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Bass Musician Magazine Staff Shares Their Views on Our 3 Year Anniversary
Bass Musician Magazine has been a wonderful resource for the bass community, providing in-depth analysis of what’s happening in the world of serious bass playing and thought-provoking words from the masters, Thanks so much to everyone involved for their hard work and dedication and here’s hoping for many more years of great reading. I’m thrilled to have been involved!
Michael Manring
I consider Bass Musician Magazine the “DownBeat of Bass”, so to speak, in that it focuses on the jazz side of bass playing and features bassists who have found a way to take our instrument to the next level. It’s relevancy as a magazine will become more and more apparent over time. The concept of a web-only magazine that offers its entire and ever-growing archive of content available on demand is groundbreaking. Better yet, it’s translatable into 50 languages at the click of a button. If that’s not forward thinking, I don’t know what is.
Rick Suchow
BMM has proven to be the gold-standard (in my opinion) for what an online magazine can and should be. The content runs deep, the contributors are among the best out there and the site is easy to navigate. It’s been my honor to be involved and look forward to many more years of Bass Musician Magazine!
Damian Erskine
When BMM appeared on the scene, I noticed the difference immediately; First of all, I was presented with full-array of bass content in a user-friendly format. Second, the focus was (and is) on content vs. advertising and that focus really pleased me a lot. Years have passed and that spirit is still happening on every page.
Igor Saavedra
I am very happy to be and to have been a part of the Bass Musician Magazine community. The magazine offers a forum for bassists of all calibers, styles and beliefs to have an equal voice and to share information and favorite stuff- it doesn’t get any better than that. Keep on truckin…
Randy Kertz
I want to give a big congrats and thanks to Bass Musician Magazine for their 3rd anniversary! Over the years, Jake Kot and staff have continually produced an original product based in truth, a thing that’s somewhat rare these days…
Doug Johns
I am so proud and honored that I have been involved with Bass Musician Magazine from its’ beginnings. I remember Jake Kot’s excitement (and mine) when he first told me the idea of the mag and what it would be and could become. The fact that there are so many great players from various genres contributing to the mag is amazing in itself. I really dig that it is becoming more about a community that interacts and shares opinions, knowledge, etc. rather than just another online publication. Happy Anniversary to all involved! Ray Riendeau
Cheers and Happy Anniversary to Bass Musician Magazine! It is a great honor for me to be part of the BMM Family! Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share knowledge with the world… Together we are making a difference, we are making history in music education and the music industry… and this is just the beginning!
Jaime David Vazquez
Wow, three years already! When we sat down to plan this magazine, I never could have imagined how it would connect me to so many amazing, talented musicians worldwide! Interviews, CD reviews, book reviews, live performances and personal correspondence have all made it possible to experience and share our common bond, the Bass, on so many levels. I look forward to so much more and of course sharing the journey with all our readers. This is just the beginning! Raul Amador, Creative Director BMM
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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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