Hello magical friends, especially my wonderful patrons who make these interview episodes possible. Today I’m talking to an exciting new wizard rocker. If you haven’t been to LeakyCon, you may not have gotten a chance to hear her perform. Let’s see if we can change that today.
First, though, we’ve got some other amazing musicians, starting with How Airplanes Fly and “Time Turner.”
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That was “Time Turner” by How Airplanes Fly, James Fordham with “Always,” and ihearttheweasleytwins’ “You Belong Together.”
“Time Turner” was a special request from my magical patron Moritz. Cheers to you!
And now, here’s Autumn Brooke!
Welcome to the show, Autumn. I am so stoked to talk with you today.
Autumn: Hello.
We met, I believe, for the first time at LeakyCon this year.
Autumn: Yes. This past summer in Chicago.
And it was absolutely incredible seeing you perform live. And it sort of made me realize I don’t actually know anything about your history with wizard rock, which–
Autumn: Mhm. <affirmative>
—where I always start these interviews. How did you…
Autumn: Yeah.
…become part of this community?
Autumn: Yeah, so I actually came into wizard rock maybe a little bit backwards, which is to say that I found wizard rock before I had ever read Harry Potter <laugh>. So when I was about 14, a friend got me into Mental Floss and I found Vlog Brothers and I got super into Vlog Brothers and was watching it a ton, like watching all the backlog of videos, all of the classics from like 2007/8/9 like. And they talked about Harry Potter a lot in the early Vlog Brothers days. And so then obviously eventually I found my way to “Accio Deathly Hallows.” And then I found “Howler “by Hank Green and Lauren Fairweather <laugh> like an old school, like I think they were like, they were mad ’cause they pushed back the release date of one of the movies, and so they made this song about it and I was like, “okay, whatever this wizard rock thing is, this is- looks super duper cool. Maybe I need to actually read Harry Potter.”
‘Cause I always grew up as a big reader and I knew that reading Harry Potter was kind of an inevitability, but I had never actually made my way to it. And so I was like, “okay, wizard rock looks really, really cool and amazing, but I can’t listen to it yet because I haven’t read the books. And then it would spoil me.” So then I went and read the books <laugh>, and then I found wizard rock. And so I got, you know, I was watching just everything on YouTube that existed about wizard rock. And then I started going to conventions. Um, I went to NerdCon: Stories in 2015. That was my first ever convention, my first ever wizard rock show. It was Fandom Forward’s 10th anniversary, like birthday party happening at this convention. And Harry and the Potters played and Hank Green was there and he played some of his wizard rock songs.
It was just a very like low-key show with acoustic guitars. And yeah, I’ve just kept going to conventions and seeing wizard rock shows and have loved it ever since I was 14. And then I guess I started performing for the first time in 2018 when LeakyCon was in Dallas for- no, it was 2019. I went to LeakyCon for the first time in 2018. In 2019, I played at the Wizard Rock Cafe. I just played a cover and Jill lent me her ukulele. Uh, Jill is Brian Ross of Draco and the Malfoy, that’s um his wife. And she lent me her ukulele and I played at the Wizard Rock Cafe and I had never written anything, but I just played a cover and everyone was so welcoming and lovely and was like, “if you ever write anything, we really wanna hear it!” And that was so lovely. Like, you know wizard rockers, like <laugh>, they’re just literally the best, most welcoming, supportive people ever. And yeah, then I started very slowly writing some music and we’re here, it’s 2024 now. I haven’t written a ton <laugh>, but I have been performing at the Wizard Rock Cafe at every LeakyCon that I’ve been to since then, now that we’re post-Covid and we’re back.
What inspired you to start performing it, writing your own, creating?
Autumn: So, from early on, like when I first discovered wizard rock age 14, I’m like “I’m gonna be a wizard rocker, I’m gonna be a YouTuber.” It was 2014, it was the era where like everyone wanted to be a YouTuber, you know? And I was like, one day I’m gonna do this. And like they see like, you know, there were several wizard rockers out there that like had vlogs at the time where they posted a lot of stuff, when they were like going on tours and stuff, and I just thought that they were the coolest people ever and were just living the coolest lives. And so I’ve always kind of known that I was interested in creating my own stuff. But yeah, I guess it was my first single, or not necessarily single, but the first song that I ever put out was for the 2020 Wizard Rock Sampler. And so I think a lot of people kind of got their kickstart during Covid when it was like, “all right, let me actually sit down and try to write something.” Um, and since then I’ve done about a song a year <laugh>, um, mostly for the Wizard Rock Sampler, but we’re starting, starting to write more things and I’m sure we’ll get into that later.
That’s actually a fairly perfect segue ’cause uh, I was curious, what does the, the wizard rock creation process look like for you?
Autumn: Yeah, so, I’m still very much a baby songwriter, so I don’t really have a huge grasp on what my process is yet, but I’m starting to get a bit more, a bit more of a sense of it. Historically what has happened is, I’ll get a little snippet, I get a little idea, and a lot of times that’s both music and lyrics together. I’ll get like a couple lines and there’s a melody that goes along with it and I, it’s usually like the heart of the song, you know, kind of the main little part. And then I just have to kind of build it out from there. And for me it’s not a very smooth, easy process. <Laugh> Some people, I think, it just comes to them, and that also takes a lot of work to cultivate. But yeah, it’s can be a little brutal sometimes, but sometimes it comes easier. Um, but yeah, usually starting with a little tidbit. I’ve been working on more stuff lately and writing more stuff. So sometimes it’s like, “okay, I have a concept” and then I just open a page and I word vomit for <laugh> however long and most of it is crap. And then you find the couple of little things that you’re like, “okay, I like this idea.” And you pull words, you pull little phrases in and slowly build lyrics and just figure out a way to build it out from there.
Sounds like, uh, fun but hard work for sure.
Autumn: Yeah. I’m, I’m learning <laugh>.
Bess:
Is that what’s kept it to one a year so far? Or have you just been busy?
Autumn: Well, for a while, I was in the middle of college studies and, you know, you go right from that to working full-time <laugh>. So it mostly just comes from busyness. It also comes from like lack of motivation, especially when I’m not surrounded by other wizard rockers and other people that are creating. Um, I’m a very like in-person focused… I dunno, that’s what motivates me. Like when I go to LeakyCon every year and I’m surrounded by the other wizard rockers and we’re creating music together, I alw- like, I feel so hyped up. I have so much energy and I get home and that lasts for like two or three weeks after <laugh> and then it dies off. And I, I grew up always in choir and singing in choir and performing with other people. And so when I’m just sitting alone at home, I don’t always have much motivation to create when it’s just me.
So it sounds like maybe we’ll be seeing a songwriting workshop with you at future LeakyCons.
Autumn: <laugh>
to gather some more of that energy.
Autumn: I don’t know if I’m qualified enough to lead a songwriting workshop, but maybe someday.
Yeah.
Autumn: Brian and Jill have led some really lovely, um, songwriting and poetry workshops at LeakyCon and I’ve, um, this past LeakyCon, I really enjoyed going to that. And they always give like good little tidbits of advice that I’m like, “Ooh, that was smart. I’ve never thought of it that way.” And I’ll kind of jot it down. But they’re, they’re amazing. They have really, they have good songwriting advice. If you need songwriting advice, go to Brian and Jill <laugh>.
Uh, this sounds like a good moment to talk about your, uh, wizard rock influences. My patrons were curious. Who inspires you? Who, who do you listen to?
Autumn: Yeah, um, I mean the thing about wizard rock is like everyone. <laugh> Everyone inspires me. Everyone brings their own creativity to the table. And everything that I listen to, there are aspects of it that I go, “oh my gosh, that’s so cool,” or “oh my gosh, they do this really well.” But if I had to kind of bring kind of one big influence, this will come as a surprise to literally no one who has ever heard me sing. Um, but definitely my main wizard rock influence is Lauren Fairweather. After Hank Green, they were the first wizard rocker I ever encountered. <laugh>. I grew up listening to their music. And I think that, um, Lauren and I have a very kind of similar style and similar energy, like it’s acoustic, it’s all usually like, really like lighthearted and just, I don’t know, just the energy that Lauren has in their music and in their singing and in their songs is like, it’s the same energy and joy that I want to radiate when I create as well.
That’s lovely. And I think you’re right. I think everyone who’s listening will go, “oh yeah, that makes sense.”
Autumn: Yeah <laugh>
And if you haven’t or heard enough Autumn, uh, to judge, you know, stay tuned, find out where she is at the end of this.
Autumn: Yes.
It’s time for some music. Here’s Muggle Snuggle and “She Is.”
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That was Muggle Snuggle and their cover of “She Is” from the new Totally Knuts cover comp (all proceeds to go help pay for TK’s surgery!), “Gryffin-Dork” by Wingardium Leviosa, and Striking Down Diggory with “Severus Snape is Dying, And With Him, A Love For Lily.”
Let’s get back to that interview.
As a relatively new wizard rocker yourself, I’m sure you have, uh, met some pitfalls, found some cool tips, maybe from, from Jill and Brian. So what advice do you have for other people who are considering wizard rock?
Autumn: So, when it comes to the writing and creating process, for me, it has been really important because in the past couple months, I have more than doubled the amount of songs that I’ve ever written. Um, I’ve gone from one a year to, I’ve now finished four and I’ve got a couple others in progress. But for me, what everyone always says is just do it. Just do it. Just do it. And I’m like, “that’s so vague!” <Laugh>, I, I, I appreciate your energy, I appreciate your support, but that’s so vague and that personally has never been helpful for me. So what really helped me in this past year was I actually decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. Um, and for those of you that don’t know, that, uh, is National Novel Writing Month, which is the month of November. The goal is that you write 50,000 words of a novel in November.
And I said “well, I’m not gonna write a novel, but I do have an idea for this album.” And so I set my goal, obviously not to 50,000 words, but I said my goal was to write I think 170, 180 lines of lyrics. And you know, lots of those were ones that eventually got trashed or changed, but just that was my goal. And so I had this perimeter of, okay, in November, you’re gonna sit and you’re gonna write. And a lot of it was really bad. <laugh> But some of it was good! And I’ve come out and now I have some things that I’m really happy with and other things that are still a work in progress,but that I’ve laid down a foundation for. And so for me, setting a short term goal was really important in just forcing myself to write, because it doesn’t just come to you, you know? It’s not, you’re not just gonna have a whole song pop in your head, and you have to work for it. And so setting that parameter was really helpful.
Uh, Dots and Lines was just saying that February is Album Writing Month.
Autumn: Really?
Where you try to write 14 songs, or about one every, you know, two days.
Autumn: 14! <laugh> Oh, that’s so many. But maybe I’ll have to, I have to keep writing, so maybe I’ll, maybe I’ll use February as another, as another big push, another big writing push for the album.
It makes sense that concrete goals like that would be constructive for some folks.
Autumn: Yeah, absolutely. I also wanted to talk a little bit, um, when it comes to advice, I wanna talk about another end of it, which is the vocal aspect of it, because most of you probably don’t know, but, um, I’m a voice teacher, <laugh>, I studied music and voice in college, and now I teach young singers and that’s how I make a good portion of my living. So, vocally, I have like a couple little, little tips and things that are fun. Um, when it comes to your voice, warming up is really important, obviously. And so some of my favorite warmups are what we’ll call sirens, which is basically just kind of like <goes “eEeE” and “aAaHhHh” up and down> like just kind of stretching up towards the top of your range, all the way to the bottom, things like that. I also love a lip trill or like lip bubbles, when you go <motorboat noise, also up and down>. Those– favorite tool as a voice teacher. Favorite tool as a voice teacher. It can work for warming up your voice. It can work for when you’re singing a song and you’re wanting to kind of pace out your breath or figure out how long, how, how you need to use your air to get through a phrase. Singing, like singing the melody or singing the song on a lip trill can really help you be aware of your breath and figure out like how you need to pace that, I guess. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.
Could you do an example? That sounds very interesting.
Autumn: Yeah, so, Hmm. “Lost and Found,” that’s my go-to, yeah. So like–and Lauren is a good example as well because they just somehow just have really long musical phrases and somehow just make it seem like they never have to breathe ever. But like, <sings> Please return my things. I’m not looking for a fight, but you’ve taken my belongings, but I guess that it’s all right. <back to speaking> And you’re like, “how do I make it through that phrase?” Like doing the same thing. <trills through lyrics>
And so then you do the same phrase and you’re singing the melody, but you’re on that lip trill because it takes a lot of breath and a lot of consistent spinning of your air to do a lip trill. And so it keeps that breath consistent. And it can be really helpful when you’re like trying to, if you have a phrase that like you’re trying to sing more powerfully, you’re trying to be able to make it to the end of the phrase and not have to breathe as much or not be struggling for breath as much. That’s something that I find helpful if you’re trying to do more vocally challenging things. If your, if your songs are fairly easy, fairly short phrases, maybe not necessary, but I love lip trills as warmups as well. So you can do them on that siren as well, like where you’re kind of going from down and up. <demonstrates> Great way to warm up your voice.
All right, magical friends, go ahead, pause this episode, give it a try and then come back.
Autumn: <laugh>
I love getting that kind of advice because there are, I’m sure, hundreds of people like me who have no musical experience or understanding and have no idea where to even begin.
Autumn: I always tell my voice students that any non-singer or someone who’s never been in like that kind of singing environment, like a choir or a voice lesson, like they would watch a rehearsal or how you warm up and just think that it’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen <laugh> but it works.
We’ve talked a little bit about, you know, you, you’re writing some music, you, you, your inspirations, you’ve performed at many LeakyCons.
Autumn: Mhm <affirmative>
What are your wizard rock dreams from here?
Autumn: So obviously to write more things, but I think a big dream is to record more stuff and to release a CD. I would love that. Um, I think that’s my biggest dream is like release an album that is fully recorded and gets released both digitally and physically. That’s a huge one. Also, another big goal would be to perform at a convention, like as a special guest. I think that would be really, really cool. And yeah, I would love to eventually also perform like smaller shows like doing kind of local stuff and start kind of, start gigging a little bit, although that’s so overwhelming to me to think about. But like those are, those are the goals when I look forward, you know, 2, 3, 5, 10 years, like things that I think would be really fun to do.
That is absolutely something to look forward to. You are an amazing performer.
Autumn: Thank you.
And listeners know I love a wizard rock CD. I have a collection.
Autumn: Yes. One thing I love about wizard rock is that we really have like kept the CDs going. And it’s like, no, I still want the CDs, I still want a physical copy.
BandCamp, absolutely wonderful, but–
Autumn: Yes.
CDs is where it’s at for sure.
Autumn: Oh yeah.
Are there any subjects you’re hoping to tackle?
Autumn: So I am interested in like continuing to branch out and write songs about other stories that I’ve been a big fan of for a long time. And Bess is going, and Bess is like sighing to the side going, “Ugh” <laugh>. So yeah, unfortunately for maybe the pure wizard rock fans–not never like, definitely not never Harry Potter. Um, I still have little ideas and little tidbits. I still reread fairly often and always have new ideas. I still have this like far away dream of like a Charlie Weasley EP, um, <laugh>. I would love to do like a cover album at some point because so much of my personal wizard rock experience before I ever started writing was just playing all of the wizard rock songs on my ukulele. So I think that would be fun. But there are a lot of other stories that I really love that people haven’t really written songs about, or at least not very much.
So things like Avatar the Last Airbender, uh, How To Train Your Dragon. I love How to Train Your Dragon. Welcome to Nightvale. I’ve been on a little Welcome to Nightvale kick lately, like it’s 2015 again. Um, but they’re still putting out new episodes and I am, I’ve been catching up and I’m almost caught up and I’ve never been caught up on Welcome to Nightvale in my life. So literally yesterday I was just like writing down some little lyric snippets and ideas for like a song about Carlos, the scientist, because I love Carlos. So yeah, I don’t know, I always have so many ideas and I’ve also started like writing some songs that aren’t fandom related at all and are just, you know, more generic, just songs about me or about life or whatever. I don’t know, there’s always lots and lots of things swimming around in my head. Um, maybe too many.
Well, we’ve covered your process, your dreams, some hints of what’s going on behind the Autumn Brooke background. What are you working on?
Autumn: So I have talked a little bit about the current project, been kind of vague about it, although I’ve posted a little bit about it on social media. Not that I have many followers on social media. Not, not that I have much of a social media presence at all, um, <laugh>. But in November I started working on an album about Red White and Royal Blue, which a lot of you have probably heard of, um, because we’re very gay here, um, <laugh>. But if you haven’t heard of it, it’s a romance novel that came out in 2019 and it is about the son of the first female president of the United States and the Prince of England. And their falling in love. But it’s also like, it’s a story that means a lot to me because of the way that Casey McQuiston writes like queer history, and like, Alex is a queer Texan and I am, um, and I’m a Texan as well.
And so like, there’s a lot besides just the romance aspect of the story, there’s so much that means so much to me about that story. And so that’s been what’s inspiring me lately. And so I’ve been working on that. And like I said, I’m about maybe halfway ish done with an album, so that’s what I’m currently working on. Yeah, nothing Harry Potter related at the moment, <laugh>. But one thing that I’ve been thinking about a lot, especially kind of leading up to this interview and being like “ah, yes, I’m being interviewed for a Wi <laugh> for a wizard rock show as a wizard rocker, and I’m like, mm, sorry, no wizard rock coming up.” Um, <laugh> is that like, I don’t know, for me, the wizard rock community is just so much more than Harry Potter. And for me, going back to the beginning of this interview, I got into wizard rock completely separate from my love for Harry Potter.
I didn’t even have a love for Harry Potter. I found a love for wizard rock before I ever had a love for Harry Potter. And my appreciation for Harry Potter has always been through wizard rock. And so for me, Harry Potter was very much like the path to this beautiful community of small independent artists who support each other and celebrate the creation. And wizard rock isn’t, it’s about Harry Potter kind of, but not really. It’s never really been about Harry Potter, it’s <laugh>, it’s about music, it’s about friends, it’s about creating and sharing art. It’s punk, it’s social justice, it’s community. It’s showing up to a space where you can be like your most unironic, fullest, weirdest, nerdiest self, and everyone celebrates that. And that’s what I think is so beautiful about wizard rock. And that is what drew me into the community and that’s what’s kept me here. And it’s just such a cherished space.
And what I love most about it is that everyone really celebrates what you create, no matter what it is. It’s brought me some really amazing friends, a really amazing support system, so much musical inspiration, so many examples of just amazing, beautiful storytelling through songwriting. And it’s shown me like more than anything else that just the most beautiful thing that you can do is create. And that’s why I love wizard rock, and that’s why I love the wizard rock community. And that’s why even if I’m not singing wizard rock, although, you know, I’ll always be singing wizard rock <laugh>, but even if that’s not what the focus is at that moment, no matter what I’m singing, my target audience is wizard rockers because I know that there’s no better audience. There’s no better community. And so even if I’m singing about a different story or something else, it just doesn’t get better than wizard rock, you know? <Laugh>
Our final music segment is here. First up is Daniel Kelly’s “HuffGryffinClaw.”
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That was “HuffGryffinClaw” off Daniel Kelly’s newest album [lyrics], Proper Use of a Rubber Duck and “The End of My Way,” and Dream Quaffle’s “Charlie Weasley’s Wedding” [lyrics].
And here’s the last bit of my interview with Autumn!
Thank you so much for talking with me today. This has been wonderful.
Autumn: Yeah, thank you for having me. It’s been lovely.
Where can WZRD listeners find you online?
Autumn: Yeah, so I am on Instagram. I am AutumnBrookeSings on Instagram. And then you can find me on BandCamp AutumnBrooke.BandCamp.com. I have currently a single <laugh> on there, “Ode to Wizard Rock,” which is my most recent wizard rock song. Um, you can find I think two, two other songs from past Wizard Rock Samplers that are on there that I haven’t released, I haven’t recorded and released myself, but yeah, there’s not a lot on there. But <laugh> hopefully, hopefully more things in the future.
And now, magical friends, here’s Autumn Brooke!
Autumn: All right, so today I will be singing for y’all actually the first song off of the new album that I’m working on. This is from Alex Claremont-Diaz’s point of view. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, Alex and Henry kind of have this little rivalry going on, but it kind of exists mostly in Alex’s head. But then they start to get to know each other a little bit. So this song is called “Coffee.”
WZRD Radio Podcast 