Article in Spin, November 1998


Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur's Aesthetic Paradigm Shift


As Hole prepares to release "Malibu," the second single from their poptopian third ablum, Celebrity Skin, Hole's absolutely ravishing bass player, Melissa Auf der Maur, spoke with SPINonline about the not-yet-released video for "Malibu," directed by Paul Hunter. "The theme was kind of like apocalyptic Malibu--Malibu on fire," Auf der Maur explains. "We were on the beach with Palm trees that were on fire." This shouldn't be confused with the trees ablaze on the record sleeve. Those, as Melissa explains are "actual news footage photographs of the Malibu fires, which were recreated for the video. [The Malibu video] has these epic shots of burning palm trees and even a car that explodes in it. We we're playing in front of a burning car... it was kinda scary but it was great." And how did the native Canadian feel about the aesthetic paradigm shift from grunge to Malibu? "It's a little too beachy for me. I'm a northeastern, kinda urban girl who grew up in Montreal . New York is my second favorite city."

Auf der Maur elaborates: "The whole experience of having made a California record and having to move to L.A. for it is not very up my alley, except I've been having a kick trying to explore that. I like the idea of redefining the Cali girl, but I feel like an alien on the beach. Redhead. White skin. Naaah--drinking red wine in little old men bars is more my style." "Malibu" will hit radio before the end of the month. Except for a couple of Christmas holiday radio musical festivals and a tour of Australia in January, Hole doesn't plan to tour the States until sometime in the spring of '99. In the meantime log on to SPINonline's Alt.media soon for the complete transcript of the Melissa Auf der Maur's interview, and soak up her keen fashion sense.