Feltbeats was fortunate to get an interview with Brian and Brad Ross, the brothers who are the core of the band “Draco and the Malfoys.” As one of the bands in the popular Wizard Wrock phenomenon, they told us about their inspiration for starting a Wizard Wrock band, how Draco and Tom Felton’s portayal of Draco has inspired them, and some fun ideas for the future of their music.
Since Feltbeats has its roots in being a music-oriented site, talking with DATM seemed like a perfect fit. Brian and Brad truly enjoy their Slytherin slant on music, and were recently voted 61st best band to follow on twitter. After chatting with them, we can completely understand why they are, by their own admission, totally awesome.
Thanks so much to Brian and Brad for their time. We had a great time talking to them. You can check out more on the band at their website http://evilwizardrock.com or follow them on twitter @datm.
Transcript of the interview:
Me: How is it that you started a Wizard Wrock band, and of all the HP (Harry Potter) characters, how did you settle on the character of Draco as a theme?
Brian: Go ahead, Brad. You can start.
Brad: Ok well basically the story is that “Harry and the Potters” were pretty much arguably the only band doing the Harry Potter music and they were playing our friend’s house party show, which was Matt from the Whomping Willows. And they played once and we loved them and we became friends and they played with our band. And they were going to play another house party show and we decided to play a trick on them, and do the same thing they were doing except write songs from the nemesis’ perspective
Brian: Nemesi (?)
Brad: And make fun of them.
Brian: Nemeses ?
Brad: Nemeses, yes. …and make fun of them. Just like, for our friends, and it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time. And then they kept asking us to play shows with them, and we put a “myspace” up and then other people started listening to it and, so, we kept doing it.
Brian: Exactly. We thought it was going to be a one time thing. We thought it was this one joke we were going to play on Paul and Joe, Harry and the Potter.
Brad: And if we played another one, it was going to be at Matt’s house party again. You know?
Brian: Yeah.
Brad: So it was a thing to make our friends laugh.
Brian: Yeah, so we wrote like a handful of songs that just totally blasted Harry and Ron.
Brad: I think another reason we probably picked Draco too is that Brian and I are like big wrestling fans and wrestling, at least before, it was divided into good guys and bad guys, and the bad guys were always the most fun and always our favorites. So it seemed like the bad guys were always having way more fun acting like jerks.
Brian: Yeah, and I would say that goes for a lot of different things too. I definitely rooted for Darth Vader against the rebels.
Brad: ok
Me: I think Tom has said that in interviews too, that he loves playing the bad guy.
Brian: He does it beautifully.
Me: *laughs nervously* I think for people who are just casual fans of your group, the most well-know song you’ve got is called “Tom Felton is kind of Hot.” Can you fill us in on your inspiration for that song?
Brian: Yeah, I can see how from the perspective of somebody who is a big Tom Felton fan how that song would have come across to them first. It’s probably at least in our top five most popular songs, if you’re just casually finding out about us. Basically this is one of the, this is among the first songs that we wrote and it’s… What I was doing at the time was I was sort of trying to find fan fiction about Draco and different people’s thoughts about Draco and kind of getting a feel of some different perspectives on the character. And in doing my search on Draco, I just kept seeing Tom Felton, Tom Felton, Tom Felton all over the place and I’m like “what in the hell?” so I’m like “Man, people are really into Tom Felton. I’ve got to write a song about how people are so into Tom Felton”.
Brad: The weird thing is, Brian, is that is that I think you wrote that when Tom Felton was still like eleven.
Me/Java: * literally ROTFL *
Brian: He might have been…
Brad: No, no, no… it was well into the series. *laughing* It was 2006. 2005, 2006 so…
Javastix: So you wrote it was when he was 17, 18…
Brian: I’m pretty sure that Prisoner of Azkaban had come out, at least, at that point.
Brad: Yeah. The crushes were well established.
Me: Oh yeah.
Brian: So, because we write all of our songs from Draco’s perspective, the only way to write about Tom Felton is from Draco’s perspective for us.
Brad: Oh!
Brian: So, basically, the song is just about how Draco is pleased that Tom Felton got chosen to play him, is what it comes down to. And Draco Malfoy is the one who thinks Tom Felton is kinda hot.
(please note that Javastix and I were literally rolling on the floor laughing, with our hands over our mouths, so as not to interrupt. )
Brian: I know he’s totally hot, you know. I wouldn’t have qualified it, myself.
Brad: I like his music a lot.
Me: Java just wrote on my pad, she said, “So, if you’ve read fanfic, what is your favorite Draco fanfic?”
Brian: Well, you know that was before I knew that so much fanfic was, ummm, was not suitable for our records and playing songs in libraries. That’s when I discovered it basically. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t going to come up with any material based on fanfic.
Me: How do you feel about this song now that it’s been around, I mean, after it’s been out for a few years now?
Brian: I don’t know. It always gets a great response. People who know it still love to hear it, people who don’t know it die laughing when it gets to the punchline. I like the song because it’s short and sweet. When we play live, we bring our drums and bass on a CD that we play along to and that’s one of the very few songs that we don’t use the basking track for, so that song is a great song to pull out when we have like technical difficulties going on.
Brad: Absolutely
Brian: Brad can run and fix something while I play that song and it’s probably just in time. That song’s really come in handy.
Brad: When I accidentally knock the CD player over or some such.
Brian: Or our bouncing up and down knocks the CD player over.
Me: You obviously are the Draco experts, pretty much, so our fearless leader Misha would like to know if you have a favorite Draco moment throughout the books and if you have any opinion of what you think Draco might turn out to be later in life?
Brad: Hmmm… favorite Draco moment,
Brian: Yeah. I’m not going to pin it down to one moment but when he couldn’t kill Albus Dumbledore. I wrote a whole song about that moment. That is a great moment, cuz you know for me, I always knew Draco was a deep character but until that moment but until that point you could argue that he was pretty shallow if you just read, you know, if someone just read through the book once you might not pick that up. But as soon as that happens, you realize that there’s something deeper going on and that he has the potential to be a hero. So that’s a big moment for Draco.
Brad: Yeah I think for me it’s similar just with the cracks of the humanness showing through. His kind of realization that the world isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Uhh, crying with Myrtle and just realizing that he was kind of in over his head and maybe kind of get the feeling that everything that he was taught, kind of realizing that it might not be true. Like that kind of moment that a lot of kids have when they realize that grownups can be just as misguided and stupid as kids and clueless and it’s time to think for yourself.
Brian: His whole world is falling apart right there. His bond with his parents especially, well I won’t say especially his father, but his mother. His bond with his family is one of his most strongest most redeeming character qualities. For him to to see that his father… that he might not agree with his father about almost everything all of a sudden. Everything is coming crashing down for Draco. He’s got a lot of conflict going on there.
Me: Yeah Tom did a brilliant portrayal of that scene in the movie. I think that had to be one of the most powerful scenes in any of the Harry Potter movies.
Brad: Yeah. He nailed it.
Brian: And when he kicked him (Harry) in the face…that’s an awesome part.
Me: It’s almost a shame that scene was as short as it was.
Brad: (laughs) Slow mo.
Me: Our next question comes from Aerynblack who wants to know how your overall for inspiration for new songs has changed over the years and since your earlier songs were mostly about the younger Draco do they change as the character seems to develop and what do you have for future song ideas?
Brian: that’s a good question
Brad: I didn’t really hear… like the inspiration how it’s changed over the years?
Brian: yeah
Brad: ok. I think definitely when we started we were just going straight for the anecdotes, like “What does Draco do? he kicks Harry in the face – let’s write a song about that.”
Brian: (laughs)
Brad: You know like picking moments and just writing songs about those moments and then we kind of ran out of them. And then, I think definitely more… it’s been really satisfying taking the more overarching aspects of his character and relating them to our lives and kind of writing.
Brian: Instead of just writing songs about what he does we started writing songs about we imagined that he’s feeling?
I think that our last album was filled with stuff that really… a couple of songs might mention wands or brooms but overall, if you know the stories like “oh yeah this is from Draco’s perspective” It’s more just kind of a song.
Brian: … for me the topic … over the course of this experience, I have become such a die-hard Slytherin that every time I go to write a song I it hard not to write a song about how awesome Slytherin is.
Brad: yeah
Brian: That is going to be a theme for our songs for a long time to come because I just cant say enough about it.
Brad: Yeah. I definitely think that another big influence on us is like 80’s hair metal. Brian, do you concur? And a lot of the 80’s hair metal is like how much we rock is kind of the sentiment? And how awesome we are? And that translates so well to writing songs about Slytherin pride.
Brian: From Draco’s perspective too because he’s like one cocky kid.
Brad: Yeah. I think a lot of those Slytherin songs you wrote are just like awesome Poison songs
Brian: Right.
Me: Well that kind of led into my next question which was how this has influenced your musical perspective over the years and it looks like it has. Do you see it carrying over into your other musical interests, because I know Brian was talking about doing Bluegrass.
Brad: Oh yeah.
Brian: I play upright bass in a Bluegrass band with my Dad. Um… good music is good music and I just love to play. So it doesn’t really matter to me. The style I have and styles that I’m better at… I never imagined that I’d be playing Bluegrass. But good to go, I’m happy to fill in and all of a sudden I’m in a Bluegrass band. You never know, so… We have to release something.
Brad: I was going to say, the big thing is that I’ve been enjoying playing banjo so much. When it came time to write another Draco thing, I was like, we were like…oh we gotta put a banjo in it. It’d make a whole lot of sense and it’s really fun music
Brian: Yep
Brad: … and also we like throwing curve balls.
Brian: And to freshen things up for ourselves as much as anybody. There’s only so much you can say from Draco’s perspective. You know, he’s not in the trio. It’s not like he’s getting a whole lot of screen time. So last year, we wrote an album called an Anthology of Slytherin Folk Music and we were able to separate ourselves from Draco just a little bit and write songs. Although, it was technically compiled by Draco. He compiled it from songs that had existed beforehand. They were folk songs that were handed down, passed down from Slytherin families.
Brad: We took some, ahh, yeah we took some traditional folk songs like either old Appalacian fiddle tunes and just wrote Slytherin words to it. Or, I took “This Land is Your Land” and Slytherin-ized it to “This Land is My Land.” I don’t know. It all falls together eventually.
Brian: We’re probably going to release it. We’ll probably do a Volume 2 at some point.
Brad: Oh absolutely.
Me: So while we are on the topic of music, have you had the chance to listen to any of Tom Felton’s music and if so, what do you think?
Brad: I loved it! It really reminds me of Graham Coxon, the guitarist from Blur. His solo stuff… it’s very, it’s just like great British rock stuff. I love it. Really well-written. Yeah, I liked it a lot.
Me: When I first met Brian, we were at the Harry Potter Exhibition and I had been talking with him about trying to encourage Tom to maybe do a charity event at something like LeakyCon and I remember having a conversation with MJ from Leaky and she actually suggested “Oh talk to Brian Ross. They’re great musicians I bet they would like to be a backup band for him.” And so, I mentioned this to Brian and he jumped right in, so what do you think.
Brad: Yeah, I play drums too so I play a bunch of instruments so I’m up for it absolutely.
Brian: Yeah we can pretty much play anything.
Me: And I think it was suggested by somebody that as he came out on stage that you could be playing “Tom Felton is kinda Hot?”
Brian: That would be my dream. That we’re racking up that song and he walks out on stage and looks at us like “c’mon guys, aren’t you a little old for this or something?” You know, he doesn’t have to say anything, but just has that look on his face, grab his guitar and you know.. the people like us who go to all these Harry Potter conferences would feel so much appreciation if Tom Felton showed up at one of them.
Brad: Yeah
Brian: It would make the conference completely and it would just be an amazing thing for him to walk out on stage.
Brad: There’s a whole lot of love at those things.
Brian: Yeah there is
Brad: It would be a feel-good moment.
Me: Oh yeah. So, anyway, that’s our shout out to Tom. We’ll just keep asking, maybe eventually he’ll get over his stage fright.
Brian: Well, you know Leaky, that doesn’t happen until 2011 so that gives him more time to get comfortable with it, with the idea of performing live.
Brad: Yeah.
Me: Now, a little bee told me that you guys actually had the chance to talk to Tom. I don’t know if it was one or both of you that spoke with him when was that, and can you tell us a little more about what you all talked about?
Brian: There really isn’t a whole lot to tell. I spoke with him… probably .. It was last year at some point.. Honestly I don’t remember when it was but he was in Orlando and he was with our friend Erin who has a Wizard Wrock band called “House of Black” and she has sort of been the…
Brad: .. the fan liason?
Brian: Yes, well she’s been sort of the spirit behind the really great group of Harry Potter fans in Orlando. She’s just wonderful and she got to meet Tom. She’s been working with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter down there and I think that’s how she met him and she made the effort, made a point of having him call me. It was really nice of her. We didn’t say a lot. He just said, basically, “cheers to you guys for supporting the character Draco” or whatever. That was pretty much it. It was nice. It was a nice little moment. He didn’t yell at me about the song.
Me: He’d actually mentioned to Misha that he’d spoken with you, so apparently it was a big moment for him.
Brian: Oh cool!
Me: I do have one last question, and that’s from Tina, who wants to know if you guys are going to do another tour in the UK, is there any plan for that? and I did want to talk a bit about your upcoming tour schedule..
Brian: I uh, have never actually been to the UK. Brad has. Brad’s played with Harry and the Potters there.
Brad: Yeah, I just played drums with the Potters there. We haven’t done anything as Draco quite yet.
Brian: There’s actually no specific plans on the horizon to do that. It’d be nice if it would happen but I’m not holding my breath for the opportunity, but maybe it’ll present itself at some point. I know that umm since RiddleTM … Riddle TM is a Wizard Wrock band from the UK and they, along with Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, and there are many others, but the two of them in particular have really invigorated a movement there and they get more and more support. And there was Alex and the Remus Lupins that went through Scotland this winter while we having the Yule Ball here and he did a big Ball there so maybe that opportunity will be there for us in the future but as of now there’s nothing specific there.
Brad: I’ve actually taken a break from actually touring. Brian’s been taking up the slack for me. But, we’re definitely going to be recording and releasing more stuff and we’ll be on the road eventually.
Brian: Yeah, I’m going to be touring this April with the Whomping Willows, probably about 8 or 10 dates throughout the United States, everywhere from Massachusetts down to Oklahoma and Kentucky, so hopefully people get a chance see us at some point in April. Other than that we don’t really have… oh well WrockStock is booked on our tour too, which is in November.
Brad: Oh and we’ll be at LeakyCon too.
Brian: LeakyCon has not confirmed us and they haven’t announced anything but it’s very, very likely. We’re pretty much sure we’re going to play it.
Brad: We go on the record and say that we’d like to.
Brian: I’ll be very surprised if we’re not playing at LeakyCon.
Me: So, if fans want to follow you your twitter is ..
Brian/Brad: @datm
Me: and you have a website also?
Brian/Brad: Yep it’s evilwizardrock.com Yes, rock with an “R”. Harry Potter people tend to spell wrock with a “W”.
Brian: and all the April dates are up there too on the website.
Me: Is there anything else that you’d like to add that you don’t think I covered? Give you guys one last chance to…
Brad: Well we didn’t talk a whole lot about how freaking awesome we are. I just want to point out that we are definitely awesome.
Me/Java: Oh definitely!
Brad: So, if anybody’s wondering…
Brad: …and anyone that’s like supported us and everything. Thanks for having fun with us. We love you!
