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Dialects, Idioms and Languages by Igor Saavedra
The musical styles are one of the most interesting and rich dimensions that music can offer to the world, but at the same time if they are conceived and understood in a wrong manner, they can get to a point that can create musical barriers among the regular people, and which is worse, among musicians.
As any dialect, they proliferated within a “Tribal context,” so Rockers, Jazzists, Folklorists, Blues Musicians, Classical Musicians and hundreds more of these “tribes” were spread through the surface of this planet “flying the flags of their own truth” without even noticing it.
The most interesting thing to mention here is that in this particular scenario, which is the Musicology and History of Music context, “The Dialect created the Tribe,” and not the opposite like will happen within the context of Anthropology and Sociology.
“Musicians who played Rock created Rock but Rock created the Rockers… and musicians who played Jazz created Jazz but Jazz created the Jazzists, etc… as you can see this is completely twisted, and for that reason in my opinion is a nonsense situation”.
I’m trying to say in fact that subterranean processes took control of this potentially perfect musical situation which was the amazing variety of musical styles, and that the avid and greedy dogma “ate” some part of this beautiful, natural and spontaneous process. A dark, corrosive and sneaky fundamentalism, inherent to the human specie, irrupted and caused more damage than anybody expected.
We never have to forget that those dialects were indeed born from one of the most wonderful “idioms” that life has provided us with, which is the music as a whole, and I want to stress the fact that I’m saying, “One of the most wonderful idioms,” because I don’t see music as a language like everybody says and in fact I don’t think that’s the only wonderful idiom either.
In my opinion music is just a part of the real “Universal Language” which is “Art” and the most wonderful aspect of this proposal is that when you get the real ability to dominate the “Wonderful Universal Language of Art,” you’ll become immediately capable of communicating with every other idiom in this world, like Music, Painting, Sculpting, Writing, Dancing, etc… and needless to say, you’ll be able to communicate fluently in any dialect as well.
People who want to dedicate their life to cultivate and to master a specific dialect, or people who want to dedicate their life to cultivate and to master a specific idiom will have all the right to follow those paths, and probably in my opinion they’ll find in music the essence of life itself, but in my life I’ve heard thousand of experts on specific dialects, and also thousand of masters in specific idioms, that despite the fact of their infinite talent and abilities, they couldn’t communicate with anybody except with themselves.
Very few will be the ones that will be truly able to communicate something, and I’m sure they’ll be able to do so through the Universal Language, which is Art. They will be able to talk straight to your heart without any intermediary, and the idiom or dialect they’ll choose to establish that communication will be completely unimportant.
Art, on its most profound, complete and sublime meaning is, “The Infinite love Language” that squeezes your whole soul so to get the very essence of existence and then sharing it with every human being; luminous… free… and deprived of any kind of violence…
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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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