Loading ...Harry and the Potters
Members: Paul DeGeorge, Joe DeGeorge
Established: Summer 2002
Location: Massachusetts
Genre: Indie/Punk/Progressive
Harry and the Potters, the grandfathers of eyeball melting wizard rock began the wizard rock phenomenon in the summer of 2002. Although JK Rowling coined the term to describe the popular rock band, the Wyrd Sisters, in the Harry Potter series, Paul and Joe DeGeorge brought wizard rock to the muggle world. Their website recounts the events leading up to their creation like this:
Joe was planning to have a rock show in the shed in the backyard. People had been invited. But then all the bands cancelled. So that morning, the time was finally appropriate to bust out an idea that had been incubating in Paul’s head for some time: Harry and the Potters. That morning, over the course of an hour, Paul and Joe wrote 7 songs. Then, they went out to the shed and practiced them for half an hour. And then, later in the day, they performed them for about 6 people. It was awesome. The place went nuts.
Both members of the duo perform as the character of Harry Potter. The younger brother, Joe, portrays Harry in his fourth year while Paul takes on the persona of Harry year seven. This is possible, they explain, due to time travel. Neither brother has ever broken character on stage, which is a fact that they are both quite proud of. Ernie Kim of Tristan da Cunha plays drums on their albums and sometimes during concerts, such as the much talked about Yule Ball.
The DeGeorges are also musically creative in other ways. Joe has a few additional music projects you can explore online (Ed in the Refrigerators, Seph, and the Semi-Conductors), as does Paul (the Secrets). Paul is also in charge of their record label, Eskimo Labs, who represents the acts just mentioned as well as Tristan da Cunha and Alexander McGregor (of Ponies in the Surf).
Publications like the Boston Phoenix, Boston Globe, Pitchfork, and MTV have written about the band favorably and frequently. They have also given video interviews for the online news websites CNN and Reuters, as well as Pottercast, the official podcast of the Leaky Cauldron.
Their Summer Reading & Rocking Tour 2006 just concluded. They appeared in libraries across the United States accompanied by friends Draco and the Malfoys. Tour diaries from this and previous tours can be found by visiting their website. Of note are the video diaries taken during their Potterface Tour with Uncle Monsterface, which have been featured on the website of the Boston Phoenix.
Harry and the Potters have three full-length albums (Harry and the Potters, Voldemort Canít Stop the Rock, and The Power of Love). They also released a Christmas compilation with friends in the winter of 2005 and a 7″ record called Scarred for Life.
written by Liz