Hello magical friends, with an extra-special greeting to my newest magical patron, Hanna, whose support lets me do these interviews!
I hope everyone’s having fun celebrating our sixth anniversary. Did you remember to get your cake? If not, here’s another chance, while the first music break plays.
First up this month is “Song for the Death Eaters” by Harry and the Potters.’
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That was Harry & the Potters with “Song for the Death Eaters,” “Wrock is Perfect” from The Bookish Hufflepuff [lyrics], and The Whomping Willows with their “From Ginny to Luna.”
“Song for the Death Eaters” was a special request from my dear patron Teresa.
And now it’s time to chat with Lee of Weatherby.
Welcome to the show, Lee of Weatherby. I have been wanting to do this interview for so long, I’m so excited.
Lee: Thank you for having me.
Listeners know, uh, I always start with your history with wizard rock, ’cause you sort of popped in, gave us a few incredible songs and then vanished again. What made that happen?
Lee: Yeah, so I first got into wizard rock. I was probably 13 or 14 years old and I had just saved up money to get an iPod and in getting an iPod I was filling it up with podcasts ’cause that was a new thing for me. I had not realized what a podcast was and I found MuggleCast, which I got very into for many years ’cause I was into Harry Potter and it was nice to hear other people talking about Harry Potter. So I actually ended up finding wizard rock through the iTunes podcast library because I was looking for other Harry Potter podcasts. Found some wizard rock, said, “Hmm, what’s this?” And then started listening and then it all went from there. So I spent a lot of time as a teen downloading the wizard rock podcast episodes and then using Audacity or some other audio tools to like splice up the songs into individual tracks so that I could put them as separate songs on my iPod and, and listening.
So that’s how I built up my library, was just hoping that the podcast that I was listening to would play songs that I was interested in. There were some early favorite bands. I, I loved Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls and MC Kreacher, Ministry of Magic, RiddleTM. There were a bunch that I just, I was always excited when I saw a song that I had not heard before. ’cause I knew I could splice it into my iPod. So that was how I got into it. I got my high school girlfriend, I got [her] into it. I burned her CD of some of my favorite songs. I put little blurbs about what I liked about each song and it worked out ’cause we’re married now. So clearly it did not scare her away too much. I found someone who was into it as well. And then I didn’t actually think to make my own wizard rock until after college.
It was 2018, I think was the first time I put out a song. And that was the first year after college in my own apartment. I had a little keyboard and I saw the call for the Sampler and I thought, “Hey, I like writing music just for myself. I’ve been doing that for a couple years. I’ve never really shared anything with anyone. So yeah, I’ll try to write a wizard rock song.” So that’s how, that’s how “Baby Famous” came out. And then during the pandemic, I think 2020, I was… Didn’t have anything else to do. So I put, put out a second one. Uh, it was originally just gonna be a one-time thing, but uh, I got back into it and, and the “Yule Ball” came from that. So yeah, just diving back into something I had done, spent a lot of time doing during my teenage years.
We have at least one other wizard rock band who were high school sweethearts and bonded over wizard rock and are, are now married. Is your wife musical, considering collabing?
Lee: She is not musical. I would love if she wanted to be involved. She’s not, she’s not musical. She’s happy to hear my music though.
Well, the good news is, uh, wizard rock is the perfect, you know, trying ground.
Lee: Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
If she wants to, to dabble.
Lee: I’ll tell her, I’ll tell her you said so and then maybe she’ll change her mind.
Perfect. That is the reason we have this podcast. So I can have more wizard rock.
Lee: Yep.
Now your band name is, like, a cool, pithy one word. Where did that come from?
Lee: I wish I had a great story. I wanted a deep cut from the books. I flipped through some pages I found Weatherby. I thought, “yeah, people will recognize that and maybe they won’t know where it’s from and then they’ll remember.” So I, I wanted it to be a deep cut. I also liked the short single word and that’s about, that’s about all, it was
One of my favorite wizard rock songs, uh, is “Good to See You Waellenby” by Kwikspell. That also riffs off the, the Weatherby concept.
Lee: The whole concept of him not knowing Percy’s name is so funny.
So you said Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls were an early favorite. Were there others that really caught you?
Lee: Yeah, Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls. I loved the guitar, I loved his vocals. RiddleTM, who I know you have had on your show. Absolutely beautiful vocals. MC Kreacher for the rap. I was very into that. Ministry of Magic was very catchy. Weasel King was another one that popped up a couple times that I really liked. I’d have to go back through my iPod. I think they’re still all on my, I, I don’t use my iPod for anything else now. And I think at one point I set it up to literally only contain my wizard rock. So I think I still have that upstairs somewhere. So I’ll have to go check and blast from the past to see what else is on there.
Slytherspouse recently modded an old iPod of mine to an open source program called Rhythm Box, ’cause Apple doesn’t support iPods anymore, but it’s still the perfect way to listen to your wizard rock.
Lee: Yeah.
And so all of mine is on there as well. So you said you made at least the first song “Baby Famous” with just a keyboard.
Lee: I write songs on keyboard ’cause it was my main instrument. I took I think seven or eight years of piano lessons as a kid and then stopped I think in eighth grade. But it’s still definitely the instrument I’m most familiar with. So actually I think I write songs in my head more easily than I do while sitting at a keyboard. And then the way I can translate them to actual airwaves are on a piano. And then sometimes I’ll try to pick up a guitar, which I’m not very good at, and try to find something that goes with the piano part. But yeah, piano is definitely my main instrument.
So for both of these, uh, was the process the same? Are you a lyrics first, music first? Were you going through the books looking for inspiration? Did they pop fully formed into your head? What does it look like for you?
Lee: They were very different actually. The “Baby Famous,” I went into it knowing that I wanted to write a wizard rock song and I always go melody first actually, because I find the melody to be the most compelling part of a song in general. I like to say that my favorite genre of music is catchy because basically everything that I listen to across genres is catchy. So I don’t remember exactly the order in which I came up with everything for that song, but I think it was melody first and then the lyrics. And then from the melody there was a natural chord progression that I was able to figure out on the piano. The second song was actually a, the main piano hook was something that I came up with in college just fooling around in a practice room. And I did not know what to do with it. So it was just sitting there for a couple years. And then when I decided that I wanted to do a second song, I thought, hey, I have that backlog of, of one piano hook. I don’t know what to do with. And then it became more of a path towards writing a song. It was easier to figure out what to do with the song when I knew that I had a goal that I wanted it to be wizard rock. And so that one actually was music first, which is pretty rare for me.
Okay, what’s the difference?
Lee: In the…?
Melody/music?
Lee: I, yeah, the melody is what you’re singing when you listen to the song. When you’re singing back the song that you just heard, you’re singing the melody. You want that to be catchy and sticky in your head. Whereas the piano hook at the beginning of the “Yule Ball” is harder to sing. So of course it’s catchy when you’re listening to the song. But I don’t know, I find it tougher to put a melody on top of music. I find it easier to write a piano part underneath an established melody. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t know how other people do it.
Have you studied music theory? Is this… You’re saying words that sound very fancy to me.
Lee: It sounds, I I, I did a little bit of theory when I was taking piano lessons and then I took two theory classes in college. But not really beyond that. I think in an alternate life I would have majored in music theory and done something music related because I do really like that stuff. But this is this reality and I did not end up doing that. But I, I am interested in the theory part of it. Although it’s interesting because a lot of the songs that I write, even not wizard rock songs, end up having pretty simple chord progressions because those are the catchiest. There’s a reason that everyone uses the same chord progressions, because they’re very catchy. So even though, yeah, I learned in theory about all these funky chords I can do that sound good next to each other. I don’t know how useful that is writing pop adjacent music.
Did you ever meet with other wizard rockers? Go to concerts, find folks in your area?
Lee: I have not. So I, during those mid teenage years I was not very involved in internet communities. I was pretty isolated in my listening to wizard rock. So I think that if I had gotten into it five or 10 years later, I would’ve been more inclined to seek out other people who also liked it. But no, for me I have, I’ve ne–this is maybe one of the first times I’ve been talking to somebody else who also listens to and knows about wizard rock. So mostly an individual thing for me.
Well, we’ll see if we can change that after this interview.
Lee: Yeah.
See if some folks get in touch. So you’ve done two songs, which means the world of Harry Potter is still open to you creatively. Are there any other subjects or concepts you wanna write some music about or you think would be interesting to explore?
Lee: You are right that there is a lot left that I have not dug into. One thing that I was thinking about if I were to write another song, which I do wanna do at some point, was that I like the wizard rock songs that are not explicitly wizard rock, but they have little things in them so that if you know, you know, both of the songs that I have put out have explicit references to things from the books. And I think it would be more fun to, to try to write a song that, oh, you realize that this is, you know, Ron to NY or Harry to his kid or something that even though those words do not appear in the lyrics, that would be a fun challenge that I would like to write about. But no, I haven’t thought about any other particular points of view or characters that are, that are calling to me yet.
I think, um, Creevey Crisis does a lot of that. The sort of subtle wizard rock.
Lee: Yeah.
So far I do think your songs are a little more abstract and then they’re, they’re not specific like a direct speaking to a character or a scene. It’s more playing in the space of the world.
Lee: Yeah, that seems harder. <laugh>, that’s hard. Digging into the mindset of a character seems harder for me. So it made sense that I would want to start with more of a top level view of talking about things that happened. But yeah, so that’s why it would be a fun challenge to try to do, do the opposite.
So who would be the biggest challenge for you? Would it be Ginny or Dumbledore or Firenze the centaur… Whose head would be the hardest to get into?
Lee: Hm, that’s a good question. I mean, Firenze would be tough. I don’t, I don’t know all that much about him. Um, I’m gonna flip this around actually because I think that one of the, some of the more popular characters would be tougher to write from the point of view just because the people that will be listening to your song already have such an idea of what they are thinking and what they would sound like that anything that I would write would conflict with somebody else’s interpretation of what they should be thinking. So I almost think it would be easier to write about something that, or from the point of view of a character that has not popped up before. I know that’s tough ’cause there’s a lot of random stuff out there, but if I try to write a song to Ron from Hermione, people are gonna be listening to it thinking ‘that’s not what Hermione would say, ‘you know, or ‘that’s not what Ron would say.’ Not that it matters ’cause obviously it’s just how I interpret it. But I think it would be tougher because I would, as I was writing it, as I’m writing it, I would be trying to get it right instead of have fun writing what I think they might be thinking.
I do think if you were aiming for a universalizing conceptualization of a character you would be in for disappointment.
Lee: Yeah. <Laugh>,
That’s what fandom is about. Conflicting head canons.
Lee: Yep.
This seems like a good spot for a break. I’m going to do some carpal tunnels stretches while The Galleon Guy sings “On My Broom Again.”
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That was “On My Broom Again” by The Galleon Guy [lyrics], Slytherin Sweethearts and “I Hate You Nagini,” and Bella and the Deatheaters with “Azkaban Lullaby.”
Let’s get back to that conversation with Weatherby!
So you haven’t met any wizard rockers yet, but you’ve got a register of all your faves and I think you’ve kept up a little bit. Uh, who would you love to collaborate with on one of these future songs?
Lee: I think somebody with a singing voice. I don’t consider myself a singer. I think I’m fine. I can carry a tune, but it’s the weakest part in my own opinion of my music. So I think I would love to collaborate with somebody that I think has a really good singing voice. I’ve already mentioned a couple of my favorites. I think Christian from Oliver Boyd has a fantastic voice. RiddleTM has an incredible voice, uh, Butterbeer Experience and like anybody with with topnotch vocals I think would be a lot of fun to write with. And of course their songwriting is all great as well. So collaborating on a songwriting level would be a lot of fun too.
It sounds like you’re holding yourself to a very high standard for this creation. You need to get down in the, the dirty trenches of wizard rock and just create something ridiculous.
Lee: I know I do. I fall into that trap a lot. I do have high standards for myself and that’s not the point of this community and I understand that and I really appreciate that and I’m trying.
So if you were gonna try to take that pressure off, if your wife was like, “yes, I’ll do it, provided it’s fun and easy” with you know, just a nonsense chord and the keyboard, what would be an easy intro for y’all?
Lee: Hmm. Honestly, I would probably start by maybe opening up a random book to a random page and then trying to write something about what happens literally on that page and just coming up with that idea now. But I kind of like that, maybe I should try that. We’re just spinning a run a random number generator for a page number or something because then you’re gonna get, you know, mid scene and it’s not gonna make sense in the song, but you can only write about things that happened on that page. So maybe that would be a good way to limit myself in terms of the highest bar that I could potentially reach. Which, which could get me, get me out of my own head.
That does sound incredibly fun. ’cause you could get anything, you could get them eating at the Great Hall or just Mrs. Figg yelling at Mundungus Fletcher.
Lee: Yeah.
<laugh>, if you were gonna do this, what would you call your band with your wife?
Lee: Well Hermione has always been her favorite character. She relates to Hermione so I feel like we would have to do something with that. Um, let’s see….
You know, we don’t currently have a Hermione and the Grangers or a Hermione and the Weasleys, you know, epilogue… You could be the Grangers or the Weasleys.
Lee: Yeah, <laugh>, Hermione and Percy. The duo that you never knew you wanted.
Lemme tell you, there’s some fix out there.
Lee: Yeah, I believe it.
So as someone who dabbles and struggles with perfection, which I hear so often, uh, what kind of advice do you have for other folks who are, you know, trying to get into it considering but don’t know where to start? What’s some good advice?
Lee: Don’t think judge yourself harshly like I do <laugh> because the community is very welcoming and they will be excited to listen to your music regardless of how it sounds. I think choosing a topic that is very personally interesting to you is probably the key because then you’re writing it for yourself and then if other people have the opportunity to listen to it, that’s great. But I think writing music for yourself is my favorite thing to do because you’re not trying to impress anybody. And then once you get into the hang of writing music about things you’re interested in, maybe you’ll get to the point where you do wanna share it with other people and then they’ll give you positive feedback because the community is great and then you’ll wanna continue. And so starting by writing music for yourself about things you enjoy with an open mind I think can snowball into the wizard rock career that you have always dreamed of.
I love that. It’s such good advice and it robs me of my ability to ask for the technical because you gave such perfect advice to begin with, but I might anyway. What’s like a really basic, your favorite chords or easiest instrument to learn?
Lee: I think piano is the most useful instrument to learn just because you can see everything laid out in front of you. You know that notes that are farther to the right are gonna be higher than notes that are farther to the left, which is not always the case with– definitely not the case with guitar strings, which is something I’m still not super used to. But piano’s definitely the easiest to learn in terms of chords stick with the 1, 4, 5, 6 and different variations of that. I don’t know how much to get into with that now, with the theory stuff now. But playing in in the key of C major, if you play all the white keys and ignore the black keys, it’s probably gonna sound good. So if you know nothing about piano play on the white keys, it’s probably gonna sound pretty good.
That’s perfect. I love it. ’cause I know nothing about piano, but I can tell the white key from a black key and if–
Lee: Yeah.
–that’s all you need, then I’m good to go. So you said you write music for yourself. What are you working on these days?
Lee: I’m not working on anything specific right now. I’ve written a couple of songs over the years about relationships I’m not part of. I like, I write songs, not necessarily from my point of view, um, but again, I come up with a melody first and then I fill it with lyrics and then I see what those lyrics are about and then I continue filling out the rest of the song from there. I don’t tend to make very personal music. One thing I am excited about is that over the holidays my parents agreed, finally after I’ve been asking for a while, to move one of the pianos from their house that I grew up in, into our house that we have now. So I am sometime in the next couple weeks gonna get a piano in our house, which I think will get me back into playing piano a lot more. I have the keyboard, which is right next to me here and it’s great. I played “Baby Famous” and the “Yule Ball” on it a lot and it’s not the same as playing a real piano. So I’m looking forward to having a real piano. I think that will inspire me to write more piano focused songs and I don’t know, maybe I’ll aim for the 2026 sampler. We’ll see.
Let’s take another break here. I see The Whomping Willows again, this time with “This Book is So Awesome.”
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That was “This Book is So Awesome” as covered by the Whomping Willows, Tonks & the Aurors with “My Patronus,” and “part of the game” by ella martine [lyrics].
It’s time to return to Weatherby.
Thank you so much for talking with me. I’m so excited we made this happen. Where can WZRD listeners find you and your music–and any other projects you want them to know about–online?
Lee: Right now it’s just those two BandCamp Samplers, one song on each. I think it was 2018 and 2020, but I think I can say now I’ll aim for the 2026 Sampler as well just to give myself some direction. I have to break in this new piano after all. So probably just the BandCamp Samplers for now. But I will definitely reach out to you maybe to tell people if I add other methods of finding stuff or decide to, to share other music.
If you heard a song today and you thought “I could listen to that again” then go to the transcript at WZRDRadioPod.com, follow the link and buy a copy of your very own. It’s the best way to support your favorite musician, and without our wizard rockers, we wouldn’t be here.
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If you want to keep up with WZRD between episodes, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at WZRDRadioPod. If you don’t believe in social media, you can also comment on the transcript or email me at WZRDRadioPod@gmail.com.
And now, magical friends, here’s Weatherby!
Lee: So this is “Baby Famous” by Weatherby and I called it the acoustic version because in my head it is a very upbeat pop punk song. I wasn’t necessarily able to recreate that with my own production abilities, but just imagine this song with much heavier guitars and a more whiny, nasally voice and you’ll get what I was going for. So here’s “Baby Famous.”
WZRD Radio Podcast 