Fightmaster – Tolerance
FIGHTMASTER – the solo moniker of Queer artist and advocate E.R. Fightmaster – announces their debut full-length album, Tolerance, out June 5th.
The album is dominated by raw, unvarnished lyrics that reflect the complexities—some might say messiness—of emotional growth and attempts to find equilibrium. FIGHTMASTER is also set to bring the new music and favorite songs from previous EPs Violence (2023) and Bloodshed Baby (2024) to the road this spring, including headline shows and support dates with Lucy Dacus and Lord Huron.
Today, they also share the album’s propulsive lead single, “All Or Nothing,” a brisk synth rocker with taut grooves.
On the track, the narrator is full of bluster, challenging a partner to dare to imagine the future. However, the lyrics are delightfully ambiguous: Does the other person want to stay in the relationship, or is the narrator just expressing wishful thinking? “It’s such a dramatic bluff,” Fightmaster says. “When I wrote it, I wanted this bravado attack. Like, here’s the fucking synth, here’s the beat. I love this one because we really went hard.
When Fightmaster started writing lyrics for Tolerance, they drew from their own life experiences, analyzing them through the lens of hindsight and perspective. “Every song that I write is in some way a personal experience, but here I was mining a broader understanding of patterns throughout a lifetime: patterns of loving different people, patterns of watching my friends love each other,” they note. “All of us do a relatively graceless job, but all the patterns are the same, which is endearing to me.”
“Tolerance is the most deliberate thing I’ve ever done,” they say. “I wanted to break through more personally on this album. I really wanted to give people a part of myself… I would decide that a song felt good if it hurt a little bit. There had to be this real truth to it. And that requires a lack of wall between self and the audience.”
Fightmaster, who first came into the public eye for their work in TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Shrill, built a studio in their house that replicated a particularly fertile creative space from a previous apartment: a cozy closet. They also learned how to use Logic and sharpened their engineering techniques. “It felt like leveling up in a creative way,” they explain. “I never have wanted to do the technical part of things, but when you’re trying to be creative, you have to set up a space that goes beyond what a loop station can do.”
On Tolerance, Fightmaster also wanted to work with more producers than they did in the past including Riley Geare, who helmed the Violence and Bloodshed Baby EPs; Casey Kalmensen, an artist who records as Little Monarch and plays keyboards for Gracie Abrams; and Gabe Goodman, who Fightmaster wanted to work with because he produced “Ode to A Conversation” by Del Water Gap.
Tolerance is an album that exhibits artistic clarity, a reflection of Fightmaster’s own self-awareness about their place in the world, musical and otherwise. “I have to have such a clear understanding of self all the time because I’m a public figure in a very queer way, and I’ve always taken that responsibility seriously. I don’t feel comfortable being reckless anymore… Nonbinary people and trans people have so few elders – I’m not an elder yet; I haven’t earned it – but I have taken on an understanding that that’s the path that I’m on.”
That doesn’t mean Fightmaster has life completely figured out. In fact, there’s a very good reason Tolerance’s songs brim with so much empathy, both for the narrators and other people. “I want people to know that there’s still cracks in the pavement; I want them to feel safe with me. I’ve always thought of myself as so tough, but in the last couple of years I had to realize that I get my feelings hurt every day… When I realized how much kid-heartbreak is still in there, even though I’ve been to all the therapy and I’m on the perfect amount of medication, I was able to write these songs with more kindness for myself than I ever had.”
FIGHTMASTER TOUR DATES
May 4 – Los Angeles, CA – El Cid
May 10 – Bellingham, WA – Mount Baker Theatre **
May 12 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre **
May 13 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre**
May 14 – Sacramento, CA – Channel 24 **
May 16 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party 2026
May 19 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry
May 20 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave / Eagles Club
May 21 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
May 23 – Toronto, ON – Adelaide Hall
May 26 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair
May 28 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
May 29 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
Jun 2 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl ++
Jun 4 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater ++
Jun 6- Missoula, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater ++
Jun 7 – Missoula, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater ++
Jun 9 – Cheyenne, WY – The Lincoln ++
Jun 11 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre ++
Jun 12 – Greenwood Village, – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre ++
** notes dates w/Lucy Dacus
++ notes dates w/Lord Huron
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