Patty Schemel - Hole and Celebrity Skin Issue

Hole and Celebrity Skin Issue

It has been noted that Schemel was considered by Kurt Cobain as Nirvana's drummer after the departure of their drummer, Chad Channing. However, after Dave Grohl's audition, Schemel became Cobain's second choice, but he and Schemel developed a close friendship.

After the departure of Hole's original drummer Caroline Rue, frontwoman Courtney Love recruited Schemel and she joined the group in 1992. Schemel's first work with the band involved the recording of their fourth single, Beautiful Son, on which she also played guitar on the b-side "20 Years in the Dakota." Most notably, she played drums on Hole's sophomore and most successful album to date Live Through This. She later went on to tour with the band for the promotion of Live Through This, which featured dates at the Reading Festival, Big Day Out and Lollapalooza. While on tour in April 1995, Schemel became the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Drum World magazine. Around this time, she also recorded with Phranc, playing drums on the Goofyfoot EP. In 1996, Schemel played drums on Hole's cover of Fleetwood Mac's song Gold Dust Woman, which was the first song on the soundtrack to The Crow: City of Angels. She also sang backing vocals and appeared prominently in the video for the song. During this time, Schemel and Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur formed a short-lived side project called Constant Comment. The band played a small number of shows before disbanding.

Hole became active again in 1997 and entered the studio to record Celebrity Skin, the follow-up to Live Through This. Schemel worked on the writing of the album's material - especially "Awful", which she composed most of - with Love, guitarist Eric Erlandson, and Auf der Maur, however, left the band before the album was recorded. All her parts on the album were performed by a session drummer provided by producer Michael Beinhorn and she was eventually replaced by Samantha Maloney for the album's tour. However, due to her contribution to the writing of the album and its demos, Schemel's name and photo were still included on the album sleeve.

Reasons for Schemel's departure from Hole were disputed, with Courtney Love claiming that Schemel's then drug habit was to blame, which supported circulating rumours at the time, however, Schemel insisted it was due to "musical differences." In fact, Schemel left Hole due to personal and musical differences between her and Celebrity Skin producer, Michael Beinhorn. She claimed that Beinhorn was "totally psyching out in the studio" and after a meeting with the band, Beinhorn brought in session drummer Deen Castronovo, to which she felt "betrayed by the band." She subsequently left before the final recording sessions for the album.

A documentary about Schemel's life (entitled Hit So Hard) directed by P. David Ebersole premiered in New York at The Museum of Modern Art in March 2011 as part of New Directors New Films, reuniting the classic Hole line-up in the same room for the first time in thirteen years. "Hit So Hard" was also the Documentary Centerpiece at Outfest in Los Angeles in June 2011 and it is set for a theatrical and home video release in 2012. It includes interviews with all four members of Hole as well as archival footage of the band that Schemel taped during her tenure. In a recent interview, Schemel stated that the documentary answers all of the questions fans may have regarding the Celebrity Skin situation. The documentary reveals that Schemel was still supposed to tour for the album, but refused to. Her last contribution to Hole was for the shooting of the cover art for Celebrity Skin. She was supposed to be in the lead single's music video, but didn't show up.