Hello magical friends, with an extra-big hi to my wonderful patrons whose support makes these interviews possible.
Today’s interview is with the delightful Gringotts Grrls and I can’t wait to dive into our conversation, but we’ve got some awesome music to hear first, starting with The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts and their “Lovegood.”
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That was “Lovegood” from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office [lyrics], Firewhiskey & Pie with “In the Department of Mysteries,” and Percy & the Prefects’ “Mad-Eye Moody” [lyrics].
And now, let’s meet Deirdre and Mary of the Gringotts Grrls!
Today, I am so excited to be talking to the Gringotts Grrls. Welcome to the show!
Deirdre: Thank you so much, Bess. We’re so excited to be here.
Mary: Yes. Hello. Hello, everybody. <laugh>, this is great.
So I figure we’ll start with introducing yourselves and then how you got into wizard rock.
Deirdre: Okay. So we are sisters, we’re actually twins.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: Um, Mary is a few minutes older than me. I am Deirdre. And, um, how we got into wizard rock?
Mary: Well, basically we got into wizard rock through Deirdre, and that was through our work as librarians. We were both in youth services in Westchester County, New York, and during the wizard rock craze and fairly early into it, Deirdre invited a couple of young fellows called Harry and the Potters to play at the library where she worked.
Deirdre: Oh, it was so awesome! And the funny thing is, at that point they were pretty new and a lot of teenagers hadn’t heard of them, so they didn’t have as big an audience as I could have wished. But boy were they great. And later we had a bunch of other people, the Parseltongues, um, Draco and the Malfoys.
Mary: The Remus Lupins.
Deirdre: Yes. Right. Um, Hungarian Horntails, if you remember them. <laugh> Yeah. And a bunch of other really amazing bands. And yeah, we were just so lucky that way. And we ended up meeting other twins who were doing the Wizard Wrocumentary. But, but how the band actually started is through, as Mary says, our, our initial excitement about this movement of wizard rock. And we loved it because of the DIY aesthetic, because it’s so creative. People were, were doing really interesting and unusual things.
Mary: Yeah. And it was very open and welcoming.
Deirdre: Right.
Mary: Um, people talk about the punk aesthetic, but there was nothing too edgy or hostile about it. It was open to all ages and all points of view. And that appealed to us too.
Deirdre: Right. Absolutely. And so, um, the other thing was that, um, I kind of liked the, I don’t wanna say anonymity, but it seemed like it was open to anybody. You didn’t have to have a certain look, you didn’t have to have a style… You needed to have a certain degree of talent, but that was it. So we were back in the day at my parents’ house, kind of weeding their garden or whatever, and I was like, “you know what, we could do a band too.” And I said, “you know, nobody has a goblin centered wizard rock band yet, and they’re the most important people in the wizarding universe because they control the money.” So, which is how we open all our shows, <laugh> usually with this little shtick. And, um, I started to sing this song about the monetary system, which as you know, is completely insane. And that became “Prime Numbers” <laugh>.
Mary: Yes. And then she almost immediately did a spoof on “The Ranchers and The Cowboys.”
Deirdre: Right.
Mary: And, um, so those two songs were written in one day <laugh>, while we were weeding our parents’ driveway <laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: And, um–
Deirdre: yeah.
Mary: And then I went in and picked up the tin whistle and began fooling around, and I shortly wrote “Severus Snape,” which is actually called “Not One of Us,” and the two solo tunes on the tin whistle. And that’s how we got started.
Deirdre: Right. And we called ourselves with Gringotts Grrls, like initially with the Rs, you know, the kind of riot grrl designation. And that was sort of a disconnect, kind of deliberate, you know, ’cause although I like that music, we were doing something so different, but we’re goblins, so we kind of don’t know.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: <laugh>, you know?
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: If that, does that make any sense? <laugh>.
Mary: And also she was very set on putting the stuff out, but being anonymous.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: And so, um-
Deirdre: The Cedric Diggories, dad of the Hungarian Horntales was like, “your voice seems familiar. Do I know you?”<Laugh>
Mary: Yeah. We were like a week on MySpace before we were outed.
Deirdre: Yeah. <laugh>.
Mary: And here we are. And the next thing that happened that simply amazed us is that we actually got invited to play at Terminus in Chicago. At that point, the band had been in existence for a little over a year.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: We had previous to that, played with Swish and Flick down in New Jersey at an ihop-
Deirdre: One of my absolute favorites. <laugh>.
Mary: Yeah. I love, we love Swish and Flick. And they were out in Chicago too, which was awesome. Um, a whole lot of people were, and that was just a blast. I took the opportunity to introduce some of my fanfic and to be on an essay panel as well. But we had a couple of performances there, and it was kind of nerve wracking for us because this was like such a big deal.
Mary: And there were kids actually asking for our signatures. And I’m like, “what?” <Laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah. It was unreal. It was a lot of fun though. And, and, um, yeah, her fanfic, which she mentions. Um, so Mary has a whole bunch of stories in which Snape is not dead.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative> and you can find them on Archive Of Our Own, um, where I am MaryJ59, I think. I’m not sure. <laugh>. <laugh>. Anyway, get back to me if you want more information on that. But yeah, that’s also where a couple of my songs came from. Um, like I premiered one there called “The Blackbird,” which I also vlogged. But anyway, we just kept writing these songs and it just got wackier and wackier <laugh>.
Deirdre: Well, and the other thing we did, which actually we started to do from the beginning was we incorporated, our dad’s a music teacher, so we were incorporating some classical stuff as well.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: So we’ve got Haydn in there, people call it “The Die Song,” but, but Haydn actually wrote it.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: Um, it’s, uh, a canon we do in two parts, but it would be better in three. And, um, we stuck in some Thomas Morley at one point, or anybody from either the Celtic Irish tradition or kind of classical who wrote something that seemed apt, you know?
Mary: Yes.
Deirdre: Especially if it had lyrics that were suitable to our message about money <laugh>.
Mary: Yes. Yeah. So one of the things she ended up doing, I picked up flute eventually because I thought it would give me a little bit more range than the tin whistle, but I still play basically tin whistle and performance. And I’m quite an amateur at it. But that’s one of the things I love about this movement, that you can be an amateur. It’s an amateur movement. That’s what we meant by saying it’s so welcoming. And, um, Deirdre plays viola a good deal better than I play flute <laugh>. So one of the-
Deirdre: oh, I wouldn’t say that <laugh>.
Mary: Well, I would, but one of the things that we did then is to spoof a famous Scottish bal- ballad, which happens to be called “Gilderoy.” That’s its actual name <laugh>.
Mary: So, so we just changed the words <laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: But most of it, um, it’s our music and our words, all of it is our words.
Deirdre: Right. Yeah.
Mary: Except for “The Die Song.”
Deirdre: Well,
Mary: I think that’s the only one we don’t change at all.
Deirdre: Uh, yeah, that one we, we kept Haydn’s original lyrics, yeah.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah.
Deirdre: Um, and there was another one, I think by Thomas Morley. We used to do “Nets of Golden Wires.”
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: And that one also, we, we kept the original lyrics, but other than that, if we’re taking, um, melody from somewhere, we do rewrite the, the lyrics. And sometimes it makes me sad, the songs I destroy <laugh> like, like, um, “The Last Rose of Summer” has become “The Last Knut in Gringotts” <laugh>. So,
So I wanted to go back to the band name for a little bit.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
I’ve seen it stylized a couple of different ways.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
How, how do you write it? How do you present the, the Gringotts Grrls? I almost said Gilmore
Deirdre: <laugh>. That’s so funny. We live not far from Gilmore Girl territory, or I do. Anyway, we’re from Northwestern Connecticut. So <laugh> That’s so funny. Although Mary’s still, I was down in New York, um, ’cause I was working there. Right now I work in Connecticut, so I’m back to living in Connecticut. Mary’s still down in Mount Kisco. So, um, yeah.
Mary: Yeah. But anyway, what was the question?
Deirdre: About the name of the band? We style it different ways. Like is uh, or how do we think of it? I don’t, I don’t have strong opinions about it anymore. It’s because we’ve seen it spelled different ways. And so we tend to follow what the fans are doing.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah.
Deirdre: If you know what I mean. <laugh>. So that’s why the R dropped out eventually because people just say
Mary: girls.
Deirdre: Yeah. <laugh>, even though, how should I say? Uh, ‘girls’ seems a strange designation for mature women, but,
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: You know, here we go, <laugh>.
Mary: But it’s got a nice, is it called an “assy-thingummy” as Eustace would say.
Deirdre: Uh, alliteration, I think is the word.
Mary: <laugh>. Yeah.
Uh, so basically there’s no wrong way to spell Gringotts Grrls.
Deirdre: There’s no wrong way, yeah.
Mary: No.
Deirdre: Whereas I object to, um, well not object. I, I feel I’m too soft spoken a person to object – object very vociferously in real life. But, um, but I have a difficult first name, <laugh>. And, and, uh, I get called Deidra a lot, which is just wrong. So <laugh>
This, uh, uh, magical listeners, this is a point that I spelled Deirdre’s name wrong, I think in every email I sent them. I’m so sorry. <laugh>.
Deirdre: Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, I didn’t mean that against you at all. I’m so sorry. See, I don’t, like I totally understand it because unless I am in Ireland or, or something, like in this country, Deidra is much more usual. So it does,
Mary: yeah.
Deirdre: So that’s what I get called <laugh>.
Now, in my most recent email from Mary–
Mary: Mm-hmm
I noticed that you signed off as Grrl 1.
Mary: Yes. And I’m not girl one, but that’s what Deirdre calls me <laugh>. And it’s because I happen to be four minutes older than she is.
Deirdre: <laugh>
Mary: So she stuck me with that <laugh>. And she calls herself Grrl 2.
Deirdre: <laugh>. Yeah.
Mary: Because she is the younger twin, although she’s the band’s founder, so in my mind, she’s girl one. But as we said, we have fairly fluid designations here.
Deirdre: Yes. We believe in fluidity.
Mary: Yes.
Deirdre: As long as it doesn’t get too confusing.
Mary: Yes. Fluidity is very important for commerce.
Deirdre: Yes.
Mary: Are you aware of the rules of acquisition? <laugh>?
This is a very Fred and George sort of approach.
Deirdre: <laugh>. Oh, that’s funny actually. Yeah. Fred and George, they were a band too. <laugh>.
Mary: Yes, they were.
Deirdre: Yeah, they were pretty funny. <laugh>.
It sounds like you met a number of bands and you performed at Lumos and all kinds of things. What are some of your favorite stories?
Deirdre: Oh, wow. I think my favorite of all time has to be actually from Terminus, because we heard–she’s gonna sing with us in New York. She’s an older lady who does, um.
Mary: Oh, Deanna, yes.
Deirdre: Yeah, Deanna. And what is her band called? Oh my God.
Mary: Um, it’s called, um,
She’s Celestial Warmbottom.
Deirdre: Yeah, Celestial Warmbottom. Okay, so we heard her for the first time, and Brian, like from Draco and the Malfoys, was in the audience, and we were like kind of talking about various things and, and he seemed like just such a nice guy. And then we were gonna perform next, and we had this different venue, which was a little smaller. And, um, he and his brother came to listen to us and they liked us.
Mary: That was so-
Mary: And I was like, “oh my God.” And I’m like, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m, I’m messing up a harmony I myself wrote, I mean, and these guys like us. This is amazing.” <laugh>. So.
Mary: Yeah. And Deanna is amazing. And so.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: We were, happened to be in Brian’s house during Terminus, and I just thought it was totally the best house. It was called Ulu at the time, I think. We were the Northerners <laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: And, um, he was just so enthusiastic and so clear and warm and friendly, and it was just great.
Deirdre: Yeah. Yeah. He’s, he’s amazing. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of people in the community, the wizard rock community, are completely amazing, and I know there have been, like, every community that grows large will develop a difficulty or two.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: And so wizard rock hasn’t been without it, but yet the core remains, you know, <laugh>.
Mary: Yeah. I think that’s a great story. I personally loved going to see, um, Stacy and Joe[John] also at Terminus. They were just so great.
Deirdre: Yeah. Yeah. I agree.
Mary: Um, yeah, Swish and Flick. I don’t know which one of them is which, <laugh>. And it seems like just yesterday, you know.
Deirdre: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a long time ago.
Mary: And their oldest was a baby then, and now she’s a grown up young woman. It’s amazing.
You all are, I think, sort of staples of the, like, the New England region, so you’ve probably done some of the like sidewalk shows, I think, that Stace put on. You’re always in Irvin’s Avada Kedavrocks.
Deirdre: Oh, you know, we’re in Irvin’s thing. Yes. Yeah. And that’s exciting. ’cause we’re gonna be there next month.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: The 18th. It’s gonna be a very hectic weekend. What- we’re kind of taking your questions out of order, I think Bess, but um, we’re doing that on the 18th, which is actually Irvin’s book launch, and then we have a major classical concert the next day.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: So <laugh>.
Mary: So that’s, it’s gonna be rough. Yeah. <laugh>.
Deirdre: It’s gonna be fun I think. <Laugh>.
Mary: Yeah. We are looking forward to it.
Do you have any Avada Kedavrock stories?
Deirdre: Oh, wow.
Mary: Do we have any what?
Deirdre: Avada Kedavrock stories. Irvin choreographing stuff.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: Oh my Lord. It- what’s so funny, because I actually briefly joined the Dancing Death Eaters myself.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: But it was like a little too much to commute down there a lot.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: You know, <laugh>. But, but he is so creative and I, I totally love what he does with the music.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: And, and that he wanted to choreograph for us. And, um, he did, um, that song that Mary was mentioning at the beginning, right, Mary?
Mary: Yeah. “The Goblins and The Wizards Should Be Friends.” Uh, you can find this on YouTube if you haven’t seen it. Irvin choreographed to that and, um, does a dance to it. And he’s done that twice now at, um, Avada Kedavrock, and he’s gonna do it again,
Deirdre: <laugh>.
Mary: this coming month. <laugh>. So it’s awesome.
Deirdre: And it, it’s hilarious.
Mary: It’s so funny.
Deirdre: I mean, people just, people just laugh. It’s so great. <laugh>.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: And I don’t know, I just feel like it’s a great mix. And the other thing, Brian was, um, playing, like, his brother wasn’t there, but for Draco and the Malfoys, and he did this sing along at the end of the show, <laugh>.
Mary: Of “99 Death Eaters.”
Deirdre: Yeah. And it was just so much fun, <laugh>. So.
Mary: It was.
Deirdre: So I totally recommend those shows. They’re really a blast.
Mary: Yeah. <laugh>.
So you’ve mentioned that some of your music is fully original, some of it is a filk of a classical musician. How do you decide? What does song creation look like for you all?
Deirdre: Oh, wow. Okay. Well, I think when it comes to the classical stuff, we just appropriate things that may be, like with the Morley, it was something our- and the Haydn, those were things our dad introduced us to years ago. And it just happened to come into my head. These lyrics are perfect.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: So, and we can do this, you know, <laugh>.
Mary: Yeah, and that’s pretty much it.
Deirdre: So, so that’s pretty much it. With the other things- then there’s two different categories of songs after that, I would say. The ones that are completely original that we write.
Mary: Yes.
Deirdre: Like music and lyrics, and then the ones where we’re taking lyrics and put them on, putting them onto a folk tune.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: And I think with something like Gilderoy, it’s like, we knew the song already, the original and, and it’s called Gilderoy, so it seemed like it was just crying out for treatment.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: <laugh>.
Mary: Yes.
Deirdre: So. Does that make sense? With, with other things like “The Last Rose,” which I do feel, uh, it’s such a beautiful song. Uh, I feel kind of bad about it, <laugh> every time I sing it as “The Last Knut.” But anyway.
Mary: Oh, you did it. You did it.
Deirdre: I did it. I know. And I think that one is on, oh lord, there, there’s an album you can find of, um, but yeah, I think I.
Mary: Witches Wrock.
Deirdre: Witches Wrock. Yeah, of course. <laugh> Of course! <Laugh>.
Mary: W in front of the rock, of course.
Deirdre: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Thank you Mary <laugh>.
Mary: As to how we write our songs and whether the words come before the lyrics or after them. I don’t know that I’ve even.
Deirdre: Words and lyrics? <Laugh>.
Mary: Words and lyrics. Words and- Lyrics and music.
Deirdre: Right.
Mary: Lyrics and music.
Deirdre: Right.
Mary: You gotta cut some of this <laugh>, I thought I was awake. Um, but anyway, I’m not really sure that I have a process. I would say that, with “Not One of Us,” they sort of came together. With, um, one that I just wrote recently, which I don’t know if we’re going to be performing in New York or not, I thought of some of the words and then I had a completely different tune for it, which I hope Deirdre will will be playing down in New York on the viola. And the words didn’t fit. And then I came up with a different tune, and then I modified the lyrics. Um, so I don’t know whether we start with lyrics or music.
Deirdre: Right. I’m trying.
Mary: How do you usually do it?
Deirdre: I’m trying to think what, like “Prime Numbers” I think just came into my head the way it is. Like the words and the lyrics together.
Mary: Exactly.
Deirdre: Um, and then at that point I was playing with Garage Band, and it was kind of something that I wanted to do, which we do in performance, but in a much more low tech and, and minimal way is have a prime number drum pattern
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: underneath, you know?
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: So yeah. So, so you, you’re going 2, 3, 5,
Mary: 7.
Deirdre: Sometimes 7, you know?
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: But always the twos, threes, and fives, you know? Yeah. And, um, and I did that like in a much more complex way and with like pots and pans from the kitchen and all kinds of weird sounds on the thing that I did in Garage Band, but the basic idea and the basic, um, melody and lyrics were, were there from the beginning. I’m trying to think how it worked with “Down in the Ground Where the Goblins Go.” Like sometimes you take, or you’re inspired by, or thinking about a song or something that ends up having absolutely nothing to do with what you eventually end up with. Does this make any sense, Bess?
Absolutely.
Deirdre: Yeah. I don’t know if it does, but um, but like that one, I was just like, well, let’s see if we can take a sort of 18th century philosophy, a chord <laugh> sort of a, a title from like, kind of punk-
Mary: an Irish folk song.
Deirdre: Yeah. <laugh>.
Mary: Yeah. Which was “Down in the Ground where the Dead Men Go.”
Deirdre: Right.
Mary: By The Pogues. I don’t even know the tune. We just need–
Deirdre: Yeah. Right. <laugh>, um, oh, stop <laugh>. Yeah, I know. But yeah, The Pogues, anyway, um, and just like run with it and see what happens. And that one’s really fun to do, and I’m sure we’re gonna do it next month because you get to divvy up everybody and have everybody singing and um, it sometimes sounds pretty great.
Mary: Yeah. <laugh> yeah. So yeah, that was a rather complex one. And she always introduces it by saying that we are goblins, and so we’re mathematical geniuses, <laugh>, and we wrote this song, and it has five parts, and there are only two of us <laugh>,
Deirdre: Which is the truth.
Mary: She layered it in Garage Band. But it’s really fun when people layer it as part of the audience. Yeah, yeah. It works out really well.
That sounds like a lot of fun.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: Yeah. Basically it is.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: Um, that’s the thing about wizard rock: it’s positive and it’s fun. And the messages are usually pretty positive too, even when people are being snarky.
Deirdre: Right.
Mary: It’s a very warm and welcoming community still, even after all these years and even after some of the troubles that there have been.
Deirdre: Yes, absolutely. And, and I was thinking, the other thing about it is that, you know, you go through life and, now when I look back on Terminus, I was like, “oh my heavens, I was young.” Of course, like 20 years from now, assuming I’m still kicking around doing stuff, I’m gonna look back on today and say, “oh my goodness, I was young.” But what I’m getting to with this is that we’ve grown through the music just as much as the music has grown through us. Does this make sense?
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: Like, like always you’re pushing, you know, to see, well, what if I try this? Okay. And this, this range is a little bit, it’s, it’s good for this, but maybe not for that, but maybe we can do it, or, you know, and- do you know what I mean, Mary?
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah. Like, you’re trying new stuff. Um, you are being creative and being creative feeds creativity.
It’s time for some music! Here are the Swedish Shortsnouts with “Walking.”
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You just heard “Walking” from the Swedish Shortsnouts, Kingsley & the Shacklebolts’ “So Long Dolores,” and “Potterwatch” by The Basilisk In Your Pasta.
“Walking” was a special request from my beloved patron Geoff who dedicated it to Julianna, saying “we have shared many adventures together, but walking back-and-forth from our airbnb to the tattoo convention for three days was one of the most fun adventures we have shared so far.”
With that beautiful tribute to friendship, let’s get back to the interview.
So my patrons–
Deirdre: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
were curious. You’ve performed in a number of wizard rock shows with a number of other bands.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
If you were to set up your dream lineup of bands to play with, who would you include?
Deirdre: You know, I think Irvin does it for us.
Mary: Yes, he does. <laugh>. I totally love playing. I don’t think that Stacy and Joe[John] are gonna be there. I think they’re kind of not in it anymore. But I loved Hawthorne and Holly. I loved- Brian’s gonna be there again. Um
Deirdre: Draco and the Malfoys.
Mary: Draco and the Malfoys. And Celestial Warmbottom is going to be there again.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: And I just love playing with them.
Deirdre: Yeah, me too. Yeah. So I, I feel like, yeah. Yeah.
Mary: But there’s so many good bands. I’ve enjoyed-
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: -everybody that I’ve listened to, one way or another.
Deirdre: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: Even the little kids who are mostly loud <laugh>, you just love the enthusiasm.
Deirdre: The energy.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: So that’s the truth. I think that everybody who’s putting out music has their own type of talent, and it would be an honor and a joy to be included with anybody <laugh>. So, yeah.
Mary: One person that I really admire that I left out is The Whomping Willows. Yeah.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: So, but he had, I don’t know if he’s still at it.
Deirdre: No, no. Not for a long time now.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: But, but he, yeah, he had some great songs, <laugh>.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: Justin Finch-Fletch, I don’t know if he’s still at it either, but, you know, <laugh>. Yeah. He was fun as well.
Mary: He was a lot of fun.
Deirdre: Yeah. But yeah, basically, yeah. Irvin does it for us.
Mary: Yes, yes.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah. There’ve been some amazing, um, Ashley, what is her last name? ’cause she’s very, very good too.
Ashley Hamel.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: Uhhuh <affirmative>.
Mary: Yeah. And those lovely Asian twins from England, Tom Riddle TM.
RiddleTM, yes.
Mary: Yeah, they were great.
So you’ve talked a lot about how welcoming and DIY and amateur friendly wizard rock is.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
We have so many new bands joining and trying it out, people thinking about trying it out. What kind of advice would you have?
Deirdre: Oh, wow. I just feel, well, do you wanna go first, Mary?
Mary: I don’t know what, um, the question is?
Deirdre: Like, what advice would we have for people starting out, or.
Mary: Oh my gosh, <laugh>. <laugh>. It sounds like a Nike ad, but just do it.
Deirdre: <laugh>. Yeah.
Mary: This is the wisdom that I’ve come to, um, in my writing as well as in writing these songs and playing with my sister. Don’t be scared. Don’t think you can’t do it. Just start where you are and do what you can and have fun.
Deirdre: Yeah. And yeah. Concentrate on what you really love about what you’re doing.
Mary: That’s great advice.
Deirdre: That’s what I say, you know?
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: Because, despite the, as we said, welcoming nature of the, the whole movement and everything, you have an internal critic and you’re gonna have maybe some external critics too,
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: and you don’t wanna totally discount good advice, but you don’t want anybody to make you timid or put you off, okay? So if you concentrate on what you love, you’ll be, I don’t wanna say impervious, but, but it does give you a level of joy and energy that’s not as liable to be diminished.
Mary: Oh, yeah.
Deirdre: Does that make sense?
Mary: Yeah. And this is reminding me another, of another band I love: Basilisk in your Pasta.
Deirdre: <laugh>.
Mary: Do you remember those French kids? They are so funny.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: And nobody could ever have come up even with that title other than them.
Deirdre: Right?
Mary: So everybody-
Deirdre: mm-hmm.
Mary: This is a very old book on writing that I have on my shelf. The author is Brenda Ueland. The title is “If You Want To Write.” And one of her early chapters is Everybody is Unique, Interesting, and Has Something to Say. So that goes along with what Deirdre was saying.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: Um, if you’re starting out in this, remember that. Everybody is unique and interesting and has something to say.
Deirdre: Right. And one of the amazing things about music, which I realized more and more the more I’m, um, as I said, we’re also in part of a classical group, which, um, we’re doing some pretty challenging stuff. And, um, I find it’s amazing that you never get to the end of music.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: There’s always new melodies, there’s always new harmonies, new ideas. You know, that’s, and even if you yourself are, as we do, using an older tune for something, it, it’s a new performance every time. And one of the fun things, and also kind of confounding things I think, in our group is uh, we found that people sometimes don’t know that we write our own songs
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: because we do also use folk tunes for, for some of the, the melodies, and we write in a, a kind of Celtic folk, um, style.
Mary: A folk tradition, yeah.
Deirdre: Like in that tradition. Um, but yeah, we, most of the melodies are ours. Which is awesome; it’s so much fun to do.
Mary: Yep. <laugh>
Now ‘just do it’ is the advice I get the most frequently,
Deirdre: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
uh, during this section, which is why I have a secret second question, which is.
Deirdre: Ah!
your most pragmatic advice. Like something about Garage Band or recording or how to write Celtic folk.
Mary: <laugh>. Oh, gee. As if I knew anything. <laugh>.
Deirdre: <laugh>. Um,
We get a lot of vocal warmups. I think those are really good.
Deirdre: Yeah. Uhhuh <affirmative>, those, those absolutely are great. Yes.
Mary: Yes. Uhhuh <affirmative>, well, I don’t know if this is a practical tip, but relax and play around. Um, I was literally just playing scales and then doing variations on the tin whistle when I came up with a tune. And I was like, “well, what’s this? Well, what’s this?” Just play. Yeah. I don’t know if that makes any sense.
Deirdre: It, it totally makes sense. The other thing that I would say is, as you’re playing, um, and this is probably gonna sound kind of crazy, there’s a couple of different things that can happen. Like maybe you’re noodling around and you’re like, “oh, that was lovely.” And then, “oh, what did I just do?” You know? And if you remember, record if you can.
Mary: Yes.
Deirdre: Okay?
Mary: Record immediately.
Deirdre: And if you don’t remember, don’t despair because you will get it back.
Mary: <laugh> Yeah, if you’re meant to. But it’s really helpful that we have all of this electronic equipment and the lattice- latest couple of songs I wrote when I, after I had finished working out the tunes, like in my head or on the piano or whatever, I immediately recorded them on the phone so that I would remember. And then I went back and listened and saw, to see if there was anything I wanted to change.
Deirdre: Yeah. And yeah, playing around is just really helpful, ’cause sometimes, um, if you’re coming up with a melody or a harmony, and- most of our stuff, I, I don’t think anybody would say that we do super complex, like, music. We’re not like Judith Weir of the, the wizard rock world or you know, whatever.
Mary: No <laugh>.
Deirdre: Um, but I feel like, uh, be open to like, new ideas, even if they’re your own. Does that make any sense, <laugh>? Because uh, sometimes you’re like, oh,” this would be a little crazy. I wonder if it would work”. And it does.
Mary: Yeah. Don’t be too quick to discard stuff
Deirdre: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: and make sure that you record.
Deirdre: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: I think that’s fairly practical. <laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah. I think that’s practical.
Mary: Yeah.
We covered this a little bit early on, but I do always like to know, what should my listeners be looking out for from The Gringotts Grrls? What are you working on? What do you have coming up?
Deirdre: Oh, other than the show in October, I, I don’t think, uh,
Mary: No, we’ve been fairly
Deirdre: We’ve been fairly quiet.
Mary: low key about this. Yeah.
Deirdre: Yeah. We’ve been fairly quiet recently. We were wondering whether we should, um, actually do a new composition, but we haven’t decided on anything. Which means that, I think that your things, Mary, are the, the most recent that we have.
Mary: Uhhuh <affirmative>, they’re different. Yeah.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: They don’t quite suit the group, so I’m not sure.
Deirdre: Yeah. mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: It’s not that they’re bad songs, but they don’t suit the group, exactly.
Deirdre: Right. Well, not the comedic feel of it. They’re, yeah. They’re a bit more serious. Mary: But we were thinking, and we talked with our singing teacher, our choir director, about this, about making another album that would be more like The Complete Gringotts Grrls.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: We have one small EP out, and then we have that song on The Witches Wrock and, um,
Deirdre: And the, and the.
Mary: And the one on the Hut on the Rock
Deirdre: <laugh>.
Mary: and the one that we did for the sea shanty medley. And that’s where we are basically. We have very little out there, and I’m thinking maybe it would be a good idea to preserve some of this stuff.
Deirdre: Yes. ’cause that’s the other thing we did, uh, there’s a modern American composer, Douglas Anderson, and our group was singing some of his music, and we’re on an album of that that’s gonna be coming out in December.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: And, with our group. And, um, and that was a fantastic experience. And I would say, if anybody does have a chance to be professionally recorded for anything, you know, it’s really wonderful <laugh>.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: So
Mary: Yeah, and we’re
Deirdre: But we have not done that with The Gringotts Grrls.
Mary: We have not done that with The Gringotts Grrls. And I’m wondering if maybe we should, it’s been a lark. We haven’t taken it too seriously ever.
Deirdre: No <laugh>.
Mary: But, but I still think we’ve done some good stuff that people enjoy, and we might wanna preserve that in a decent form. So that’s something we’re thinking of.
That sounds wonderful to me. And I know that, uh, our fandom, far flung as it is, would love to have more access to your music.
Deirdre: Oh, that’s so nice of you to say. And thank you, fans. I mean,
Mary: yeah.
Deirdre: I’m still sort of floored that we have fans.
Mary: I’m amazed we have fans.
Deirdre: I’m like, what? <laugh>? But, but yeah. I mean, we love the music, so we’re glad other people do too. <laugh>.
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: So
Mary: Yeah. Which kind of almost brings me to my long library spiel. <laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah. Shall, shall we have a long library spiel from Mary, Bess? Go for it!
Mary: <laugh>. Okay. So, as we said, I wanted to avoid current events for the most part, because there’s just so much that seems
Deirdre: Sad.
Mary: -utterly evil, and sad and bad, and wrong. But one of the things that this community supports, and that libraries, libraries and librarians have also supported, is freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, freedom of speech. That’s so key. And one of the things that we are pushing here is, of course, literacy. And if you think about it, reading is a sort of thinking.
Mary: It is not passive. People think, oh, some kid is just sitting there reading. But if a kid is sitting there reading, even something like Harry Potter, and honestly, there are other fantasies that I love more <laugh>. But if they’re sitting there reading Harry Potter, they’re creating a world in their minds. They’re working as they read the words, and not just to decode them, but to create the story in conjunction with the author. And that’s just an amazing way of thinking. And it’s really, as has been said, reading fiction in particular develops empathy in the young. And in older people. And it’s so important that we have empathy for each other, and that we develop our imaginations, and that we develop our ways of thinking. So that’s something that librarians and libraries support as well as supporting, letting people gather together in a common space, letting people find different views about things, letting people learn, on their own, what interests them.
Mary: And I just love libraries for all those reasons. And that, I think is the end of my spiel.
Deirdre: <laugh> Okay.
Mary: Anything to add, Deirdre?
Deirdre: Oh, no, I think that was enough. You know, but you can see how, um, like, uh, public debate needs to be safeguarded.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: You know, and
Mary: mm-hmm <affirmative>
Deirdre: Um.
Mary: Yes.
Deirdre: And people need to have a sense of safety around it too.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: Okay.
Mary: Therefore there has to be space for that. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Deirdre: And there’s all these great books you can read.
Mary: Exactly.
Deirdre: Like Harry Potter and <laugh>.
Mary: And that’s the thing, there’s nothing wrong with reading something that isn’t absolutely top drawer. There isn’t, nothing wrong with reading for fun. That’s what we all do, all of us who love reading. We may do it for many other reasons, but we do it because it’s fun.
Deirdre: Yeah. I think that’s the end of the, the rants about libraries. Although,
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: everybody, September is library card sign-up month, you know, I guess as the teen librarian in Danbury, I do have to do, do another spiel here.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Deirdre: If you have a local library, and most people do, and you don’t have a card, you should go and get one because, not only do they have books for you to check out, like physical books, but there’s all manner of downloadables, museum passes, movies, streaming services. You can check out a Roku, you can check out a tablet, you can come and use a recording studio.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: It’s amazing. It’s a lot of stuff you can do. Okay.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: End of rant about libraries.
Mary: Second rant about libraries.
Deirdre: Oh, no! Okay.
Mary: October, when we’re doing all these concerts and stuff, that’s just after, isn’t it, Banned Books Week?
Deirdre: Yes.
Mary: And one of the things that outraged me way back early in this whole experience is that people were banning the Harry Potter books in certain places. And I am totally opposed to that. All librarians I know are totally opposed to that. And your library is a place where you can get things that you might not find other places.
Deirdre: Okay. So for Connecticut, people who might be listening, if you wanna check out the Danbury Library, a good opportunity to do that is gonna be on the 6th of October when we’re going to be screening “Banned Together”, which is a true story, a documentary about high school students who combated book bans. And a couple of days before that, on Saturday, we’re having a, a matinee. Um, oh. The cat again, is making mischief, um,
When pets come to visit during the interviews, it’s the best part.
Deirdre: But there is a movie called Empire Waist, which is kind of a, a teen comedy, and it’s, uh, about empowerment and creativity. And the writer and director are gonna be there to talk to people. So that’s on Saturday the fourth. And you can find out about your local library by googling them. God, google is great. Or if you are in the area and, um, you wanna find out more about what’s happening in Danbury, you can google them too. <laugh>. Okay.
It’s time for our final music break! Here are the Blast Ended Skrewts with their “Punky Skrewtster.”
~*~
That music break began with “Punky Skrewtster” by the Blast Ended Skrewts, continued through Kwikspell’s “Somewhere” [lyrics], and finished up with Steve Goodie and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Malfoys.”
Let’s get back to the final bit of my interview with the Gringotts Grrls.
Thank you so much for talking with me today. It’s been awesome to learn a little bit more about The Gringotts Grrls. Where can WZRD listeners find you and your music, especially online?
Mary: Oh, so you had something on Reverb Nation. Does that still exist?
Deirdre: Yeah, I, I don’t, uh, I did have that. I think Reverb Nation does still exist. There’s also, um, those compilations we mentioned. Hut on The Wrock was the sea shanty album of wizard rockers and that,
Mary: Which is great.
Deirdre: that’s, that’s
Mary: That’s so much fun.
Deirdre: definitely a great album. It’s so fun. And we have a song on that. And, um, there is, uh, an effort to, to put out all of the, um, from Wizrocklopedia, I think.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: Um, um.
Mary: And so our EP is there.
Deirdre: Yeah. Our EP is there if people wanna access it. And the final one was, uh, that Witches Wrock.
Mary: That was on Amazon, actually.
Deirdre: Yeah. It was available from, I think you can find it on iTunes, too. And you know, a bunch of other places. Um.
Mary: We’ve only got the one song there, but, um, it’s a good one.
Deirdre: Yes<laugh>
Mary: And there are other good people on there.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: So, yeah. I don’t know if they weren’t doing that as a fundraiser of some sort or initially.
Deirdre: Yeah. And it’s funny
Mary: The other ones are all free.
Deirdre: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: You can just download the music for free and we do not mind at all.
Deirdre: Yeah. <laugh>
Mary: Just so long as we get credited, because it is ours, mostly <laugh>. <laugh>.
Deirdre: Yeah.
Mary: Yeah.
Deirdre: So, so I think, yeah, it’s a pretty, pretty slim pickin’s, but hopefully people will enjoy what they find. Um, we may try to put out more, you know?
Mary: Mm-hmm.
Deirdre: As we have more time.
Mary: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
And now, magical friends: The Gringotts Grrls!
Deirdre: Alright, so this now is “Prime Numbers,” the very first song we wrote. This is the one that we came up with pulling weeds. It’s, it’s very handy to think about numbers as you’re pulling those weeds outta the ground. <laugh> <laugh>.
Mary: And it’s an important song because it explains the beautiful, uh, highly logical goblin banking system, which we are intelligent enough to comprehend, but which baffles most wizards and all muggles <laugh>.
Deirdre: Enjoy.
Mary: Thank you.
WZRD Radio Podcast 