Auf der Maur - Sweet Melissa


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STARSANDHEROES talks to former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist MELISSA AUF DER MAUR about her solo album, living up to her name and three-dimensional sound.

On meeting a musician who has spent six of the last eight years working closely with not one, but two, of rock’s most notorious egomaniac control freaks, it’s reasonable to assume that person might be, well, a little unhinged herself as a result. So how is Melissa Auf der Maur so damned together? Five years backing up Courtney Love as bassist with Hole? Check. One year touring with Smashing Pumpkins, playing Billy Corgan’s tunes? Uh-huh. It’s little wonder that Melissa is now striking out on her own with a solo album ‘Auf der Maur’, but it’s nothing short of a miracle that she’s emerged from those two uniquely pressurised environments with nary a scar, mental or indeed physical.

Largely written when Melissa was still in her pre-Hole band Tinker – but naturally given the requisite contemporary sheen – ‘Auf der Maur’ features an enviable host of bankable names, from Queens Of The Stone Age producer Chris Goss to former Pumpkin James Iha, from QOTSA’s Josh Homme and his old Kyuss mucker Brandt Bjork to Hole alumnus Eric Erlandson, and not forgetting Melissa’s Tinker buddies Steve Durand and Jordan Zadorozny. That said, only Josh and Steve actually co-wrote tracks with Melissa; the rest is all her own.

This is virgin territory for Melissa. After years of playing someone else’s songs – she only ever co-wrote five songs for Hole, and never recorded with Smashing Pumpkins – suddenly her own babies are out in the open, and she’s been thrust centre-stage. Auf der Maur are supporting A Perfect Circle on their UK tour, and the previous night’s London show hadn’t been without its glitches. Does she still get fazed when playing live? "Still, but it’s a different situation because this is a new world. Being on this tour feels like my first tour I’ve ever been on, so it’s all new. Every day is a learning experience, I have different responsibilities musically, and the responsibility to be the connector to the crowd. It’s a new kind of added pressure that I just have to get used to."

Melissa attributes her entire career to date to one thing – a vivid dream she had in 1991 featuring Kyuss and an inexplicable sci-fi concept called "three-dimensional sound". Her choice of musicians on ‘Auf der Maur’ is a clear effort to tie up the loose ends of her life. "I invited people to put signature sounds of theirs on top of my foundation. Having Josh involved in my record was a dream come true," she beams, before hastily adding, "…as it was to have any of these guys even visiting me in the studio! They’re my friends, my peers and the people who’ve inspired me."

Melissa speaks of her co-musicians with great affection, but it’s Kyuss for whom she reveals something of an obsessive streak. "In 1994 I found myself playing a festival, and the bill was Kyuss, Hole and Smashing Pumpkins. So I’m like, ‘I’m living in my dream, this is it!’ I went up to the guitar player from Kyuss [Josh Homme], who I’d never seen up until that day and said, ‘Excuse me, I had a dream in 1991 about three-dimensional sound, and you were in it, and I’m going to play music with you one day! I’ll find you again…’" Frankly, it’s amazing he didn’t run a mile – quite the reverse in fact, as the newly-formed Queens Of The Stone Age played their debut UK shows supporting Hole in 1998.

It’s quite some coincidence that Melissa’s album is released around the same time as the debut solo effort of her former bandmate/boss, Courtney Love. This doesn’t faze Melissa one iota, however, and she’s simply not interested in encouraging any kind of face-off. They’re no longer in touch, but Melissa refers to Courtney fondly as "like a distant ex-boyfriend or distant relative, like, ‘oh cool, I hope they’re doing well’. I am very excited, if her music’s making her happy and she’s being productive, that’s really good."

More important to Melissa is the simple fact that ‘Auf der Maur’, having been entirely self-financed and self-conceived, is coming out at all – especially bearing her own unusual name (her ancestors, fantastically, were 15th Century Swiss cheese-makers). "There’s this omnipresent pressure about the legacy of the Auf der Maurs – I’m the only one in North America." She only recently got a manager, before which she speculatively approached German indie City Slang in person, after a music biz colleague told her there was "no room for girls like you" on US radio. Now safely signed to EMI/Capitol, she’s looking forward to lots of touring: "A rich touring life in Europe is my priority: the cultural exchange is amazing, there’s all these cool little pockets that you can find." Despite its exhausting aspects, touring is "the best life I could ever ask for. There’s an adrenaline that exists when you’re happy, you can fucking do anything!"

It seems Melissa is not only fighting to free herself from her musical past, but also to get out of her family’s considerable shadow. Melissa’s late father was Nick Auf der Maur, a much-loved politician and columnist in her Canadian home town, referred to in one obituary as "the quintessence of Montreal". "There is a theme of me having to become my own person – I feel liberated," she admits freely, before acknowledging the debt she owes to "being near amazingly strong characters – had I not met them, I might still be working in a bar in Montreal." Melissa and her mother are still close, the singer only resolving to empty her bank account to fund ‘Auf der Maur’ after consulting Mum first.

Perhaps proving that Melissa’s wings haven’t yet entirely spread, a prominent bass sound is conspicuous by its absence on ‘Auf der Maur’. Make no mistake, it’s a hard rock album, albeit a particularly melodic and personal one, but having been written on a guitar, it seems Melissa forgot to put her bottom-end stamp on it. "I know! I feel almost bad for my bass, but I’ve developed that role of working within my limitations as a back-up singer and a bass player, and I’ve ended up playing that role to myself on this album. I have to put at least one bass and drum-driven song for the next record – I need a drummer boy, to write an amazing bass song. But thankyou for noticing, and I’m sorry for my bass, it’s terrible!"

Still, bass or no bass, Melissa is happy with ‘Auf der Maur’, and candid about the autobiographical content of its songs. "They’re all based on truth," she emphasises, "emotional confusion, lust, love, want, a little bit of anger – but not that much, I’m not a very angry person. You can’t control feelings of love, or the way sounds make you feel, so it’s more like you’re following your gut. Dreams, love and music are all abstract, but to me they’re the most clear, powerful truth. I’m not afraid to be abstract, honest and vulnerable."

‘Auf der Maur’ is released on 1st March 2004 through EMI/Capitol. Check out www.aufdermaur.com for tour dates.

Originally published in Bullit magazine, March 2004 issue