Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur was born and raised in Montreal, Canada where she received a fine arts education focused on music and photography. Auf der Maur is most prominently known for her role as the bass player and band member in two Grammy Nominated and Winning 90’s rock bands, Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins. At the turn of the millennium, after multiple world tours she set off on her own to self-produce two solo albums, released on Capitol Records and RoadRunner / Warner Brother Records. In 2010 she co-founded the multidisciplinary art center Basilica Hudson in Hudson, NY with filmmaker Tony Stone, which welcomes up to 20,000 yearly visitors to genre-pushing music festivals, large-scale marketplace events, film screenings, and public installations. In addition to her work as an arts and music curator at Basilica Hudson, Auf der Maur has produced films that have been presented at Sundance Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, New Directors New Films, and released by NEON and Magnolia Pictures. Her photography work has been published in National Geographic, American Photo, SPIN and BUST Magazines, and exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Sotheby's NY, among other venues. Her literary memoir, focusing on her time in the iconic 90’s rock scene, was released in March 2026 by Grand Central Publishing & Da Capo.
In September 2026 Envision Records will release BASS WOMB ROOM: My ’90s 4-Track Demos x Field Recordings, An Exhibition Soundtrack Featuring Unreleased Music Written and Recorded by Auf der Maur, Out Sept. 4 via Envision Records.