Melissa Auf Der Maur

Melissa Auf der Maur (/ˌɔːf dər ˈmaʊər/; born March 17, 1972) is a Canadian musician, singer-songwriter, actress and photographer. Born and raised in Montréal, Auf der Maur formed Tinker in 1993 and was later recruited as the bassist for the American alternative rock band Hole in 1994. Following her departure from Hole, Auf der Maur joined The Smashing Pumpkins in 2000 and later began a solo career. Her debut studio album, Auf der Maur, was released in 2004 and her second studio album, Out of Our Minds, was released in 2010.

Early life:
Auf der Maur was born to journalist and politician Nick Auf der Maur and literary translator Linda Gaboriau. She is of German Swiss descent. Because Nick Auf der Maur was Canadian and Linda Gaboriau was born in the U.S., she holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship, as well as Swiss citizenship. Auf der Maur's surname translates as 'On the Wall', as 'maur (die Mauer)' was derived from the German word for 'wall'. Auf der Maur says her grandmother, Theresia Schaelin-Auf der Maur, was "always pounding my heritage down my throat", and was very proud of the name, which is on the brink of extinction.
Her native language is English, though she also speaks French. She spent some of her early childhood in Kenya with her mother, but after several bouts with malaria returned to Montreal, where she attended M.I.N.D. High School, a performing arts high school, and then Concordia University as a photography major.

Musical career:

Hole:
Auf der Maur became friends with Billy Corgan after apologizing for a friend who had thrown a beer bottle at the band during one of The Smashing Pumpkins' first Canadian concert dates at Montreal nightclub Les Foufounes Électriques (which translates to "The Electric Buttocks"). Her band, Tinker, opened for The Smashing Pumpkins in Montreal in 1993. In 1994, when Hole was in need of a new bassist after the death of Kristen Pfaff, Corgan recommended Auf der Maur to Courtney Love. Auf der Maur at first turned the job down, but later reconsidered. She joined Hole two weeks before the Reading Festival and recorded the album Celebrity Skin with the band, ultimately leaving on October 20, 1999, after her 5-year contract with the band had come to an end.
In June 2009, Love announced through an NME blog that Hole was re-forming, with Auf der Maur on bass and Micko Larkin, who is Love's lead guitarist, on her upcoming album. It came as a surprise to Auf der Maur, who responded by saying she felt that "You can't take a Hole reunion thing that lightly. It's gonna take a little more organizing than just 'I'll come and sing some backups and then we got Hole'".Eric Erlandson also responded to the rumors, saying, "There is no Hole without me ... on a business level." Erlandson claimed, "Love signed a contract with me when we decided to break up the band" that he claimed would prevent Love from using the name for a band that he wouldn't be a part of.
On April 12, 2012, Auf der Maur reunited for a one-time gig with Hole (comprising the 1990s lineup of herself, Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson and Patty Schemel) in New York during the promotion of Schemel's newly released documentary "Hit So Hard". Erlandson and Schemel performed with her initially until Love came to the stage for a spontaneous performance of "Over the Edge".

The Smashing Pumpkins:
After D'arcy Wretzky left the Smashing Pumpkins in 2000, Auf der Maur joined the band as bassist. Lead singer Billy Corgan had known Auf der Maur since her days in her band Tinker (who opened for the Smashing Pumpkins on their Siamese Dream tour) and the pair were friends. Melissa did not play on Machina/The Machines of God, or Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, but was a part of the band for the associated tour. The Smashing Pumpkins split later that year bringing her brief stay with the band to an end.
On February 2, 2006, MTV.com reported that Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin had signed a new management deal with Front Line Management, with a spokesperson confirming they had signed under the name "Smashing Pumpkins." In response, Auf der Maur said in a separate interview, "As long as Billy has Jimmy, he can make the essential Pumpkins record, I'm sure". When asked of her involvement, she said she was not participating in any reunion plans, but was quoted as saying, "My services are always there to play my favorite songs. If D'arcy is not available, I'm always happy to be second in line". Despite her public interest, on April 23, 2007, The Globe and Mail reported that Auf Der Maur would not be rejoining the Smashing Pumpkins.

Other collaborations:
Auf der Maur briefly toured with former The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek in 1997, after contributing bass and background vocals to his 1997 solo album Troublizing. She collaborated with French group Indochine on their song "Le Grand Secret", singing a duet in French with Nicola Sirkis, to great acclaim in France. Auf der Maur joined the band on stage to perform the song on various occasions, and appeared in the music video for the song. She performed a rare, short, acoustic set of some of her solo songs during an Indochine show in Paris, February 22, 2002. She has contributed bass and backing vocals to childhood friend Rufus Wainwright's album Poses, and appears in his 1998 video for "April Fools". In 2008, she collaborated with Canadian musician Daniel Victor, on his music collaboration project Neverending White Lights. They recorded the song "The World is Darker", for which a video was released in March 2008. Aside from this, she has contributed to albums by artists such as Ryan Adams, Ben Lee, Idaho, The Stills and Fountains of Wayne.
In 2007, she appeared on the Fountains of Wayne album Traffic and Weather singing backing on the track "Someone to Love".

Hand of Doom and The Chelsea:
In 2002, Auf der Maur fronted a Black Sabbath cover band called Hand of Doom, in which she performed lead vocals. They played a number of shows, and released a live album. In the same year, she and drummer Samantha Maloney (another Hole alumnus and also formerly of Mötley Crüe, and Peaches), Paz Lenchantin (of A Perfect Circle, and Zwan), and Radio Sloan (of Peaches, The Need) got together to play a show in Los Angeles, California as The Chelsea, taking their name from the Chelsea Hotel in New York, where Auf der Maur lived for a number of years. They performed original songs and some covers. Courtney Love later adopted the band as her backing band while touring for her first solo album, America's Sweetheart. Only Samantha Maloney and Radio Sloan remained of the original line-up, and the band was later renamed to The Courtney Love Band.

Solo career:
In 2004, Auf der Maur released her first solo effort Auf der Maur, garnering airplay on modern rock radio stations for the singles "Followed the Waves," "Real a Lie" and "Taste You." The same year, she appeared on the CBC television program The Greatest Canadian, as David Suzuki's celebrity advocate. Auf der Maur was part of the November 2004 "Love Metal" tour also featuring HIM and 2004's Curiosa. She was also the opening act for Matthew Good's "Put Out Your Lights" tour in 2004, as well as for The Offspring's Splinter tour in 2004.
In 2006, Auf der Maur was included in Blender magazine's hottest women of rock alongside Joan Jett, Liz Phair, and Courtney Love.
In a 2007 interview, Auf der Maur announced that she had finished her second solo album which would go hand in hand with a graphic novel and a concept film, which is to be released in Fall 2009. The album will be released under the name of MAdM, whereas the comic, film and album will go by Out of Our Minds, or OOOM for short. A website containing teasers of the projects, as well as a movie trailer, was launched in August, 2007 and can be found at xMAdMx.com. Glenn Danzig recorded a duet with Auf der Maur in 2008, titled "Father's Grave." On November 11, 2008 an EP for the song "This Would Be Paradise" was released on the official Web site and iTunes.(registration required) It includes the songs "The Key" and "Willing Enabler." On November 9, 2009 Auf der Maur released the first single "Out of Our Minds" from her new album for download for free on her website. On January 12, 2010 the "Out of Our Minds" music video premiered on her website.
In March 2010, Auf der Maur announced that her new short film, "Out of Our Minds," would be screened in London on April 21. In July 2010, she was a part of the major two-day, heavy metal and hard rock festival Heavy MTL at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal. On October 4, 2010, Auf der Maur premiered her music video "Meet Me On The Dark Side" online.
In January 2011, Auf der Maur won the Independent Music Awards in the Indie/Alt/Hard Rock category for Out of Our Minds.
She played Alice Longfellow in the 2011 film "Collaborator".

Photography:
Auf der Maur is also a published photographer. She was a photography major specializing in self-portraiture at Concordia University when she was invited to join Hole in 1994. Her photos have been published in Nylon, Bust, Mastermind, and American Photo, among other magazines. Her photos were also in the exhibition The Kids are Alright at Sotheby's in New York City along with photos by Yelena Yemchuk. She put together a solo exhibition in 2001, under the name of Channels. It mostly featured shots of Auf der Maur's life on the road, with a recurring TV theme and shots of hotel TV screens, hence the name Channels. The exhibition opened September 9, 2001, at Brooklyn's Secret Gallery, but was shut down after the September 11 attacks. A book bearing the same name was set to appear, but never did.

The Greatest Canadian Advocate:
In 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced a television series called The Greatest Canadian which saw 100 Canadian figures nominated for the title of 'the Greatest Canadian'. The list of 100 was narrowed to a group of 10 finalists, and a program was dedicated to relating the story of and case for each nominee was aired on the network. Each nominee was promoted by a Canadian celebrity 'advocate' and Auf der Maur appeared as the advocate for environmentalist David Suzuki (who finished 5th of 10).

Personal life:
She is married to indie filmmaker Tony Stone. On October 19, 2011, she announced on her website that she was pregnant with her first child and gave birth to her daughter, River, later that week.
Auf der Maur and Stone own Basilica Hudson, an arts and performance center in Hudson, New York where they live.

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