Hello magical friends, especially my magical patrons who make these interviews possible! With my hosting service raising their prices for the first time in WZRD’s history, I extra appreciate you.
I’m your hostwitch Bess and we’re starting this year’s interview off right, with an absolute classic of a band.
But we’re still the same WZRD, which means the music comes first. Here’s “You Belong” by Totally Knuts.
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That was “You Belong” by Totally Knuts [lyrics], Misbehavin’ Maidens and “Slytherins are Misunderstood” [lyrics] and Woot Suit Riot with “Hermione” [lyrics].
My dear patron Celia dedicates “You Belong” to Darbi, with the message “Whether you choose Ravenclaw or Slytherin one thing is clear: you belong in wizard rock and we’re glad that you’re here.”
And now it’s time to talk with Amy of Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons!
Welcome to the show Amy Snow of Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons. I’m so excited to be talking with you again! <Laugh>
Amy: It’s exciting to be here. Thanks Bess.
My listeners have actually just been listening to you for a little over a week for Hanukkah this year. I rereleased some more original WZRD.
Amy: Alright, okay. <laugh>. Great. Yeah.
So at this point they’re very familiar with the wonderful fun that you had with Jamie on WZRD back in the early 2000s.
Amy: Yeah.
But today we’re talking about a project that I think sprang out of that– your wizard rock band.
Amy: Actually, I think it was the other way around. I think I was doing wizard rock first and then I think I started the podcast. Um, like I know we talked about this with Jamie about when WZRD started and I can’t remember, but I think it was probably… We did Potter Rocks I think in 2007. And it was bef–it was well before Potter Rocks. It could have been… No Potter Rocks. Okay. Deathly Hollows came out in 2007, didn’t it? So I feel like maybe it was that year? It was definitely–I remember checking my MySpace while reading Deathly Hallows, so it was pre-Deathly Hallows I started posting music on MySpace as Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, yeah.
So what inspired you to start a wizard rock band?
Amy: Um, the need to communicate, I suppose. I think one of the things about Harry Potter that kind of unifies us all is that there are themes and issues and topics that are addressed that even though they’re kind of specialized and fantastical are actually universal and relatable to everybody. And I think for a lot of people, particularly people in the Harry Potter fandom, I suppose we all saw something in there that really spoke to us directly. And to me it was a way of reaching out and communicating that I felt this too, and felt it deeply. And yeah, I suppose that was, that was the reason that I started writing music in the first place is it was like a need to communicate probably like some deep sadness and maybe some like loneliness and some grief that I think are the main, some of the main topics of the books.
And like probably at the, definitely at the time if you’d asked me what it was, I would never have been able to identify that, that that was what it was. But really, I guess if you, and I know that you have listened to some of my music even from that time, it’s <laugh>, it’s quite sad, you know, it’s quite forlorn. And yeah, so I suppose that’s probably what motivated me and, and the whole point of music is to reach out and communicate with other people, try and find other people who spark that connection and who resonate with what you’re trying to say as well. So yeah, that was, that was what got me started in it. And I suppose as well, I had, I was obviously aware of Harry and the Potters and it was at the time that wizard rock was starting to kind of mushroom on MySpace and it was all happening in the US and there was nothing happening here. And I suppose I just didn’t care. I was like, “okay, this is fairly anonymous.” I didn’t need anybody in my personal life to know that I was doing this, but it was like a safe way for me to express kind of what I was feeling. And I was lucky enough that there were quite a few people who, you know, related or wanted to, you know, connect from my music.
It’s funny that you say so much of your music was about loneliness and isolation because I realized when I was doing my research that you were one of the first wizard rock songs that I ever heard.
Amy: What?
Like my friend introduced me to certain bands, but like in the larger, you know, concept of the community and that song was “Don’t Call Me Dumbly.”
Amy: Oh yeah. <Laugh>. Yeah. Well that one, that one. Okay. Yeah, carry on.
Did that come from growing past the isolation because you’d become part of the community or how did…
Amy: No, no, actually that one came from just being awake very late at night in bed. And the idea just, I don’t know, it just came to me. I was, it was literally like, it was fully formed in my head. I walked down the stairs and I played it and I was like, “that’s a thing now.” And then that was like one of my most popular songs, <laugh>. But it is a fun song.
It is. And people like being silly.
Amy: Yeah, it’s a silly song. I like it. But I think like in my head I just really connect that with, again, being alone and like being in bed, being alone, coming downstairs in the night alone, writing it on my own, recording it on my own, posting it on my own. It’s amazing. Like with hindsight, you know? Yeah. I think it’s interesting. I’d love actually to be able to open up like that kind of conversation with other Harry Potter fans at this stage of life and see like, uh, if we could delve into why we were doing what we were doing, why we were attending cons and what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown since then. And how Harry Potter played a role in that, you know?
Yeah. I’m thinking the ‘creating your wizard rock in isolatio–isolation’ is a recurrent theme I’ve been hearing specifically from wizard rockers outside the US.
Amy: Yeah? Who else have you spoken to about it?
Um, at least one Australian wizard rocker mentioned–
Amy: Oh wow. Yeah. That would be quite isolating. Yeah. <laugh>.
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Amy: Yeah. Um, I suppose like it was a bit of a sore spot, I think, for us. You know, we were really lucky we had one very nice person called Jessica Gray who organized the first wizard rock concert in Birmingham Library. And you know, we all, like quite a few of us got together in on MySpace in a group and helped out with it. But really she was kind of the driving force behind it. And yeah, like I think we just really wanted a little bit of the fun that we could see happening, you know, in the US but we were all young girls pretty much, and we were all kind of learning as we were going as well. You know, we weren’t, you know, we weren’t like… we were a good bit younger than the kind of punk rockers like Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, even like the Whomping Willows.
Like we were all a little bit younger than them and still trying to figure it all out and, and I was lucky enough to be able to connect to people even though it was still in another country at least I was able to travel between Ireland and the UK. And you know, I still have very good friends who I’ve made through wizard rock. Like we’re still, you know, go, you know, very good friends. We attend weddings and we meet up and you know, we have calls and you know, we’re all still in creative industries and stuff. So even at, even though at the time I think we were all like a little bit resentful that we didn’t have access to the resources that the older guys had in the US and, and I would even count in that the fact that like libraries in the US have–often have theaters or would have like volunteers or would have places, you know, they would be amenable to people coming in and playing this type of a show, even if it was just in front of a bookshelf.
I think we were probably a little bit, um, jealous of that. You know, we probably, we definitely wish that we could do that, but because we didn’t have that um, resource available to us, we actually had to go to real venues <laugh>, which meant that we actually got to play in a lot more real venues. We did do a few libraries, but after the first library show, I can only, I think remember one, no, maybe two other, I think we did one more in Birmingham Library and then we did one in a library in Edinburgh. But the rest of the time we actually had to go to proper venues, which for all of us would’ve been our sort of introduction to… you know, it would’ve been like a real school of, of learning for us. So even though at the time we were probably a little bit like feeling left out of what was going on in the US we created our own thing and like we still are like, there’s a group of us who are still very good friends, you know? Um, yeah. So I kind of think it all kind of worked out <laugh>, you know?
Yeah. It sounds like, uh, y’all managed to create something really special.
Amy: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I mean the fact that I’m still even in this week of the Christmas holidays, like talking to like Laura from Siriusly Hazza P and Ellie as well from–oh god, what was Ellie’s band called–she’d kill me if I forgot <laugh>. I’ll have to try and remember later. But um, we’re all still very close and like we have so many great memories, but we also grew together and we also changed together and I think we all supported each other through a lot of stuff as well. And you know, I was lucky to be able to go to the US as well and play in the US and see the amazing resources that you guys have. But I have to say, I do feel very lucky either way, <laugh>, you know?
Definitely. Uh, before we get too much farther into the amazing community that was Irish/UK wizard rock, I always love to ask where did the band name come from? And yours is especially fun ’cause while it’s sort of followed the general theme of early wizard rock band naming, you picked an unusual character.
Amy: Yeah. Um, okay, so my initial thought was to be called Krum, like K-R-U-M, which to be honest, I still think I should have been called Krum. At this point I’m like, “that would’ve been such a brave choice. I should have just done that.” But I wasn’t a brave person, so I was kind of going–I think I was in a MySpace group and I was kind of humming and hawing over it. And then I was talking to Lauren Fairweather on MSN because that’s what we did in those days, we hung out on MSN and we chatted, um, and she said, “yeah, do Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Caul–” Like that was one of the options. I was like, “Krum music or Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons?” And she was like, “be Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons,” or she might have come up with the name, I can’t remember. Um, and I was kind of, that’s kind of–I wanted to be a Gryffindor. Like it was really important to me at the time that I could be part. It’s, it’s so fascinating when you look back at it now. Like I obviously felt so left out <laugh> that I just wanted to be even in a fictional common room, having fictional fun with fictional people. Um, so yeah, it was really important to me that I be a Gryffindor. So I ended up as Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons. I still think Krum is a solid name for like an indie female musician though.
Do you think your music would’ve been different if you were Krum?
Amy: No, it still would’ve been forlorn and acoustic <laugh>. There’s, it would’ve been exactly the same.
No, uh, other inspiration might have occurred?
Amy: I think all of my inspiration came from my sadness and my wanting to be a part of the gang and wanting to collaborate with people and just wanting to sing and wanting to sing about Harry Potter and talk to people about Harry Potter. And like, I think, I don’t think it mattered. Like ultimately, I don’t think it mattered what my name was. It’s not my favorite name, I wouldn’t choose it now, but it served its function. <laugh>
I think that was part of the magic of Harry Potter that made the fandom what it was. So many people came into it being–feeling alone or like a weirdo.
Amy: Mhm.
And it was the promise of this magical place where you’re not only, you know, special, but you have like a family, you have friends, even if it doesn’t feel like that in your regular life.
Amy: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I, I would imagine, and I’m sure there, you know, I’m sure people have written, um, papers on this for college and stuff like. It definitely, and I mean, I, I think especially if you’ve ever stood in a room full of people who are all Harry Potter fans and they’ve all just listened to a concert and I think particularly like Harry and the Potters had a really like unifying effect on people. They had a real, real ability to, to make us all feel like we were part of something together and not individuals alone in our bedrooms on MSN. Um, but again, like I think this is, it’s a huge, it’s a huge picture. You know, I think the LeakyCon team were a big part of that picture. There were people even before them who did Terminus and those, you know, infinitus, like those other cons who brought people together.
Anybody in a library or anybody who put together a show. It’s not just the bands, I suppose is what I’m trying to say. It’s not just the bands who brought people together. It was, it was all of the people in the background working extremely hard or who had an idea and were kind of brave enough to go through with it, to put it together. And I mean, even the smallest concerts, ’cause I mean, I’ve done, I did a concert, I’ve done concerts in people’s living rooms in the US you know, people were incredibly welcoming. Like I will, if I, I think of that time, like when I went on tour and on the east coast, like hospitality is like a huge word that comes to mind because people opened their homes to me in ways that I had kind of never really seen before. And then not just to me, but they wanted to have people come and listen to music in their homes. And it was, it was actually quite spectacular and quite touching. And I don’t know, I suppose it’s, it, it, it’s amazing how we all felt so alone, but we were all so driven to come together and how really none of us were alone because we were all together and it was like a golden era of the internet when we could, you know, come together. And I know there was always infighting and there was always drama and stuff, but like I don’t know, luckily I was never a part of any of it. <Laugh>
Yeah. A community means people with everything that comes with.
Amy: Yeah. And I suppose like as well, at this point of my life, like, um, I dunno, I’ve been diagnosed with like several chronic illnesses and I still have to use the internet as my way of connecting to the world a lot of the time. And it’s, uh, a really weird time I think, because on the one hand, we’re all trying to cut down our screen time and we’re trying to be more mindful about how we use the internet. And we’re also seeing a lot of, you know, negativity, pervading the internet, a lot of false information, you know, there’s the rise of AI and everything, but there’s, there’s multiple times in a week usually when I’m confronted with the fact that like, that is my social outlet usually because I have to use 100% of my energy to earn my living. And I think in the times that I was doing wizard rock, it was, it was, it was so <laugh>, it was so fulfilling, you know, we, we were able to, to make it happen in real life.
Now, luckily as I got older, and I’m, I hope for most of us, as we’ve got older, we’ve been able to create more of a balance between our real life friendships and understanding what those are and what we really want from those. And, you know, balancing how we get to meet people in real life and communicate with them in real life and, and being able to rest and like, you know, communicate through the internet and stuff like that. But like, it, it is, it’s, it’s something that I’d love to be able to talk about more with people. And I feel like at this point I have to really turn my back on the fandom in a big way to go ahead and be able to be healthy and to be able to make a living and, you know, retrain and go back to, to college and all this. But like, I suppose I’ve always kept my heart in the fandom in a way. Like I would still be Facebook friends or Instagram friends with a lot of people. And I suppose I would always assume that, or like, I hope that they would know that if they ever came to Ireland that they’d have somewhere to stay or that like someone to show them around or, you know, like I, I still feel friends with a lot of those people.
You’ve brought up many tantalizing aspects of your time in wizard rock that I’d love to hear more about. What is Potter Rocks? You mentioned it as if it’s a thing I should have on the forefront of my brain.
Amy: Potter Rocks? Oh, Potter Rocks was– <laugh> Potter Rocks was the name of just the first concert that we did in the library in, in Birmingham. That’s all. It was just called Potter Rocks and it was me Siriusly Hazza P, um, the Black Sisters, um, Shrieking Shack Disco Gang? And there may have been one or two others, but I can’t remember… A lot of it. A lot of what I remember is just like excitement and sort of stress. Oh, RiddleTM was there. Definitely RiddleTM was there, they were brilliant, obviously they’ve always been brilliant.
And you did an east coast tour?
Amy: Yes. With Snidget. Yeah, that would’ve been… Oh my goodness. When was that? Like 2007? 8? 2008? Ah, it would’ve been 2008 because I remember Snidget had a song about Colin Creevy being dead, um, <laugh>. So yeah, so I just flew over and we got in Grace’s car and she very kindly drove us up and down <laugh> and we went up… Up to Connecticut and down as far as, uh, North Carolina. My geography though is not great, but like is North Carolina would be below Virginia, wouldn’t it? Yeah. So that’s as far down as we would, and we met up with the Blibbering Humdingers and um, and Swish and Flick, and they were brilliant. Um, and we did some great shows in New York, which was very exciting. And we actually did a show in a venue where like Regina Spektor had played and like really famous people had played. And for me, I was kind of still in college and I was, I just found it so exciting and I just couldn’t believe what was going on at any given time. Like, it was great. It was amazing. We had so much fun. We really did.
Do you have any fun stories from that? People with who, who bring tour stories always have, ‘I broke down in a swamp.’ Uh, ‘I stayed in a man’s house who had a perfect Star Trek recreation in his attic’…
Amy: I suppose. Uh, we had a good house party in, uh, the Whomping Willow house. And then, because it was just after Christmas that I went, and in Ireland, traditionally Christmas lasts until the 6th of December and you can’t, you’re like, you just don’t take your decorations down. It’s just like a religious thing. Um, and I remember being very adamant that Christmas must not be over until the sixth for some reason. And we met up with Russ Benoit. Yeah, I I can see you just like loving him. Yeah, <laugh>. I know. And his wife–
Russ is a delight. I love him.
Amy: Yeah, super. We had a great time and oh my gosh, like, like it’s so crazy that that like, it’s been such a long time since I’ve even thought about these things, but Remus and the Lupins played, I can’t, I think he had the bag on his head, but I can’t remember. I think he did do it with the bag on his head.
Remus and the Lupins had a bag on their head?
Amy: Not the Remus Lupins now. Remus and the Lupins.
Like, Bradley?
Amy: Had a bag on his head. Yeah,
I’m familiar with Ludo Bagman and the Trash doing that.
Amy: <laugh>, I feel like he had a bag on his head. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m gonna have to Google that later.
Magical friends, if you know more about this, tell us please.
Amy: I think his identity was secret for quite a while.
Amazing.
Amy: Yeah, I think, I think that was the thing. I think he had a secret identity and, but it wasn’t really secret because everyone knew it was Bradley. And Draco and the Malfoys was played. Oh my God, it’s so funny. Like, I was really so young and not great at what I was doing and learning as I was going along. And incredibly unwell at the time was always so ill. <Laugh> and then the party ended, people went home, I had to sleep on a chair. I think Grace slept on a table and there was no heating and there were no blankets because all the blankets were on the windows. And, and that’s the main story I think that we have from that time is like how cold we were, because it was, it was Connecticut and it was January.
It’s funny, at that age, I would’ve been like “this is such a good story.” At this age I’m like, ‘I think I would have to go home.’
Amy: I nearly cried and I told Grace I wanted to get in the car and turn the heating on, and she told me no. I was like, “I can’t deal with this anymore.” <laugh>
Do you have any other fond memories maybe of some of the, the fancy Irish shows learning how to work all of that tech?
Amy: Well, <laugh>, okay. I think there have been tw–three Irish shows maybe in total? So I think the first one was when I was working with a theater company in the city where I live called Cork Midsummer Festival. And I think I had maybe just graduated two years and I, my degree was in music and drama and theater studies and I was like sort of trying to figure out what was going on and what I was supposed to be doing. And I think I just landed up in the Cork Midsummer Festival office and I was like, “hello, um, I’m really, I can do stuff. Um, please give me, I can do, I can make a concert happen” or I can do this other, like, I think I gave them a presentation. I was like, “boom, boom, boom, boom. I could do all of this.” And then I think on my CV I had wizard rock and the director was going, “oh, what’s this? Tell me more about this.”
And I said, “oh, it’s people talking and singing songs about Harry Potter.” So I was like so embarrassed because at the time I still was very, like, my online persona and my offline persona were completely separate and I couldn’t, um, really admit that I had emotions in real life. <laugh>. So all my emotions went into the wizard rock and then in real life I was like trying to hold everything together. And he said, “oh, this is, this is really interesting. Tell me more.” So I told him about it and they decided to get me to curate a concert with Harry and the Potters and Siriusly Hazza P. So they flew– That was a, that was a great summer. They flew Paul and Joe and their drummer Andrew out here, and Laura and Catherine, and we all did a show in Cork and people came from all over Europe.
It was, I think… This has actually happened to me several times and I need to get a grip about it because like, I’ll be like inside the venue because you have to do a soundcheck before you play. And I’ll be like, “tra la la la la, here, here we go, <laugh> another thing to be embarrassed about.” Like basically I just can’t, I’m just mortified all the time. Um, and one of my friends came in and they were like, I said, “oh, is there anyone out there?” <Laugh> And she said, “yeah, Amy, it’s going down the street and around the corner.” And I was like, “what?” <laugh>? Like, “no.” And then it turned out that it was like a like really, really full show. People had come from the UK. Like we had a really good group of people who used to come from the UK for everything and we were so lucky and people came from all over Europe.
I remember Siriusly Hazza P <laugh> came up to me afterwards and they were like “we’ve just met fans of ours from Germany who have come from Germany to see us.” And I was like “that’s amazing. Oh my God.” Like I’ve never been great at kind of receiving that kind of thing. So I thought it was, I, I dunno. And then at that time, you know, they came for the barbecue, or sorry for the barbecue, they came for the show and I did like a barbecue and we had a big party. We had kind of a mad kitchen party in my house. And yeah, it was actually really, really good fun. And that’s happened a few times where like I’ve really just expected nothing and, uh, been really surprised that people are showing up to see me or to see what I’m doing. It’s, yeah…
You might not have faith in you, but we do.
Amy: Oh, thanks Bess. I actually, I really actually think I might need that. <Laugh> because I want to start, like, I’ve been really working on trying to work on music again over the last year and yeah. And I think I could do with a little bit of that, a little bit of help from my, my um, community <laugh>.
All right, magical friends. Make sure that you, uh, Facebook friend Amy, tell her how wonderful she’s, how much her music means to you, really hype her up.
Amy: TikTok and Instagram is where I’m hanging out these days.
We’re not there yet! But we’ll get all of that.
Amy: <laugh>. Okay. I think for me anyway, 2026 is gonna be about trying to be brave and to trust that, you know, if you speak from your kind of truth, then other people who connect with that will, you know, respond to it. And I think like when I did Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, it was all about trying to separate myself from myself. It was about trying to create–be the person I wanted to be, but not being brave enough to be that person in my real life. Only being brave enough to be that person when I was at a concert or online. And I just really would like to marry the two together now and actually be a whole person. That’d be, that’d be super cool <laugh>.
But you know, that speaks volumes of the magic of the Potter fandom and wizard rock in particular, that you could use it as like a testing ground, a a a trying space to see.
Amy: Absolutely. Yeah.
You’ve been working on music this year.
Amy: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Were there any songs that you, you know, wish you had written or subjects you’d wanted to dive into and you just never got around to?
Amy: I suspect that there could be another song or two in me. And if I were to write a song now, it could be about all the ways Dumbledore messed up. <Laugh>, All the many, all the many great and small things he did wrong, <laugh>, all the injustices he, he did on–to Harry. And maybe I’m just saying that because as I was like, sometimes I’ll just put it on the audiobook to get to sleep because I know I don’t really have to listen to it ’cause I know what’s gonna happen. But, um, yeah, I was thinking about you as I was listening to it last night and I was like, “God, he’s the worst. He’s the worst.”
But I don’t think so. I think like for me, I was very much in my own feelings and I dunno, I I was a very sad person for a very long time and I felt very alone. And I think that’s, that is the way with a lot of creative people, a lot of probably neurodivergent people, a lot of people who feel that maybe they’re a little bit out of step with the people around them. And it doesn’t mean that you can’t find love and friendship around you, but it’s, it is isolating, you know? And until we get to a point in our lives where we can take in all the information and start to sort it out, I think it’s just really hard. <laugh>, it’s really, really hard and difficult things happen. And I think within Harry Potter, I, I think what I always see in fiction is the pain that’s not expressed.
So like, if something happens to someone and they’re not really expressing their pain, <laugh>, I feel it for them <laugh>. And then that’s where I write the song, you know? And then like, there are times as well where I try to be up upbeat, like as an exercise for myself I’ve written upbeat songs or, you know, songs that just aren’t objectively like really tragic <laugh>. But I think, I couldn’t say that there’s anything that I, I missed writing out on because everything that I wrote came from how I was feeling at the time, or experimentation. I mean, there was one song where I was like playing the chair and playing a book and playing my hands. And like, I actually have a lot of respect for myself <laugh> at that time to release that. I know that like, people would’ve been going, “what, uh, in the name of God is she doing?”
I remember it was a song about house elves and it was a song about the house elves during the final battle and how, you know, the kind of atmosphere and like this kind of like feeling of like, it’s gonna, it’s called “Battle Song for a House Elf.” It’s this feeling that, um, you know, something is this like, I think goes like “something, something is bubbling in the kitchen. Something is brewing just beneath, something is cooking in the basement. Something is hot. The heat, the heat,” and it’s all about how they like burst out of the castle and start fighting. And I suppose like, again, it’s, it’s about something that wasn’t expressed. It’s about a, a feeling that wasn’t expressed, but that happened. And I’m all about this… I think this is just a pattern with me. Like I, I feel everything! That’s tough, I need to express it or I’ll explode. I also feel like I want to represent people and I wanted to represent the house elves in that moment.
I can’t remember that one off the top of my head so I’m excited to go and listen to it later.
Amy: Mm. Okay. <laugh> could be one to rerecord. It’s definitely, it’s definitely like not recorded very well, but I’m happy with it. I, I was, I was happy with it.
The absolute magic of wizard rock is that it doesn’t have to be pristine recording studio quality. It’s, it’s, anyone can do it playing a chair and a book.
Amy: Bess, this is why I trusted you with WZRD because we share a philosophy here, which is it’s absolutely not about perfection. It’s about expressing yourself and trying things. And it’s about finding people who connect with you and connecting with other people as well. It’s not about being perfect. But I was embarrassed. I was still embarrassed even though <laugh> that was my philosophy even at the time. And I remember I used to get messages from really young people, you know, who would want to get into it. And they’d be like, “what, what do I do? What, what advice do you have?” And I’d be like, “no, listen, you can do this! <Laugh>, you’ve got this! No matter what you do, it’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be brilliant.” And like that was particularly over MySpace. Like people would’ve reached out a lot. And that was a hundred percent my philosophy. And I think it’s partially as well, like why we had such a, a nurturing kind of center group in, in, you know, in, in this part of the world. Like we, we didn’t have professionalism in, in terms of being polished for a long, long time. For years we didn’t have it. So it was kind of like, you know, just throw anything at the wall, <laugh> and see what sticks. And like we, we all came so far and we all ended up to be professional performers.
Isn’t she awesome? Let’s pause here though, for some music. How about “Neville’s Song” by the Ginny Potter Revelation?
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We took a break while listening to “Neville’s Song” by the Ginny Potter Revelation, Dream Quaffle’s witty “Draco & the Medley,” and Young Dumbledore’s “Charm and Hubris” [lyrics].
“Neville’s Song” was a special request from my lovely patron Teresa who sends it out to all the talented wrockers in the world.
Are you ready to hear more from Amy? I know I am!
You mentioned going on tour with Grace.
Amy: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Did you do a lot of collaboration? Were there people that you wrote music with at all?
Amy: I think the only people I ever wrote music with were RiddleTM, um, but I definitely performed songs with Snidget and… Like I really wanted to perf– I really, really wanted actually, I think, did I sing with? No, I really wanted to collaborate with like the Moaning Myrtles, but they were too cool for me. <laugh> I think I just wanted to sing and I just wanted to perform and I just wanted to… Sing. I just wanted to sing. That’s it. And luckily Georgia from RiddleTM and Vic and I had time to sit down and we wrote, we wrote a song called… Actually can’t remember what it was called. I can’t even remember how it goes. But we performed at a Terminus and then, um, Georgia did some piano on my song “Under the Stairs” as well. Um, but like I would’ve been up to basically collaborate with anyone <laugh>. In fact, I’m, I’m, I’m sure I probably did some collaborations with like smaller artists who I don’t remember now because they are lost to the mists of time and MySpace. But like I, I think if I ever had time to record with someone, I would’ve done it.
It’s funny that you say the Moaning Myrtles were ‘too cool for you.’ There’s uh, such a communal awe of each other that I get that a lot. “Oh no, this other band would never work with me.” And the other band turns out around is like, “no, they were too cool to talk to me. I loved them so much.”
Amy: Well I wouldn’t say they wouldn’t talk to me, they talked to me, but um, they had their own thing going and they had, they were very good at it. And I suppose it’s not like we were ever just chilling in the same place at the same time and we could, you know, improv something <laugh>. You know, I, I think I only, I think I only actually did one show, possibly, with them. I think I even dressed up. I like, I dressed up for that show ’cause I was like “it’s Moaning Myrtles!” I thought it was the coolest thing ever. <laugh> and I, I remember like at the time, you know, I would’ve been so young but I had no desire to get into a school uniform because we have to wear school uniforms from the age of four til 18. So I had just got outta my school uniform so I was not interested in wearing one <laugh> for you know, even fun purposes. And I just thought it was hilarious. Like hilarious that all these American like college students were dressing up in school uniforms. It was just nuts.
Yeah. Not so much a thing here. So it is just a fun costume.
Amy: Yeah, exactly. But I did like put a shirt and like a V-neck jumper and a tie on for the Moaning Myrtles show.
That was a noble sacrifice.
Amy: <laugh>, it was in tribute to them.
So you did collaborate with RiddleTM, which is unbelievably cool.
Amy: They’re so nice. Like I think it’s so funny, like they were just incredible at… polish. Like they were so polished and I think at a time when none of us were, especially in the uk, like I think when it came to polished sound, you had Hollow Godric, you had Ministry of Magic and you had RiddleTM <laugh> and that was it. And RiddleTM was like… RiddleTM, they did the kind of melancholy heartfelt thing but with like really good production quality underneath. And I think it made people like again, like afraid to approach them. But they were super-duper, they were lovely, lovely people.
If it weren’t for Siriusly Hazza P I would ask if it’s a UK thing to write melancholic, deeply felt music over there.
Amy: I think it’s the melancholic, sad people who write the melancholic, sad music. If I might be so bold you could ask Georgia and we could, we could revisit that. But uh, yeah… I mean do ask Georgia, have you had Georgia on?
Yes, I have spoken with Georgia. She’s so cool.
Amy: She’s so cool. She’s cool then, but she’s super cool now. Yeah, we’re still friends on Tumblr <laugh>, we’ll still like reblog each other on Tumblr and I always really appreciate her reblogs.
So if you were gonna write a new wizard song like tomorrow, who would you collab with? Would we bring Moaning Myrtles? Would you do RiddleTM again? Would you…
Amy: You know what like my answer–
Dream Quaffle?
Amy: I am like this is very much like a Harry… Harry was it like Book Five versus Harry Book Six moment in the train carriage where Cho Chang comes in and like Romilda Vane comes in and he’s like mortified to be seen with his friends in the first time and then the second time he’s like, “pfft, these are my friends.” But I think like if I had a chance to collaborate with anyone now it would be my friends. Like whether it was with Siriously Hazza P or with Ellie from the Lost Diadems or Grace from Snidget or Georgia from RiddleTM. Like I actually think nice, hot drinks, some nice snacks and to be honest, it would be more about that for me than what the final product is, you know?
As wizard rock should be.
Amy: Yeah, exactly. Like I guess, I don’t know, I’m still probably pretty willing to collaborate with anyone who would want to collaborate with me, but the opportunity has not presented itself of late.
If you got that whole group together, do you think it would be melancholic or do you think there’d be a different energy shift in the music?
Um, no, we’re not melancholic <laugh>. Oh, you mean the song <laugh>? I dunno, I don’t know. I can’t even imagine it. I just know that like we’re… One of my favorite things about like the gang and like Georgia hasn’t been around for a while, I suppose like Georgia kind of went off and did life, um, on her own. But for the rest of the gang, like we are incredibly irreverent and silly, like very, very silly people. Um, and we just like to be like laughing, just laughing all the time. Like I don’t think anyone really makes me laugh like they do. They’re just hilarious all the time. And like, so I guess like naturally witty and whimsical and offbeat and intelligent. And so yeah, I think… Actually I did collaborate with I think like all of those people on a project for Sherlock. <Laugh> BBC version of Sherlock Holmes.
And we, we made a band called Sherlocked and we have a song on YouTube and it did really well and then it hit a certain, like, like a thousand views or 1,066 views or something. And then it never went past that even though we knew people were listening to it. And it’s a really good song and it’s called “I.O.U.” And it’s very good. And Ellie played the violin on it and Laura did the instrumental. I think we, we all collaborated on the words. I think I might have written, I think I wrote the melody and the chords and I can’t remember what Catherine did. Catherine also collaborated on the, the, the words. Um, I don’t remember. I think Georgia Riddle was involved as well. ’cause I think we were all on Skype. This is the progression of time. It started on MS– like MSN and MySpace and we all went to Skype and we were all watching, like we all used to watch Downton Abbey together and we all used to watch Sherlock together.
So we also had like an idea for like a screamo metal song called “Peg Leg,” which was <laugh> or like, no, it was called “Damn My Leg” because in the show Watson has a sore leg, like, like he hurt his leg and the idea was that it was like I, he’s like screaming about his leg and he’s like, “I went to bed <laugh> bumped my head, damn my leg, damn my leg.” It was very funny. You had to be there. Um, and then I wrote a song which sometimes I still play, um, which was about the Reichenback Fall, but I never recorded it actually I’d love to record that. But is the Sherlock fandom dead? Potentially, but do I care? Maybe not.
You mentioned that people were pouring into your MySpace, uh, messages, asking for advice. What advice would you have these days for someone wanting to get into wizard rock?
Amy: Just do it. Unfortunately in the year 2026 as it is now, we’re at a time when people appear on screen fully put together with a full production setup, fully produced, sounding amazing. But actually that’s not really the reality of life. And you have to be willing to be really bad <laugh> before you can be good. And that’s not just for total beginners, that’s for people who have lots of experience too. We all need to get over the idea that we, we can’t appear even in public until we’re perfect. Like we need to tone it down guys. We’re all just people. Just just do your thing. Even if it’s a 30 second clip of like you singing on your own. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.
And you have fallen perfectly into my trap because “just do it” is the advice I get the most frequently. So I always have a secret second question.
Amy: Okay.
Which is just concrete advice.
Amy: Okay…
Vocal warmups, chords you love, tech you think they should, you know, maybe invest in…
Amy: Well you see it’s all different from how I started, which was with like Audacity and like the free mic that came with my family’s PC in 2002 or 2000, no 1999 probably. Um, I think, you know, where there’s a will, there’s a way and I think don’t get too bogged down and “I need to have this $200 microphone or 200 euro microphone” or “I need to have a pop filter” for some reason I remember I went through a phase of being obsessed with like, I had to have a pop filter. I mean it makes to me almost no difference <laugh>, I’m not a very plosive person. So I think, yeah, we can look at people and we can think the reason that they’re doing it is because they have X, Y, or Z. But like if you we’re, we’re so far removed from where we started, if you have a phone now you have everything you need, you know?
But what’s some useful advice that would’ve, you know, helped you?
Amy: I dunno, I think, um, like “if I could go back in time, what would I say to myself” is an interesting question. Like I think I was just terrified all the time and I think that was okay <laugh>. And I think if I could offer myself the advice that being terrified is probably a normal enough reaction to putting out a part of yourself to the world. Um, I think I would impart that. And also I think I would say just because you don’t have everything that you think you need doesn’t mean that you don’t already have everything that you need. Um, I mean, I tried so hard, I spent money, I tried to do research and I asked this question like I asked like “what microphone do I need? Like what software do I need? What, what laptop do I need?” you know? But really I think, you know, of course you can get GarageBand for free and of course you can get so many different apps now that I don’t even know about for free. And you can use any kind of microphone these days and run it through a filter and sound really good. I think at the end of the day, the less you have, the more creative you have to be and that’s no harm.
Now my listeners can’t see it, but you’ve got kind of like a fancy mic set up going on over there, which leads perfectly into the next question, which is what are you working on these days?
Amy: Uh, so I’m working on recording my music properly and releasing it and trying to have enough self-belief to do it the right way. Like I, like I said, I had to kind of, I had to kind of take myself away for a while because I just was <laugh>. I did like two degrees and a master’s and yeah, I had to really do a lot of work to try and get, feel life on track, <laugh>. you know, um, pay the bills, all that stuff. And part of the reason that I did that was because I was working so much in music, um, and on other people’s music that I never had any energy left to do my own music at the end of the day. And I retrained became a primary school teacher, which I really love so that I could, you know, spend some time and some money on my music.
And I suppose reaching out to people kind of with maybe with the same themes and issues, but maybe from like more of a hopeful place. I’ve been kind of looking at the music even that I’ve been writing over the years, even back at that time and you know, I think it’ll probably speak to the same <laugh> cohort of people. Um, but just investing in myself, you know, investing in this, in this music because I think–I hope it’s worth it. And like investing in like, I hope to invest in spending proper time on making the art to go with it and, and like to find people who it resonates with and, and like hope that they’ll get in touch and, you know, maybe hopefully play some shows, maybe, maybe not like my own personal health dependent. Um, yeah, so that’s where I’m at right now.
Is there any wizard rock in this or is it all muggle? Is there Sherlock?
Amy: I would say there’s almost no muggle music happening. Like, I’d say everything is related to a fandom <laugh>, probably <laugh>. Um, I’ve written–like I would, I find it really difficult to write about my own personal self and my own experiences and like.. Love her or hate her, actually last year, not last year, 2024, my goodness, 2024 Taylor Swift was a really big push towards just stop trying to be perfect. You know, there’s so many of Taylor Swift’s lyrics that I would’ve been very, uh, hesitant myself to release, but that when I listened to them I was like, “actually she’s getting her point across fine and I get” it. Like there’s one song that I’ve written where there’s like one lyric in it where I’m like, “Ooh, <laugh>, ugh.” But it represents what I was, what I feel and what I think. And um, I’ve kind of lost track. Oh yeah. So I think I’ve written like two songs about my actual self. Um, and even then I’ve had to be really brave <laugh> in letting them exist. <laugh>
Well this sounds very exciting for us.
Amy: I don’t know…
Do you have like a timeline or is this a process?
Amy: Um, so I have one song finished that needs to be remixed that I mixed, I did a bad job of, so I need to remix it <laugh>. And I’ve one song that’s in production with an, uh, producer at the moment and I’m getting over a cold, so I’m just waiting to record some vocals on that. Um, so hopefully that will be out, like hopefully that’ll be ready to release soon. But like I think around the end of April or beginning of May is probably when you’ll start seeing like more polished stuff. But between now and then, I’d like to be, I would like to be connecting with people on TikTok and on Instagram, like posting bits and pieces.
It’s time for some more music. Here are the Fizzing Whizbees with “There’s Magic All Around Me.”
~*~
That was “There’s Magic All Around Me” by the Fizzing Whizbees, Thomas & Finnegan and “Corporeal Patronuses are Overrated,” and Muggle Snuggle’s “Allez the bleu {Beauxbatons au ciel)” [lyrics].
Let’s return to Romilda Vane & the Chocolate Cauldrons!
Thank you so much for talking with me and kicking off the new year. Where can WZRD listeners find you and all of your music–that already exists and is coming–online?
Amy: Thanks for having me Bess. And to be honest, thank you for giving people the platform to talk about their music, even if they’re total beginners or even if they are very experienced. I think it’s, I think this is a, we’ve, we’ve suffered a huge blow as a fandom in the last few years. <laugh> through no fault of our own <laugh>. And I think the main thing that I, I would hope that people remember is that like we came to this because we were looking for like-minded people and a sense of community and I think people are nearly afraid to say that they’re Harry Potter fans these days. So thank you for giving people a platform to still talk about this. And if anybody wanted to find me, I am @SnowAmy on Instagram and I am @AmySnowMusic on TikTok <laugh>.
And your BandCamp?
Amy: Oh yeah. Uh, Amy Snow. Yeah, AmySnow.BandCamp.com. I think it is.
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And now, magical friends, here is Romilda Vane & the Chocolate Cauldrons!
Amy: This song is I think probably one of the ones that will, people would find quite relatable and sad <laugh>. And in this song it’s about like Harry before he found out he was wizard and what his life would’ve been like in really solitary confinement under the stairs, <laugh> and how, you know, we’ve all had those moments in our lives where we’ve been alone at night and everything seems still, and for just a very short period of time we feel like the world is completely ours and we can kind of see the magic even when all we’re seeing is the moonlight or the shadows. So this is kind of child Harry’s perspective on a night in the cupboard. And the piano part on this music is heavily inspired by the work of Georgia Riddle from RiddleTM. Even though I did play it myself, it was inspired by her piano stylings.
WZRD Radio Podcast 