Melissa Auf der Maur (born March 17, 1972) is a Canadian rock musician of Franco-Swiss ancestry, who currently resides in Montreal, Quebec. "Maur" is pronounced to rhyme with "power". It is derived from the German word for wall (Mauer), thus her full surname can be literally translated as "On the Wall".
Auf der Maur was born to journalist and politician Nick Auf der Maur and literary translator Linda Gaboriau. She once observed that she had been known her whole life primarily as Nick's daughter, until she became the bassist for Hole, whereupon he became known primarily as Melissa's father.
Her primary language throughout childhood was English; she later learned French and Spanish as well. She spent some of her early childhood in Kenya with her mother, but soon returned to Montreal, where she attended a performing arts high school, and then Concordia University as a photography major.
Auf der Maur first became friends with Billy Corgan after apologizing for a friend who threw a beer bottle at the band during one of The Smashing Pumpkins' first Canadian concert dates at Foufounes Électriques. Her band, Tinker, opened for The Smashing Pumpkins in Montreal in 1993. In 1994, when Hole was in need of a new bassist following the death of Kristen Pfaff, Corgan recommended Auf der Maur to Courtney Love. Auf der Maur initially turned the job down, but reconsidered on advice from her father. She joined Hole two weeks before the Reading Festival, and stayed through the album Celebrity Skin, leaving on October 20, 1999.
