Do you enjoy parody songs and general facts about bats? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then you are going to love today’s Wrock Talk! For this installment, I sat down (or, rather, communicated via Facebook Messenger) with Zoe Bentley and we chatted about wizard rock, patroni, and the importance of making sure that your lyrics are scientifically accurate! Read on for more…

Paul: As the wise sage Hilary Duff one said: “Let’s go back to the beginning.” How did you get involved with wizard rock?

Zoe?: I kind of learned about wizard rock twice. I first learned it existed well over a decade ago, when Harry and the Potters came to my local library to perform. I brought home a couple CDs, but I didn’t look into wrock any more than that. I did, however, start getting interested in parody songs. I had a brief phase where you could suggest any song to me and I would rewrite a few lines of it to be about soup. The second time I learned about wizard rock was just a couple years ago. I was chatting with a friend of mine in ASL class about underappreciated Harry Potter characters, and I mentioned Charlie Weasley, so they told me about the song “1991 – Charlie Weasley” by Tonks and the Aurors. I was hooked. I had no idea of the range of topics, viewpoints, and sounds wizard rock had, but now that I had a clue, I had to hear more. That led to learning about the Wizard Rock Sampler, which was the impetus I needed to make something of my own.

Paul: Ah! A parody writer—I see that you are a person of culture. How do you go about writing your lyrics? What about the musical component?

Zoe?: Generally, it starts with a few lines, or even just one. I’ll have some song in my head, usually from having listened to it recently, and that will spark ideas for something with a similar sound, or remind me of a similar theme. I write that down so I don’t forget, and I use the original song as a template to figure out the rest of the lines in bits and pieces. That’s been my strategy since I first got interested in parody songs. You can see what it looks like midway through in my response to January’s Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Jam prompt—the “it’s more than a sign” verse came first, and I’m working on filling in the rest. “Dragons” started with “Common Welsh Greens and Fireballs of red, and Norwegian Ridgebacks in my head”, which comes from line about green and red in the Girl Scout song “Barges”. “Pretty Good at Quidditch” began with knowing I wanted to keep most of “Pretty” by Ingrid Michaelson. A song I’ve been working on a while started with choosing to keep the line “Today I am your champion” (and change almost everything else).

With my original songs, I come up with the melody and the lyrics at the same time. I spend a lot of time on these double-checking that I didn’t accidentally use the same melody as something else. “Ravenclaw Quidditch Team” just came to me all in one day as I was musing about distinctly Ravenclaw things that aren’t academics, and I’m pleased that it happened, but I’m still not convinced I didn’t rip off a Beach Boys song.

Paul: I feel like we’ve all ripped off the Beach Boys at some point in our careers, so you are likely all good! What about recording? It’s always so different, depending on the artist. How do you approach it?

Zoe?: I often start with the main vocal melody, since that’s what I’m most comfortable with. Sometimes that’s the entire song. A couple times when trying to imitate a specific existing song, I’ve started with the percussion part. I use a Samson Meteor microphone and PreSonus Studio One recording software which I got through the Yes All Witches grant. I’m still learning how to get the most out of my tools, but I’m enjoying the process, and I’m already much happier with how my songs sound. I started by just recording a single track on my phone and then removing the gaps and particularly noisy bits. Having a nicer microphone makes a big difference to the overall sound, as do more advanced editing capabilities, plus I’m enjoying the ability to play with multiple tracks.

Paul: What is your favorite part about the fandom?

Zoe?: I absolutely love how supportive the wizard rock community is. You can come in with nothing but enthusiasm and a good heart, and you’ll find a warm welcome because those qualities are what matter most here. I’m still fairly new to wrock, but I already feel like I’m part of the community.

Paul: And now the final question—an oldie, but a goodie—You are in Defense Against the Darks Arts class and, after months of practice, you are capable of conjuring a patronus. What form does yours take?

Zoe?: I’m a huge bat fan! I’ve had an intense interest in bats since I was six years old, and I could talk about them for hours. I’ve dressed up as a bat for Halloween more than once, thrown bat parties, and even written a song about bats.

Paul: I love bats, too! Do you have a favorite species? And—most importantly—have you written any bat-themed wizard rock?

Zoe?: Yes and yes! My favorites include vampire bats and pallid bats. Vampire bats are sweethearts—they make friends, feed their friends who can’t find their own food, and adopt orphans. Pallid bats, meanwhile, are super tough. They eat scorpions and look like Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. And for anyone who’s not a bat fan, I recommend looking up Honduran white bats: fluffy cotton balls who build tents!

[Editor’s note: I’m partial to the Northern Ghost Bat: they look like fluffy old grumpy cotton balls!]

Zoe?: I wrote a song about the bats which famously appear on Halloween in the Great Hall, which is also my first original (non-parody) song. I made sure to do my research, too—I did my best to be accurate to the type of bats most likely to live near Hogwarts and their habits.

Paul: Beautiful! Pipistrelles could always use more love!

You can check out more of Zoe’s work on her YouTube channel, here. Wrock on!