The mysterious death of Hole Bassist Kristen Pfaff
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Born in a suburb of Buffalo, New York, Kristen Pfaff would go to catholic school where she learned cello and piano at a young age. Her parents would divorce when she was young, but her mother would remarry and she would have a younger half brother. School mates of Pfaff who attended the same catholic school as her described her to the buffalo news as and i quote “bright, happy, always peppy," Not only that but she excelled in school achieving good grades and getting scholarships.
She would attend Boston College and do an exchange program in the Netherlands. It was ffter from returning overseas she would study English and literature at the university of Minnesota starting in 1988. It was while she was a student at the University of Minnesota, she was an important figure in the development of the University radio station called Radio K. There’s even a clip of her on KZfaq hosting a show if you guys are interested.
Her father would tell the buffalo news "That's when Kristen's life really changed. She learned to play bass and wanted to be in a band."
She soon quit school and took up bass and started playing in a 3 piece called Janitor Joe that was part of the Minneapolis music scene.
Janitor Joe played angst ridden and loud music and that caught the attention of local indie label AmRep who signed the band and put out their debut record Big Metal Birds in 1992. It was while on tour with Janitor Joe that Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson attended one of their gigs. At this point in time Hole was without a bassist and needed one for their upcoming European Tour in 1993. Erlandson would tell Spin Magazine “I found Kristen in L.A. and said, “Come with me to meet Courtney [Love] and Patty [Schemel] when you get to Seattle.” She joined the band, she moved to Seattle, and that’s when all the songs came to life, literally. She was the star of her band and so she was bringing that to Hole and that created sparks in everybody; we all saw an even greater potential than before. Patty Schemel (pronounced at 0:20 mark here • Hole drummer Patty Sch... ) would add to Spin “Her playing was heavy, and she was knowledgeable, and she had command of her instrument. When she played, that was it: We knew.”
It was during that European tour that the band debuted material that was going to make their next record and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Sean Slade who worked on Hole’s second record Live Through This as an engineer and producer would recall to spin how once he heard the demos from the band he noticed that with the addition of Pfaff the band sounded more musical. The band would travel to Atlanta in October of 1993 to record the album.
Jim Merlis, a rep from Geffen Records, the band’s label would tell the buffalo news “"Kristen was really excited about making a record with Hole. She was so enthusiastic. She couldn't wait to start touring."
It was during the recording sessions for live through this that Erlandson and Pfaff were involved in a romantic relationship. In the book It was also speculated that peer pressure from her bandmates and friends in seattle led her to start using heroin.
Schemel would tell Spin: Kristen became Eric’s girlfriend, so they were tight. … Then there was me and my addiction with alcohol and drugs. Kristen and I would get together, and we were always trying to keep the amount of drugs we were doing secret. “Don’t tell Eric.” There were so many secrets. We were all frustrated, and we all had a lot of downtime. And so to deal with that, there was a lot of “hanging out.” I was frustrated. I wanted to play. I wanted to record. Erlandson would add in the same interview that during the making of the album he and Pfafff had broken up and there was noticable tension while recording the album
But it wasn’t just Erlandson and Pfaff who had tension between them as the bassist started to butt heads with frontwoman Courtney Love. Pfaff while new to the band was outspoken about musical ideas and that apparently rubbed Courtney Love the wrong way. Another factor contributing to Love’s resentment towards Pfaff at least according to the book Love and Death the murder of Kurt Cobain, was that the bassist had