Cardiac attest

The multimedia machinations of Melissa
Auf der Maur’s Out of Our Minds

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

This weekend’s Heavy MTL appearance marks the Montreal general-public debut of Melissa Auf der Maur’s Out of Our Minds—at least, the live-concert side of it. The Montreal-born bassist, formerly of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, has followed her 2004 eponymous solo debut, released on Capitol, with the above-mentioned album (featuring bonus Danzig!). And live show. And interactive web portal. And half-hour film, directed by Tony Stone. And comic book, drawn by Jack Forbes.

And no, she isn’t out of her mind, but rather plugged right into the great media shift, favouring independence and cross-platform creativity.

“It was a traditional beginning,” Auf der Maur says, looking back five years. “I had a label, I had a budget to do demos and ‘Out of Our Minds’ was the first song I’d been writing. It was the song that gave me the thematic and sonic focus for the record. That’s why ‘Out of Our Minds’ ended up becoming the film, the comic book and the overall message—‘Travel out of our minds and into our hearts.’

“It’s clearly an ancient message. People have built entire religions on this concept of mind over heart. So that’s when I consciously-slash-subconsciously, for the next years of development, returned to that core, orbiting around this heart and this responsibility we have on a tiny, personal level and on a big, global level, and all of the stories in between.”

Auf der Maur’s “in between” story was by the book halfway through, but the collapse of Capitol scrambled the script. For all the legal headaches and mountain of newly acquired mundane tasks that the shift demanded, she regards it as the best thing possible.

Banking on her established rep and fanbase (and more recently, haunting sci-fi and comic cons to expand that following), Auf der Maur set out to pursue her expansive vision on her own terms and her own dime. “Creative survivalism just kicked in,” she says.

The dramatic upswing in cheap, accessible media tech allowed her to conjure concepts and content unimaginable for an indie artist a decade ago. “It wouldn’t have been possible even five years ago,” she says. “We shot the film on the first consumer-friendly HD camera. That didn’t exist when I made the demo. So it’s literally getting more and more possible.”

What any such ambitious multimedia adventure requires is a solid central idea, and Auf der Maur’s call for a calibration of heart and mind—by way of the album’s roiling rock thunder and pop-metal appeal, and the evocative fantasy imagery of the film and comic—is just that.

“Yes, it is an ancient concept, but it’s as valid today, perhaps even more as we destroy the heart of our planet. We should still be wondering why we’re committed to the masculine mind side of things.”

Auf der Maur, an iconic figure of the ’90s women-in-rock revolution, is quick to qualify what seems like a gendered remark.

“It’s not gender because it’s not human. It’s the inner and the outer, the spirit and the physical. It’s definitely not gender, I’m so beyond gender, never have been into that concept. It’s really a matter, literally, of your conscious and subconscious. It’s like the waking day and sleeping time. There are two sides to every single person and place and situation, to existence, and we’re still not traveling equally in both. I believe we should.”

WITH MEGADETH, SLAYER, TESTAMENT
AND MORE AT HEAVY MTL AT
PARC JEAN-DRAPEAU (DAY ONE) ON
SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1 P.M., $67.50
(WEEKEND PASS $119.50), ALL AGES