Q&A: The Aces Open the Doors to Queer Disco Sanctuary on ‘Gold Star Baby’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Dana Trippe
THE ACES ARE BACK WITH THEIR BOLDEST AND MOST LIBERATED RECORD TO DATE — With their new album Gold Star Baby, the pop four-piece transform the idea of a nightclub into a glittering, queer disco haven where joy, desire, and freedom pulse through every beat.
If their last album traced the story of self-discovery, Gold Star Baby is the next chapter: the sound of arrival, liberation and pure sapphic disco-pop fun. The Aces largely self-produced the project, leaning into pulsing rhythms, shimmering guitars, and funky bass lines that embody the group’s evolution and the carefree spirit they’ve been chasing all along.
“When we started making Gold Star Baby, there was one goal in mind: we just wanted to have fun,” the band says. “Pop melodies, pulsing four-to-the-floor rhythm, shimmering guitars, and the funkiest bass lines we’ve written yet. It was simple. If it didn’t make us move, we wrote another song. All we wanted to do was dance.”
The album opens with the narrated “Welcome to Gold Star Baby,” immediately situating listeners in a velvet-lined queue outside the hottest club in town. From there, the record unfolds like the perfect night out: “Jealous,” “The Magic,” and “You Got Me” soundtrack the early thrill of arrival, while “The Girls Interlude” drops us into the chatter of friends scheming their pregame outfits and plotting to make their exes jealous.
The back half of the album reflects the flirtation of a crowded dance floor: “She Likes Me” and “Fire in the Hole” mirror the tension of a fling-turned-something-more, while “Spending the Night” softens into hesitant romance. The closer, “I’m Sweet (I’m Mean),” ends the night in high heels and attitude, strutting out as the sun comes up.
“This album is all about joy, confidence, even cockiness, and sex appeal,” the band says. “We feel now that we’re grown women, we can explore those things in a way that feels authentic and exciting. This album is for anyone looking for an escape in the more-than-challenging world we live in. This album is a celebration. Welcome to Gold Star Baby.”
For drummer Alisa Ramirez, the project also reflects queer awakening through a cinematic lens.
“This album really embodies the sound of what I think a resident disco band would play at the clubs in these films, so I thought it would be cool to create our own club through both the album and video,” Ramirez says. “As far as the song goes, to me it feels like the epitome of a queer awakening; exciting, sexy, intense (sometimes even disorienting) and mostly, magical.”
She adds: “I wanted to embody that feeling visually through a vibrant, colorful night out that starts off just like any other Saturday night and transforms into a psychedelic queer disco fantasy at Gold Star Baby. It’s told through the lens of a young woman who’s come to the club with her friend, but upon entering is transported to another world where her desires become her reality.”
With Gold Star Baby, The Aces create an atmosphere where queerness is not only welcomed but exalted. It’s playful, it’s sexy, and it’s defiant in its joy. Each track builds on the promise of escape, urging listeners to let go and lose themselves in the glow of the disco ball.
In a world that feels heavier than ever, The Aces remind us of the radical power of joy. At Gold Star Baby, the door is always open, the music never stops, and the sanctuary is yours to claim.
The Gold Star Baby World Tour kicks off this fall in North America with support from Lydia Night, of The Regrettes. In February 2026, the second leg of the tour will resume in the UK and Europe. Along the way, The Aces will make major stops at The Bellwether in Los Angeles, Cannery Hall in Nashville, and O2 Kentish Town Forum in London to name a few.
“Be the most extra version of yourself” said guitarist Cristal Ramirez. “The version that you're embarrassed to be because you think it's going to be too much. That is your permission slip. Go fucking crazy.”
Photo Credit: Dana Trippe
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
CRISTAL: We've been a band since we were teenagers, and now I'm 29 so we've been a band since I was 12. Our band is really about our friendship and about making art with each other and I think that really extends to the community we've built. We’re a queer band, so I think a lot of our fan base is queer and finds a lot of solace and a safe space within our shows and within our music. We aim to put on a really good show and to create a space for queer people, or people in general, to come and enjoy the music.
LUNA: Gold Star Baby marks your fourth album and huge congratulations is in order! How does this album feel different from your past releases, both musically and personally?
KATIE: It feels like a different chapter for us, but it also feels very similar to our first record in a lot of ways. We've always had that disco pop element in our music from the beginning, but our last record being a bit more alternative and a bit more reflective on our past and leaving a religious small town, and that being a really important body of work for us. This record now feels like a celebration of leaving that, celebrating our identities, and being comfortable with where we are and we want our fans to feel like that when they come to our shows, especially with Gold Star Baby. It's the hottest club in town. You're coming to party with The Aces. There's enough trouble going on in the world. We just want everyone to come and have a good time with this record.
LUNA: What initially inspired Gold Star Baby? Did you have a central idea in mind when you started, or did the concept of the “club in every city” evolve naturally as you wrote?
ALISA: It started from a place of wanting to have fun. We came off of this introspective and more alt-rock leaning record. I think we're naturally pop girls at heart, if we're totally honest. After our I Loved You For So Long Tour, me and Cristal were talking about how this is the biggest tour we’d ever done, but it was heavier because of the subject matter. There were less people dancing and smiling. More people were wiping a tear and having a moment which was special and important. I think there's some artists where that’s really their bag, like Phoebe Bridgers, for instance. You're going to a Phoebe Bridgers show to cry and process. I really deeply respect her for that. We walked away from it being like, ‘Okay, what do we want to do next?’ Because the record you write is the record you have to tour. We wanted to go back to just having fun. Everything is so heavy on its own right now that we just wanted to create something that people could escape into a world where they have a party.
LUNA: Can you walk us through your creative process? Since this record was largely self-produced, how did that change the way you collaborated as a band in the studio?
CRISTAL: It was really interesting. We just started going to the studio every single day together. We made this really lofty goal together at the top of 2024 which was whether we booked sessions or whether we self produced, we were going to be in the studio five days a week for the entire year. It really was a roller coaster. There were days and times where it was super fun, and then there were plenty of times where we were not agreeing on things and needing space and wanting to write music.
I think the reason why Gold Star Baby has this voice to it that's very unique to us, I think more so than our other records, is because it was just the four of us in a small apartment, making this music together. There was a lot of pressure in a way, but it was easy for us to just be our unbridled selves in front of everyone. When we songwrite together, we get really passionate. We had to find that balance of working with just the four of us and finding that comfort zone, but I think it really lended to us being able to really make something that was really our voice. I think you can really hear our voice in the record, lyrically especially. That was a really special experience, and something that I think was incredibly confidence building, and as an artist, it makes you feel very self-sufficient and able to make things on your own. You don't have to rely on other people. I think it's something we're definitely going to continue to do, is to self produce. It makes up just us four.
LUNA: Is there a song on Gold Star Baby that feels the most representative of The Aces at this moment? Why does that track stand out for you?
MCKENNA: I've always said “Twin Flame” is the quintessential Aces song, like it checks every single box, like the guitars, the dancey music, the instrumentation, the Latin part just makes you dance in a way that I feel like that song is everything we've been working for.
LUNA: What lessons did you walk away with from creating Gold Star Baby that you’ll carry into future projects?
CRISTAL: Gold Star Baby for us was really self assuring as an artist to make, like we were really showing up. It's a very confident record. What I've been saying about this record is that it's really not about anybody but you. Even the love songs are about how you feel sexy within the relationship, or you're the one being desired, even though you're talking about someone else. Then there's songs “Jealous” and “The Magic” that are confident songs. There were days when we were writing this music that we were not feeling that way, and I think we really needed that music to get through, like we were writing the way that we wanted to feel.
I heard this interview of Sabrina Carpenter where she was talking about “Espresso,” and she was like, ‘I was literally just manifesting. I didn't have any of that. I wasn't at that point in my career. I didn't feel like the it girl, but I was manifesting through writing this song.’ We were really doing that with Gold Star Baby, we were just manifesting and dreaming and really trying to speak the way that we wanted to feel. Through that music, we really healed and built our confidence.
Especially as women in this music industry, especially with Luna being a female-run magazine, as women, I think you're just told a lot that you need people to help you all the time. As an all female band, there's been a lot of, ‘you need to do this,’ and ‘you need to be this,’ and ‘you should be more of this and less of this,’ and ‘you need this person to help you make your music, because you shouldn't do it on your own, because you need help.’ All this shit that I think women experience on a daily basis. But for us, it was like, fuck that. We really made this record that we're so proud of just the four of us. I mean, obviously we had a lot of help from great people, but we really made a lot of these songs on our own. It was an all around, incredibly reassuring experience and a self fulfilling experience in a lot of ways.
LUNA: You’ve called the album “a celebration.” What do you hope queer fans — and listeners in general — feel when they enter the Gold Star Baby world?
CRISTAL: We just want people to have a really good time. If they drink, throw a shot back, and get lost in the crowd
KATIE: I hope they feel their sexiest when they come to the show, they may wear that thing that they've wanted to wear, but have felt a little bit shy about wearing. It's like a little push themselves, to get into a feel yourself element. I hope that the fans can feel themselves.
CRISTAL: Be the most extra version of yourself. The version that you're embarrassed to be because you think it's going to be too much, that is your permission slip. Go fucking crazy.
LUNA: You’re about to kick off the Gold Star Baby World Tour this fall — how are you feeling as you get ready to bring this album to the stage?
CRISTAL: I think it's going to be really fun. We've already been playing “The Magic” and “Jealous” live, and I just feel like there's a total shift in energy on stage when we play those songs. I'm just excited to play a full record of that with the girls. It's going to be a blast. I feel like this record is getting ready for it. I really think it's going to be the best show we've ever done. There's smaller clubs, but they're going to be packed. We're really making a lot of plans and doing different things than we've done in previous tours. It's not just like you show up, you watch us play, this story's going to be super interactive with fans. We just want it to feel like you are in a club. We're making a lot of choices around the live show that are going to reflect that and be more of a full on experience versus just a show.
MCKENNA: Whenever we're making music, we're always thinking about how it's going to be live, even with Gold Star Baby, when we were writing so many of these songs, we're like, ‘That live is going to be so fun.’ That's been a huge part of creating this record. It'll be so fun to have that full manifestation and get to do it live.
LUNA: Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals or regimens that you do to help prepare for a big performance?
CRISTAL: We got Buzz Balls one day and no one asked for them. Our tour manager at the time, just kept showing up every day with a different specialty Buzz Ball every day.
KATIE: What really happened is I was late to the game with drinking, so there's just a lot of things I haven't tried. When the first time I saw a Buzz Ball, I was like, ‘What is that thing?’ Our tech and our crew just got really into getting things on the rider that I had never seen before or tried. Before the show, we would all get egg nog Buzz Balls. I think it was fun, because it just makes the energy a little sillier. We'll blast music in our green room. We'll turn off all the lights and blast Kim Petras and we'll just get into a really good headspace. Before we get on stage, we always do a little huddle, a little prayer to the universe together for us to have a great show and for our fans to have a great experience. We always chant. The chant changes per show per city, after we do our little universe prayer, we put our hands in, and we always do the chant of the night. We do that before every single show. That's tried and true for The Aces.
CRISTAL: After the show, when I close my eyes, I'm in either the bus or the van, and everyone's eating a banana and peanut butter, that is usually what's going on. We're all eating either a chomps jerky stick or banana and peanut butter. Our team will order us food for when we're off stage. We usually don't want to have dinner before the show, so we usually have dinner late.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
CRISTAL: I think we're feeling super excited. There's just so much excitement around the record. It feels like we're itching to get out on the road and to really play these shows and to bring these personas and this environment to our fans. In this era of our career, the buzz around getting to make a record like this is just really exciting. I feel like there was a vibration to all of us that we haven't had in a while. I think we're just eager to tour it.
Photo Credit: Dana Trippe
