Hello magical friends, and welcome to episode 75 of WZRD Radio! I’m your hostwitch Bess and this month I’m talking to some of wizard rock’s most enthusiastic innovators—The Swedish Shortsnouts! We had such a wonderful conversation and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Of course, first we’ve got some music to listen to, so without further ado, here’s Alex Boyd and “I Could Use A House Elf.”
~*~
That was Alex Boyd and “I Could Use a House Elf,” “House of Awesome Theme Song” by The Whomping Willows, and “Hogwarts El Paso” by Tom Smith [lyrics].
“House of Awesome” was dedicated to Kalysta, Eddie, David, Christie, Leah, Ahmed, Phoenix, Stace, and James by my magical patron Geoff. They say “Our show at MISTI-Con will be fueling patronuses for the rest of my life!”
And here’s my conversation with The Swedish Shortsnouts!
Welcome to the show, the Swedish Shortsnouts! It’s so cool to have the whole band all in one place together.
Erik: Hello.
Anna: Hello.
Jimmy: Hi.
I think, uh, the last time I saw you perform, you all had done this really amazing screen in screen in screen for one of the OWLfests.
Jimmy: <laugh>
Erik: Yes. We did that <laugh> a couple of times in different ways. <laugh>
Jimmy: Yeah.
It was, uh, incredibly impressive and still I think is one of the highlights people talk about.
Anna: It was really fun. It was actually quite difficult, like even up until when we did the first one where we did the screen in screen in screen where we were filming screens in a series of three, basically, it’s, it’s a bit hard to explain. Um, we, we didn’t know it was going to work until we were doing it. Like we were a little unsure up until the point <laugh> when it started.
Erik: Yeah. And even when we did it, it didn’t really work 100%.
Anna: No. We—
Jimmy: No.
Anna: —had like a couple of of patches where it just, it wasn’t quite there.
Erik: Yeah. But it was, it was good enough.
Anna: It, it, I think it worked incredibly well for how risky it was. <laugh>
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: But it was one of those things that I kind of realized like “this, I think this should be possible.” And when I realized that I always have to do it.
Anna: Yeah, you have it to try.
Erik: It’s kind of my weakness.
Anna: <laugh> And your strength, because we did it.
Erik: Yeah. I guess it is a strength.
Jimmy: And it works out incredibly well for the rest of us. <laugh>
Erik: Yeah, it does—
Anna: Yeah!
Erik: —cuz we get to try all these cool things that I think we should do.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Now, as I said, we do have, uh, the whole gang here, I think. So that might be a little confusing for listeners. Shall we start with just introductions? Who’s who?
Erik: That’s a good idea. Yes. I, the crazy one, my name is Erik.
Jimmy: Yeah. And I’m Jimmy, I’m sitting behind the drums right now.
Anna: And I am Anna by the keyboard.
I always like to start with, uh, your history with wizard rock. What got you into it, what got you started playing and performing? Do you all remember the early days for you?
Erik: I think we remember it quite well. It’s, it’s all, it’s all Anna’s fault. <laugh>
Anna: It was, it was kind of, yeah, because I was really, really, really into wizard rock. This was around like 2007 which was a really cool time to be really into wizard rock. Um, and my problem was that I was really into wizard rock in Sweden, which, which nowadays is not a problem, but, but back at the time, it absolutely was because there just weren’t really active witzard rock bands. There wasn’t really a wizard rock scene. Uh, and I was, it was my passion, I loved it so much. I was, I think 15 years old. Uh, and so, um, I, I talked my brother Erik, uh, uh, the crazy one, uh, into starting a wizard rock band with me. It was, it was quite easy actually, because it was just the sort of project that you would enjoy it. So it just so happened. Um, and then along the way, uh, uh, the band has grown and, uh, Jimmy has also joined, uh, as our drummer. Um, yes. There’s probably more to say about…
Erik: Yeah, there’s, I mean, I, I, I knew what wizard of was. I listened to wizard rock and I liked it, but I was more like… I listened to the big things. I, I like “oh, this Harry and the Potters thing. That’s a cool project. Oh, they did a Draco and the Malfoys one. That’s nice.” But that was kind of it. But you listened to like, everything you could find essentially.
Anna: Yeah, I had, I was just going all over MySpace, downloading songs from all of these bands… sort of going from band profile to band profile, just downloading MP3 files, putting them all in playlists on, on my iPod. This was very <laugh>. I did all of those things and, and I just, um… what I really wanted, it was kind of backwards because at the time I wanted to go to a wizard rock concert and nobody else was playing them where we lived. And I figured if we started a band, maybe there would be other bands and then I could go to those concerts, right? It was kind of a backwards thought. Along the way I got a lot more interested in playing the music myself. And, and I was really, really happy that, that I was, uh, on stage as a wizard rocker and not, not just in the audience, because that turned out to be great fun. But initially it was sort of a, a master plan to, to try to see if someone else could be foolish enough to do this thing that I had pursuaded my brother to do with me. <laugh>.
Jimmy, were you also into wizard rock or are you one of those muggles that got tricked?
Jimmy: Um, it’s a bit, a bit, a little bit of both. I was sort of in the same boat as Erik cuz like I, I knew about like the big acts and listened to it a bit, but I was mainly like just a musician in general. So… and there weren’t many drummers around. Uh, I was playing with another wizard rock band called Solitary Snape at the time. And, um… we did a few, I think we did a few gigs with Swedish Shortsnouts, like at the same show.
Erik: Yeah. That’s, that’s how we met Jimmy, wasn’t it. It was at a, at a wizard rock show.
Anna: Yeah, absolutely.
Erik: Where both the Shortsnouts and Solitary Snape were playing.
Jimmy: Yeah. Uh, and, and, uh, at a later show where we both bands were playing, we, we just said like “wouldn’t it be fun, like if we did, if we did the Swedish Shortsnouts as a full band” instead of like just them playing acoustically, um, or using like backing tracks with the programmed drums and stuff that was on, on the recordings. Um, and sort of went from there. So I was in the scene, but I wasn’t like that big into wizard rock. I was mainly like playing it. But yeah.
Would you say you’re, uh, a bigger fan now or are you still just coasting on your surface understanding?
Jimmy: I’m not even sure at this point how many different projects I’ve been in. Um—
Anna: <laugh>
Jimmy: So <laugh>, uh, I, my interest definitely like, grew as it progressed there in the beginning. Like, uh, so, uh, I’m definitely a bigger fan now than I was back then. Um, and, uh, I’ve had lots of fun. Uh, I think we’ve been doing this like in different constellations for like 16 years now, so yeah.
That’s pretty amazing. 16 years.
Jimmy: Yeah. That’s, it’s half my life <laugh>. So, yeah.
Uh, I feel you on starting a project in the hopes that other people would also get excited and do more. Did you have success? Have you created a, a successful wrock scene in Sweden?
Erik: You had an amazing success.
Anna: I mean, I mean, yes, but, oh God, I, I immediately wanna point out that it, it wasn’t, I don’t really think us starting the Swedish Shortsnouts was necessarily what, what caused it all. I think that there were a lot of bands that like formed around that time. And we also, I was on a, I was briefly on a podcast in, in 2007. It was a podcast called, I believe, ExpelliarmusCast. This was a long time ago. We started a Swedish podcast with, with quite a, there weren’t a lot of listeners, uh,
<laugh>
Erik: there were not many podcasts in Sweden at that point.
Anna: No.
Jimmy: No
Anna: But, but we had a podcast and, and we did an episode about wizard rock, where we were really trying to fill out time. So I think we talked for like a good 20 minutes about how nice it would be if there were more wizard rock bands. And after that, a lot of bands started in, in the months after that because the community was sort of, um, listening to this, this show. And, and suddenly everyone wanted to have a band. Um, I’m sure people wanted to have a band for, for more reasons than that. I believe Solitary Snape formed around then. I’m looking at Jimmy.
Jimmy: Yeah… Um—
Erik: Yeah, you can look at me for dates. We formed in the spring of 2007 and Solitary Snape in December of 2007.
Anna: Yeah, and that—
Jimmy: Yeah, that’s correct.
Anna: Yeah. And that podcast episode was sometime in that fall and a lot of things were happening at the same time. This was 2007, so obviously the seventh book was coming out and there was this sort of sense that if we don’t do this now, when are we ever going to do it? And it, it sort of translated to wizard rock bands, to the podcast, to events that people started to organize. Like it felt sort of like everything was, was ending and we just were not letting it. Like the community really took root during those years, like 2000 7, 8, 9 thereabout.
Jimmy: Oh, for sure.
Anna: Yeah.
So I feel like your band name is almost self-explanatory, but I would love to know how you came to it. What made you decide to be dragons, especially since that’s been such a through fair in some of your music?
Erik: I think it was, uh, this is something probably we thought about that afternoon, but it was, it was basically the only reference to Sweden in the books. Not quite, you also have a Luna Lovegood going to Sweden.
Anna: Yeah. To see the Crumple Horned Snorkacks, yeah.
Erik: So we, we could have been the Crumple Horned Snorkacks.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: But, but we went for the Swedish Shortsnouts. Although interestingly, uh, if you’re very, uh, observant, you may have noticed we accidentally spelled it wrong.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: In the books, it’s spelled “short-snouts,” but we spelled “shortsnouts” as a single word. Uh, but that it was purely a mistake. But we just, we’ve, we’ve just gone with it. <laugh>
Anna: Yeah. A lot of, a lot of words in the Swedish language, when you put two words together, you don’t put a space in between. So it’s just how, how we at, especially at age, like 15, 16, would write that not not being, um, I mean I think we were very proficient at English at, at that time, but not quite as proficient as we are now. And it would never have occurred to me to double check that that wasn’t supposed to be one word.
Erik: Yeah. We just, we just forgot to look it up. <laugh>
Anna: Yeah. In Swedish that’s, that would be one word. Of course it’s one word. Shortsnout. Eh. So I think it’s neat though, that we have this subtle difference <laugh> between the canon. But I actually, actually remember, I don’t know if you remember this Erik, but we nearly called ourselves the Hufflepuffs.
Erik: Yeah, that’s true. We—
Anna: Because we were talking about it as the Hufflepuffs until we hit upon the Swedish Shortsnouts. And then we were like, you know what? That’s better. That’s better.
Erik: That, that’s probably because we, we were doing this as we were recording our first song
Anna:Yeah.
Erik: Which was called “We’re Gonna Win The House Cup.”
Anna: Exactly, exactly.
Erik: And we never mentioned in the song which house we are supporting.
Anna: No.
Erik: Uh, so then it would’ve make sense that the band name would mention that.
Anna: Yeah. Because the song is a house-neutral house cup song.
Erik: Yeah.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: Uh, but yeah, I, I’m happy we went with the Shortsnouts.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: I think it makes more sense.
Anna: It’s been very useful because, because as you said, it does appear a lot in our music and, and it’s been fun to, to think of all the little times when the Shortsnouts may have been relevant or where we could make it relevant, uh, to, to the story.
Are you all Hufflepuffs? Would that still make sense today?
Erik: We were.
Jimmy: Yeah. My, I, um, <laugh>, my girlfriend would never let me say that I’m a Hufflepuff. So <laugh>.
Erik: So he’s a Slytherin now.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: And I still haven’t forgiven him for it, but it’s okay. <laugh>
It happens to the best of us. My patrons were curious about your musical influences. You’ve mentioned that you listened to a lot of the, um, like the biggest and earliest wizard rock bands. Are there other wizard rock or muggle musicians that you all are really fond of?
Erik: Uh, yeah. Uh, there’s one, perhaps unexpected one. At the time when we formed the band, or slightly shortly thereafter, I was listening a lot to Tenacious D. You know, Jack Black’s and Kyle Glass’ Band. And they, and <laugh>, they’re very different from us. They do like, I mean, they do comedy rock, which is a genre that I think has a lot in common with wizard rock. Um, but they’re a bit more explicit. We’re very family friendly, <laugh>, uh, but, but they’re, they’re the thing they do when they’re like a duo with two guitars. Uh, that was, yeah. Uh, that was influential because also because like their songs are very simple. They’re often in the key of D which is an easy key to play on the guitar. Uh, and all of our songs happen to also be in the key of D because it works well with both me and Anna’s voices. Uh, so yeah, sometimes I just feel like Kyle Glass when we do, uh, yeah play live. <laugh>
So Tenacious D for Erik. What about—
Erik: <laugh> That’s one I have to say. Cause it’s also an expected one. An unexpected one. So it’s kinda fun.
Yeah. I would not have guessed that.
Erik: <laugh>
Anna: Yeah. I think, I think mine are also unexpected actually, because I listen a lot to Japanese pop music. Um, it’s one of my favorite things. And, um, and there is so much, uh, Japanese pop is very like melodious, uh, which it has it, I think it has done in common with Swedish Pop as well. And, and, um, for me, that’s been a bit influential in, uh, how I think about songs. And also because I watch so much, um, I watch videos of live performances of, of Japanese pop artists. And that has influenced me some in like what we do when we sing live and sort of what I want to do when we write songs to be able to incorporate some sort of interaction with the audience, uh, into the performance. Um, like for example, we wrote this… um, we have a, a rap song in Swedish called Bertie Bott. And I think it was one of the most unlikely things ever for us to do a rap. But I was dead set on doing this rap because I, I had this vision for this call and response, uh, portion, uh, just really simple stuff: when I say ‘bertie,’ you say ‘bott’, that sort of thing. But I, but I just thought this would be fun and this would work really well. Uh…
Erik: Did it ever?
Anna: I I, I think it’s worked fairly well.
Erik: Okay. <laugh>
Anna: At any rate, it was fun and it sort of influenced a bit how, how I think about songs in terms of how I want to perform them live and what I want to be able to do with an audience rather than in a studio, I think. Yeah.
Erik: Yeah. That’s, that’s a, a thing we’ve thought more about—
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: —as time goes on, how, how would this work live?
Anna: Yes.
Erik: It’s not something we thought of at all when we first started making songs. I think that the key turning point when we really started doing that was when we first saw Harry and the Potters—
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: —perform live in Sweden in 2010.
Anna: Yes.
Erik: That was like “Oh! So that’s wizard rock”. <laugh>
Anna: “Oh, you can do that.” Yeah. Yeah. That was absolutely eye-opening. Yes.
That makes sense. Their live shows are just like a revelation. And, you know, I think those two influences do go together pretty well because Jack Black has such a good sense of humor. He would love to be the next Baby Metal or Puffy AmiYumi.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: Absolutely. Yes.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Do you all write your songs together? How, what’s that process look like?
Erik: It’s been very different throughout the years. Obviously when we started, it was just me and Anna. And then typically Anna would write lyrics that were, as I remember it, almost finished by the time you got to—
Anna: No, no.
Erik: No? <laugh>
Anna: I would, I would give you, I would get you the finished version and you would say “Hm” and I would rewrite it.
Erik: <laugh>. Right, right. Maybe I had some feedback, but—
Anna: You did. <laugh>.
Erik: Uh, but, but generally the lyrics came first.
Anna: Yes, yes.
Erik: Uh, that was typically it. And I made some music for it. And then there were a couple of revisions of that. Um, but since then we’ve had, uh, different setups as well. We’ve had, uh, like sometimes I remember for example, at a New Year’s Eve party, me and Jimmy were bored or something cuz we, and we went to a corner and we’re like “let’s write a song.” And we—
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
Erik: —flipped the book randomly. And we stumbled upon, uh, the chapter called “Lord Voldemort’s Request,” although this was the Swedish edition of the book, so it’s called… well, that in Swedish. And that ended up being a song with that title, uh, which is, it’s a Swedish song, uh, about Lord Voldemort, um, ordering ice cream, um, in Diagon Alley. And it’s one of our most popular songs in Swedish, somehow <laugh>
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
Anna: Hilariously, it is. Like, you came to me an hour later at that party, like “we wrote a song!” and you played it to me. And I was like “what are you guys doing?” And it worked so well. It’s just, we, we cannot play a show and not play this song. It’s, it’s, we have to play it. It’s a staple.
The, um, the energy in your music does seem to generally be sort of joyful and like fun. So it makes sense to me that it, it translates by and large well, to to live performances. Um, do you have… are, are there performers that you would love to, to collaborate with either, you know, on like a, a live show performance or on an album? Um, and anyone?
Erik: I mean, uh, uh, I think one of our dream performances is what we’ve already done. We’ve played horns for Harry and the Potters. That’s probably one of our dreams when we started out. Uh, but I dunno, if I want were to say like a really crazy one. What about the Hungarian Horntails?
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: Do you remember them? Because they’re also dragons. <laugh>
Anna: Yeah. Like that we were talking about that at, at some point, like, that would’ve been so fun just to do like a, a dragon something there. There’s a synergy there. Something could have happened.
Erik: Yeah. I don’t think they’re very active anymore.
Anna: No. <laugh>
Jimmy: <laugh>
Anna: No. But that would’ve been really, really cool. But yes, as you said, we’ve also, um, we’ve played quite a lot of shows through the years and, and with every possible wizard rocker in Sweden and with, with a bunch of international ones as, as well.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: In a way that we just never could have predicted when we started this. So I think we also have experienced so many, um, sort of meetings with other artists in the community. We’ve been very fortunate in, in that way.
Jimmy: Fun fact. Um, the, the first time that I and Erik saw Harry and the Potters live, I was playing drums for them.
Erik: Right. Cuz they didn’t have a drummer coming over with them that time.
Anna: Yeah!
Jimmy: Yeah. So they were going to, they were doing a Scandinavian tour, uh, back in 2010. And, um, they weren’t gonna bring a drummer so they were gonna do, uh, acoustic sets, but like, I like took a chance and wrote to them and said “I’m going to all the shows anyway,” because we were gonna do that. Um, so, um, I wrote to them and said like “do you need a drummer? Because like, I, I’m, I’m gonna be at all the shows, so do you want me to play for you?” And I did. Uh, and I’ve played with them several times after that as well.
Erik: How much did you rehearse before that first show, like one hour? <laugh>
Jimmy:Together? Yeah. Uh, <laugh>, but, but by myself? Uh, like a few days probably <laugh>.
Erik: That’s fine.
Jimmy: But, uh, no, it was basically a long sound check and then we did it. <laugh>
That’s amazing. I’ve been learning as I do these that drummers are sort of a, a rare and, and valuable resource in wizard rock. So there’s never a drummer that just plays for one band. You end up being the communal drummer. <laugh>
Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah.
This seems like a good spot for a music break. And look! Here comes “Avada Kedavra” by Time Bomb.
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That was Time Bomb’s “Avada Kedavra” [lyrics], “Draco Doesn’t Know” by Undesirable #1 [lyrics], and “Never Get Away,” which is a little sneak peek from Striking Down Diggory. It’s on the album coming out next month!
Here’s more of my talk with Anna, Erik, and Jimmy.
So we’ve been talking about it a little bit, but as you said, you’ve performed with everyone everywhere and I’d—
<laugh>
—love to hear some of your stories of those performances.
Erik: Wow. Where do we start <laugh>? I think, yeah. We, I think one of our most, uh, influential performances was a Swedish conference in 2009, uh, called Expecto Patronum. Uh, that was a really big one cuz there was so many Swedish acts there. And that’s kind of when we, the Swedish scene kind of all came together. Um—
Jimmy: Yeah, that’s also the first gig that us three played together.
Erik: Correct. It was, so that was a really special one.
Jimmy: So that was the first Shortsnouts gig as a three, as a three piece.
Erik: Yeah. Um… And then of course, I mean the Harry Potters tour, Harry and the Potter tour in, uh, in 2010, uh, when they came here, we played, uh, we opened for them on a couple of shows. Uh, that was really great.
Jimmy: Right. So the first, the first gig I played with Solitary Snape, I played with you and then I played with Paul and Joe. So…
Erik: Yep. You did, you did three sets.
Jimmy: Yeah. <laugh>
Erik: That’s impressive. Uh, and then what else? And I mean, uh, when we had all the shutdown and stuff recently, we have done a bunch of live streams that were kind of cool. We did the, the camera-in-camera-in-camera one. That was cool.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: Uh, we also played a Swedish con called, uh, DobbyConLine. Uh, and there we did a collaboration with, uh, Pussycat Dolores. That was, that was a really, uh, cool, cuz we’ve done a song together and that’s the only time we performed that live. We kind of showed up as a surprise on the Pussycat Dolores set. It worked really well.
Anna: I also, I really enjoyed, uh, the, the last show that we did that, that wasn’t really our show, but the last, uh, music show we did at the convention MultiCon, uh, which was a multi-fandom convention that ran from 2013 to 20…
Erik: 17
Anna: 17. There we go.
Erik: In Stockholm.
Anna: Yes.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: Uh, five years. Um, and for the final year of that conference, uh, we, we did a show, actually you sort of produced it, Erik,
Erik: <laugh>
Anna: A show that we called a “Rhapsody in Fandom,” where there was like a whole band. And when I say a whole band, I mean that we just got everyone who could play something useful together. So we had people, like, I was playing trombone for most of the set. We had someone on flute, we had someone on clarinet.
Erik: We had two cellos.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: I think we had like a saxophone person—
Erik: Of course!
Anna: —come in. Like we had, we had like a a a band sort of, of that caliber that played. And then we did, we, we did a bunch of like wizard rock sets integrated into that. So the wizard rock bands would come on and do like, uh, their hits basically. We, we had came on, uh, Pussycat Dolores came on, RSA[?] came on, I forget who else. Um, a bunch of people came on and did that. And between that it was mixed with like the band playing, um, covers and medleys of like fandom relevant songs. So there was a, um, I think there was a musical medley perhaps?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: There was.
Anna: Uh…
Jimmy: Disney medley.
Anna: There was a Disney medley…
Erik: There was a TV show medley.
Anna: TV show medley…
Erik: I had to learn the Pokemon rap for some reason.
Anna: <laugh> Erik did the whole Pokemon rap for this thing. It was just, it was just this packed show. And we rehearsed for months. We got all of these people together. We rehearsed for months. We had this rehearsal space somewhere in Stockholm. I don’t know how we got it. And then we did this one night only performance for this convention. And then never again <laugh>, like the state of the ambition for that is memorable to me because it was just, we were sort of, when it was over, it was kinda like “That’s it. We’re never gonna do it again.” Like we put together this whole program.
Erik: Yeah. I think that was one of, another one of those “I think we can do this” moments and then we have to do it. <laugh>
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: Yeah. That was, uh, that was, that was fun. That was a milestone in “oh, we can do this. That’s cool.”
Erik: And then of course we have to mention that we, uh, toured on the Yule Ball tour—
Anna: Yes.
Erik: —in the US once—
Anna: Of course.
Erik: In2018. That was, that was really big.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: Uh, so cool to, to meet all those bands. We met, uh, the Whomping Willows, of course, uh, Draco and the Malfoys were there. Uh, although not playing as a band, but they were there. Strange.
Anna: They were there. Tonks and the Aurors.
Erik: Tonks and the Aurors. Oh yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: And we were, and we played Washington D.C. uh, New York and…
Erik: Boston?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: There we go. Boston. So we did three shows in the US. Yes. That was also a really big milestone and just also such a cool moment to connect with, uh, the wizard rock community there in a way that I had never expected that we would be able to do.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
Anna: So that was, uh, extremely generous and wonderful of, uh, Paul and Joe actually to invite us over to, to do that.
Erik: Yeah.
Anna: Yes.
Erik: Yeah. We met so many cool people as well—
Anna: Yes!
Erik: —in the audience that had, like, we had heard of them…
Anna: <laugh>
Erik: uh, and they had heard of us.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: It was, it’s just great, great events.
Anna: Yes.
Do you all do smaller, like library performances around town?
Erik: Uh, not recently, but we have in the past.
Anna: Yeah, we have.
Erik: We’ve done a, a couple of li— we’ve done… Oh yeah, we’ve done the biggest library in Stockholm. I forgot about that.
Anna: We played Stockholm Public Library, yes.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: We played Stockholm Public Library twice.
Anna: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Erik: Yeah. And we played a couple of municipalities outside of Stockholm.
Anna: Yeah. We did Uppsala.
Erik: Did Uppsala.
Anna: And a few other ones. Yeah.
Erik: Yeah. So we’ve done a few of those, but it hasn’t been, I know that was a big, like, tradition in the early wizard rock in the US but it, it never really was in the same way here. Uh, so it’s just, just a few, just a handful of those.
Anna: Yeah. It’s been basically when, if the libraries are putting on some sort of event and they reach out, we’ve been really happy to come and play. But we haven’t really sought out to, uh, tour libraries in the way that I know that wizard rock bands did in, in America in the beginning. But we, it’s been very good fun whenever we’ve done it.
What are those audiences like? I, I remember, uh, I’ve been hearing from like Pussycat Dolores and the Blibbering Humdingers that in different countries the audiences react very differently to the music. Like in London, the Blibbering Humdingers had to stop performing cuz the, the audience got so ahead of them cuz they were so excited.
Erik: Yeah. The, the library shows have been interesting cuz that’s often been with people who are not really familiar with our music. So then we kinda have to walk them through it and tell the story. Uh, so that’s been a challenge.
Anna: Yeah, but, but that’s been really fun as well because, because then in a different way you sing the songs and we have a lot of comedic material I wanna say. And, and it’s, it’s fun to see people laugh at the punchline for the first time. It’s also fun to play those shows where, where the audience really knows the material and they’re singing along. That’s a different energy, but it is quite fun to, to step outside of that and to sort of present it as to people who’ve never seen it before. And to see the way that, like things hit <laugh> when people who, who don’t have this innate knowledge of like wizard rock and what it is and who just enjoy like this pun about this, uh, book characters that, that we made.
What is it like writing and performing in multiple languages?
Erik: Oh, that’s a good question.
Anna: Oh, yeah. That’s a really good one.
Erik: It’s surprisingly easy, I would say.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: It’s, we, we never really like, uh, plan out like “oh, now we’re gonna write a song in English or Swedish.” It just kind of happens.
Anna: Maybe we did a little bit when we did the second album and we were looking at like, what we had so far saying, do we need “do we want to balance this out anymore? Do we want to have both?” Uh, but generally when we write a song, I don’t even know what our process is for deciding what language to do it in.
Erik: Yeah.
Anna: I don’t know!
Erik: There’s some obvious ones. I can think when we did “Troll in the Dungeon” that came about because uh, that line fits so well together with that instrumental hook that we kind of came up with.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: And obviously that’s a line from the movie. Uh…
Anna: Yeah, so that one just made sense to be in English.
Erik: That it has to be English. They’re not gonna, you do like the Swedish dub? I haven’t seen the Swedish dub.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: Of the, well maybe I have, but I don’t remember it.
Anna: But, but I think we want, our earliest material we wrote in English, because we, we didn’t, I didn’t think, we didn’t really, we wanted there to be a Swedish wizard rock scene, but we also wanted to connect with the international wizard rock scene that was there and it just didn’t really feel like it made sense to make material in Swedish at that point in time because then if we put it on on MySpace, the audience would be more limited. But I think over time we wanted to do more material—
Erik: Yeah.
Anna: —in Swedish.
Erik: We kind of ended up doing 50-50 eventually.
Anna: Yeah. Because we wanted to be more specific to our community and to the things that we had going on and so forth. So…
Erik: Yeah. And cater to different audiences like when we’re doing those library shows in—
Anna:Yeah.
Erik: —in Sweden, there’s just a bunch of kids there. They’re not gonna, uh, understand much English. So then we need the Swedish material. We’ve done shows where there was essentially 100% Swedish stuff.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: Uh, because of that.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
Erik: And we’ve also done shows where there were almost 100% English stuff.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: When we toured in America, for example, then we only had one Swedish song just to <laugh> just for the lols. <laugh>
So you said that there was an explosion of bands, uh, early on. Are there still a lot of other folks performing over there?
Jimmy: Not performing, really.
Erik: No, it’s, it’s not, not regularly. There’s been a bunch of one-offs then when there’s a conference and stuff like that. But it’s, it’s not like it was back in that, like I’m thinking of the mega show back in 2009 where there were like so many artists. We had to almost, I dunno, start saying no to people because of time <laugh>. Um…
Anna: Yeah, I think, I think with the pandemic as well, uh, there haven’t been as many events going on and, and I think you still see sort of the effects of that, that it hasn’t really picked back up in the same way. There, there are some things going on, but, but, uh, bands aren’t, aren’t in the same way performing regularly now. And I’m not completely sure, frankly, where, where that is headed, uh, <laugh> right now. So it’s, uh, it’s not as active as it has, as it has been, at least.
Sounds like it’s more just dormant and waiting for the next big event or explosion. Wizard rock—
Erik: It could be.
—Yeah. Has that habit of ebbs and flows, I’ve noticed. Um, for anyone who might want to be part of the next, uh, scene explosion, do you all have any advice?
Erik: Uh, Don’t. You will lose all your time to this hobby <laugh>
No!
Anna: No.
Not cool. Erik has lost his talking rights.
<laugh>
Erik: No, no. I’m joking, of course. Of course you should do it. Uh, but I, I don’t know, we were talking about this earlier as well. One thing we were saying is, uh, it might make sense these days to not completely limit yourself to Harry Potter topics. Uh, cause that’s the thing. We’ve seen a lot of people have had very much success with, like expanding to different, uh, books and movies and stuff like that. Uh, something we’ve kind of done a bit as well, but not as much.
Anna: No, no, not as much. But I think there’s a lot of potential there. And, and I think that wizard rock has really, um, the strength of wizard rock, uh, has really shown that there’s so much potential in, in writing material like this about something that people are so familiar with and can relate to. And you can write about that while also writing about other things as we see with a lot of wizard rock, that it’s about Harry Potter, but the song is at the same time about something else. And it’s using that material to, to say something bigger or to speak to an audience and so forth. And I think if, if you’re just starting out, I think there’s a lot of power in that. And that is something really, really cool and creative. Like, you, you work with something in that way and, and as Erik said, there’s, there’s a lot of potential for doing that. It, I think it would be interesting to see more bands just playing songs about books, uh, to see it expand a little bit. Like see where that could, could take it. Um, I, I don’t know if that is the next step, but I personally would absolutely listen to something like that. Uh, I read a lot of books right now <laugh>, so I, that would, that would be something that would really, really interest me.
Uh, I think that would all fall under filk, which is a sort of big nerdy music scene over here, like the SCA and everything. So are you gonna be bringing filk to Sweden?
Erik: Someone should be. I’m not sure if it’s us. Maybe it’s time for some younger talent to take over. <laugh>
Anna: <laugh> That would be very interesting, yeah.
Jimmy, any advice?
Jimmy: Um… obviously just do it. Like if you want to do it, do it. Cuz there’s, there’s like, no… there’s no right or wrong way. Like basically with anything in like music or creativity just, just jump straight in because, um… you never know like where you, where you’re gonna end up and… It’s, it’s just, just do it and just have fun. Um, so do do whatever you want and just have a good time. And if it works, it works. Like, um, I feel like that’s basically what a lot of us has have done. Like, we want to do this, so we’re gonna do this and we’re gonna have a great time doing it. Like, so my only advice would be to just jump straight in and try to have as much fun as possible.
Erik: Yeah. And yeah, I think that’s, uh, something key that I think, Anna, you also mentioned in that old famous podcast interview that we kind of want there to be a low barrier of entry to this thing. So like, if you don’t have a proper mic or you don’t have, you can’t play an instrument, don’t worry !<laugh> Just bang on a table and scream to that. It works. Don’t like, just do it. Kind of like Jimmy said. Yeah.
That sounds like the, uh, radio interview that Pussycat Dolores referenced where they were like “just bang on a cookie jar. We want your music.”
Erik: Yep. That’s the one. <laugh>.
Jimmy: Yeah.
That was this podcast?
Erik: Definitely.
Anna: Yeah, I believe so. I believe that is the same one. Yes. We were just, um, it was, it was very encouraging to people who, who would feel intimidated by “oh, but I don’t play an instrument” or “oh, but I know how to do this.” It’s just, just do it. Just do it. <laugh> anything is welcome.
Uh, that’s a good point for, I also always like to get really practical advice about, you know, warmups or how to write a song or like equipment that might be useful. Do you all have anything like that?
Erik: This is a good question. Uh, I have bought a lot of equipment, some that we needed, some that we didn’t… <laugh> Uh, one, one thing that I’ve done in recent years, and thi this is very specific, but like, it’s really nice to go with these modern virtual guitar amplifiers that you fit in the pedal. Uh, lugging around big amplifiers was always a hassle and I’m really happy that I don’t do it anymore.
Anna: Wow. That is so specific. <laugh>, I find that hilarious. Um…
Jimmy: I, that doesn’t really work for me, but—
Erik: No.
Anna: <laugh>
Jimmy: But we have tried, so <laugh>, uh, I’ve used sample pads before. Uh, so we, we’ve, we’ve tried doing it even more compact like that, but if I can have a full kit, I will. <laugh>
Any simple, practical, ‘here’s how you get started’ advice from other two, or are we happy with the, uh, virtual amps?
Erik: <laugh>
Anna: Oh, um, uh, simple, practical, how do we get started…
Erik: Well, I mean, in your case, um, what about learning the instrument?
Uh, that, that is, that is true, that is true.
Erik: Or not.
Anna: Or not learning the instrument. Yeah. You know what? Actually not learning the instrument. Yes. Um, yes. So, so when we started as well, I did, I did not play the keyboard, uh, at all actually. Um, I played trombone, which I also do in this band a fair amount, but I did not play the keyboard. And, um, and I think that you, you shouldn’t overestimate how well you need to play an instrument to be able to start playing it. Uh, because I think that when I started playing the keyboard in live performances, I still arguably, like by any definition, did not play the keyboard. Um, but I am capable of, of playing, um, a few base notes at strategic times. I now play the keyboard a bit better than that. But there are, frankly, a bunch of our songs where I play a few base notes at key times and I do some of the riffs, um, which is, which is useful to the band, but I am in no way a star keyboard player.
However, I still play keyboard in the band. And I think that like in, in terms of learning the instrument, learn as you go. Like don’t learn it first and then think that “oh, but I have to learn it first before I, I can start playing or I can start creating something.” I think you can start creating something before you basically even know how to do like a chord, just do the base notes and like add some tambourine. That’s great. Then you have, then you have the music! Like, it, it doesn’t have to be, uh, it doesn’t have to be a great level of skill in order for it to be like an enjoyable recording, uh, of the thing you made. Um, yeah.
I love that. That’s perfect. So, uh, listeners can’t see but I can, you have a full fancy rehearsal space with like half a dozen mics and everything all set up.
Anna, Eric, Jimmy: <laugh>
That seems to suggest to me that you all are practicing together on a semi-regular basis to maybe create something or have a performance. What are the Swedish Shortsnouts working on these days?
Erik: This interview, right now.
Anna, Jimmy: <laugh>
Erik: It’s all for this! <laugh> Uh, no, but we, uh, but we’re not super active. We did a show last year, uh, at a con. Uh, there may be shows in the future, but there’s nothing specific scheduled right now. We have like, uh, we have released singles over the past year. They kind of make up half an album. So at some point maybe we’ll do another half album and release that.
Anna: Yeah. That’s, that’s, I think we also have like a couple of half demos and things like, there, there are, there have, there have always been plans for another album, but it’s, it’s uh, I think with the pandemic and everything as well, we also focused on a while on, on participating in the various online shows that that appeared.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Anna: Uh, so I think the plans for, for the third album have been like a little dormant for <laugh> for a while, uh, as have, have events been. So, but that’s, that’s not, um, we haven’t ruled it out. Uh, and I suppose we will see what’s, uh, what’s next. Usually something pops up, uh, <laugh> over time. That’s how it’s been.
Do you have any half thoughts for the next song or something you’d like to write about?
Erik: Yes. I just need to think about what we should say here. <laugh>
Erik: Uh, yeah. This is one idea I have, and this is, it is arguably maybe a bad idea, but we have this song called “Battle Cedric Diggory” about, uh, you know, the Swedish Shortsnout fighting the ced, fighting the Cedric Diggory—fighting Cedric Diggory in the Triwizard Tournament. And this scene was revisited in, uh, the Cursed Child, uh, because they changed the timeline. Spoiler alert. Uh, so it would be interesting to do a sequel of that. Um, but it feels, at this point it feels a bit outdated <laugh> But we’ll see. Maybe, uh, that’s an idea at least.
Here’s our last music break, beginning with “Dark Wizard” by RiddleTM.
~*~
That was “Dark Wizard” by RiddleTM [lyrics], Pussycat Dolores’ “Witch Don’t Kill My Vibe” [lyrics] and “Mischief Managed (by George)” by Potter Noyz.
Thank you so much for talking with me today. You guys are so much fun. Um, I hope, uh, we get to hear more from you all soon. Uh, in the meantime, where can WZRD listeners find you online?
Anna: …Ima look that up.
Jimmy: <laugh>
Erik: Uh, what?
Anna: No, but I don’t remember our handles off the top of my head.
Erik: Oh. But just Google “The Swedish Shortsnouts” and you’ll find us on BandCamp and Spotify. That’s the main places where they can find our music.
Jimmy: We’re also on other streaming.
Erik: Oh yeah. We’re on like all the streaming sites.
Jimmy. Yeah.
Erik: That’s true.
Jimmy: Like Deezer and…
Erik: Cool.
Jimmy: What have you. <laugh>
Anna: Yes. And on our YouTube channel you can find our music videos
Erik: And some behind the scenes videos of some of our way too complicated shows.
Jimmy: Yeah.
So that’s it for, uh, social media for y’all? You’re not like Facebook, Twitter…?
Anna: We, we are on the Facebook and on the Twitter as well, yes.
Erik: Yeah. Yeah, probably Facebook is probably our main one these days.
Anna: Yeah.
Erik: Although, who knows, maybe we’ll be on Mastadon in the future. I don’t know.
Jimmy: <laugh>
Anna: Time will tell.
Erik: Yeah.
If you heard a song today and you thought “I could listen to that again” then go to the transcript at WZRDRadioPod.com, follow the link and buy a copy of your very own. It’s the best way to support your favorite musician, and without our wizard rockers, we wouldn’t be here.
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If you want to keep up with WZRD between episodes, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at WZRDRadioPod. If you don’t believe in social media, you can also comment on the transcript or email me at WZRDRadioPod@gmail.com.
And now, here are The Swedish Shortsnouts!
Anna: Okay, we are going to play a song, and we have chosen to play “Battle Cedric Diggory,” which is one of our dragon-themed songs, which we thought was fitting. And we talked about this a bit earlier, so this is a song that is set during book four, as it is in book four and not as it is in the Cursed Child. So we hope you enjoy it!
WZRD Radio Podcast 