Having been in two of the biggest rock bands of the 90’s, Melissa Auf der Maur’s solo career has a lot to live up to. With her latest album, ‘Out of Our Minds’ out and a tour in full swing, Melissa takes the time to chat to Rebecca about everything Auf der Maur.
 

Hello Melissa! How are you to begin with?
It’s very wet in Manchester, but I found a local farmer’s soup on the corner so I’m very happy!
Glad to hear it! Tonight is the third date of your UK tour, how has the rest of the tour gone?
We’re only a week into the entire tour and so far so good! We’re finding our own feet with the actual show and the band I’m playing with are new to this tour but it’s been great! It’s been my first extensive touring in 5 years so it’s been the light at the end of the tunnel after many hard years of pushing and expanding as an artist and trying to grow and change. This is the first time I’m bringing the whole thing extensively to the stage.
How did you meet the guys that you’re working with now?
With everything I do it’s all through friends of friends. For example, on my records, I have up to 10 different drummers and 7 different guitar players. I don’t work with one line up so it’s case by case, project by project, song by song, tour by tour.
Two of the guys are from Montreal, where I’m from, so they came through people I trust in music. It’s actually the first time I’m working with very local people. The band I was touring with last year were from Seattle and Denver so I now have people who are a drive away, not a long fly away.
Do you find it easier working with a lot of people?
No, it’s definitely not easier but it’s the way it is with me. I like to diversify and experiment. All my work is based on collaboration so there’s going to be a lot of people because it’s not me alone. On ‘Out of Our Minds’, not only do I work with various mixers, engineers and drummers, but I also worked with film makers and the film version of Out of Our Minds was a collaboration between me and a director. It’s the same with the comic book.
I like to try a lot of different things and the biggest thing is that I don’t like to do the same thing twice. I like to try and keep it cohesive within this chaotic fluid evolving project and the only continuous thing in this is my truth, keeping a barometer of what it is I’m trying to share. It’s like a puzzle.
You talk about the film and the comic- why did you decide to do that?
I went to art school my whole life from 6 years old until the day I joined Hole and I was playing music, performing in plays, painting and then I eventually took up photography. 
It was actually a very big shock to my system when I became a full time bass player in a band but I was given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel and see the world with a big band and to become a better bass player, a better singer, a better performer and a better songwriter, so it became pretty consuming for almost 10 years.
I thought that it’s now or never that I go back to my original roots of visual and storytelling so I knew that this project would have to be more than an album.
Luckily, as I was making it, technology was evolving. The fantasy film is shot on HD, fuelled on solar power, in the middle of the woods in nowhere. That couldn’t have happened even 5 years ago- that kind of technology didn’t exist.
As far as film, comic books and music go though, the reason why I love the three of them together is that they are the best way to express fantasy. They all have a lot of fantastical elements inspired by mythology, time travel, the subconscious and the dream world and they are three great mediums to discuss those things.
Even my blog documented the whole making of this project and without realising it, it became a really valid, creative part. I’ve kept a diary since I was 12 years old so this blog became this natural other part of me that I’ve always expressed but I didn’t have the internet to share. It’s been very interesting in the way it’s all unfolded.
Now that you’re doing your own thing, you’ve got a lot more creative control over what you do?
Yeah, the bands I’ve worked with were more straight forward music which was great during my years of wanting to become a better musician but there’s always been a part of me where I’ve thought, “There’s other things! There’s art and there’s film and there’s mythology and there’s magic and there’s all this other stuff I want to be doing!”
I’m just going to embrace the fact that I love doing a lot of different things and there’s no obvious way to put it all together. Most people are going to laugh when I try to explain how they all fit together because it is pretty fantastical and ‘dreamer’ of me to think they can. I’ve come to accept the fact that I’m on my own a little bit.
You’ve talked about working with other bands; one of those being The Smashing Pumpkins. What was it like working with Billy Corgan?
Working with Billy was great. I’ve known him since I was 17- before I ever even picked up a bass. One of the original inspirations to pick up the bass was seeing his band play their first show they ever played in Canada so he’d always been a big brother mentor to me. He was the one who discovered me. My band opened for them in their Siamese Dream tour and that’s when he saw me play and recommended me to Hole when Courtney needed a bass player.
He’s always been a parental, big brother figure to me so there’s an unspoken love and respect between us. We were also both born on St. Patricks Day so there was a deep trust and love there to begin with, by the time I joined his band. 
He is, essentially, nothing but incredibly professional, musically prolific, and incredibly hardworking- he’s an incredible inspiration. The year I spent with them was the best music lesson of my life, having to learn that epic catalogue and how he would change the set list every night. His work ethic is phenomenal but he’s tough! On the first day of practise, there were three rules: you can’t get sick, there are no days off, and you can’t make a mistake. So, I lived up to it! I was only sick for half a day and I only ever made one mistake. He pointed it out so I bonked him on the head!
Do you ever keep in touch with the bands you’ve worked with?
A little bit. With people like Billy and Courtney [Love], they’re such epic relationships in my life that it’s like ex-wives and ex-husbands. You can’t strike up a casual friendship.
I went to Chicago and wrote a song with Billy right before he was doing the reunion. He didn’t know how he was going to do it at that point but I went to Chicago, stayed at his place, we wrote a song together and it was lovely and that was the last time I saw him. When we see each other it’s always fine and very meaningful- he actually gave me a beautiful 12 string guitar that I have all over my new record. 
And then with Courtney, we are in touch a little more now because she got in touch with me last year to tell me about her reunion plans and we had a meeting about that. We had different ideas about the way it should be done but yeah, we’ve been in touch a little bit.
Going back to your newest album, you’ve got a number of guests on there. What led to these collaborations?
All of my collaborations come from either my gut instinct or a wish list of my favourite drummers that I’ve either seen play or I’ve played with before.  They are all people that are in my life in one way or another. 
There’s Chris Goss who made my first record with me, John Stanier from the legendary band Helmet, who now plays in Battles. I knew I wanted to write a song based on drum and bass - a build on a heartbeat - and I knew he’d be the perfect person. I just know the songs and I know who would fit them, so it’s just plugging away the right players for the right parts.

And then there’s another example like Glenn Danzig, a hero from my youth, who is the polar opposite sort of collaboration. I’d always had a dream of doing a duet with him because I thought it would interesting to have the extreme masculine and the fair maiden.  That was a totally different way of going about it as I’d never met him. I didn’t really have any mutual friends or any way to find him other than writing to the fan PO box and sending him a copy of a demo of the song saying, “I wrote this song for you, let me know if you like it”. And he did!
 Is there anyone you’d want to work with in particular?
I’ve been so goddamned lucky so far; I’v
e played with 4 of my 5 biggest heroes so I feel like I’d be pushing it if I had any more of a wish list! 
Mind you, there are plenty of people who blow my mind every day. In the past two years, some of my favourite new records have appeared that have blown my mind; some of the best music of the past decade that I personally connect with. It’s a long list but it goes- Mastodon, Mew, Late of the Peer and Fever Ray. It’s been interesting thinking about future collaborations with people I haven’t met yet but I’m just going to take it as it comes. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll make my next record completely alone, just bass and vocals!
You’re obviously happy doing your own thing at the moment, but considering you’ve worked with bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Hole in the past, is there any band you’d consider joining, if asked?
No, there’s no point in joining a pre-existing band in my world, no. I’ve already done it and life is too short to do the same thing twice. There are plenty of people I’d like to collaborate with so if anything, it would be interesting to one day make a record with other people who play in other bands but it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Unless it was one short tour and they were friends and they needed help. But I really feel like the point in ones life is that you have to maximise, expand and try new things and I know at this point, I’ve become the best I can be at being a bass player, supporting another person’s song or vision. I’ve maximised that and to go back to just doing that might not be using my abilities to the maximum. 
Although it is a little bit like a vacation; it’s much easier to play in other people’s bands so maybe I’ll consider it if I need a vacation!
Your parents were quite strong personalities; did they influence you to go your own way?
Absolutely, yes, 1000%! I’m sure I was born with a spirit and a soul that wanted to do its own thing but had I not been nurtured and supported by my parents then I don’t know if I would’ve had the courage. My parents never worked for anyone but themselves and they never suggested that I should ever do what anybody else told me to do. When I said I loved photography at 13, my mother gave me her crappy old camera. By the time I wanted to start a band and I’d saved up enough money, my father came to buy the bass with me. They raised me by saying, “You tell us what you want”. They weren’t even going to tell me what to do. That’s how they raised me and I think that’s the best thing a parent can do.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Nothing other than: Students of Manchester. Follow your dreams. This is Melissa Auf der Maur demanding you do so!
Thank you very much Melissa!
You’re very welcome!