This is an interview with a man who really needs no introduction. Lead guitarist for The Order Of The Phoenix, he later went solo, while continuing to do the occasional Phoenix project. It was thought that he would go on to be bigger even than the Beatles or Elvis, especially after he shut down Gellert Grindelwald in a guitar duel at the Isle of Wight festival.
Instead, he devoted himself more and more to the business side of the music industry. His own records have shown remarkable growth for an artist over the years, as he preferred to follow his own muse over the winds of popular acclaim. Even so, his legacy is more firmly rooted in the young artists he’s nurtured over the years.
Known now as “The Professor,” he is the Chief Executive Officer of Hogwart’s Group, one of the oldest music companies in Great Britain. Covering the recording industry, music publishing, management, and even an advanced music academy, it is believed that Albus Dumbledore has had at least as much influence over the music we hear today as he might have following the star of his own popularity. It was a rare privilege to sit with this great artist for a private interview.
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RC: Thank you for the gracious invitation to speak with you today, Professor.
AD: The pleasure is all mine, I assure you.
RC: It’s not many artists who can boast the recent release of their seventh Greatest Hits album.
AD: Strictly a business decision, I assure you. There’s not a great deal of recent material on it that actually made an impact on the charts, but the release puts a little life into the old catalogue. (Laughs) Not that I need the money any more, but one likes to create the illusion of being relevant.
RC: I think your relevance is pretty firmly established, if I may say so. Far beyond your sales figures, and they are impressive.
AD: Thank you for saying so.
RC: There are those who would say, beyond your artistic accomplishments, you are quite simply one of the most powerful men in the music industry.
AD: Oh, do they now? And just what does that mean?
RC: (After a significant pause) Well, simply that . . . you have a great deal of influence in the world of music.
AD: And where might that world be? Hmm?
RC: I’m not sure I . . .
AD: Quickly, what’s the biggest hit you can think of?
RC: Biggest hit? Song? Oh, probably . . . Stairway to Heaven, or Hey Jude . . .
AD: Let’s say Stairway to Heaven. A classic, to be sure. Hardly anyone between the ages of sixty and ten would fail to recognize it. In a hundred years if you were to dredge up the name ‘Led Zeppelin’ that song will surely spring to mind. I understand it is the most broadcast song in history. And yet, to someone driving down the road listening to it on their car radio it’s seven minutes of their commute; nothing more. It was preceded by another song, and followed by yet another. If Stairway To Heaven had never been written, the DJ could substitute Hey Jude, or anything else.
RC: I suppose so . . .
AD: So what kind of power is there, really, within what you consider the ‘world of music?’
RC: Well, you know . . . the power to increase wealth, to grant fame, establish a legacy –
AD: But all relating to a luxury item, essentially. Popular music is the sort of thing that gives one power on the scale relative to the amount of money you earn from it. When I was young, we were trying to achieve real power.
RC: What do you mean, real power? You mean, use your fame as a platform to, say, run for public office?
AD: (laughs) My dear boy, a pop star already has more power than a Prime Minister or a President. A politician’s powers are clearly delineated, and he owes his very soul to outside interests who exercise their power behind the scenes. But even somebody like, for instance, Hannah Montana can affect the very way people think. Now, that’s power. And we were looking even beyond that.
RC: I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I’m following you.
AD: All right . . . here’s an example. How many cycles per second is the A below middle C?
RC: 440, I believe.
AD: That is correct. And an octave above?
RC: 880?
AD: Correct again. And an octave below is 220, and below that is 110, and so forth. To get an A that is one hundred and ten cycles per second, you’d have to take the bottom string on a five-string bass and tune it down a whole step. An octave below that would be 55 cycles per second, and on and on. Now, can you tell me what note the planet Earth is playing?
RC: . . . er . . . planet Earth?
AD: In order to know that, you have to know how many seconds in a year. And not just break 365 days down to hours, minutes, and seconds. It might be in some scientific journal somewhere, and I’m sure there’s a little flexibility of a few seconds every year, but it would be possible at that point to halve it, and then again, and finally get a note within the hearable range that would be a relative octave with the note the Earth is playing. Or Mars, or Saturn, or Mercury.
Now, to a student of astrology, this could potentially have more of an impact than the chart position of a song. If you wanted to influence destiny, of a person or the planet or any other subject of a song, you would write the song in Saturn’s key, because Saturn is supposed to be the planet of destiny.
RC: I’m beginning to see.
AD: That’s not the only example of the potential power of music, either. There were musicians who were trying to reproduce the state of mind attained through transcendental meditation, or psychotropic drugs, and for the listener as well as the performer. We were all reading about how the pyramids must have been made by telekinetic energy, and we were even trying to tap into that. Through the intelligent use of music, anything seemed possible. There are still those who strive in these directions, I’ve no doubt.
RC: So why did you stop? Or did you?
AD: I did, and the reason is simply this; power corrupts. I found that out the hard way, unfortunately, during my ill-conceived partnership with Gellert Grindelwald.
RC: I’ve seen the articles about that. It created quite a stir when that information became public.
AD: He was attempting no less than mass hypnosis, and in experimentation I was quite frankly shocked by the direction things began to go. We had half an album in the can, and I don’t mind telling you that I burned the tapes as soon as Gellert left. I am happy to report that no bootlegs of those sessions survived. He carried on alone, which is why I stood against him at the Isle of Wight.
RC: I hate to say it, but . . . I can actually see some benefits to such things. You know, if the right people use the methods you were exploring . . .
AD: Congratulations. That’s the same kind of thinking that gave us rock stars like Adolph Hitler and Mao Tse-Tung. It’s tempting to take power and put it in the, quote-unquote, right hands. Trust the word of someone who’s held power in his hands; it’s dirty. You can’t use it to make things clean. Believe it or not, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, and their ilk honestly believed that they had the best intentions when they set out to do the things they did. The people we should fear the most are the ones who believe they are on a mission from God, and are seeking to power to BE a god.
RC: But isn’t it worth the risk, in order to –
AD: Every child knows that there are powerful people in the world who are abusing their power. The people who populate our daily newscasts don’t even have the tenth share of the real power, and everybody knows that, too. The answer is not to replace one form of bondage with another. The answer is to give people the power to free themselves.
(At this point, I leaned back in my chair and quickly skimmed over my notes. I suppose I had a look of concern as I turned my attention back to the old Professor.)
RC: Excuse me, but . . .
AD: Is there something wrong, dear boy?
RC: I’m sorry to say it’s . . . beginning to sound like an advertisement for impotence.
(Dumbledore blinked rapidly and smiled.)
AD: I beg your pardon?
RC: It sounds like you’re saying that power is bad, so don’t have any. Enjoy being nothing.
AD: (laughs) Nothing so Zen as that, I assure you. First of all, it would be terribly hypocritical of me to take that attitude, don’t you think? The one with all this power in the world of music? By all means, go ahead and do whatever it is that you do, and accept the benefits gained.
But then, what will you do? Will you grasp what you’ve gained, or will you open your hand? Will you keep these blessings for yourself, or will you choose to be a blessing to others? That was the biggest disagreement that I had with Gellert Grindelwald. He did not trust his fellow man.
In a way, I could see his point. Unlike many others, I believe humanity is a fallen race. And yet, if we’re going to change the world, these are the people we have to deal with to do it. A perfect world will have to be populated by perfect people. Unfortunately, there’s only one person whose life I have any real lasting control over; my own.
Grindelwald had ideals, but he thought the thing to do was make everyone else adhere to them. He couldn’t even adhere to them himself. He never realized that people behaving correctly requires that they trust one another. Unless you make mindless robots of them, of course. But if people are to have free will – and they most certainly do – then we simply have to trust each other.
RC: But didn’t you just say that you believe humanity to be a fallen race? How can we truly trust each other?
AD: We bite our tongue and do it anyway. Not stupidly believing everything that everyone says, of course, but as a means of bringing out . . . what was it one of your Presidents once said? The better angels of our nature?
RC: Abraham Lincoln.
AD: Indeed. The Bible says that we should keep our minds on that which is excellent, praiseworthy, beautiful, and so forth. How can we do that at the same time as we’re finding fault with everyone? Finding bad things to think about is ridiculously easy. My job, as an artist and a teacher and promoter of artists, is to fill the world with so much good that the bad gets crowded out. It’s easy, and even profitable, to shock people. I find it much more fulfilling to inspire them.
