Hello magical friends, with an extra special hello to my newest patron, Harrison, whose support lets me do these interviews!
Our anniversary interview is with Paul of the 8th Horcrux! He’s got so many fun memories and some wonderful advice for new bands, I can’t wait to get into it with you.
But first! Some anniversary interview music. Here’s “Stay By My Side” from The Whomping Willows.
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That was “Stay By My Side” by the Whomping Willows, Sue and the Hufflepuffs with “Bohemian Latte” [lyrics], and Stephanie and the Quaffles singing “Shadow” [lyrics].
And now it’s time to chat with Paul of the 8th Horcrux!
Today, magical friends, I am welcoming Paul Thomas of the 8th Horcrux to the show. Welcome! I’m so glad you could join me.
Paul: I’m happy to be here. Thanks so much for asking me to join.
Now, your band is kind of iconic because of your incredibly catchy parodies and the wordplays that you all do, but how did you all get started with wizard rock?
Paul: Well, first off, thank you for the compliment. I’m delighted that people find our wordplay fun <laugh> rather than annoying. So we got started in 2009. My bandmate, Trina and I, we were in high school at the time, and that was right after the Half-Blood Prince movie had come out. And I don’t remember exactly how or why we started like talking about writing songs about it, but we had mentioned Harry and The Potters. We’d been like, Hey, did you hear about this band? And then one of us was like, “hey, we should try our hand at that.” And I’ve always really liked parody music. I’ve been a big Weird Al fan since, you know, I was 10 or whatever. And that, that seemed like a logical place to start for me. I could listen to music, I could write, try to make jokes, uh, write parodies and, and Trina really liked it.
And I should add a layer to this was that I was trying to impress Trina at the time because I liked her. And we are married nowadays and, and happily so. But uh, at the time, you know, I, I was a little, it was a little bit of flirting, but um, regardless of that, it all worked out all right. We had a good time like writing songs back and forth, and we just decided, “hey, let’s put out a record. Let’s do some shows.” I worked at a library in Ottawa, Kansas, so I was able to play for some kids and she joined me and then we just kind of went from there. So it, it, it wasn’t necessarily an accident, but it was definitely not one of those things where we l–, we like sat down and said, “hey, we’re gonna do X, Y, and Z and then we’re gonna, you know, release this album on this date and then do, then do this thing.” We sort of just played it by ear and just went with it. Um, and it was a lot– It’s, you know, been a lot of fun. It’s hard to believe it was 2009 now, and that was, well not quite 20 years ago, but getting there <laugh>.
That’s so cute. I love that.
Paul: I’m glad Trina said, uh, she enjoyed my, my songwriting and, and, and didn’t hate me. ’cause that would’ve been a bummer. <laugh> The 8th Horcrux though has a positive memory because of that, amongst other things.
No, it’s nice that this is one of the wizard rock romance success stories.
Paul: Yeah. Yeah, very much so.
Now my favorite question is always, how did you come up with your band name? ’cause 2009 we were still kind of in the like, ‘character and the last names.’
Paul: Yeah, very much so. And, and I’m trying to remember if we had any alternative. We na- we did have some alternative names. I think we, at one point were thinking maybe Potterwatch might be a fun idea. We eventually named our first album that, but Trina said, uh, something about the 8th Horcrux. And I thought that was really funny because to me it implied that it was kind of like a, a self burn, you know, like we were, we were so evil and bad, we had to be destroyed <laugh> in order for, for Voldmort to be truly defeated. So I just thought that was really funny. And, and we went with that and people seemed to, to dig it. I think they thought it was funny as well. And plus, like you said, it was a little different from like the ‘character first name and the last names,’ it was just something else. So yeah, it was nice to just try something and throw something out there and see if, if people still thought it was funny or interesting, even if it wasn’t quite the exact same as what other bands were had been doing.
That’s so funny. I would’ve assumed it was more of a reference to the fandom keeping Harry Potter alive.
Paul: Oh!
I hadn’t realized you were being evil–
Paul: No.
–dark wizard rock.
Paul: No. Yeah. Well, and I also, ’cause I feel like we never really, well, we wrote a few songs from like, the perspective of the bad guys, but we, our music was always very silly and lighthearted. So the idea that we were secretly this evil horcrux just, I just thought the juxtaposition was really funny. But I like the idea of the keeping the fandom alive. That’s, that’s a, that’s a, a more, a learned, like a more thematically rich understanding of the name. So maybe I’ll steal that and say that’s what it was. <laugh>.
No, it’s too late. You’re on the Striking Down Diggory, Draco and the Malfoys end of the spectrum now.
Paul: That’s true. <laugh>
Now y’all have a pretty massive backlog. And you said that you’d performed at libraries a couple of times. What are some of your favorite memories?
Paul: Oh, there’s a lot of them. I always loved playing at libraries… For a while there, from like 2009 to 2019 or so we were playing, you know, several shows every summer at libraries sometimes. You know, it was never like full on tour level, but you know, it was like a decent number every couple months. And it was always really fun because the people that showed up to those were children. It was always kids. And that was sort of the age group that I feel like really got it. And sometimes they could be really little, sometimes they could be like preteens/teenagers, but it sort of clicked with them because they saw that, oh, we were singing about this book, but we were in a library, which is, you know, strange. But also the songs are silly, they’re funny. At least we tried to make them funny.
We didn’t take ourselves too seriously, but we also tried to, you know, do a good show. And so it was always fun to see the kids show up there and then get really excited and, you know, energetic about specific songs or, or when a kid would like recognize an original song, you could see it on their face. They’d be like, “oh my gosh.” And then of course we, we also would play local libraries. And so some of the people that we know, like that Trina, uh, my wife taught or was going to teach at one point, knew her from the library shows and they would come to the shows to see her perform. And so they would like request specific songs or, you know, cheer her on or something. So it was a fun little, almost like a community bonding situation in certain instances. But I think my favorite sort of memory is more of a general one.
And it’s when I wrote our song “Socks” from our second album, which was a parody of “Shots” by LMFAO, we were at the end of working on our second album, Accio Awesome. And I was just trying to find some, like last minute, some fun things to throw in there. And I remember I brought the lyrics to Trina and I said, “I thought of this idea just about the socks.” Like we, you know, we could pretend like it’s, I don’t know, you know, Hagrid and Dumbledore talking about how much they love socks. And Trina looked at me and she’s like, “that is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. I don’t think anyone’s gonna think that’s funny. Like, why would we do that?” And I was like, “please, please, please, let’s try it. Please, let’s do it.” And she’s like, “fine, fine, fine.” So we put it together and that was the song that people like really connect with and that people love because I think, again, it’s, it’s so silly and, and granted the chorus is just us shouting “socks” over and over again, but it’s pretty easy to remember. But uh, yeah, it was just funny that that’s the one that people kind of clicked with. And I just remember Trina looking at me and saying like, “no <laugh>, I don’t think this is a good idea. It’s not very good.” You know, you put all your time and energy into making this one song that you think people will really like. And then it’s the one that you kind of threw on at the last minute that people dig for whatever reason <laugh>.
So the 8th Horcrux is just a register of all the times you were right about your relationship?
Paul: <laugh>, uh, uh, maybe. Maybe some, some of them. Trina was definitely right about a lot of things too that, uh, I can, I can’t remember off the top of my head probably because I was embarrassed, so I forgot about when I was wrong. But I know that there’s been instances where she, she’s definitely, uh, known, known what’s up. Um, so that was just the one time I think that I, I managed to show that one of my ideas was not stupid, was in fact funny. But there’s been many other times where my ideas are in fact not funny and are stupid. So that’s why Trina’s a great songwriting partner. She’ll hear me out, hear my ideas, or I’ll hear her ideas but we can kind of be like, we can let each other down gently or, or give criticism, uh, without being mean. Uh, which has been nice.
Did you all ever tour or play with other bands?
Paul: Yeah, we did. So we were in Kansas. We’re still in Kansas. We were kind of isolated from the scenes that had emerged in different parts of the world. We never really toured with anyone, but we have played shows…. We– when like Tonks and the Aurors had a tour in like 2017, 2018, we were able to open for them in the Kansas City Library. Uh, we also opened for Harry and the Potters once ’cause they’re– Paul De George is based in Lawrence, Kansas, which is actually where I’m at right now. I work in Lawrence. So it’s kind of weird that there are two Pauls from wizard rock in Lawrence, Kansas. So we’ve played with them and Trina and I will run into Paul every once in a while on the downtown strip here. ’cause he co-owns a, an art gallery store. And so we’ll run into him every once in a while.
So, you know, we always wanted to, but it was just one of those things that like, we never had a super great opportunity since we were in high school and college. We had summers off of course, but I was working at libraries <laugh> and uh, Trina was volunteering. So it just, we didn’t have time to like tour, tour, but whenever we could put a show on or get something together, we always would, would do that. Uh, we played a show I remember with, uh, Swish and Flick. I feel like there’s another band that I’m blanking on… We’ve played with shows here and or bands with here and there that, uh, them all been really fun. And I’ve enjoyed, I’ve enjoyed that opportunity, even if it’s a little intimidating to, to, you know, be on the stage with someone, uh, who basically created this genre or, or sort of defined how it’s, it’s gonna sound. Everyone has been really nice that I’ve met. But you know, it’s still sort of a nerve wracking experience.
I still get scared emailing people just for interviews.
Paul: Yeah. <Laugh>. Yeah, no, and I do too. And, and I just remember talking to certain people there. I mean, it’s like wizard rock is not the most popular, you know, crazy genre out there. It’s not like it has billions and billions of listeners or anything like that. Even if it is kind of a, a niche, uh, genre, it’s still, there are certain people that feel like, you know, the, the godparents of wizard rock, so like the DeGeorge brothers, like just seeing them on the s- seeing Paul on the street is kind of surreal sometimes. Just being like, “oh my gosh, yeah, this guy started a genre of music that my wife and I participate in” <laugh>. You know, that’s wild and that’s cool.
As an east coaster, the middle of the country is very fuzzy to me. So I had to pull up a map. ’cause I know that the midwest is where a lot of wizard rock is happening these days.
Paul: Yeah, that is true. I mean, maybe it was the case back when we started, I don’t remember super well ’cause we kind of were, to be perfectly honest, a little bit of latecomers to the scene. Like, uh, we had a MySpace for like two years or something before that all imploded <laugh>. So we were like kind of technically in the MySpace era, but not really. But at the time there was not a lot of bands active in the, in our area at least. And granted the Midwest of course is so huge too, that even if there was someone in Texas, well Texas is the south, but you know, in, in Michigan or something like that, it’s still, that’s still a ways away. So it really was concentrated in the bigger cities. And plus we were at the time from Ottawa, Kansas, uh, which is just south of Lawrence and Lawrence already is not the biggest town in the world, but Ottawa was even smaller. So we were definitely the only wizard rock band <laugh> within, you know, probably a 50 mile radius there for a while.
It’s pretty cool that you managed to create your own star there, even with it being so East Coast-West Coast, like Seattle and New England.
Paul: Yeah, that’s a good point. And I think part of it was because while we definitely were indebted to like, I, you know, really like Harry and the potters at the time and would talk about wizard rock, a lot of people learned of us through libraries. So we were almost kind of like the library band. Of course we did Harry Potter stuff too, but, but I think people associated us with books and, and literacy and sort of stuff like that. So I think that was one way that we kind of got the word out was obviously people liked Harry Potter and what they thought that was an interesting and inventive concept. But then if we were doing a free show at a library, well bring your kids or bring your, you know, siblings or something like that and just see what, see what it is. Yeah. Plus it’s in, if it’s in the summer, which is when we usually did our shows, kids often have nothing to do or <laugh>, they’re, you know, they’re out and about just trying to have some fun. So they would come into the libraries and hear us and then that got the word word out, which is exactly what basically Harry and the Potters did. Although they also hit like bookstores and stuff. But we, we mostly stuck just to the library side of things.
Well you do have that whole working at libraries,
Paul: Yeah. <laugh>.
–Library vibe going on.
Paul: Yeah, very much so. I still do, I still work at a library, so I’ve worked at one since 2008 <laugh> in various roles and places, but it’s definitely where I feel where I belong, I should say <laugh>.
Now you said you were sort of inspired by Weird Al–
Paul: Yes, very much so.
And that you and Trina were both like active participants in the songwriting process?
Paul: Yeah, we definitely had different approaches to the songwriting. Like I said, I was always huge Weird Al Fan, still am, you know, I’m gonna go see him in August with Trina. Um, and uh, so I, I grew up listening to that. I like the concept of parody songs, especially if it’s a song I like, it’s fun to be able to deconstruct it and try to put the words back together in a different way that’s about something else. If I don’t like the song, that can also be fun, kind of, you know, purifying it in a weird way almost. But I often like to have like a very structured thematic approach to songwriting. Like with a parody song, especially where each verse builds, uh, off the previous one. And that might seem like, ‘yeah, obviously that’s what, that’s how music works.’ But I, I guess, I mean, like narratively I like to retell a story or, or retell part of the books or something like that, using the song as that vessel to convey it over the songs, uh, time span.
Trina is often more of like, she likes to find, I don’t wanna say it’s like references or like little bits and pieces here and there, but she definitely likes to work jokes or references into the song to fit the meter, not necessarily in a way that tells a story narratively, if that makes sense. I guess my approach is closer to almost like filk music, I think? Where it’s like you’re taking a song and telling a story using that song as the basis. Whereas Trina’s is almost a little more like jokey and referential and a little more postmodern I guess, in its, in its, uh, structure. But I think having both of those approaches and, you know, having her propose ideas or I propose an idea and she runs with it or she says something and I take, it really helped kind of even out the extremes of our approaches.
So oftentimes we would have like a song where maybe I would tackle the verses where I could have that more of like that narrative approach to the story. And then Trina could write a chorus that was a little like, funny or catchier or something that, that she could really work her magic with when it comes to like the wordplay. So, and that’s not true for every single song, some of them, it was very straightforward. Like we both had the same vision. Sometimes we had completely different visions that were different from how we normally approach things. But that was usually how we worked. And like I said, I think it worked out really well because it sort of mixed things up and made things interesting.
Are 100% of your songs parodies or did you all ever do any original?
Paul: I have written some original songs, but they’re not about Harry Potter. They’re pop culture focused. I, I’ve, I’ve done some about, um, Adventure Time, uh, the TV show. I did some, I’m trying to remember if I did any, I know I’ve done a few others. I’ve always really loved parody songs though, for a couple reasons. One, again, it’s fun to, to play around with something you already know, you kind of already have heard, but also there’s a, there’s a creative restriction to it, in that you can write a song about anything if you want. And that’s, that’s awesome. And people do and make wonderful things. But with a parody song, part of the challenge is trying to write a song that you want to write within the parameters of something that already exists. And so trying to fit words into a meter, trying to make things rhyme right,
That can be really hard. ’cause sometimes I’ll have an idea where I’m like, “I think this would be a funny song idea, but I just can’t think of a rhyme” or I can’t think of a good like zinger or something to throw into the chorus to make it funny. So it’ll just sit on the back burner. And a lot of our songs actually were like that. I know on our last album, the Blink 182 parody we did, “Voldemort Stinks” was a concept that we had had when we started working on our first album in 2009. And we didn’t have much besides the kind of general, “oh, Blink 182, ha ha this would be kind of be funny,” but we can never get it to work. And finally I just sat down in like 2016 and finally got the words on paper and I was like, “okay, now it’s working.” And so it took a while to get that one done. Granted, that was sort of an off and on process, but sometimes it could take a while and sometimes it would come out really fast. Like, you just have this funny idea, at least you think it’s funny and you’d write it down and, and then it was like, boom, there it is. Excellent. Let’s record it. But yeah, so we do focus on parodies, but like I said, I have dabbled in other things. <laugh>
How do you all do your music? Is it like karaoke tracks or do you perform it all yourselves?
Paul: Yeah, so it’s, uh, we do try to perform as much of it as we can by ourselves. I will say I, I make very healthy use of like midi files. If someone has already programmed like the keyboard part to a pop song through a midi, I can import it into Fruity Loops, which is the, um, program I use to produce stuff. Then I could work from there. So that was, it’s kind of, I guess you could say kind of cheating in the sense that someone else did do the programming of it. But I still have to choose, like the synths, I still have to change the levels. I still, we still have to add guitar and stuff like that on top of it. So that was, we would use that usually for drum tracks and, and keyboards. ’cause we didn’t have access to a drum set when we were doing a lot of this, but we did all the, all the guitar parts ourselves.
Trina was more of the acoustic person. I did generally more of the electric side of things. We did some of the keyboards ourselves, depending on the parts that were required. If the song was really… Had like a really weird sound in it or something, sometimes we would have to sample or like I’d go in there and try to sample the sound or, or make it as authentic as possible. If I couldn’t get the original sound, usually what I would do is if there was a sample, I would just go to the original sample and then re-sample that and use it in the, the song itself. So there was a little bit of everything, a little mixing, remixing and, but it was all our own creation at the end of the day, if that makes sense, in that we all, we were still like recording and stuff, uh, when we would do like demos, but like really rough demos,
I often would use like karaoke tracks or something like that. If so, I can like try to get the, the lyrics down or the flow right. I’d send it to Trina. But I don’t think on our, the albums we released, we ever used a karaoke track. At least as far as I can remember, aside from like the midis and stuff like that. But, uh, yeah, that was this the, when I learned about, um, the beauty of the midi file and the fact that there’s so many out there for pop songs that have already kind of had like drums and instrumentation, certain parts of instrumentation programmed out, that makes things a lot easier when you’re working on parodying pop music. Because like, I, I remember when we did a parody of fireflies by Owl City, we couldn’t find a midi, we couldn’t find anything like that and I couldn’t find like the sheet music at the time. So I sat down and just had to basically, you know, time out the, the, the notes exactly right and get the pitches and everything. And it took a while, but, you know, it was, it was doable. So there were instances definitely where we had to still do the old fashioned way, but we definitely used technological shortcuts where possible just because we didn’t have the, the benefit of like a full backing band or anything like that. I wish we did, but <laugh>, it wasn’t in the cards at the time. I guess.
That sounds like amazing though. And like a lot of work went into each of these albums.
Paul: Yeah, a lot of work did go into ’em. We spent a lot of weekends and, and afternoons and late nights just getting everything put together. But at the end of the day, I’m always, I was really happy with what we produced. I remember when we, we had our first couple songs, it was really kind of surreal hearing those. Like, “wow, we made these,: like we, we recorded this. And, uh, even now when I listen to it, that that early stuff is really kind of rough sounding, it’s still, I still remember the feeling, the pride that we had when we were able to share it with other people and they were like, “oh wow, that’s actually pretty funny.” Or at least that’s what they said, <laugh>
Let’s drop some music here. First up is Voldi & the Morts and “Beste Freudin.”
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You were just listening to Voldi & the Morts with “Beste Freudin” [lyrics], Mary and the Grand Pres with “house elf ding ding dong,” and Kingsley & the Shacklebolts singing “The Eldest Wand.”
Beste Freudin is a special request from my wonderful patron Geoff, who dedicates it to TK, saying “whatever way our stories end, I know that you’ve rewritten mine by being my friend.”
Okay, that’s enough music. On with the interview!
Now my patrons had the most interesting question I think they’ve ever submitted for one of these.
Paul: Okay.
Which was, if you could have one character, hear one of your songs and dance to it, who and which song?
Paul: Oh man, that’s a tough one. Can I, can I cheat and and give two answers? Because I have like a general one and a very specific one.
Yeah, sure.
Paul: Okay. I think generally, I think Luna would probably dig this, the, our vibe, just the sort of goofiness of it. She strikes me as the type of person that would also suggest song parody ideas that were just buck wild. Like they’d probably be songs that no one’s ever heard of or, or concepts that no one would think is funny except for her. But I feel like she would enjoy that. The more specific one is I would want Dumbledore to hear “Socks,” our song “Socks” because that’s basically his song <laugh>, uh, about how much Dumbledore and Dobby loves socks. So I think he would enjoy that. Be curious to hear what he thinks at least, anyway.
I think you’re exactly right. I think he would be bemused and twinkly about it.
Paul: <laugh> Yeah, there you go, that’s a good way of looking at it. Yeah, either that or he’d be like,” this is a waste of time.” I can’t imagine Dumbledore would say that, but you never know.
I guess it depends on if we’re talking early series or later series.
Paul: That’s true. Early series Dumbledore would be like, “this is my jam” I think. Actually later series Dumbledore probably would too. He always was dropping a reference here and there of some really quirky, eccentric, whimsical thing, even the darkest of times. So…
He held room for whimsy.
Paul: Exactly. Yeah. So I think he’d like it.
So having done this for comfortably over a decade and having made an academic study of the subject, what kind of advice would you have for people just now getting into wizard rock and wanting to try making their own?
Paul: Well, the beauty of wizard rock is that it’s, uh, really is a, anyone can do it kind of genre. Uh, and sometimes that means that the, the quality of the music can be a little rough. Like sometimes people will hear a band and be like, “oh, that, that’s very punk rock.” You know what I mean? But that’s the beauty of it. That’s the whole point. Like when Harry and the Potter started this genre, they basically laid the groundwork for that idea that it doesn’t matter who you are or you know, how old you are or your musical level or whatever. The ability to express yourself with music is something innate to humans that we can do. And that the ability to express yourself about a book series you love is something that you should do as well, you know, express that love. There’s nothing nothing wrong with, with sharing it in a different, like, artistic way.
And, uh, I would just tell people to really latch onto that and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and, and release recordings or play shows or something. I know a lot of people are really nervous that people will laugh at them or think it’s stupid. And you know what, maybe some people will, but like there are also other people out there that won’t, that will think it’s fun and that will enjoy it and then will have nice things to say and just find those people and just show them what you got. Also, just, this is just a general life rule, but don’t be a jerk. <laugh>. Granted, I feel like most of the bands that, uh, I need to say that to are no longer really in the scene at all. And most of the bands that currently are in the scene, or at least that have been making music in the last 10 years have been pretty chill and very nice to work with. So I don’t need to necessarily say that, but when it comes to any sort of like fan culture and stuff like that, sort of weird fansmanship or that sort of thing can, can happen. So just at the end of the day, remember to have fun to enjoy yourself and to do it for the sake of your love of the source material or the music. And if you do that, you probably will have a great time.
I know that some bands, uh, worry these days about making sure that they don’t abuse their position as creators in a fandom community. And, um, Uplift wrote a series of articles for both fans and creators on how to maintain respectful boundaries and take care of each other.
Paul: Oh, that’s awesome. I didn’t know about that. I’ll have to check that out because that’s definitely something that, I mean, Trina and I were kids when we started this, so it, I think it was a little different in the sense that like, when we were really performing shows, you know, we were playing for either other children or kids that are just a little older than us, you know, or, or super, when we were young adults, we were playing towards, you know… We always dealt with it like we were, you know, the older kids in a library performing for the younger kids in the library basically. And I know that sometimes that was not the case, <laugh> in not just wizard rock, but in lots of other genres. And I think that is one, definitely one good thing in the last 10, 15, 20 years is that people are definitely more aware of that and, and are not as willing to either put up with it or to turn a blind eye to it. Of course, it’s still obviously it’s still an issue, don’t get me wrong there. But yeah, that’s definitely something that all creators and fans and especially should, should be aware of or at least recognize that musicians and fans, both of them are just people like everyone else and they shouldn’t be put on a pedestal, but they also shouldn’t necessarily be unfairly denigrated or, um, just treat people with respect, I guess.
I’ll make sure I link those, uh, in this episode.
Paul: I’d love to read them.
Uh, you mentioned a program and midi files and things. Do you have any sort of that like technology side advice you might be able to give?
Paul: Yeah, so our first album, I, we recorded using just the free audio program, Audacity. Nowadays technology has come so much further than what we had when we were recording our first album. And even at that time I remember thinking what we had was pretty advanced, but there are so many programs out there that you can use to record music. So you don’t have to necessarily have the fanciest programs, the fanciest mics, the fanciest guitars or anything like that. You can download Audacity for free and get a cheap microphone and make some fun music that way if you do want to spend a little money or at least go a a tier above that or some, something like that, you know, you could maybe invest in a nicer microphone. One thing that I did do is I bought Fruity Loops, uh, FL Studio. The learning curve on that is a little steep if you’d have like no concept of what you’re doing, but, uh, if you watch some YouTube videos and like follow online tutorials, you can generally, most people can probably figure out at least the basics.
And I know that I, I’m probably still technically illiterate in terms of the software. I literally just taught myself how to use it. So there’s probably features that I don’t know about that I should, and there’s probably things that I do wrong that I shouldn’t do, you know, but just playing around with that tech and just trying. Again, I know that’s kind of basic advice, but you really don’t have to have the, the fanciest stuff to, to make some fun music. But again, if you do want to look into that, there, there are a lot of technologies and tools out there nowadays that can, can make that a little easier or maybe make the quality of the music a little stronger. Also reach out to other people in the wizard rock community, uh, or just you know, music communities in general. YouTube, I know Reddit has, I’m sure tons of like subreddits focused on like indie music and that sort of thing. There’s a lot of resources out there that can help someone basically teach themselves how to do a lot of the recording stuff. And, you know, at the end of the day, if you want to, you could probably just use a cassette tape. You know, you record using the, like an old school cassette microphone or something, you know, it doesn’t really matter as long as you’re having fun doing it, that’s really gonna be the key,
Bringing it back to your roots, I know that my local libraries at least have classes on how to use things like GarageBand, uh, and even some materials that you can rent for short periods.
Paul: Yeah. And in fact the Lawrence Library has a recording studio, which is pretty awesome. So I’m, I’m sure that’s becoming more common in other libraries. I’ve totally forgot about GarageBand. Yeah, that’s, that’s a great resource. If you have access to a Mac, it’s built in. But yeah, there’s a lot of resources there and like I said, compared to when we were starting, there’s way more stuff now for people, more accessible resources I should say. That isn’t to say, of course it’s all smooth sailing, but there’s definitely help you can find. And plus if you can’t find that, uh, resources directly, you can go to your local library, like you said, and you can interlibrary loan, some stuff <laugh>. So that’s also something to think about.
So with access to your whole library system, including a recording room, what are you all working on these days?
Paul: We were recording some parodies when Covid happened, or like some demos and then everything just got thrown into the metaphorical blender. And then we recently, we’ve been moving, so we have all of our instruments kind of boxed up right now. So we’re in a bit of a holding pattern and we have been for a while now, but I’m really hoping to, once things quiet down a little bit, maybe this summer, dust off the guitars and, and try to record something again. It’s been a while since we’ve written a parody, to be perfectly honest. Like I said, we had some song ideas that we were like tinkering with, but it just sort of, that just didn’t happen <laugh> with, with Covid and everything like that. But, uh, yeah, still monitoring the, the scene though, because I released ah, “I Wanna Wrock” book, uh, in early 2019. And so it’s been interesting to see how it’s developed since then, where things have gone that I didn’t expect, where things have gone that make sense. Just kind of following everyone. So we don’t have any music, like solid music plans right now. We need to get jump back into it, but, uh, I know there will be something in the future.
This summer is the perfect time to get back into writing because two weeks before this interview comes out, uh, I will have just announced the Summer of Joy.
Paul: Oh!
Which is a project that the ‘Pedia and WZRD Radio are collaborating on to get people creating in that chaotic, fun way that–
Paul: Yeah, that’s awesome.
–everyone’s was back during the late 2000s.
Paul: That’s a great way of describing it. Chaotically fun. That’s exactly it. Because a lot of stuff has been chaotic <laugh>, maybe not as fun, but that chaotic fun is definitely an important part of it. And I think that was one reason that wizard rock was so enjoyable is because of that sort of fun, spontaneous chaos, but in a productive, like, not just total disorder, but kind of messy, but in a fun way. I, I always enjoyed that.
Here’s our final block of music, beginning with “Star Cross’d Brothers” from Malfoy Manor.
~*~
That was Malfoy Manor’s “Star Cross’d Brothers” featuring Chaos of the Phoenix [lyrics], the solo version of “Once Upon a Time” from Split Seven Ways [lyrics], and “Potion Master” from Slytherin Soundtrack. Interestingly, “Once Upon a Time” also has a duet version, for all the Wolfstar lovers out there, which you can find on Wrocking on the Borderline.
And it’s once more back to Paul for the last bit of our conversation.
Thank you so much for talking with me today. This has been so much fun.
Paul: Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s been been great to chat.
Where can WZRD listeners find you and your music online and your books?
Paul: So probably the best place to find our music is on Bandcamp. If you just search the 8th Horcrux and I think it’s The8thHorcrux.BandCamp.com, or if you type in ‘8th Horcrux parody song Bandcamp’ on Google or something like that, that’s gonna have all of our music. I also have, uh, Twitter, which is, uh, PaulThomas1992. I haven’t been on there in a while, to be perfectly honest. Again, things in life have just been a little nuts around here, but you can also, you can get my book on wizard rock, which is called, “I Wanna Wrock” on Amazon, as well as the publisher, which is McFarland. It is an academic monograph, so if, which means it’s a little more expensive than like a standard paperback. So if you look it up and you’re like, “I want this,” and then you look at the price and you say, “whoa, 40 bucks for a book!?” Here’s what you do. Here’s, here’s the secret. If you go to your library, sometimes you can request a purchase, which is great because then we sell a, I sell a copy and you get to read it. Or the other option is you can inter-library, loan it, and uh, fill out a little form and get a copy and read it. And then, uh, everyone wins. So definitely check your library if you, you wanna read it. Um, and you, you don’t wanna break the bank or anything like that <laugh>.
Now I will say you all have created a lot more music than is on your BandCamp.
Paul: Yes, yes, we have, we, we have our Greatest Hits album up there and we have some of our newer stuff up there. We had our previous albums, but to be perfectly honest, there were some songs on there that we just aren’t happy with. We, we don’t really think are as good as they could have been. When people ask for them, we usually will just send it to ’em or send them a link or something like that. But the album that we have as our greatest hits is going to be that’s, those are the songs that I really am proud of and I think stand up. I guess if, if you hear of a song or, um, are like, “Hey, that’s interesting, I want to know, um, more about that. Can you, can, can I hear that?” Feel free to reach out to me through Twitter or, or whatever, you know, through Bandcamp. You can message us there and I can always get back to you and, and let you know what, uh, the, the state of that song is. And plus we, we have physical albums too that… We don’t, we have some of those still around. We sold most of the, most of our copies, but you might be able to find one of those here and there.
f 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, magical friends, here’s The 8th Horcrux!
Paul: This next song you’re about to hear is, uh, actually one of the last we recorded several years ago. It’s parody of “The Distance” by the band Cake. And it was written because I absolutely adore the niffler. I don’t know why. Just think it’s one of the funniest little guys in the Harry Potter universe. So it’s called “Newt’s Chasing the Niffler.”
WZRD Radio Podcast 