Velour Live Music Gallery is very excited to welcome The Aces home to Provo, to celebrate the release of their brand-new album, available everywhere April 6th!

'Volcanic Love' from The Aces

Bridging the gap between The Bangles and The GoGo’s, and current acts like The 1975 and MUNA, The Aces are made up of sisters Cristal (on lead vocals/guitar), and drummer Alisa Ramirez, completed by guitarist Katie Henderson and bassist McKenna Petty.

Hailing from Orem, Utah, a college town 45 minutes from Salt Lake City, the sisters describe the mountain-bordered town as welcoming and very religious. “When we have people come visit they're like, ‘You live in Pleasantville! This is a weird utopia,’” laughs Alisa. Thanks to their family, the American-Honduran siblings were exposed to music early on: at home their mom played Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston, meanwhile their older brother introduced them to The Misfits, The Casualties, and Hendrix. Alisa was banging the drums from eight years old, with Cristal writing original songs from 10, forming a tight-knit unit with McKenna (who Cristal initially met in kindergarten) around the same time. “They asked me to get a bass for Christmas so I could become the third band member,” McKenna laughs. “So I did. And then I had to figure out how to play.”

The girls cut their teeth as a live band early, using the teetotal, all-ages venue Velour Live Music Gallery as their testing ground from age 13 onwards. It was in this environment that they gained confidence and thrived, their lineup solidifying a year when McKenna met Katie in junior high, who, thanks to her older brother’s love of music, had a whole rehearsal space in her parent’s basement. “She just shreds,” explains McKenna. “We were like, this is what we've been looking for!” The newly formed quartet would now blend McKenna and Katie’s alternative tastes (they grew up on The Cure, The Beatles and Depeche Mode) with those of Alisa and Cristal to truly find their sound.

Having spent the majority of their teens honing their songwriting skills, 2014 turned out to be a critical moment in the band’s history. For all except Alisa, the end of high school was nigh, college was calling, scholarships were in place, and alternate avenues beyond the band started to seem like more viable options. Funnily enough it was while watching Lorde collect two Grammys that year that inspired the foursome to take stock and recalibrate. Newly refocused, everything started to fall into place: 2016 saw the band sign a deal with Red Bull Records.