With some of my past articles, I’ve given the impression that the wizard rockers might wish that there wasn’t something in their life that limited their participation in the wrock community. Recently, I got the chance to talk with Russ of Creevey Crisis and Stacy of Swish and Flick about being wizard rock parents. As you’ll see, their kids do limit some of what they can do in the community, but certainly, neither resent this. Instead, both of them have taken this as an opportunity to do what many wizard rockers want to do: introduce children to books and music, but they get the opportunity to do this on a daily basis.

Russ’ two kids, a 3 year old son and a 7 year old daughter, are a little young to have read Harry Potter on their own, but Russ has read Sorcerer’s Stone to his daughter. She has also seen the first three movies, “however my son wants nothing to do with it since there’s no trucks, airplanes, or firemen involved”. Fair enough.

His kids do listen to his music, “but they’re more into the other wizard rock bands than their old man’s band. I often have to put on Roonil Wazlib, Harry and the Potters, Whompy, and Draco and the Malfoys for them. Although my daughter’s now taken to just saying ‘play some Harry Potter music’ when we get into the car.” His son may be a little young to fully appreciate being part of the wizard rock community, but “my daughter enjoys it a lot, and was thrilled to have REAL WIZARD ROCK BANDS at our house over the summer when I set up a library show.” A fangirl in the making, perhaps? From what Russ said, she might be more likely to have a wrock band herself. “My daughter has helped with some backup vocals (along with my wife, who’s also played some flute parts for me), and also helped me with sound effects on a few songs. She thinks it’s a blast.” Unfortunately, the kids are a little young to go to a lot of shows, so they’ve only been to two so far.

There are some drawbacks to having young children in the house. “I can only record in short time periods due to their bedtimes and nap schedules (especially when I’m recording drums), so I think it takes me a lot longer to get recordings done than a lot of other bands. I only play shows that I’m able to drive to and back from in the same day, as I don’t feel right about taking off to go have fun wizrocking and leaving my wife to take care of the kids all day… and I never would want to neglect ‘dad duties’.” But that’s one of the best things about wizard rock – the online community. “When I started the band, I figured it would be an “online only” thing due to my home life, and I’ve been very lucky to have played some shows this past year. For me, those were all bonuses to releasing music online for everyone.”

Stacy’s daughter is only two, but she already knows who Harry Potter is and has seen a few of the movies. She does listen to her mom’s music, but “she’s not that into it, probably because she’s heard it so often.” She’s a little young to “help” with the music, “but if you listen very closely to the end of our song ‘Alley Cast’, you can hear her whine. You can also hear her in the live recording of ‘Like a First Year’.”

She doesn’t always understand why Stacy might leave her to rehearse or play a show, but “when she comes along for shows, she likes to share the spotlight with me and will try to take the mic. She’ll also dance.” Unfortunately, it can be hard to work on her music without a baby-sitter. “I’m sometimes able to work on music a little bit while she’s at nursery school for two hours twice a week, which isn’t much. If I have energy after she goes to bed, I can work on music quietly at night, which is not ideal.”

Luckily, Stacy has a lot of family support, and they are willing to help her balance things. Stacy’s mom even came to Terminus with her so she could play a show. Some shows and touring aren’t really that easy with a small child, though. “I can’t bring her to a show at a rock club or a gig at a conference where no kids are allowed, so if I don’t have a babysitter, I just can’t take those sort of shows. Traveling with a toddler is really difficult, so I would rather not tour very far away from home for much longer than a week.” I don’t think anyone would blame her there.

When asked for any final thoughts, both Russ and Stacy wrote such amazing answers that I wanted to leave them in their entirety. I think it sums up nicely just how they’re managing the whole wizard rock parenting gig.

Russ:
“I get an absolute kick out of my kids enjoying music, and wanting to play along with me. I know full well that the arts curriculum they’ll get in school is nowhere near what I got when I was a kid, so I’ll take every opportunity I can to introduce them to different instruments, and give them a chance to try them all out and have fun. Wizard Rock has given me something that I can share with my daughter, even more so now that she’s starting the books and has seen some of the movies. I hear a lot of ‘Oh OK, NOW I get what this song is about!’ from her when we’re listening to wrock music. I have so much respect for the parents in wizard rock who fully include and encourage their kids, like Tina (Mama Horntail) and Stacy from Swish and Flick. Not only do we have the opportunity to encourage our kids to be creative and musical, we’re doing it in the context of them also reading some fantastic books. For me, that’s a total win-win.”

Stacy:
“I love what I do. My life is devoted first to my family and second to the HP fandom. So you can imagine how devoted I am to wizard rock and Harry Potter – most moms have more balanced lives. But I wouldn’t want it any other way. I feel so blessed to have a supportive family because I wouldn’t be able to pursue my creative endeavors without them. I hope some day my daughter will want to be involved too, but if she doesn’t want to be, that’s OK.”

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