Women of Rock: Fight The Fade Drummer Alyssa Worth Lists Her Foremost Female Inspirations

It feels like it’s about the right time to get a little aggressive! Here to provide the soundtrack is Fight The Fade, who just released their bold new single “Cut & Run,” via renowned electronic rock label FiXT. The song comes as another installment in the FiXT: Radium anthology, a playlist of FiXT artists that brings together the best in visionary, genre-defying electronic rock music that knows no boundaries.

“Cut & Run” combines melodic vocal hooks with a massive sounding rhythm section, complete with heavy guitars, and electronic accents. It’s an impressive step forward for the Midwest quintet, who just celebrated a decade together this past year with the release of In Love. in Hope. in Peace. Fight The Fade is a relatively new addition to the FiXT roster, having just signed with the label in late 2020. What makes them truly special is their ability to innovatively blend genres, while maintaining a diverse, no-limits kind of writing approach.

While the band continues to work on new material for an album release later this year, we recently caught up with drummer Alyssa Worth for our latest edition of Women of Rock in which she runs down her five female role models.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq1rpZS9Xh8

“When I first was asked to write this article I sat and pondered which delightful feminine spirits have influenced me the most. I was surprised when I only came up with a few musicians. Shouldn’t I have a long list of ladies I look up to for musical inspiration? Ideally, yes. But that wasn’t my environment. I had only briefly heard of drummers Sheila E., Meg White, Cindy Blackman, and Meytal Cohen. YouTube wasn’t something I accessed until 2010 and Instagram a couple years after that, and even then I still wasn’t aware of the very talented Anika Nilles, Diana Vásquez, Domino Sanantonio, Emmanuelle Caplette, and Jessica Burdeaux (amongst many others!) until very recently.

To be frank, the majority of my time was spent with men. That was my environment. When I first started touring a decade ago in the metalcore scene, I rarely met other female musicians. In 2014 I was on the road with my pop punk band, we did a show in Midland, Texas and I was the only female there until the show got closer to the ending. Crazy.

Nonetheless, I’ve been fortunate to have female role models with other life journeys and I find that, in part, it’s the feelings someone helped create in me that are what drives the inspiration. That which is strong and most evident in another reaches out to something maybe small, yet significant within me and it resonates, leaving me with a little more confidence, courage, curiosity, awe, respect, admiration, wonder, delight, warmth, and the willingness to continue on because it radiates so much from them. What a gift!”

Artwork for “Cut And Run” by Fight The Fade

1. Selena & Suzette Quintanilla

“Just two days after my third birthday and a few weeks shy of her 24th birthday, Selena Quintanilla was murdered; how I wish we could’ve had another eight decades with her! Selena inspired millions of people with her voice, personality, and beauty. I was introduced to Selena’s music when my mother’s friend let us borrow her copy of the 1997 biopic Selena. The film about Selena and the family band, from childhood into adulthood, would end up being a major catalyst in my life, planting seeds in my soul to which the fruits of those seeds are reaped over two decades later and are part of the reason why I have the opportunity to write this article at all.

I never thought of drumming as an option for me mainly because I had never seen a woman playing drums until I realized Suzette Quintanilla, Selena’s older sister, was the drummer. At the time, my family attended a church that only sang hymns and I had never been to a concert. I watched a ton of country music videos on the weekends thanks to Country Music Television and I only ever saw women represented as singers.

My parents had me receiving piano lessons around the age of seven and because I didn’t practice enough and eventually quit, they were hesitant to let me try out the drums. So I lived vicariously through that film for several years, wishing to be Selena as a vocalist and Suzette as a drummer; eventually, I would get to live out my dreams of being a live drummer playing with all sorts of bands and touring nationally as well as internationally. Looking back, I now realize how vital it was for me to have role models whose skin color is like my own. I’m eternally grateful for the Quintanilla family – you got me in touch with my latent potential.”

2. Courtney La Plante

“Courtney La Plante is the vocalist for the Canadian metal band, Spiritbox. I found out about them last December thanks to a friend who shared a post from the band on Facebook. It was a short clip from a new music video being released for the song “Constance.” I was immediately captivated by Courtney’s voice and decided to watch to the full video; it brought me to tears because it resonated with me in a very personal way. I was in a rough place, my grandmother passed away the night before after a long battle with Alzheimer’s and the destructive familial situation overshadowed my ability to immediately grieve. The song’s lyrics and music video were written simultaneously amongst Courtney and the video director of Versa Films, Dylan Hryciuk. Their creation was painfully and beautifully told in honour of Courtney’s grandmother who passed away last summer and Dylan’s grandmother who is dealing with dementia.

Courtney’s screaming and singing voice both appear effortless and I am continuously amazed by that. I did screaming backup vocals in the first band I was ever in, an all-girl band in the eighth grade, and had no proper technique. I long for a delightful singing voice but have not been blessed in that realm so when I listen to Spiritbox I like to pretend I have Courtney’s voice timbre!”

Fight The Fade drummer Alyssa Worth

3. Elizabeth Gilbert

“Elizabeth Gilbert has written several books, three of them have been life changing for me. I heard about her memoir Eat, Pray, Love when it came out in movie form. Several years after it was released I was working with a band in Texas and wandered into a used book store; spotting Eat, Pray, Love something tugged at my heart to purchase it. It would be a couple summers later before I’d actually read it and then, when I finally did, the emotions and desires it evoked from me would not be reburied into my subconscious. Elizabeth realizes she cannot remain in a marriage with her partner who strongly desires she bare his children. She finds a new relationship that doesn’t last, the divorce is finalized, and she winds up on a grand adventure traveling to Italy, India, and Indonesia rediscovering herself and a new love along the way.

I went on to read Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage which I picked up simply because it was written by Elizabeth. I was nowhere near a skeptic of marriage at that time; I’d desperately wanted a husband for quite a while. But the book ended up educating me, helping me come to terms with this idea stuck in my head telling me I would be set and life would be perfect and there would be no more pain if I only I was married. And it showed me that we were never supposed to get everything from one person. That it is impossible… and perhaps the expectation destroys something good. All the while Elizabeth has no children; I find it very comforting to connect with someone similar to myself in that aspect.

The last piece of hers I read was Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. I turn to this book as a pick-me-up, it bolsters my creativity and confidence, the two things I need at least a little bit of in order to end or begin something whether that’s a relationship, hobby, job, or dream. Simply put, this book makes me feel good about being me.”

4. Pema Chodron

“Thanks to my yoga teachers, friends, and clients what kept coming up in conversation was Pema Chodron and what a delight it has been every time I receive another of her audio CDs. Pema is an American Buddhist nun. From her I learned the life experiences I originally put in the category known as “bullshit” are actually the path itself and not a distraction to awakening like I previously assumed. She speaks about attachments, being stuck, mistaking pain for pleasure, boundaries as an act of compassion, befriending my own mind, failure, fear, pain, shame, courage, and love. She is wonderfully human, gentle, and wise.”

5. Alice Worth

“Alice Worth is my mother and friend. Though humble, goofy, and full of unconditional love, she’s a total badass. She was the one hauling me and my gear to every gig before I turned 16, she’s who I go to to vent about challenges, and she’s the one I call in times of celebration. She is selfless, pursues her dreams, drinks a margarita every week even though it makes her itchy, and gets offended when I cuss even though she’s been doing it twice as long as I have. And on top of that she’s the owner operator of an antique store in rural Oklahoma. She does what she wants. What more shall I say?”

Fight The Fade drummer Alyssa Worth