Getting Candid with The Aces [Interview]

This week we’re getting candid with LA-based four-piece band The Aces.

Their third album “I’ve Loved You For So Long” is out now and they’re hitting the road in the states this fall. This record sees the band reflect on how growing up queer and leaving the Mormon Church has influenced their relationships, mental health, and identity in the present.

We’re getting candid with The Aces about how simply existing as a woman or a queer person, has become inherently political, as well as the importance of creating a community and celebrating diversity. Plus we get into our favorite conversations about what we’ve all learned from the media portraying women in a negative light as we grew into adults.

You can find a transcribed excerpt of our interview below.

Name 3 Songs: You four have been making music together since you were teens. And you’ve not only grown up together, physically, but also creatively. So what has it been like sharing that journey with your friends all this time?

Alisa: I mean, it’s been amazing. Like it’s really interesting how it’s evolved over the years. I think being in a band and like being in music in general is a huge…I don’t want to say blessing because I hate using words like that, but it’s awesome. We’re really lucky we get to do it and I feel like the best part is getting to share all the highs and lows together, because there are a lot of highs and lows when you’re pursuing your dream. I feel like having each other to lean on is the best part of being in a band and being surrounded by a family, like people that know you really well.

Katie: I definitely can’t imagine doing this alone. That would suck. It would be very lonely alone. I feel really lucky to do it with best friends and get to share these experiences.

Right now we’re coming out of Barbie summer and Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner have been in the news for their alleged split. In thinking of pop culture and how women have been demonized in the media, this is something that we founded our podcast on. For example Britney Spears and her Rolling Stone cover story – she was very sexualized and she was only 17. So I’m curious for y’all growing up, was there anything that you remember seeing in pop culture that really left an impression on you?

Katie: I remember when Miley Cyrus did like the “Can’t Be Tamed” stuff. That was like ground shaking.

Ken: Totally. That’s what I was going to say. And the Vanity Fair cover was so, so shaking for me because of how it was talked about. It was jarring growing up watching Hannah Montana and then like all of a sudden seeing that shift once she was getting older. And how they were sexualizing her and how like she was demonized for just dressing how she wanted to dress. I remember it being confusing for me as a young girl to see that going on.

Alisa: I mostly remember how the adults around us spoke about it. I remember seeing the [Vanity Fair cover] and being like, that’s nothing. She just has her back exposed, whatever. They were freaking out. And it’s just interesting how a lot of young female pop stars, like their way of expressing adulthood is through sexualization, because that’s just what they see adult women as.

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