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Ups and Downs : Respecting the Music With Phil Baker
Meet Phil Baker –
“Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.” -W. H. Auden 1962
“The fire of suffering becomes the light of consciousness.” -Eckhart Tolle 2005
The music biz is tough. Or, to paraphrase Steve Swallow: “The music biz is tough if it’s what you want to do, and easy if it’s what you have to do.” I’ve seen great talent waste their careers needlessly, while lesser talent thrived, buoyed by posturing, hype and jive.
In 1983 I played on the “Motown 25” TV show. I was in Diana Ross’ band and was honored to back up legends like Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. James Jamerson, who was my idol, had preceded me in Diana’s band by two bassists. I was shocked to learn after the fact that he had to buy a scalped ticket to get in to the show! This was a TV show that should have had a thirty-minute tribute to him! He died soon after a broken man.
Flash back to 1977. I’m hanging out with my teenage buddies behind the Paramount Theatre in Portland hoping to meet another one of my idols, Jaco Pastorius, who was playing there with Weather Report. Well, as the old saying goes: “You don’t want to meet your idols.” In this case it was only half true. Although he was obviously under the influence of something, there were pearls of wisdom surrounded by all the bull#$% he was talking.
I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that both men (and many others) died way too early. Yes, both men had substance abuse problems but they also felt that their careers had taken a downturn. If either were alive today they would be worshiped as the iconoclasts that they were. Fashion in music, just like fashion in clothing, is fickle and cyclical. The demand for Jamerson’s warm tubby grooves had given way to popping and slapping and synth bass lines but his bass lines on the Motown hits will always be classics. Similarly, Jaco’s contribution to Weather Report and several of Joni Mitchell’s albums are timeless.
It can be tough as a musician to weather some of the inevitable lows that almost every career faces but if we remember why we started to play music and the joy that playing with gifted musicians can bring it can help us through tough times. Before her comeback Bonnie Raitt said that her record label considered her vinyl records not important enough to release on CD. Guess who had the last laugh.
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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