Melissa Auf Der Maur was born March 17, 1972, in Montreal, Quebec. The daughter of Linda Gaboriau, Montreal's first female rock DJ, and Nick Auf Der Maur, a Montreal personality who was a writer, radio announcer and politician, Melissa was raised to be outgoing and love bars (her late father was a local pub regular and even had a street named after him on Montreal's bar strip).

She was immersed into the music scene at an early age thanks to her mother, who would show young Melissa interviews of rock stars like Frank Zappa and author Ken Kesey, and the "spreading the word" aspect of rock and roll intrigued