Auf Der Maur: Guessing Games & Solo Flights

In celebration of her new solo disc, we spin songs for Melissa Auf Der Maur without showing her who the artist is. Which records does she actually know?

From: VH1, 2004-06-11
Date added: 2004-12-14

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For Melissa Auf Der Maur, it all began with a dream. There was a pyramid in the desert emitting three-dimensional sound. Auf Der Mar, formerly of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, was one of the chosen ones who experienced it, but then she was left to wander back to civilization with only three words to help her understand it all: "Pass it on."

The flame-haired bassist is now making good on the promise, but it's been a roundabout route to her self-titled solo album. She had barely formed a band in her Montreal hometown when she was asked to join Courtney Love's gang. She declined the invitation. She remembers, "Everyone from my mother to my father to my best friends were calling me saying, 'What the f**k? Why don't you wanna do this?'"

After flying to Seattle to tell Love why she couldn't, Auf Der Maur finally submitted. When Hole split, she got another call to arms, this time from Billy Corgan. Two years ago, with both bands at an end, she began making her own music. The desert dream was still in her mind. So she packed her trusty bass guitar and headed to the barren town of Joshua Tree, outside of L.A.

One listen to Auf Der Maur will blow away any misconceptions that this is some sideman's ego trip. The singer sought help from Josh Homme, Mark Lanegan and Chris Goss, all vets of the desert rock scene that gave us Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. They cooked up a beguiling tapestry of druggy riffage, Marlene Dietrich ballads, and swirling mantras. Like the opening wail on the first single, the Zep-go-to-the-Casbah epic "Follow the Waves," the disc stops you in your tracks.

Now the dreams have changed - and not for the better. "My subconscious went into this album," says Auf Der Maur. "Now I dream about being backstage and running into Chris Cornell at the sound-check. Now my subconscious is my real life."

We tapped into Auf Der Maur's essence by playing her some tracks without showing who the artist was. It inspired thoughts on how Ozzy Osbourne helped her find her voice, why Jet is barking up the wrong tree, and what connects Morrissey and Rufus Wainwright.

Rufus Wainwright – "Vibrate," from Want One (DreamWorks, 2003)

MADM: Rufus Wainwright. [I've] known him since I was 12. He was my first love. I was his first love. He didn't know he liked guys yet. I didn't know I was a girl yet. It was very confused, wonderful love. Rufus is hands down the most talented musician I know. He blows me and all my rock musician friends away with his understanding of complex classical music. He has some connection to an ancient time that nobody else has.

VH1: Have you stayed friends over the years?

MADM: He's like my brother. We came from a very intense, small, but very exciting English community in Montreal. We've known each other since we were so small and so confused and we've continued to live this parallel life. When I lived in LA he was my roommate. When I lived in New York he was my roommate. Every house I move into, in any big scary major city, Rufus just ends up moving in, too.

VH1: When did it become obvious that you were the rock chick and he was turning into Cole Porter?

MADM: I don't know. Maybe just recently, because he's become a much clearer person in the past couple of years. He was living with me in New York when he had this awakening, and that's right as I was making my first album. I had spent years and years hiding behind people. We looked at each other this past year and said, "Whoa, this is who we are!" I think we've become closer because I finally faced myself and he faced himself.

Black Sabbath – "Changes," from Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 (Warner Brothers, 1972)

MADM: [Within two notes] "Changes." Black Sabbath, of course. I love that song. I haven't heard the Kelly Osbourne version of it, and I'm not eager to.

VH1: Because a sacred text shouldn't be messed with?

MADM: [laughs] No, no. Hey, I myself had a karaoke fantasy where I was Ozzy. For about two weeks I had a band with some friends - non-musicians wanting to get their rocks off playing Sabbath. They invited me down to the rehearsal space and tried to convince me to sing lead. "Changes" was the first one that I could actually sing, like "Wait a second! This isn't so scary to be a big heavy rock person!" Ozzy actually sings [lyrics that are] anti-war, anti-heroin, romantic - very feminine, like "Fairies Wear Boots." His vocal range is extremely womanly. That song brought me to believe that I could maybe sing in a heavy rock band. And Black Sabbath are the inventors. Without them there is not one band that I've ever loved or been in that could be doing what they are doing.

Morrissey – "Irish Blood, English Heart," from You Are the Quarry (Attack, 2004)

MADM: Oh Morrissey! Morrissey, my favorite! I just got this record last week, and listened to it, finally, this weekend. I got goose-bumps. I'm the biggest Morrissey fan in the world. His voice and his whole clever-silly lyrical thing gets me every time, probably because it brings me back to my depressing high school years where he was my best friend. I think he's inspired a lot by Rufus Wainwright.

VH1: Really?

MADM: Yeah. This record reminds me of Rufus, and I know that Morrissey is a big Rufus fan.

VH1: I read you wanted Morrissey to duet with you on your song "Taste You."

MADM: Yeah. I wanted him to be the Mark Lanegan part, but Lanegan was sitting there in the studio and it was all very natural and organic. Having his gorgeous voice was as good as having Morrissey's. The song was an ode to [the Smiths compilation] Louder than Bombs.

Jet – "Cold Hard Bitch," from Get Born (Elektra, 2003)

MADM: AC/DC? I don't think I know this one. I'm not a huge classic AC/DC fan, so this could be anything, like all those bands that I don't know that are new. The Datsuns? Jet? Unfortunately all these bands sound the same to me.

VH1: It's Jet. It doesn't work for you?

MADM: No, but I'm not a cliché riff-y girl. It's gotta have a little bit of melancholy, romance, psychedelia or something. That's way too straightforward for me. That band in particular is wearing costumes and literally re-enacting something that already existed. Of course you can wear your influences on your sleeve, but do not put on a costume and apply the same formula. It grosses me out. I think that the White Stripes do it great because he has his own personality. But unfortunately I hear that stuff as soulless music. There's nothing of themselves in there.

Hole – "Teenage Whore," from Pretty on the Inside (Caroline, 1991)

MADM: Hole. When I was a DJ in Montreal putting myself through university, I played that album and I saw them on tour opening up for Buffalo Tom, and thought it was really heavy.

VH1: Were Hole truly a band, or was it all Courtney?

MADM: A band, but with a big band leader. Eric [Erlandson] and Patty [Schemel] were a big part of Hole. But in the end, we lost Patty and another drummer came in. What's odd is that I'm the longest standing member of that band other than the founding members, Eric and Courtney. So I can say that at a certain moment the three of us were really a band, yes. We all worked equally hard making Celebrity Skin.

VH1: What was it about Hole that first grabbed you, just as a listener?

MADM: Well, it scared me, but I just thought it was cool that she was so insane. That was what I liked about that album. It was heavy and experimental.

PJ Harvey – "The Letter," from Uh Huh Her (Island, 2004)

MADM: Oh, PJ Harvey. I saw her last night. I don't know this song. Is this new? I haven't heard the new stuff, but how could you not recognize the sound? She's staying at the same hotel I'm staying at this week. When she walked in the lobby yesterday I got this feeling in my stomach like, "Oh my god, there's PJ Harvey! This is so exciting." But to be honest, I don't have many of her records, if any. But I always go to the shows. She's an incredible performer. It makes me emotional when I see her play, of just how great it is for a woman to be so open and honest about who she is.

VH1: Her music is scary at first but the more you listen the less terrifying it becomes.

MADM: It's scary maybe to some oppressed men that don't wanna know about the witchy side of a woman. I'm sure it scares the hell out [of them]. For example, I've opened up for Offspring the past few weeks. At the New York City show, I got booed. They were like, "A psychedelic woman, what the f**k?" At the [PJ Harvey] show last night, I turned to my guitar player and said, "Imagine if she was opening up for the Offspring! What would happen?" She's even more out there and feminine. I'm pretty masculine, and those sexist macho a**holes in the [Offspring] crowd are like "Show us your t*ts! You suck! What is this?"

VH1: Literally?

MADM: Oh yeah. I have been in some controversial bands, and I've never had an ocean of boos in my life.

VH1: The alternative music you grew up with has become the mainstream. Is that a good thing?

MADM: What's bad is that the music industry now takes everything that's hovering in the exciting beginning stages and squishes it [until] it doesn't exist anymore. What's sad is that the exciting time of music at the turn of that decade is not going to happen again until, thank god, the music industry completely falls apart and a whole new version of the way music gets out there emerges.

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