Harry and the Potters
Encyclopedia
Harry and the Potters are an American alternative rock
band known for spawning the genre of wizard rock
. Founded in Norwood
, Massachusetts, the group is primarily composed of Joe and Paul DeGeorge, who both perform under the persona of the title character
from the Harry Potter
book series. Though they both maintain the same character, Joe takes on the character of Harry Potter during his fourth year at Hogwarts with Paul as Harry Potter during his seventh year. Harry and the Potters are known for their elaborate live performances, and have developed a cult following within the Harry Potter fandom
.
Since 2002, Harry and the Potters have released three studio albums, seven extended plays, and one compilation album. The duo founded the independent record label
Eskimo Laboratories, and starred in the documentary films We Are Wizards and Wizard Rockumentary. They also co-founded charity organisation The Harry Potter Alliance, and formed the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club, an extended play syndicate.
centered genre of music called wizard rock
.
The origins were quite accidental. In Cambridge, MA
, Paul DeGeorge (born June 10, 1979 (age 32)) was developing vaccines for a biotech firm as a chemical engineer. Paul had recently graduated from Tufts University
. Outside the lab, Paul was a musician whose indie band—The Secrets—had toured in the northeast from 2001 to 2002. To promote his band, Paul co-founded a small indie label called Eskimo Laboratories. One of the other bands in Eskimo’s stable of talent included a juvenile act called Ed in the Refridgerators [sic], which was fronted by Paul's 14-year-old brother Joe. Joe DeGeorge (born July 04, 1987 (age 24)) was a student at Norwood High School. He and his school friend Andrew MacLeay (A.K.A Shaggy) had been playing in rock bands together since they were 11 and 12 years old.
A couple of years earlier after reading the Harry Potter books, Paul formulated the premise for Harry and the Potters where the principle Harry Potter characters would be the musicians: Harry as the front man, Ron on guitar, Hermione on bass and Hagrid on drums. Then a crisis of sorts struck the brothers on June 22, 2002. During a barbecue at the DeGeorge family’s Norwood
Massachusetts home, Joe had advertised a concert with Ed and the Refridgerators and several other indie bands. The venue was the back yard shed. Perhaps the venue was too modest but while an audience had arrived, the bands did not. To rescue a nearly lost opportunity, while waiting hopefully for a band to show, Harry and the Potters came into existence over the next hour when the two brothers wrote seven Potter-themed songs. They performed that first concert as Harry and the Potters for six people who remained of their audience. Of those seven backyard songs, six were to make it onto the band's first album in 2003.
While Harry and the Potters would become notable for making libraries their primary venue, after the backyard debut concert, Joe DeGeorge did not see a future in the modest venues, "I think we thought we'd play a few libraries." Paul added, "We thought it would be short-lived. We weren't like super fans, so we didn't understand this whole (Harry Potter) subculture when we started."
The DeGeorge brothers quickly developed an on-stage persona
of dressing in the fashion of wizard-school Hogwarts
: white shirts under gray crew-neck sweaters, red-and-yellow striped ties, wire-rim glasses. In a show of quirky egalitarianism, both brothers play the role of Harry Potter and dress almost identically. Paul is older and to conform to the character’s persona, he is Harry of Year 7; while Joe is the Harry of Year 4.
over a weekend in the DeGeorge family living room. Released in June 2003 under the Eskimo Laboratories record label
, the album contains six of the seven songs composed the day of their first concert and another twelve written spontaneously and immediately thereafter recorded.
In "the summer of" 2003, Harry and the Potters set out on an American tour, performing at libraries. The fifth Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
– came out that summer and on June 21, 2003, the highly anticipated day of release, the band played five sets in a span of 24 hours. The library gigs drew crowds of mostly children and their parents. The brothers played a show at the library in Dorchester, Massachusetts
that August where they noticed the children in the audience singing along. Joe said, "Paul forgot the words to one of the songs. [The kids] were like, 'You sang it wrong!'" Paul said, "They'd be like, 'Hey, why'd you skip that song?' because they knew the exact sequence of the album."
During May and June 2004, the band worked on their next album, Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!
in the DeGeorge family shed. Following the release, the band toured heavily.
The two brothers drove 13,000 miles across the U.S and into Canada in their "Potter Mobile", a silver 1998 Ford Windstar
minivan with a black lightning bolt emblazoned on its hood. In live concerts, Paul and Joe used pre-recorded backing tracks for much of the tour, but during the second half, Joe called on his childhood friend and former bandmate Andrew MacLeay to join the band temporarily as drummer.
During the Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! tour, Paul and Joe DeGeorge received a letter from Warner Brothers that stated that the brothers were breaking copyright laws. Although Paul sent a letter to Warner Brothers in an attempt to smooth things over, Marc Brandon, the company representative, asked to speak to Paul personally. The two later settled upon a Gentlemen's agreement
that, in essence, would allow Harry and the Potters to continue to sell music online and tour, but all other merchandise could only be sold at live shows.
, Milton Keynes
, Chester
, and Liverpool
– and then followed it by playing some gigs in the Netherlands
to coincide with the release of the Dutch
translation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
which took place in November 2005. In the Netherlands, they played one of their earliest songs "Platform Nine and 3/4" in Dutch.
In late 2005, Harry and the Potters enjoyed more tongue-in-cheek critical success from respectable quarters. The web based music ’zine Pitchfork Media
even hailed Harry and the Potters as having one of the best five live shows in 2005, quipping that "The Decemberists
wish they could lit-rock like this." In the fall of 2005, Joe entered Clark University
in Worcester, Massachusetts
.
The previous year was the watershed when a joke between two colorblind, Massachusetts-born brothers had developed into something they had never imagined. The band continued its odd success and toured early in the year with a New Wave
'sock puppet rock band' called Uncle Monsterface who opened for in March 2006. During the summer, they embarked on their 3rd cross-country summer tour ("Summer Reading and Rocking Tour 2006"), this time accompanied by fellow wizard rock band Draco and the Malfoys
. Brad Mehlenbacher from Draco and the Malfoys handled drumming duties for the Potters for the entirety of their summer tour.
Over the years, Paul and Joe DeGeorge have both undertaken a number of musical side projects such as Ed in the Refridgerators (Joe's band), FUFL (a band about Florida), 926 Main Street Apt. 2 and the dæmons. Joe has recently been focusing on 926 Main Street Apt. 2, as they recently played a show in Detroit.
May 2007 was also the beginning of their large 70-show summer-library tour across the US and Canada called simply "Summer Tour 2007". Like their initial year in 2003, the summer of 2007 would see the release of another Harry Potter book. Harry and the Potters scheduled the mid-point of the tour to arrive back in their home state and celebrate the July 21 midnight release of the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Harvard Yard
. The festivities became an excuse for a meet-up of a number of wizard rock bands including The Hungarian Horntails and their nemesis Draco and the Malfoys which all played to a large crowd of Harry Potter fans in the Cambridge, Massachusetts
college venue. Harry and the Potters resumed their tour which finally wound-up in late August.
After four-years of touring and playing gigs across North America, the brothers have performed in 48 states and three Canadian provinces. The brothers have been asked if they knew that Harry and the Potters would have lasted beyond the initial gigs. While Joe said, "It’s starting to turn into the longest joke ever." Paul was a bit more reflective and said that they "were never prepared for this, we never thought it would go this long. I guess at some point, we looked towards the seventh book as a culmination of our project." The Boston Phoenix wondered—in spite of fully booked calendars—how long wizard rock would last once there are no new stories to riff on, as their musical identity is contingent on the lasting success and popularity of a book series. "In some ways," said Paul, "we want to tie things off and consider it a done deal. We’ve always viewed this as a project that had a finite life and end point."
Joe has said, "We're not sure how to approach our band once the books are finished. In some senses, it might be a logical conclusion now that the books are over. We'll have to play it by ear – see how people feel after they find out what happens in the last book." When the final show does come, Paul has said, "We did figure out what our ideal final show would be – our first show was in our backyard, and we’d like our last show to be in her – J.K. Rowling's – backyard. We want that to happen, we’re waiting for the invite. We could play one of her kids’ birthday parties."
Harry and the Potters and their unexpected fan based indie music genre of wizard rock have grown into an international phenomenon. Recently, the band has engaged in charity side-projects and activism within the Harry Potter community. In January 2007, Harry and the Potters created the "Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club", through which they released an EP
featuring music from different wizard rock bands every month. Reflecting wizard rock's literacy focus, the club raises funds for First Book
, a non-profit organization that gives children the ability to read and own their first new books. In 2007, the Club raised over $13,000 for the organization.
In 2008, the band were unsure as to whether they would work on a new studio album. In February 2008, Harry and the Potters launched a website called Unlimited Enthusiasm. The website led users through a series of images and eventually to a forum, which contained much speculation concerning the nature of Unlimited Enthusiasm. Unlimited Enthusiasm ended up being the name of their Summer 2008 tour alongside bands Uncle Monsterface and Math The Band
. Harry and the Potters undertook a summer tour, Unlimited Enthusiasm, with Math the Band, Uncle Monsterface and Jason Anderson. One of the stops in that tour was Nerdapalooza
. This fall they released a short punk rock EP, In the Cupboard as part of the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club. According to Melissa Anelli's book "Harry: a History", the band does not plan to tour beyond 2008.
The band released a two-disc compilation album, Priori Incantatem
, a collection of previously unreleased songs, compilations appearances, songs from their out-of-print EPs, remixes and demos on May 22, 2009. The band played its 500th show in June 2009 at Norwood Elementary School (MA) the founding members' hometown. The group continued the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club in 2009, and as a member of the club, they released The Yule Ball EP
, which featured a CD and a DVD of their performance at the Fourth Annual Yule Ball.
, Scandinavia
, and Ireland
for July and August.
In April 2010, Paul DeGeorge revealed that Harry and the Potters is contemplating making a fourth studio album. He explained, "But maybe there's something like that [a Deathly Hallows-related full length] in the future. It's hard to say right now."
On November 16, 2010 Harry and the Potters released a remix album entiteld Remixes
via Bandcamp
, using the sites ability to ask potential buyers to name their own price. The EP features various fan-submitted remixes. On December 8, 2010, the band released a digital-only Christmas album entitled A Wizardly Christmas of Wizardry
. The album contains new songs and older songs that have appeared on various Christmas compilations.
In Summer 2011, Harry and the Potters embarked on another summer tour entitled, Ride The Lightning. The tour was to the biggest since 2007, playing dates all throughout the United States. The first show was held May 25 in Portland, ME and the last show was July 31st at the Knitting Factory
in New York. Drummer Jacob Nathan played with the group throughout the tour. Jacob is a member of the band 926 Main Street Apt. 2 that he formed with Joe DeGeorge and Emily Barnett while attending college at Clark University
" Prior to touring, Harry and the Potters revealed masters for a new live album titled Live at the New York Public Library through their official Facebook
page. The album was physically released as a vinyl album and sold throughout the tour.
For the Harry Potter fandom, Harry and the Potters refer to words and phrases in the books, including Hogwarts
, Harry's Firebolt, Felix Felicis, the Flying Car, wizard chess, platform nine and three-quarters, The Burrow, the three-headed dog Fluffy, Mrs. Norris, the basilisk, The Marauder's Map, various spells and incantations, and the Invisibility Cloak.
Three years after Paul and Joe formed their band and two years after they began playing shows regularly, in 2005 there was a tidal wave of new wizard rock bands. The brothers do-it-yourself musical ethos has caught on with bands forming as fellow Potter fans are picking up instruments for the first time. Like Harry and the Potters, these new bands also take on the persona
, or dress as a Harry Potter-themed character. Though most fans of the music are previous fans of Harry Potter, some bands have attracted listeners outside of the Harry Potter fanbase. Paul and Joe are aware of around 200 other Harry Potter-related rock bands who at least record and post songs on the Internet.
A full-length feature film project documenting Harry and the Potters and the wizard rock movement, Wizard Rockumentary: A Movie About Rocking and Rowling, was released in 2008.
books will inspire the lyrics. As Joe said in a 2005 interview, "We try to take the themes from the books and amplify them." Their musical sound is described as "simple, catchy rock – think The White Stripes
crossed with Raffi
– where everyone sings along which is easy because in songs like 'Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock' the title is pretty much the only line." Another reviewer’s ear hears "a touch of the Ramones
in their ultra simple lyrics."
The band is organized quite simply with Paul and Joe playing their songs in a simple basic guitar-synth-and-drums indie pop style and they sing in the semi-deadpan way; a review found the vocal delivery similar to that of They Might Be Giants
. The raison d’être of the band is to put enough energy and spirit into their songs to make them fun.
The band is not musically polished. Paul has joked that, if they had known of the band’s popularity, they might have made "an effort to sing in tune. But it’s hard to anticipate that sort of thing when you’re just writing silly songs and recording them in your living room over a weekend.". While musicianship is not the strength of the band, Paul says that the fans "know we're not the best singers and keyboard players, but we're okay. And they think, well, I could do that, too. I think that’s really encouraging to people..." Paul sees the brothers as a "bridge between this mainstream phenomena of Harry Potter and the indie rock underground. Plus, we’re also pretty strong adherents to the DIY ideal." The two brothers promote this ideal of making music independently and have fused the legions of fans on to the DIY free-for-all of indie rock and punk music, albeit of the silly kind.
The Washington Post
describes the brothers as having vast quantities of both passion and ability to engage an audience: the "combination of their happy, who-cares personalities and Harry Potter fanaticism has cast a spell over book-loving teens across the country." Paul said, "the band is neither geeky nor cool but 'geeky-cool'. I think the indie-rock community at the very least realizes we're taking a very DIY approach to this."
While in the earlier albums the band's musical style was goofy inept pop-punk, Scarred for Life became musically darker reflecting the penultimate book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
. Scarred for Life‘s scenario takes as its central conceit
a Harry Potter who has started a hardcore rock band. Paul and Joe departed from their proud DIY home recording and sought a studio for Scarred for Life and their untitled split EP with the Zambonis. Paul and Joe DeGeorge feel that the songs on the "Scarred for Life" EP are among their "most badass songs." In the same year, they returned to home recording with the Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love but with a bigger sound and with the assistance recording verteran Kevin Micka. Paul and Joe DeGeorge feel that the songs on the "Scarred for Life" EP are among their "most badass songs." Paul said their third EP, the 2007 The Enchanted Ceiling was recorded in their living room.
in Cambridge, MA in December 2005 attracted an audience of 600 with 200 turned away at the door—the band prefers to play all-ages shows at libraries, bookstores and schools, as the promotion of reading is a hallmark of Harry and the Potters concerts. In turn, because of their active promotion of literacy, young-adult and teen librarians have been promoting the band. Young people are some of their most unabashed fans.
The Washington Post
reported on a recent 2007 concert on a corner of the lawn at the central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library
. Although The Post
found "the sound quality lame and the music sloppy," the lack of fancy guitar work did not dampen the enthusiasm of the fans. The crowd had a median age of about 18 with "some gray-hairs hang(ing) in the back, singing along, and a few little kids run(ing) in circles, knocking into each other like puppies." Some in the audience dress to a Harry Potter theme: "here, a wizard's cloak, over there, school uniforms." The Post
found loyal fans who appreciate the band for more than the music.
When they first played Los Angeles in 2004, they had about 50 children in a room at the library and the next year it was a bigger room, "but there were too many people," and then the band moved outdoors. In Vancouver
on July 7, 2007, hundreds of people crowded outside the Vancouver Public Library
to see Harry and the Potters. ABC News
reported that the band usually charge $5 to $10 for tickets to their shows, though some performances are free. Harry and the Potters said 600 people turned out for a recent show, July 10, 2007, in Portland, Oregon
. As The Washington Post
wrote, "wizard rock is an escape into a different world – a world of non-judgmental fun where grown-ups dress as wizards, evil is vanquished by song, and reading is cool." The peculiar success of Harry and the Potters has led Paul to "sense a growing affection for us amongst other musicians" and at home. The Boston Phoenix has called Harry and the Potters the "Pink Floyd
of Potterdom."
and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)
in the song "Voldemort Can't Stop The Rock," which contains the verse, "And we won't let the Dark Lord ruin our party/ Just like Tipper Gore tried with the PMRC."
In 2005 the duo co-founded the non-profit organisation The Harry Potter Alliance with Andrew Slack, Seth Reibstein and Sarah Newberry, an organization that uses the HP books as a platform for inspiring real-world activism, which amongst other activities, helps "wake the world up" to the genocide in Darfur
. The projects invites its members to inform their local senator to support the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act. The Harry Potter Alliance raises awareness for these projects by holding wizard rock concerts and by selling memorabilia to help fund these campaigns.
Harry and the Potters have also collaborated the Harry Potter Alliance
complication album, Rocking Out Against Voldemedia with a song entitled “Don’t Believe It”. The purpose of the album was to achieve the right to free press and against media consolidation by asking site viewers to contact their member of congress to support S 2332, the "The Media Ownership Act of 2007."
Former
Session
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band known for spawning the genre of wizard rock
Wizard rock
Wizard rock is a genre of rock music that developed between 2002 and 2004 in the United States. Wizard rock bands are characterized by their performances and humorous songs about the Harry Potter universe. Wizard rock initially started in Massachusetts with Harry and the Potters, though it has...
. Founded in Norwood
Norwood, Massachusetts
Norwood is a town and census-designated place in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,602. The community was named after Norwood, England...
, Massachusetts, the group is primarily composed of Joe and Paul DeGeorge, who both perform under the persona of the title character
Harry Potter (character)
Harry James Potter is the title character and main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard...
from the Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
book series. Though they both maintain the same character, Joe takes on the character of Harry Potter during his fourth year at Hogwarts with Paul as Harry Potter during his seventh year. Harry and the Potters are known for their elaborate live performances, and have developed a cult following within the Harry Potter fandom
Harry Potter fandom
The Harry Potter fandom is a large international and informal community drawn together by J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The fandom works through the use of many different forms of media, including web sites, fan fiction, podcasts, fan art and songvids...
.
Since 2002, Harry and the Potters have released three studio albums, seven extended plays, and one compilation album. The duo founded the independent record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Eskimo Laboratories, and starred in the documentary films We Are Wizards and Wizard Rockumentary. They also co-founded charity organisation The Harry Potter Alliance, and formed the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club, an extended play syndicate.
Formation (2002)
The earliest Harry Potter-themed song is conventionally traced to 2000 when the Los Angeles based pop-punk band Switchblade Kittens released an "Ode to Harry" from the perspective of Ginny Weasley. Harry and the Potters originated the Harry Potter-themed band which became the genesis of a fandomFandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
centered genre of music called wizard rock
Wizard rock
Wizard rock is a genre of rock music that developed between 2002 and 2004 in the United States. Wizard rock bands are characterized by their performances and humorous songs about the Harry Potter universe. Wizard rock initially started in Massachusetts with Harry and the Potters, though it has...
.
The origins were quite accidental. In Cambridge, MA
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Paul DeGeorge (born June 10, 1979 (age 32)) was developing vaccines for a biotech firm as a chemical engineer. Paul had recently graduated from Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
. Outside the lab, Paul was a musician whose indie band—The Secrets—had toured in the northeast from 2001 to 2002. To promote his band, Paul co-founded a small indie label called Eskimo Laboratories. One of the other bands in Eskimo’s stable of talent included a juvenile act called Ed in the Refridgerators [sic], which was fronted by Paul's 14-year-old brother Joe. Joe DeGeorge (born July 04, 1987 (age 24)) was a student at Norwood High School. He and his school friend Andrew MacLeay (A.K.A Shaggy) had been playing in rock bands together since they were 11 and 12 years old.
A couple of years earlier after reading the Harry Potter books, Paul formulated the premise for Harry and the Potters where the principle Harry Potter characters would be the musicians: Harry as the front man, Ron on guitar, Hermione on bass and Hagrid on drums. Then a crisis of sorts struck the brothers on June 22, 2002. During a barbecue at the DeGeorge family’s Norwood
Norwood, Massachusetts
Norwood is a town and census-designated place in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,602. The community was named after Norwood, England...
Massachusetts home, Joe had advertised a concert with Ed and the Refridgerators and several other indie bands. The venue was the back yard shed. Perhaps the venue was too modest but while an audience had arrived, the bands did not. To rescue a nearly lost opportunity, while waiting hopefully for a band to show, Harry and the Potters came into existence over the next hour when the two brothers wrote seven Potter-themed songs. They performed that first concert as Harry and the Potters for six people who remained of their audience. Of those seven backyard songs, six were to make it onto the band's first album in 2003.
While Harry and the Potters would become notable for making libraries their primary venue, after the backyard debut concert, Joe DeGeorge did not see a future in the modest venues, "I think we thought we'd play a few libraries." Paul added, "We thought it would be short-lived. We weren't like super fans, so we didn't understand this whole (Harry Potter) subculture when we started."
The DeGeorge brothers quickly developed an on-stage persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
of dressing in the fashion of wizard-school Hogwarts
Hogwarts
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or simply Hogwarts is the primary setting for the first six books of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, with each book lasting the equivalent of one school year. It is a fictional boarding school of magic for witches and wizards between the ages of...
: white shirts under gray crew-neck sweaters, red-and-yellow striped ties, wire-rim glasses. In a show of quirky egalitarianism, both brothers play the role of Harry Potter and dress almost identically. Paul is older and to conform to the character’s persona, he is Harry of Year 7; while Joe is the Harry of Year 4.
Harry and the Potters and Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! (2003–04)
After recruiting drummer Ernie Kim, the band recorded their eponymous debut albumHarry and the Potters (album)
Harry and the Potters is the eponymous debut studio album by indie rock band Harry and the Potters, released in June 2003. The album was inspired by the first four novels in the Harry Potter book series.-Background:...
over a weekend in the DeGeorge family living room. Released in June 2003 under the Eskimo Laboratories record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, the album contains six of the seven songs composed the day of their first concert and another twelve written spontaneously and immediately thereafter recorded.
In "the summer of" 2003, Harry and the Potters set out on an American tour, performing at libraries. The fifth Harry Potter book – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada...
– came out that summer and on June 21, 2003, the highly anticipated day of release, the band played five sets in a span of 24 hours. The library gigs drew crowds of mostly children and their parents. The brothers played a show at the library in Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Dorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
that August where they noticed the children in the audience singing along. Joe said, "Paul forgot the words to one of the songs. [The kids] were like, 'You sang it wrong!'" Paul said, "They'd be like, 'Hey, why'd you skip that song?' because they knew the exact sequence of the album."
During May and June 2004, the band worked on their next album, Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!
Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!
Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second studio album by indie rock band Harry and the Potters, released on July 1, 2004. The album was primarily inspired by the fifth novel in the Harry Potter book series....
in the DeGeorge family shed. Following the release, the band toured heavily.
The two brothers drove 13,000 miles across the U.S and into Canada in their "Potter Mobile", a silver 1998 Ford Windstar
Ford Windstar
The Ford Windstar is a minivan that was produced and sold by the Ford Motor Company from the 1995 to 2003 model years. This front-wheel drive minivan was the second minivan designed by the company, serving as a replacement for the rear-wheel drive Aerostar minivan. The two were sold concurrently...
minivan with a black lightning bolt emblazoned on its hood. In live concerts, Paul and Joe used pre-recorded backing tracks for much of the tour, but during the second half, Joe called on his childhood friend and former bandmate Andrew MacLeay to join the band temporarily as drummer.
During the Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! tour, Paul and Joe DeGeorge received a letter from Warner Brothers that stated that the brothers were breaking copyright laws. Although Paul sent a letter to Warner Brothers in an attempt to smooth things over, Marc Brandon, the company representative, asked to speak to Paul personally. The two later settled upon a Gentlemen's agreement
Gentlemen's agreement
A gentlemen's agreement is an informal agreement between two or more parties. It may be written, oral, or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or through mutually beneficial etiquette. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties...
that, in essence, would allow Harry and the Potters to continue to sell music online and tour, but all other merchandise could only be sold at live shows.
Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love (2005–06)
The following winter, the band began their first overseas tour. In February 2005, they toured the United Kingdom – playing London, ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
– and then followed it by playing some gigs in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
to coincide with the release of the Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
translation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth and penultimate novel in the Harry Potter series by British author J. K. Rowling...
which took place in November 2005. In the Netherlands, they played one of their earliest songs "Platform Nine and 3/4" in Dutch.
In late 2005, Harry and the Potters enjoyed more tongue-in-cheek critical success from respectable quarters. The web based music ’zine Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
even hailed Harry and the Potters as having one of the best five live shows in 2005, quipping that "The Decemberists
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...
wish they could lit-rock like this." In the fall of 2005, Joe entered Clark University
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
.
The previous year was the watershed when a joke between two colorblind, Massachusetts-born brothers had developed into something they had never imagined. The band continued its odd success and toured early in the year with a New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
'sock puppet rock band' called Uncle Monsterface who opened for in March 2006. During the summer, they embarked on their 3rd cross-country summer tour ("Summer Reading and Rocking Tour 2006"), this time accompanied by fellow wizard rock band Draco and the Malfoys
Draco and the Malfoys
Draco and the Malfoys are a wizard rock band founded in Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 2004. The group is composed of half-brothers Brian Ross and Bradley Mehlenbacher, who both perform under the persona of Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter book series....
. Brad Mehlenbacher from Draco and the Malfoys handled drumming duties for the Potters for the entirety of their summer tour.
Other releases and films (2007–09)
May 2007 was also the beginning of their large 70-show summer-library tour across the US and Canada called simply "Summer Tour 2007". Like their initial year in 2003, the summer of 2007 would see the release of another Harry Potter book. Harry and the Potters scheduled the mid-point of the tour to arrive back in their home state and celebrate the July 21 midnight release of the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard
Harvard Yard is a grassy area of about , adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University...
. The festivities became an excuse for a meet-up of a number of wizard rock bands including The Hungarian Horntails and their nemesis Draco and the Malfoys which all played to a large crowd of Harry Potter fans in the Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
college venue. Harry and the Potters resumed their tour which finally wound-up in late August.
After four-years of touring and playing gigs across North America, the brothers have performed in 48 states and three Canadian provinces. The brothers have been asked if they knew that Harry and the Potters would have lasted beyond the initial gigs. While Joe said, "It’s starting to turn into the longest joke ever." Paul was a bit more reflective and said that they "were never prepared for this, we never thought it would go this long. I guess at some point, we looked towards the seventh book as a culmination of our project." The Boston Phoenix wondered—in spite of fully booked calendars—how long wizard rock would last once there are no new stories to riff on, as their musical identity is contingent on the lasting success and popularity of a book series. "In some ways," said Paul, "we want to tie things off and consider it a done deal. We’ve always viewed this as a project that had a finite life and end point."
Joe has said, "We're not sure how to approach our band once the books are finished. In some senses, it might be a logical conclusion now that the books are over. We'll have to play it by ear – see how people feel after they find out what happens in the last book." When the final show does come, Paul has said, "We did figure out what our ideal final show would be – our first show was in our backyard, and we’d like our last show to be in her – J.K. Rowling's – backyard. We want that to happen, we’re waiting for the invite. We could play one of her kids’ birthday parties."
Harry and the Potters and their unexpected fan based indie music genre of wizard rock have grown into an international phenomenon. Recently, the band has engaged in charity side-projects and activism within the Harry Potter community. In January 2007, Harry and the Potters created the "Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club", through which they released an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
featuring music from different wizard rock bands every month. Reflecting wizard rock's literacy focus, the club raises funds for First Book
First Book
First Book is a non-profit organization based out of Washington D.C. that works towards getting new "age appropriate" books into the hands of children from low-income families.-History:...
, a non-profit organization that gives children the ability to read and own their first new books. In 2007, the Club raised over $13,000 for the organization.
In 2008, the band were unsure as to whether they would work on a new studio album. In February 2008, Harry and the Potters launched a website called Unlimited Enthusiasm. The website led users through a series of images and eventually to a forum, which contained much speculation concerning the nature of Unlimited Enthusiasm. Unlimited Enthusiasm ended up being the name of their Summer 2008 tour alongside bands Uncle Monsterface and Math The Band
Math the Band
Math the Band is an American electronic band formed in 2003 in Westford, Massachusetts by Kevin Steinhauser. Justine Mainville was added to the lineup in 2007. They've released many full-length albums and various EPs...
. Harry and the Potters undertook a summer tour, Unlimited Enthusiasm, with Math the Band, Uncle Monsterface and Jason Anderson. One of the stops in that tour was Nerdapalooza
Nerdapalooza
Nerdapalooza is an annual music festival, the first of its kind to invite all genres of the nerd music movement under one roof, including nerd rock, nerdcore hip hop, chiptunes, and video game music. The idea for Nerdapalooza was conceived by John "hex" Carter, who hosted a nerdy music themed radio...
. This fall they released a short punk rock EP, In the Cupboard as part of the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club. According to Melissa Anelli's book "Harry: a History", the band does not plan to tour beyond 2008.
The band released a two-disc compilation album, Priori Incantatem
Priori Incantatem (album)
Priori Incantatem is the first double and compilation album from wizard rock and indie rock band, Harry and the Potters. It was released by record label Eskimo Laboratories in May 2009. The album is a collection of the band's previously unreleased songs, compilations appearances, songs from their...
, a collection of previously unreleased songs, compilations appearances, songs from their out-of-print EPs, remixes and demos on May 22, 2009. The band played its 500th show in June 2009 at Norwood Elementary School (MA) the founding members' hometown. The group continued the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club in 2009, and as a member of the club, they released The Yule Ball EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, which featured a CD and a DVD of their performance at the Fourth Annual Yule Ball.
Further releases (2010–11)
In April 2010, the group announced a series of shows in the Midwestern United StatesMidwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
for July and August.
In April 2010, Paul DeGeorge revealed that Harry and the Potters is contemplating making a fourth studio album. He explained, "But maybe there's something like that [a Deathly Hallows-related full length] in the future. It's hard to say right now."
On November 16, 2010 Harry and the Potters released a remix album entiteld Remixes
Remixes (Harry and the Potters EP)
Remixes is the seventh EP and first remix album from wizard rock and indie rock band, Harry and the Potters. It was released by record label Eskimo Laboratories in November 2010. The band released the EP via Bandcamp, using the sites ability to ask potential buyers to name their own price...
via Bandcamp
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an online music store, as well as a platform for artist promotion, that caters mainly for independent artists. Artists on Bandcamp have a customizable microsite with the albums they upload. All tracks can be played for free on the website and some artists offer free music downloads...
, using the sites ability to ask potential buyers to name their own price. The EP features various fan-submitted remixes. On December 8, 2010, the band released a digital-only Christmas album entitled A Wizardly Christmas of Wizardry
A Wizardly Christmas of Wizardry
A Wizardly Christmas of Wizardry is the second compilation album and first Christmas album from wizard rock and indie rock band, Harry and the Potters. The album is composed of new songs and older songs that have appeared on various Christmas compilations. It was released by record label Eskimo...
. The album contains new songs and older songs that have appeared on various Christmas compilations.
In Summer 2011, Harry and the Potters embarked on another summer tour entitled, Ride The Lightning. The tour was to the biggest since 2007, playing dates all throughout the United States. The first show was held May 25 in Portland, ME and the last show was July 31st at the Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
in New York. Drummer Jacob Nathan played with the group throughout the tour. Jacob is a member of the band 926 Main Street Apt. 2 that he formed with Joe DeGeorge and Emily Barnett while attending college at Clark University
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...
" Prior to touring, Harry and the Potters revealed masters for a new live album titled Live at the New York Public Library through their official Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page. The album was physically released as a vinyl album and sold throughout the tour.
Lyrics and themes
Harry and the Potters couple their rough-edged music with themed lyrics, which define the band as much as the costumes. The straight-forward but quirky presentation of adolescent concerns and direness in the simplest of worries gives the songs their easy likeability. They poke fun at awkward situations from the books. For example, in the song "The Human Hosepipe", they sing, "Maybe you shouldn't have brought up Cedric Diggory/ Because I'd rather not talk about your dead ex-boyfriends over coffee." Two other examples of the bands distinctive take on teenage angst are seen in the song "Save Ginny Weasley" where they sing, "Are you petrified of being petrified?" and the song "The Godfather." where the gothic or mock-morbid line "Why do I always think that I am going to die?" is sung to an up-beat tune.For the Harry Potter fandom, Harry and the Potters refer to words and phrases in the books, including Hogwarts
Hogwarts
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or simply Hogwarts is the primary setting for the first six books of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, with each book lasting the equivalent of one school year. It is a fictional boarding school of magic for witches and wizards between the ages of...
, Harry's Firebolt, Felix Felicis, the Flying Car, wizard chess, platform nine and three-quarters, The Burrow, the three-headed dog Fluffy, Mrs. Norris, the basilisk, The Marauder's Map, various spells and incantations, and the Invisibility Cloak.
Three years after Paul and Joe formed their band and two years after they began playing shows regularly, in 2005 there was a tidal wave of new wizard rock bands. The brothers do-it-yourself musical ethos has caught on with bands forming as fellow Potter fans are picking up instruments for the first time. Like Harry and the Potters, these new bands also take on the persona
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
, or dress as a Harry Potter-themed character. Though most fans of the music are previous fans of Harry Potter, some bands have attracted listeners outside of the Harry Potter fanbase. Paul and Joe are aware of around 200 other Harry Potter-related rock bands who at least record and post songs on the Internet.
A full-length feature film project documenting Harry and the Potters and the wizard rock movement, Wizard Rockumentary: A Movie About Rocking and Rowling, was released in 2008.
Influences
Harry and the Potters with its strong persona or theme is as much a performance art project as it is a rock band. Musically, they sound much like other indie rock music with the exception that the band adheres to a novel conceit: the Harry PotterHarry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
books will inspire the lyrics. As Joe said in a 2005 interview, "We try to take the themes from the books and amplify them." Their musical sound is described as "simple, catchy rock – think The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
crossed with Raffi
Raffi (musician)
Raffi Cavoukian, CM, OBC , better known by his stage name Raffi, is a Canadian-Armenian singer-songwriter, author, essayist and lecturer...
– where everyone sings along which is easy because in songs like 'Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock' the title is pretty much the only line." Another reviewer’s ear hears "a touch of the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
in their ultra simple lyrics."
The band is organized quite simply with Paul and Joe playing their songs in a simple basic guitar-synth-and-drums indie pop style and they sing in the semi-deadpan way; a review found the vocal delivery similar to that of They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
. The raison d’être of the band is to put enough energy and spirit into their songs to make them fun.
The band is not musically polished. Paul has joked that, if they had known of the band’s popularity, they might have made "an effort to sing in tune. But it’s hard to anticipate that sort of thing when you’re just writing silly songs and recording them in your living room over a weekend.". While musicianship is not the strength of the band, Paul says that the fans "know we're not the best singers and keyboard players, but we're okay. And they think, well, I could do that, too. I think that’s really encouraging to people..." Paul sees the brothers as a "bridge between this mainstream phenomena of Harry Potter and the indie rock underground. Plus, we’re also pretty strong adherents to the DIY ideal." The two brothers promote this ideal of making music independently and have fused the legions of fans on to the DIY free-for-all of indie rock and punk music, albeit of the silly kind.
The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
describes the brothers as having vast quantities of both passion and ability to engage an audience: the "combination of their happy, who-cares personalities and Harry Potter fanaticism has cast a spell over book-loving teens across the country." Paul said, "the band is neither geeky nor cool but 'geeky-cool'. I think the indie-rock community at the very least realizes we're taking a very DIY approach to this."
While in the earlier albums the band's musical style was goofy inept pop-punk, Scarred for Life became musically darker reflecting the penultimate book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth and penultimate novel in the Harry Potter series by British author J. K. Rowling...
. Scarred for Life‘s scenario takes as its central conceit
Central conceit
In drama and other art forms, the central conceit of a work of fiction is the underlying fictitious assumption which must be accepted by the audience with suspension of disbelief so the plot may be seen as plausible...
a Harry Potter who has started a hardcore rock band. Paul and Joe departed from their proud DIY home recording and sought a studio for Scarred for Life and their untitled split EP with the Zambonis. Paul and Joe DeGeorge feel that the songs on the "Scarred for Life" EP are among their "most badass songs." In the same year, they returned to home recording with the Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love but with a bigger sound and with the assistance recording verteran Kevin Micka. Paul and Joe DeGeorge feel that the songs on the "Scarred for Life" EP are among their "most badass songs." Paul said their third EP, the 2007 The Enchanted Ceiling was recorded in their living room.
Reception
While Harry and the Potters play infrequently at rock clubs and other venues—a Yule Ball at the Middle East DownstairsThe Middle East (nightclub)
The Middle East is a live music venue, bar and restaurant in the Central Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having featured a huge variety of musicians since 1987, the establishment, with its upstairs and downstairs rooms, "is the nexus of metro Boston's rock-club scene for local and touring...
in Cambridge, MA in December 2005 attracted an audience of 600 with 200 turned away at the door—the band prefers to play all-ages shows at libraries, bookstores and schools, as the promotion of reading is a hallmark of Harry and the Potters concerts. In turn, because of their active promotion of literacy, young-adult and teen librarians have been promoting the band. Young people are some of their most unabashed fans.
The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
reported on a recent 2007 concert on a corner of the lawn at the central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system serves the residents of Los Angeles, California, United States. With over 6 million volumes, LAPL is one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world. The system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners with five members appointed by the...
. Although The Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
found "the sound quality lame and the music sloppy," the lack of fancy guitar work did not dampen the enthusiasm of the fans. The crowd had a median age of about 18 with "some gray-hairs hang(ing) in the back, singing along, and a few little kids run(ing) in circles, knocking into each other like puppies." Some in the audience dress to a Harry Potter theme: "here, a wizard's cloak, over there, school uniforms." The Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
found loyal fans who appreciate the band for more than the music.
When they first played Los Angeles in 2004, they had about 50 children in a room at the library and the next year it was a bigger room, "but there were too many people," and then the band moved outdoors. In Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
on July 7, 2007, hundreds of people crowded outside the Vancouver Public Library
Vancouver Public Library
The Vancouver Public Library is the third largest public library system in Canada, with more than 2.5 million items in its collections, 22 branches, approximately 375,000 cardholders, and nearly nine million item borrowings annually...
to see Harry and the Potters. ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
reported that the band usually charge $5 to $10 for tickets to their shows, though some performances are free. Harry and the Potters said 600 people turned out for a recent show, July 10, 2007, in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. As The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
wrote, "wizard rock is an escape into a different world – a world of non-judgmental fun where grown-ups dress as wizards, evil is vanquished by song, and reading is cool." The peculiar success of Harry and the Potters has led Paul to "sense a growing affection for us amongst other musicians" and at home. The Boston Phoenix has called Harry and the Potters the "Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
of Potterdom."
Campaigning and activism
Harry and the Potters actively promote literacy. Another example of this literary activism is the reference to Tipper GoreTipper Gore
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore , née Aitcheson, is an author, photographer, former second lady of the United States, and the estranged wife of Al Gore...
and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)
Parents Music Resource Center
The Parents Music Resource Center was an American committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual.The committee was founded by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice...
in the song "Voldemort Can't Stop The Rock," which contains the verse, "And we won't let the Dark Lord ruin our party/ Just like Tipper Gore tried with the PMRC."
In 2005 the duo co-founded the non-profit organisation The Harry Potter Alliance with Andrew Slack, Seth Reibstein and Sarah Newberry, an organization that uses the HP books as a platform for inspiring real-world activism, which amongst other activities, helps "wake the world up" to the genocide in Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
. The projects invites its members to inform their local senator to support the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act. The Harry Potter Alliance raises awareness for these projects by holding wizard rock concerts and by selling memorabilia to help fund these campaigns.
Harry and the Potters have also collaborated the Harry Potter Alliance
Harry Potter Alliance
The Harry Potter Alliance is an organisation based around the Harry Potter Fandom designed to raise funds towards charitable causes through campaigns and events related to the series. It was founded by comedian Andrew Slack to highlight the crisis in Sudan and social inequities...
complication album, Rocking Out Against Voldemedia with a song entitled “Don’t Believe It”. The purpose of the album was to achieve the right to free press and against media consolidation by asking site viewers to contact their member of congress to support S 2332, the "The Media Ownership Act of 2007."
Band members
Current- Paul DeGeorge – baritone saxophoneBaritone saxophoneThe baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
, drums, guitar, melodicaMelodicaThe melodica, also known as the "blow-organ" or "key-flute", is a free-reed instrument similar to the melodeon and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole,...
, ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
, vocals (2002–present) - Joe DeGeorge – drums, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, keyboards, slide whistleSlide whistleA slide whistle is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide. The construction is rather like a bicycle pump...
, tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, vocals (2002–present) - Jacob Nathan – drums
Former
- Ernie Kim – bass, drums, backing vocals (2003–2007)
- Andrew MacLeay – drums (2004, 2007)
- Brad Mehlenbacher – drums (2005–2008)
- John Clardy – drums (2008)
- Mike Gintz – drums (2008)
- Jacob Nathan – drums (2007, 2011)
- Ben Macri – drums (2005)
- Phillip Dickey – drums (2006)
- Jason Anderson – drums (2006–2008)
- Zach Burba – drums (2008)
- Jimmy Kleiner – drums (2010)
Session
- Brian Church – bass, backing vocals (Harry and the Potters and the Power of LovePower of Love (Harry and the Potters album)-Harry and the Potters:*Paul DeGeorge - Vocals, guitar, baritone saxophone and melodica*Joe DeGeorge - Vocals, keyboard, tenor saxophone, glockenspiel and theremin-Studio musicians:*Ernie Kim - Drums, Gang vocals on "New Wizard Anthem"*Brian Church - Bass...
, 2006) - Catherine DeGeorge – whistlesWhistlesWhistles is a clothing brand with 40 stores across Britain. It was founded in the early 1980s by Lucille and Richard Lewin.In January 2008, Jane Shepherdson, former Topshop director, signed a deal to purchase a 20 per cent stake in Whistles and was appointed the job of chief executive.-Style:In the...
(Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006) - Juliet Nelson – cello (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Jeanie Lee – violin (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Kevin Micka - guitar, backing vocals (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Devin King - backing vocals (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Mike Gintz - backing vocals (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Farhad Ebrahimi - backing vocals (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Steve Mike - backing vocals (Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love, 2006)
- Jacob Nathan – drums ("Don’t Believe It", 2007)
- Adam Kohrman - backing vocals ("Don't Believe It", 2007)
Discography
- Harry and the PottersHarry and the Potters (album)Harry and the Potters is the eponymous debut studio album by indie rock band Harry and the Potters, released in June 2003. The album was inspired by the first four novels in the Harry Potter book series.-Background:...
(2003) - Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second studio album by indie rock band Harry and the Potters, released on July 1, 2004. The album was primarily inspired by the fifth novel in the Harry Potter book series....
(2004) - Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love (2006)
Filmography
- Wizard Rockumentary: A Movie About Rocking and Rowling (2008)
- We Are Wizards (2008)
External links
- Harry and the Potters – official website
- Eskimo Laboratories – record label
- Harry and the Potters at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- CBC British Columbia radio interview - 5:40, Thursday June 23, 2011