After leaving her partner, homestead and job in Idaho and moving to Olympia, Washington, Alyssa Nunke desired only one thing: start an explicitly all-female band. The strategy was simple. Host an open mic night. Listen for potential members. Rinse. Repeat. And it worked, perfectly. On just her fourth night she struck gold in the form of Jade Kovatz, the other frontrunner of the band.
The rest of the femme-folk-rock band Fern Spores members came together in the same exact manner, hailing mostly from all over the country: Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota, for instance. Nunke serves as lead vocalist and guitarist. Kovatz is lead guitarist, bassist and backing vocalist. Katie Welch plays the drums and Abigail Ryle, the fiddle.
“Open mics are amazing. I think a lot of people maybe don’t value them as much as they should, but as far as finding community and building confidence and networking, I feel like it’s so much better to meet people in person,” Nunke said.
When asked where the name came from, she said she initially had a list of “like 100 band names” but wasn’t a fan of any of them. It was during a chance encounter on a hike, of overturning a fern and seeing the spores underneath, that she knew what she wanted to call the group.
As one of the two main songwriters and primary lyricist, Nunke said she refused to let the band’s sound be limited to the genre of folk-rock. The band incorporates several different kinds of sounds: Americana, angsty, even some hard rock ‘n’ roll.
She even joked about trying to make a new genre: mossy-rock. Regardless, Nunke cited a heavy influence from music of the ‘70s and ‘90s. Another influence, though less strong, is the band’s formation in the Pacific Northwest.
“Something about the climate here encourages creativity. I feel like Seattle, Olympia, Portland, they’re all very creative, artistic cities,” Nunke said. “The many months of dreary rain …. We’re forced to be inside. We got to find some way to be happy, so we drink coffee and make art.”
Nunke said what sets her band apart from the continuous influx of new bands is that it’s an all-woman band. She said that’s especially critical given the low statistics of women in music.
A 2025 study done by the University of Southern California Annenberg said that in addition to there being no duos or bands with women topping the Billboard 100 in 2024, only 38.9% of the artists were women. This marks a 3% increase since 2012–35.8%.
But more than a band, Nunke deemed it a sisterhood. A safe space. A bond intensified by shared negative experiences with men in music. Nunke said issues such as bulldozing or condescending behavior, and assuming that a creative partnership means anything more than that are all commonplace.
“To some degree you have to have your guard up as a female musician to be taken seriously and respected and not objectified. And so it feels really nice to be within a group where that’s just not an element of it,” Nunke said.
As for direction, she explained how the band’s upcoming sophomore album, “The Thicket,” is a steep departure from its first: darker themes that range from self-loathing to pharmaceutical battles — multiple band members suffer from chronic illnesses. But paired with those darker tones is an elevated sound — years of practice honed both the drummer’s and bassist’s skills, enabling more adaptability. Kovatz’ backing vocals are also more present throughout the album.
Nunke said after a three-month hiatus from performing, being able to gain live audience feedback is exciting — especially because six songs off the setlist are being performed live for the first time. Fern Spores will perform at Silver Moon Brewing on Friday, May 8.
Fern Spores
Fri. May 8 7pm
Silver Moon Brewing
24 NW Greenwood Ave, Bend
http://silvermoonbrewing.com/events
$12.24
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