Sue and the Hufflepuffs and Roonil Wazlib are ambitions musicians

As interviewed by Debora.

Two bands earned the ‘Band of the Month’ title for the month of January; Roonil Wazlib and Sue and the Hufflepuffs. I was quite honored to have a Question and Answer session with John from Sue and the Hufflepuffs and Molly from Roonil Wazlib. During our session, they dished about the difficulties as well as the advantages of being one-person bands and even about how they like their eggs.

Were you surprised to find out that you were named a Band of the Month?
John: Incredibly! I certainly have never expected that, especially with my so-far less-than-stellar net presence! I am very, very honored.
Molly: Yes! I was very happy. I had just told someone the day before that I hoped that in the year 2008 I could be Band of the Month, and look and behold, it happened! It was awesome. I was very humbled.

For anyone who doesn’t know, how’d you start out?
John: I heard of Harry and the Potters via Pottercast, and stumbled onto their website. Something about the fact that these two guys who weren’t really ‘musicians’ in the classical sense were making music really clicked. For some reason, I had never connected my music background to writing music for Harry Potter themes. Soon after, when Pottercast went to Lumos! and back, I had an idea for a song (“Song For Sue”), which I then wrote out and recorded. At that point, I decided then and there to create it, and made a MySpace profile and uploaded the song, and soon after, two others. I heard about Melissa and the Annelli‘s on that same Pottercast episode, and settled on making a band in dedication to my favorite host, Sue Upton. Of course, I don’t filk, at least in public anyway.

Molly: In the winter of 2005, I really got into wizard rock and wrote “Ode to Lav-Lav” in one very short sitting. I waited to release my stuff online until I’d written two more songs, “My Mirror is My Best Friend” and “Mollywobbles”, and then I made my MySpace account in early 2006.

What’s your favorite instrument in general, and why?
John: You know you’re really making it difficult, limiting me to one instrument! Okay, well, I’ll have to say my heart goes out to the trumpet (and French horn! Sorry, I couldn’t *just* mention the trumpet!). It was my second instrument and my major instrument when I was music major. I know it has yet to feature in my music, but it may happen someday. I love it because it can be so expressive, soft and loud, warm and harsh, it has such a range and range of expression that most people know about. I don’t think [that] very many people know the trumpet as a beautiful, lyrical instrument…. Yet.

Molly: I love the acoustic guitar, which is probably obvious, since most of my music is based around the acoustic guitar, but the timbre of it is just so calming and beautiful. I’m really into singing, and to me, the acoustic guitar compliments vocals in just the right way. It’s so organic and lovely.

What do you do in your non-wrock life?
John: If you only knew what you were getting yourself into, asking that question! Well, I’m finishing school now, getting married, and working as a programmer in a Japanese company. In my “free” time, I study many languages: Japanese, German, French, Afrikaans, etc. I am also really interested in Tolkienian linguistics (studying the languages Tolkien invented), and would like to bring Quenya into use as a modern, spoken language, not just an “art” language. I also listen to tons of music, and sing professionally in a church.

Molly: I’m a college student full time now, and I’m now halfway through my first year at Tufts University in Boston, MA. So I do a lot of studying and take a lot of classes. Beyond that, I love music and write Muggle music a lot too (with my band the Pizookies or just on my own as Molly Newman). In high school, I played and captained the girls’ varsity soccer team, but I don’t have time to play at college, unfortunately. My other hobbies are knitting, climbing roofs, and eating good food.

How has Wizard Rock affected your life?
John: Well, due to the fact that I’m stuck on this rock in the middle of the Pacific ocean, it hasn’t been too much of an influence since I don’t exactly tour or play shows. Playing a show out here is a bit of an intimidating prospect, what with the local politics and all. However, someday I’d like to play a show here, I just need some confidence. Aside from that, when I’m working on an album, it affects my life by allowing me to release creative energy (read: no sleep). I love the expressively allowed in Wizard Rock, and it allows me to experiment without fear.

Molly: Wizard rock has given me an audience for my music and given me the support and inspiration to grow as a songwriter and musician. If I hadn’t found the wizard rock community, I’d have so much less experience as a musician. It’s given me the motivation to play shows, release records, and write better every time. The wizard rock kids are great to talk to and I love the community. Wizard rock has given me a community and a scene where I can freely be myself and where others are genuinely interested in what I do.

What was your favorite gig (so far) and why?
John: My only, and first, the Wizard Rock Fest in Anaheim last summer! It was amazing! I got to meet HCE, Remus Lupins, Bandon Banshees, RAB, and many other cool people! It was also great to hang out with Jace and hear experiences about the road and traveling. I can’t wait to do it again!

Molly: I don’t like picking favorites! I just played a small gig in northern California with the Bay Area wizard rock fan club, and it was just a dozen or so kids in someone’s living room. Everyone knew all the words to my songs and I played some songs I haven’t played live ever, or in a long time, as well as some brand new songs. It was so great to play such a close, small show where it was all of us performing together, singing together.

When did you first start reading the Harry Potter series?
John: Right after OotP came out, I had a friend bugging me non-stop to read them, claiming that they were really good. Well, after a little coaxing, she got me to read the first book, and I thought, “This is fun, kinda cute,” and picked up the second book. It wasn’t until I got to PoA, picking it up methodically, preparing for another child-like romp through the magical world, that I was in for quite a shock. It was in that book, especially at the end, that I thought “OMG! This is amazing!” Of course, GoF confirmed it, and here I am today.

Molly: The spring of 1999, my mom read Sorcerer’s Stone to me and my sisters. I remember asking for Chamber of Secrets for my tenth birthday that summer. After that point I was caught up with the releases, since PoA came out in the US that fall.

Other then the Harry Potter series, what other books or series do you enjoy reading?
John: Oh, geeze, I’ll give you the abbreviated list: Lord of the Rings, other books by Tolkien, Chronicles of Narnia, books by Michael Crichton, Anne McCaffrey, and I just finished A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, and it was great!

Molly: I always love David Sedaris books. He is probably the funniest author I’ve ever read. A book that has real significance to me is Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. It speaks to me on a very personal, philosophical, introspective level, and every time I read it, I learn something new about the world and myself. I just got into Toni Morrison this past year and I think everything she writes is gold. Song of Solomon is unspeakably beautiful. Read it!

Do you have any other obsessions, outside of Harry Potter and Wrock, currently? If so, what is it and how’d it start?
John: Languages. That all started when I was about eight years old and I saw a “Teach Yourself Japanese”-type course in the store, and asked my mum if she would buy it for me, and from then on, I was hooked! I branched out into other languages during my home schooled years, and I’m addicted. Aside from that, computer programming and such, which began a year or two after the Japanese.

Molly: Arrested Development! It is the best TV show in the history of the world. I don’t exercise anymore. I watch Arrested Development and stay fit laughing so hard. My friend Cooper got me hooked.

How’d you find out about Wizard Rock?
Molly: Back in mid 2004, my friend Julia visited Boston and found the first Harry and the Potters album in a bookstore, which she gave to me for my birthday. Then, around Christmas of 2005, I discovered Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows, The Hermione Crookshanks Experience, and The Moaning Myrtles.

What is your most memorable Wizard Rock related moment?
John: The first day. I sat there in amazement as I saw my friend count get up to 60 in one day! It might be laughable now, but for me at the time, that was shocking! Then, the first time I saw I had more than a thousand page views! I couldn’t, and still can’t, believe it!

Molly: My first show, opening for the Potters and the Malfoys. Not just my set, that whole night! Especially singing “The Weapon” at the end of the show, arms around total strangers near me, everyone shouting and jumping together. That really solidified for me how much of a community wizard rock is and has become.

If you could play a show anywhere you wanted (this can be in either the “real” world or a “fictional” world), where would it be and why?
John: Japan, because I’ve been dying to go for most of my life! Fictionally speaking, Middle Earth, duh! Then I could sing songs all in Quenya!

Molly: JK Rowling‘s living room. No better place to show my appreciation for The Creator.

Has it been difficult to be a one-person band? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
John: The difficulty I feel has been entirely due to time. It takes a while to record everything, leaving very little time for editing and other post work with deadlines looming. As well, having to promote myself and arrange everything is a little taxing, but I feel it’s worth it. The experience I’ve gained and am continuing to gain is very important.

Molly: It’s kind of balanced as far as the pros and cons go. Disadvantages are that, especially now, as I’m trying to expand my sound and add elements that give more of a full band sound such as drums and bass, I have no way to play live what I will produce in the studio. I think a live performance deserves to be as good as the recording, and so it’s always hard to play solo when I know there’s a harmony line I like or a second guitar part that I’m ignoring. Of course, the advantage of being a one-person band is that I always agree with myself on how things should be and I don’t have to work with other people’s schedules to practice and record. And when I want to get something done, it gets done because I don’t depend on others. It’s great to be efficient and to have 100% control over every part of a recording.

I’ve been dying to know…. How do you like your eggs?
John: Over easy! Second best? poached!

Molly: I like them scrambled, hard-boiled, or as (or in) a salad! Here is my own particularly tasty way of making scrambled eggs: cook two eggs (beat in a bowl and add milk and pepper) over a low heat in a buttered pan. Voila! One perfect serving of soft, moist, flavorful scrambled eggs! But the best way to consume eggs is definitely egg salad sandwiches with lots of pickles and celery and not too much Mayo. Yum.

Getting back on track, what are you currently working on for your bands, respectively?
John: Well, the obvious thing is the album Elegy, however there are a few top-secret projects in the works…. Wouldn’t you like to know?

Molly: Ooh! So much! I’ve been writing up a storm since the seventh book came out, and so I’m just collecting a ton of new songs. I’m working with GarageBand on the demos to see what kind of other parts I want in the recording, mostly drums and bass but also violin, sax, piano, and glockenspiel which is great because at college I only have my acoustic guitar so I can’t physically record the other parts I write. Right now, I’m working on a song with five or six vocal layers, and I’m happy with where it’s going. It has a very full choral sound to it. Of course, this whole endeavor is going to become my second full-length album that will be out this summer. I’m also playing some shows in the coming months in Boston and Providence.

Christmas was a few weeks ago. How’d you spent it?
John: I spent my Christmas in Southern California with my family (both of them!). It was quiet, nice and relaxing.

Molly: I spent Christmas at home in California with my family, opening gifts in front of the fireplace while sipping warm tea. Idyllic and wonderful.

If a few dozen fangirls and fanboys abducted you for a week and forced you to go a vacation with them, where would you suggest on going? Why?
John: Heck, if we’re talking fans, let’s go cross-country and Wrock every place we stop! Or at least the eastern seaboard! I’ve been dying to play shows near the “cradle of Wizard Rock!”

Molly: Oh that sounds like a lot of fun! Goodness. I would love to go to England and go to King’s Cross-Station.

What is the purpose of your one-person band? What do you hope to accomplish with your awesome music?
John: To enable people from other countries and backgrounds to have a Wizard Rock they can listen to. Also to expose people to a wider range of cultures, languages and styles. I naturally don’t stick to one “style” per se, but take styles and write them in my own way. Basically, I write music I’d want to listen to, and hope there’s someone out there who’d want to listen to it, too!

Molly: My purpose is to have a good time and to promote causes I care about and educate about problems I want to fix in the world. Also, I’m always working on improving as a musician, songwriter, and performer.

What are your plans for the future, both for the band and your life personally?
John: For the band, having an actual tour! I’d like too actually play shows more than once a year, and being semi-regular would be phenomenal! Also, getting this next album out would be a humongous step! It’s been a more massive undertaking than the first album, because of the amount of editing I’ve been putting into it. Also to have a greater web presence and interact with everyone else more! Personal, getting married, going to grad school and pushing to have textbooks on Quenya that will allow for a conversational dialect of it to be used.

Molly: For Roonil Wazlib, my plans for this year are to put out another CD and tour somewhere to support it. I’m not ready to look at 2009 yet, since 2008 just began! For my life, I guess my plans are to study hard and work hard, whether it be rocking out or volunteering at the Tufts day care center.

Is there anything that you would like to add, Wrock related or not?
John: You all Wrock! Hardcore! Thanks for sticking with me this far; it’s only going to get better!

Molly: Love is all you need.