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Freelancing in a College Town: Dependability by Jonathan Moody
It’s Thursday. I’m staring at a weekend (Friday-Sunday) that has five shows, two rehearsals and a church service. As I’m getting ready and organizing my gig bags, amp cables, and clothes, I’m reminded by a comment a friend made a couple of summers ago; “Man, you gig more in one month than most of the students in town do in a year!” While I can’t confirm whether his comment is accurate or not, he does have a point.
The musician talent pool in a college town is much like their corresponding college sports teams; it varies widely from year to year. As graduates leave town for bigger cities and greater things, new students come in to begin their college journey. With this steady ebb and flow of talent, it can be very easy for the regulars in town to be looked over. It takes a different skill set than just playing your instrument well in order to remain on the top of the call list. The first one I’m going to go over is easy; be dependable.
Now, before we go any further, I’m not insinuating that college students are not dependable. However, college students have a lot of commitments that, when combined with classes, homework and practicing, can result in surprises. A student may have to rely on subs for gigs due to their conflicts. Many times, the directors don’t hear about these conflicts until a sub walks into a rehearsal or performance (I see this happen regularly). Having the same person for an entire run of gigs versus splitting the chair between a couple of players is preferable in any situation, and with college students this isn’t always a guarantee.
Since you don’t have the college schedule, you can more easily accept an entire run of gigs or shows, freeing the director to worry about someone else. If you do have to procure a sub for a show or two, be upfront and tell them right away. My personal motto is to never accept any gigs that I can’t do myself, but on the rare occasion that I do have a conflict, I make it a point to convey those to the director before I even accept the gig. If they are okay with the conflicts, we can move forward. Otherwise, I am happy to recommend someone else in town that is capable.
As the rehearsals and gigs come and go, your dependability is going to show up more as consistency. I am regularly early to any rehearsal or gig to set my rig up and get ready (I also can snag a cup of coffee from the theatre kitchen too, which is a bonus). When playing, I am consistent in my performance and also take notes on things that I need to look over and fix before the next rehearsal or show so that I can end a run of shows better than when I started. The last thing a director needs to worry about is “Where is ______ going to screw up tonight?” which, again, is something I see often. By being consistent, you become someone in the group that others can rely on. In the theatre setting, the music directors normally know they can lean on me to keep the tempo moving, but also help any subs that are in my immediate area to stay on top of the changes and cuts that are in the show.
In conclusion, when directors call me, there are no surprises or problems. They know exactly what I bring to each and every rehearsal or show. By being able to take entire runs of gigs, conveying any problems upfront and letting the director make the call, and consistent in how I approach a rehearsal and gig, my dependability speaks for me before the phone rings. The only worry that whoever hires you should have is wondering if they called you quickly enough to book you.
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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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