All Things Go
All Things Go (ATG) music festival is a breeding ground for emerging artists. The festival also prioritizes women and queer people in its lineups, and that was evident in the artists I had the pleasure of sitting down with.
Paris Paloma is known for her platinum feminist anthem, “labour,” which went viral online, with women making videos telling their stories to her track. The folk-pop chant has a cathartic ring to it, with a chorus of voices releasing what feels like years of pent-up rage. The song had the ATG crowd chanting along with her to every word. I had the pleasure of getting to ask Paloma about her experience and her inspiration for the song.
“I mean, when I was in my teens, I used to sew the titles of feminist essays on the back of my denim jackets,” Paloma said. “And I felt like I was so frustrated at being such a tiny person whilst learning about all of these great ills in terms of gender equality.”
“It’s everything to the young girl in me who was so desperate to make some kind of minute difference to even just the women around me,” Paloma said.
Paloma was an art history major at Goldsmiths, University of London, and this bleeds into her work. When she performed her song “labour” on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Paloma referenced the art installation “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago through the set design and incorporated the Resistance Revival Chorus. Paloma’s deeply intellectual approach to music infuses every aspect of her art. In her songwriting, she often references antiquity and mythology.
“I think there’s a reason that those tropes just repeat time and time again in storytelling, and those are the human truths that kind of speak to what we were like now and in ancient times and it’s all still true,” Paloma said.
Paloma even pulls from her knowledge of English literature for her stage presence.
“I think a lot about characters from Shakespeare, like Prospero the wizard or Ariel the spirit, or even the idea of Ariel creating this tempest, and I sometimes feel like this little body, but creating this big atmosphere on a stage,” Paloma said.
Molly Grace’s music also pulls a lot from her college days, as she is just over a year into post-grad life. The Belmont University graduate won the 2023 Belmont Pop Showcase, which provided her with the opportunity to play an arena-scale performance while still in her undergraduate years of college.
“I feel like getting to do my music in that kind of space really helped me realize my own vision for my artistry because it was the first time that I got to have, like, you know, the backup singers and the fancy outfits and the LED screen, fun lighting,” Grace said.
Grace matched the energy at All Things Go perfectly, donning a beautiful pink, wispy babydoll dress, resembling a cloud in a sunset — the festival’s mascot. She has always been a pink fan, even naming her latest album, “Blush.”
“A lot of the songs [on “Blush”] are about like love and lust, and I feel like growing up. And blush kind of encapsulates all those feelings. You know, like you blush when you’re embarrassed or you’re, like, feeling sexy or you’re feeling like you know something is really, like, sweet,” Grace added.
Grace might be one of the most extraverted people you’ll ever meet — hugging you upon your arrival — but her fellow ATG D.C. ’25 performer Hazlett is a proud introvert. The problem for him is that music is the only thing he knows how to do:
“I kind of can’t do anything else,” Hazlett said. “It’s like, sorry, I can’t yell or shout. It’s just going to be these quiet, sad songs.”
Hazlett has even tried to ignore the siren call of music — he tried replacing gigs in pubs for a steady nine-to-five, but didn’t last very long, thanks, surprisingly, to his mom.
“I was doing graphic design and copywriting and stuff for an advertising agency. I think my mom kind of noticed she’s like, oh look, he’s, he’s doing okay, but, like, maybe he’s not exactly happy doing it,” Hazlett said.
Hazlett’s first love is songwriting. Once, he even got fired from a gig for playing his own songs, instead of the covers he was instructed to play. His lyrics are deeply personal, but that is his true appeal.
“I guess people see me connecting with the music, which then helps them connect to me, so like it’s kind of been a happy accident,” Hazlett added.
Hazlett performs so he can write, but The Aces write so they can perform. The alt-pop group started with sisters Cristal Ramirez and Alisa Ramirez, vocals and drums respectively. Their friend McKenna Petty, who asked Santa Claus for a bass for Christmas, soon joined. When they got to junior high, they found their guitarist Katie Henderson, and started playing school talent shows, which eventually morphed into gigging in venues all over Provo, Utah when they were in high school.
“We cut our teeth as performers first, and then we got to the studio and we were like, ‘what’s a producer?’” recounted the band’s frontwoman, Cristal Ramirez.
This performance-first approach is evident in all their music, but especially their latest disco inspired album, “Gold Star Baby.”
“When we write music, we, like, inherently make stuff that we know will be fun to play live,” Ramirez said.
Being a primarily gay-identifying group growing up in Utah, The Aces found solace in their garage band sessions.
“I feel like that was a way for us to kind of, yeah, like, not worry about the future, not worry about our identity, not worry about that kind of stuff in the moment,” Ramirez said.
The band’s comfort level and chemistry with each other was evident in their performance on Sunday. They even have matching “4” tattoos.
The emerging artists of All Things Go, like the indie genre that dominates its lineup, have a wide variety of styles and approaches to music, proving there is no one way to success and no right way to create art.