain energy. We want our fans to have that whole experience and know what to wear to our concerts and have it be a big party. That’s a huge part of what we think about when we make music.   

The world of Gold Star Baby like you said it’s a whole world, it’s a club. When I go out to the club and I’m dancing I like to have a little drink in my hand, so I was wondering if Gold Star Baby was a drink, what drink would it be?  

Alisa&Katie: Oh, I love that question! 

Cristal: I think it’s got to be something a little tropical, islandy. 

Katie: Yeah, colorful.  

Alisa: It’s got to be classy and timeless too.  

Cristal: I think it's tequila, citrus. I think it’s a paloma.

Katie: Honestly, a margarita. It’s got to be a little Latin, colorful, citrusy.  

McKenna: Maybe there’s two. A pathway that’s the tropical, citrus, sweet drink and another pathway that’s a whiskey, spicy, smokey.   

Cristal: Might be a whiskey sour with a little gold on top. But also tequila shots.  

Alisa: I think a high end spicy mango margarita. 

Cristal: As you can tell we’re going to be having every type of drink known to man when we’re touring.  

As you should. I’m thinking I’m going to make myself a margarita and listen to the record.  

Cristal: You’re giving us ideas for release day. 

McKenna: We’ve been going live on our Instagram and showing us making drinks to go out. We all need to do that together on the night of the release, all hop on, and make drinks, and listen to the record.  

Clearly this album is very fun and very celebratory and your previous album focused more on your backstory and coming to terms with your identity. Was Gold Star Baby always meant to be the celebratory answer to your last album or did it just become that as you were working on it.  

Cristal: Honestly, it kind of became that out of natural artistic inclination. When we made I’ve Loved You For So Long, it was during Covid. It was a very introspective, in some ways heavier, record. Touring that record was more difficult than I think we intended, it was very emotional to tour that record. The fans responded to that in a way I didn’t totally anticipate. We went into this silo and made this really special, kind of vulnerable music. Then it was time to give it to the world and I was like “Oh, fuck! This is a lot.” As special as that experience was I think now we’re out and we live in Los Angeles and have created this new confident, excited, life for ourselves. We had processed that childhood stuff together and what we’re living now is a totally different liberated life. When we started to go make music after it I was like “Let’s do something fun!” I want to talk about how fun it is to be gay, I want to talk about how fun it is to be in a band, and how amazing this community is. We’re the best versions of ourselves because we’re true to ourselves and authentic. Alisa had the inspiration for a disco record as we started making it. At first I wasn’t sure and we kind of went back and forth and then it ended up evolving into this whole thing of being the perfect follow up to I’ve Loved You For So Long. We’ve done the processing, now let’s have fun, let’s dance, let’s be excited about life and identity. I think that’s something so beautiful about being queer. When you really accept yourself, and step into your identity, the celebration of that acceptance is constant. Life feels like a celebration because you’re like “Fuck yeah, I get to be myself.” That’s how it felt to all of us coming out and coming from where we come from, we feel so blessed to live in Los Angeles and to be who we are. The record feels like a celebration of identity, even outside of queerness. It feels like a celebration of music, of being half Latina, of being people in this world where it’s sometimes hard to function because there’s so much shit going on all the time, and choosing joy. I think that’s who we are as people, we’re really optimistic, we’re goal driven and excited about life. You hear that in our music a lot, especially in Gold Star Baby.  

 I want to talk a little bit about being on the road. You have opened for some pretty cool artists, 5 Seconds of Summer, Chappell Roan, any dream artists you’d like to tour with?

Katie: I think Harry Styles would be really fun. His energy would match so well with this record. 

Cristal: We’re pop girls. We want to tour with Sabrina [Carpenter], we want to tour with Harry [Styles]. Those tours are so fun, the fans are incredible, they’re so passionate, they really really care.  

You’re playing All Things Go later this year, how do you prepare for a festival performance where you’re not necessarily playing to an audience of entirely your fans.  

Alisa: That’s going to be really special because it’s the first show after the album’s out so we’re going to be playing the whole record for the first time. There’s going to be a lot of rehearsal leading up to that show. When it comes to playing a festival, or to an opening crowd rather than a headline crowd, it’s thinking about it as a first impression, almost like a first date. If this person never heard of my band, what songs do they need to hear? What energy do we want them to walk away with? We always lean on high energy, upbeat, good times.  

Cristal: I agree. It’s also the time that I feel the most self-competitive. When we get on stage and we know some people know us, some people don’t, I’m like, “Okay, we gotta win these people over.” This is an opportunity to get people to like our band.  

Katie: Festivals are fun! We’ll play “Daydream” and you’ll see someone’s eyes light up like “Oh, it’s that band!” Festivals end up being this melting pot of so many different people. When you only get to play for 30 minutes, it’s a really hard balance but, like Alisa said, we want people to walk away with this certain feeling and energy, and that’s how we curate our setlist.  

McKenna: It’s a fun challenge for sure.   

Last, but not least, who are your OnesToWatch? Who should we be listening to? 

Cristal: Reyna Tropical.

Katie: I’m loving listening to their music too.  

McKenna: I’ve been loving Debbii Dawson. Very fun and disco-y too.  

Alisa: I’m loving 54 Ultra. They’re similar to what we’re doing, a little bit of disco, a little bit of Latin, a little bit of 80s. It’s really cool. 

Thank you guys so much!