Hello, dear listener! It’s been a bit since we published a “traditional episode” of this audio podcast, and we want you to know that we’re still here and we’re still at it!

This episode is a quick “hello” and a little retrospective of what has gone on in our world since the last episode was published.

Welcome to See You on the Other Mike, where the world of

the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.

A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality,

the weird, and self discovery. And

now, your hosts, musicians and entertainers

who have their own weakness for the weird, Mike and

Wendy from the band Sunspot. I missed talking to

you, Wendy. Aw. I missed talking to you too, Mike,

even though we still talk to each other every day. Right. But I also miss

talking to everybody out there, who

has been faithfully waiting for the latest Sea of the Other Side

podcast since the last time we put up a new episode

proper was February of 2020. Oh

my goodness. And if you still are subscribed to our feed,

thank you. And thank you for for being so patient and waiting

it out because we're back. Yes. It has

been a while. We kinda wanted to catch up with, what we've been doing,

for the past year and a half. We haven't just been resting on our

obviously well earned laurels. I know. It's funny

because, you know, it's 2021 well, the end of 2021, and it it's almost

like like something happened last year or I don't

know. Yeah. And we're doing our best to forget whatever

happened last year. But just because we were at

home for a lot of it doesn't mean, that we just sat around.

So it's been a while since we actually did an audio podcast,

but we wanted to keep busy with a whole bunch of other stuff,

going on. And so Yeah. We did pivot a bit during

the right. The what was it? The great pause?

Yeah. The great reset. Yeah. The great reset. That's right. But, Mike, just in

case somebody new might have just happened upon this episode.

Yeah. We should probably introduce ourselves quickly. Okay. A little reintroduction

maybe? Yes. So I'm Mike, and I am the singer and the bass

player and, an acoustic guitar performer in a band called

Sunspot, and we like to sing about weird

and interesting and paranormal themes. And, also, I have

a company called American Ghost Walks where we explore

those paranormal themes in different locations in 6 different

states. And so it kind of combines those 2 things I

love, haunted history or weird stories and paranormal, and rock

and roll music. And so See Another Side is the way that we

can delve into those topics as well

as get some inspiration for our music.

Yeah. And I'm Wendy. I'm also in the band,

Sunspot. And I guess I'm along for the adventure.

But yeah. In in addition to the paranormal discussions that we have

here, we we use those discussions. We get inspired by them, and

we channel that inspiration into music and

songwriting. So the band has a lot of songs that have grown out of

discussions we've had here and experiences we've had throughout the

travel that we've done, travel that we've just done with the band that happened to

have paranormal encounters, all that kind of fun stuff. So here

at CU on the other side is where we take that all. We package it

up into a nice bundle, and we put a bow on it, and we

put the to your listener's name on the tag, and that's you. That's

you. That's right. So this is that's right. It's a Christian present.

And so right. And so if you guys wanna check out episode 0, we

have, 200 some episodes. We have

episode 294 is where we kinda took a break on the See Another Side

podcast feed. And so, yeah, you know, there's 295

different episodes to listen to if you you're interested in learning more about our

adventures from 2014, to early 2020.

Yeah. And so early 2020, we were getting all

excited about going to, South by Southwest for the,

like, 15th year in a row we would have gone. And then all

of a sudden, South by Southwest was canceled.

Yeah. And it was well, we were scheduled actually to leave on

Friday 13th of March. Perfect. Perfect. So that

was exciting for us because, you know, what better day to kick off a tour

than Friday 13th? And we were you know, as

usual, we'll have, like, the main event, which is our performance

during the South by Southwest Festival, and then we'll schedule our tour and

plan events around that. So, you know, we we had been booking

shows and stops on the way down there to explore things, and

we were pretty pretty pumped about it and really looking forward to it because this

year, we had a special event that we were working on with,

another podcast, the night owl podcast. The night owl. Yeah.

Based out of Austin. So we were gonna do a whole

paranormal like, we were gonna have the paranormal corner of South by

Southwest. Right. We we're gonna do the whole thing for it, and then

to have that blow up sucked because we've put a lot of time into it.

Yeah. And it would have been it would have been really exciting to get to

meet more people from the paranormal world down there during that time when we're

there to perform music and do other things. But when we found out that South

by Southwest was canceled, you know, we had to decide what do we do because,

you know, everything when everything went down, Mike, remember that? Yeah.

Like, nobody knew what was going on. People were being told to not come to

work, to not go out in public, to, like, sanitize your groceries after

you picked them up from the store. Everything everything was weird and different.

And, after the festival canceled, I just wanna

say that there were a lot of people in Austin that were still trying to

accommodate us, you know, with Oh, yeah. Knowing that we had a plan to

go down there. And I just wanna thank the people that tried to, you know,

they they were still Mike, hey. If you guys wanna play, you're still planning on

coming down, we'll have you and stuff. So, obviously, that did not end up

happening, but it was cool that people were, you know, so

flexible and trying hard for us. So we'll we'll have to make that paranormal

thing happen, though. Yes. In a future one. We will we will sometime at a

future. We'll have a a big Austin party, sometime in the future. But, you

know, the thing is it's Mike it's funny when you go back and remember what

it was like because we even had a coronavirus episode, like, you know, in

January. That's right. And we're like, don't worry about it.

Yeah. I mean, we were just following, like, whatever the Yeah. World Health

Organization was spewing. Right. Until we found out the World Health

Organization was in. I Mike all the things that we said at the time. Like,

I I take it back that podcast needs to be redacted. But the

thing is, like, that's kinda what this has been like. It's it's a

brand new thing that nobody fully understands, and we're

just learning as we go. And it's like we've been through it, and we know

a lot more now than 2 years ago, obviously. But,

who knows what we don't know that we still have yet to learn. So

Right. But we're learning as it comes. You know? You find out the whole you

know, as things we're like, no. It wasn't made by the umbrella corporation,

blah blah blah. The whole thing, it's, yes, it's just a it's

it's just a coincidence that the, you know, the

Wuhan Institute of Virology, like, it's not the whole thing. It's it's really it's not

gonna turn out to be Resident Evil. And guess what? It turned out to be

Resident Evil. And here we are, though, At least the

zombies haven't showed up yet. Yet. And that's what's coming that's what's

coming out of the way. In case they do. We're

fortified because we all built our little quarantine cabins,

like, during the lockdown. So right? Yeah. You've got your

zombie stick, don't you, Mike? I got oh, I got a bunch of zombie stuff,

plus I have enough toilet paper to last me until the next president. Oh,

you hoarded. Ah, please. I was

we, we get Amazon subscribe and save or whatever. So don't

blame me if Jeff Bezos sent me your toilet paper.

No. But I did. There were some there were some very dangerously dire

straits at the beginning of the pandemic when the shelves were cleared and, like

Yeah. I had to use I had to use books I didn't like. I'd be

like, okay. Which book do I never care if I read again or if it,

like, I disagreed with the author philosophically? I'm like, no.

I know what to do with them. Oh, man. Those pages are scratchy, though.

But definitely not 2 ply. So, yeah.

I mean and so since we didn't know what was gonna happen, you know, like,

we the school was canceled. We're all stuck at home. They told us not to

leave the whole thing. So we decided that we would

pivot to video and,

you know, we'd not didn't just, and how we

would operate if even though we were only a few miles away from each other,

how we're gonna continue to create even if we couldn't all be in the same

room. Right. And that includes our other bandmate, Ben,

who's, our primary guitar player in the band. So we

had to you know, Sunspot, we've been rehearsing

weekly for pretty much, well, our entire career.

Right. And so all of a sudden it was like, oh, we can't we're not

supposed to, you know, it's dangerous to go out there. So

instead of having that weekly time where we jam together and, you know,

practice our songs, it was like, okay, what are we gonna do? We have to

keep the the the creative flow going here. Yep.

Well, and we did and we did that in a couple ways. Number 1, we

didn't wanna keep we didn't wanna lose, what we had going on with the

podcast, and we didn't wanna lose what we had going on with

music. So then we just started putting on Thursday nights. We would have our

Thursday Thursdays where we get together, and we would had to make we would make

at least one video the week before, a performance of us playing a song

live, all of us individually from home, put it together into a

video format, and then play it out for everybody. And then we

would play that during a livestream and interact with people back and forth. And I

most of the time, I just drank too much whiskey, and, you know, talked to

people on Facebook. But, yeah, those are the there are videos

of some of them were, like, songs that we already had, and we just made

a different arrangement of it. Or, then we, of course, wrote

a bunch of new songs as well. But it was really I gotta say that's

some of the weirdest, like,

collaborative effort that we've done because

just, you know, everybody creating their own parts separately. And it's

Mike, we're sort of playing together because we're in each other's headphones. But

I don't know, Mike. How did you find that experience? Like, just performing

for the camera alone. I thought it was stupid.

Just well, that's I mean, the purpose, I mean, the

purpose of, I think, rock and roll music is you play it together. It's it's

it's different than electronic music, which electronic music never

exists as a sound wave made

from something. You know? It's Mike it's digital, and then all of a sudden it

comes out of when it when it comes out of the computer or, you know,

it comes out, then it exists as a sound. But it exists it's it's

fully in the computer, like, start to finish is what you're saying.

Right. So it doesn't it doesn't exist, like, in the air.

Like a string playing. Yeah. The like, the music that we play

normally exists in the air. So you hear a drum like, when you hear the

snare drum hit, you hear it because Wendy's hitting something in real life. I hit

a guitar string. Yes. It's gotta come through an amplifier,

but it's not it's still the sound is created on the

guitar, and then it might be changed as it as it comes through and then

comes to the air into your ear. And that's how we used to even when

we were in the studio, Wendy and I play together to make sure that we

match up with the rhythm and things like that. And so even when we're in

a big studio and creating something, we're still playing together. And that's kind

of what we lost, when you're doing something piece by

piece. It's fun, and you can make it perfect, and you can do all those

kind of things because you can play with it. And we did have a great

time and worked really hard making those videos. But,

the why I joked around it was stupid, it just it it the

essence of the kind of music that we play is meant to be

we're all together in a room. It's coming at you, and that's the

most fun way to, you know, enjoy it. Yeah.

That's a purist form. Right. It it's Mike

I don't know. It's like the good difference between good coffee and and and mediocre

coffee. I mean, probably is the best way to describe it. Good coffee is when

we're in the room together playing, and mediocre coffee is when we're doing it through

headphones. Well, I agree. It's not even close to the same thing. So, you know,

when we were doing it, it was like we had to I personally

took the philosophy of just trying to create something fun for people

because when we shared them at the Thirsty Thursdays, people really seem to

enjoy them, and we had a nice positive feedback. So I just thought, like,

okay. It it lacks the energy and the fun of being

obviously on stage with my bandmates, with an

crowd that's, you know, feeding energy to us and vice

versa. But instead, it's, okay. We're creating something

very unique and, it'll one of a kind

one of a kind weird performances. That's all I can say. It's just weird.

So it was it was a learning experience. Yes.

And and, you know, and you guys can check all those out on our YouTube

channel, which links right from sunspotmusic.com.

And and and I mean, we did. We made 50 just on

music videos alone. We made 50 of them

in the time frame. And at the same time, on up right up

until the end of last year, we'd every Tuesday, we were doing a paranormal

discussion on paranormal Tuesday. So we we were keeping that going as

well so that, we could keep talking to people. And it started out,

like, with Wendy, I just doing, like, another Thursday Thursday and Tuesday or whatever, but

then we started bringing people in for conversations.

And so we started interviewing people on Tuesday nights, and picking

topics, and that became Mike something we would do because we couldn't get together

in real life. And so so

that kind of the podcast kind of moved to that for a while. So,

that's another thing you can see on the Other Mike Podcasts, our YouTube channel. And

you can find that at othersidepodcast.com, and then I'll have a link to the YouTube

channel. And it has a link to all the videos we made. So in

addition, if you go to the Sunspot channel, you can see all the music we

Mike. We wrote some new songs and all things. And I'm proud of those. It

just you know, it's it is a product of its time, and it was a

lot of fun to do. And it kept us it really kept us busy

and excited and and distracted from the madness of the world around

us. That's true. We all kinda created our little improved home

studios. And I think, Mike, I think we all got a little better at home

recording as well, like, throughout the year. You know?

We had a lot of practice, and we we learned a lot, like, as we

were going along. So I feel like that was something good to come out of

it. Is that if there if it's possible

to find something good, there's something there. No. I mean, I I think we did

I think we found the best of the situation. And since we couldn't play, you

know, in public the way rock and roll is meant to be done, like, in

front of people and the whole thing, It was a good way

to still have a live experience, have some kind of

untethered experience because we didn't know what was gonna happen when you're, you know, into

the Thirsty Thursdays. The conversations got, you know, a

little wild every once in a while. Oh, yeah. Our polls our polls

were pretty popular. Having people vote on. And so

we we really tried to create a new way of hanging out with everybody. So

the you know, this podcast is is a certain way or was a certain way

for a long time of one way communication. And so

we moved it to two way communication during the pandemic, and we had a good

crowd of people we'd see every week to share that

with. And so we're hoping to bring some of

that into our next journey in podcasting

and stuff like that. So it was funny

because we saw each other at the beginning of March in

2020, and then we didn't see each other again until

May 30th. So that was the longest we'd

gone without practicing, first of

all, actually being in the same room together. That'd be

the longest we'd gone on it since

1996, since June probably earlier

than that, since probably June of 1996 is the

longest we'd gone of Ben, Wendy, and I not being in the same room.

And then and then at the point, they started to do social distancing. So we

recorded an entire set,

having to be 6 feet apart from each other or whatever. I mean, whatever the

rules were. Because there really were rules that we had to be 6 feet apart

from each other, and then we're putting ourselves on video.

So, like, we don't wanna Wendy only break in the rules that like, we're recording

ourselves. We only break in some Dane County, Wisconsin

laws. Yeah. And that was that was when we did the the

7 at 7. Right? Yeah. We did 7 songs. Live performance.

So that was sponsored by the a venue in

Wisconsin, Dells, the Crystal Grand Theater. And they were they were helping out,

which I thought was really cool. I mean, since they couldn't have shows anymore, they

were promoting other bands by having them do performances online, and

they would share the concert with their whole social media and

everything, which is a nice way to kind of give

something, help out a little bit with the bands that are not

playing live. And the thing what's funny is so instead of just doing,

like we could just set up a camera and have us play live and have

it be it. Of course, we weren't gonna do that. We had to make it

as difficult as possible. So we set up 3 cameras.

We recorded it. We did we set up the cameras ourselves, put

them on, recorded it ourselves, and then I came home and edited

it. So we started in the morning, and then the show went out at

7 PM, and the editing was finished at 6:58 is kind of

how close it came. So we decided to go for it and put on a

3 camera production just like Wendy be in a TV studio, for

our first, you know, for our first get back together. Because number 1, I didn't

want it to be I just didn't want it to be like, okay. Let's turn

on the camera. It's a regular kinda Mike stream. We're in the same room. Like,

it was really great that we went for something really

hard if it's gonna be our first time back. Well, it was like

having camera 3 cameras except that there were no camera

operators. So it was us running, sprinting between cameras to make sure

they were Right. Still running throughout the performance. And,

anyway, that was fun. It was fun. We had some nice,

feedback and just knowing that people were watching live and everything was

cool. And we did another performance live during

the, like, quarantine part of the pandemic for a website called

Storytown Sessions, and they were also featuring

rock bands at their they have this giant barn where they host they have a

big stage and everything. And so that was cool because we actually, like we

didn't record it ourselves. They actually broadcast it

live, and we were actually playing live through a full

sound system. So it was the full rock band. It wasn't just, you know, like

an acoustic version, which is Right. When we recorded ourselves, which is what we did.

But that was, like, the first full band loud rock concert that we

had done since before well, I guess, since we played at McAuliffe's in

February of 2020. So Right. We played February 28, 2020.

And then, that was the last time we actually played electric until,

in August. In August, we did that thing. That was cool because it was like

an arena sound system in a guy's barn. Yeah. It was really

fun. And, it was also, like, socially distanced. So

everybody had the masks on and everybody was keeping their distance, but it still had,

like, a tinge of that that live

concert feel. There were a few people in the audience, the crew just the crew

and everything, but even that small amount of audience energy. And then

seeing the live feed streaming, we could see people's comments and

stuff. So that was that was a nice little treat. Yeah.

And and so and then we finally had a, an actual show where we played

in front of a crowd on Halloween of 2020. And Wendy and I did an

acoustic show, here in Madison at at the Olbrut

Garden. And, it was a beautiful Halloween night being out. It was,

like, 55 degrees or something like that for October 31st. That is a

great night. It was perfect.

So it was I mean, really, it was Full moon and everything? Yeah.

And then live performances, that was,

you know, that was about it. You know, in some places, it came back

earlier rather than later. Obviously, outdoor stuff.

But then I mean, everybody's got their own comfort level. Everybody's got whatever

they read and think and all that kind of stuff. And so when you're trying

to maneuver between everybody's

beliefs, fears, worries, all that kind of thing.

You know, you just you you end up just trying to navigate a whole bunch

of different things so you can still create and have a band,

even when, you know, some people and and some people still aren't. You know, we've

had festivals now and things like that, and and I think

everybody will come back to their own people will come back at their own

rate, and you're just not gonna you can't force somebody to

do anything. You gotta be like, when you're comfortable, let's party kind

of deal. But yeah. So the live performances, and then we still

had fun with our Patreons and things like that. And so if you're

a Patreon and you're listening to this, we love you deep deeply Mike

this. Thank you. I think the patrons were key to our

getting through this without being severely damaged. Mike

Yes. You know, it was truly, like, getting to

communicate and hang out with and have still have that interaction with people,

throughout the entire time was was I thought it

was, that's that was just huge. So thank you.

Yeah. Really. I mean, I don't think you learn the value of that community until,

you know, because we're so used to I mean, we're evolved to have communities where

we see each other in person. We're evolved to have community. That's that's the

human thing, like looking at someone. And, you know, we we Mike jokes about

Zoom meetings that they're really, like, more like a seance because you're always

asking, can you hear me? Are you there? You know, it's like trying

to talk to the dead. But it's a human

interaction. It's looking at a person face to face and not without a and without

a mask or something like Mike. So you can see the the way their mouth

moves. The way it's it's funny. There are people okay. So

in in Madison, Wisconsin here, we still have to wear masks when we go to

the gym. And I will see people outside

the gym, and I can't I don't know

who they are. Yeah. I'd be like, hey, Mike. How are you doing? And I'm

like, hey, dude.

So, I mean, we're just we're just made for that kind of thing. And so

but but the I mean, the online communities,

which I think I took for granted before not being able to

see people and stuff like that, really, I found a powerful

way, and really helpful way of getting through. So you you can see

how they can be, something really, really valuable,

and, I don't think I'll take them for granted again. No. Never. And

the thing is that, like, we were all going through this

crazy weird, in many ways, horrible thing together.

And just, you know, having that group to chat with until, like I felt like

we really got to know people a lot better than we have in the past

because we're all kind of sharing our

concerns and, you know, the weird things that were happening in all of our

lives, like, during this time. So so yeah.

Great. So thank you, Patreon members and and the friends who

stuck with us. Right. Okay. So in addition to that, I

mean, there were some things that were fun, like the online Paragon. There was,

the ParaUnity in Minnesota, based in Minnesota, but they had people all

over the country attend. And then, we did some videos. Since we

were supposed to play at that Paracom, we ended up doing some videos, from some

haunted locations in Madison where we're able to record some songs and things,

from, like, you know, Resurrection Cemetery here in Madison

or, Sanatorium Hill. No. It wasn't

Resurrection Cemetery. It was Forest Home. I'm sorry. Because resurrection is a Catholic

cemetery on the other side. Right. But for Forest Home is though.

For right. It's really to the other side of the street. Resurrection Cemetery is where

Chris Farley is buried. Mhmm. Forest Home is has the northernmost,

Confederate Cemetery in the United States because where the

badgers play, Camp Randall ended up being a

POW camp, prisoner of war camp in the civil war. But,

unfortunately, the people at Camp Randall didn't do a very good job about being a

prisoner of war camp. Dysentery went through the camp just Mike Oregon Trail

or whatever. And, a ton of people died, and then

everybody had to be moved to a different prisoner war camp because they couldn't

handle it at Camp Randall. Maybe Camp Randall should be the next place we play.

Next haunted location. Camp Randall is a haunted location. It definitely is there, and

because all the Confederate soldiers that died there. There's a reason. I mean, people ask,

why would you see Confederate soldier ghosts at Camp Randall, people who don't

know the history? They're Mike, that seems ridiculous. Wisconsin, there was never a battle in

the civil war. Well, it's because, a

whole bunch of a whole bunch of Confederate soldiers did die there.

So that that that kinda thing. Anyway, so that was a fun thing, and it

was fun to go to these different places and play acoustic. And, like, normally, we

would just be playing in a convention hall. Right? We were supposed to you know,

Mike, the Duluth Convention Center. Then the week after that, we did a online

Paragon from Milwaukee, and we're able to do a lot of really fun,

things for that. That all that stuff is available online. That's on the YouTube. That's

American Ghost Walks YouTube. You can find all of those all of the presentations

from the Milwaukee Pericon, including our sunspot presentation

and, stuff where we tell, you know, ghost stories about Milwaukee and

cool different people Mike M. J. Benias,

from Mysteries Decoded. Oh, yeah. That's right.

And then also, you know, got to interview John Wendy and talk to him

about his all the weirdness that he finds, and he finds the weirdest shit

you can find. Right. And it's always great.

So, that's kind of stuff. And and so okay. We're still

stuck at home. You can't have a group of 200 people together or something like

that. We're finding ways where we still connect people and talk about the paranormal and

have it be interactive. And it was fun. It has been fun. And and some

more fun like that, the Sage Paracons, with MJ

and Carl and Yes. Corinne, their their Sage Tribe.

We've done 3 of those so far. The happy hours were were the sunspot,

happy hours. So we're black. We show we

we show up for the happy hour and crash the party,

usually, literally. Usually And they kept inviting us back too, so that's the really

curious part. Right. You know, I just no. I think they I think everybody likes

everybody likes the rubberneck around a car crash, and so that's what they are

hoping to see. And usually usually I end up providing

that. But some other things were really great. I mean,

back when I mean, COVID was kinda letting up, or Wisconsin, they were loosening up

some restrictions and things. Last September, we did a video for I Don't Want to

Be a Ghost, which we originally wrote

for the See Another Side podcast, and then we, you know, we did

a investigation at a place called And a haunted mansion. And

so that that we you know, like, so we we put

that kind of stuff up, and that was fun to be together. And then kind

of, you know, we were just in the beginning of the year, we just kinda

trying to figure out what's going on. And then Yeah. Like, shows

started happening again by Memorial Day. Yeah. We were able to have

performances and stuff, and and you were able to, like, give people hugs without ever

looking at each other. That was so weird that weekend. Because

everybody's just like because it really was, at least in Madison, where we're

from, live music had returned. I mean, I know in other places around the country,

especially when it was warm in the winter and stuff like that, everything seemed back

to normal, and that's awesome, but not here or where we are.

And so that was really the first weekend where you'd look

at somebody, and then instead of, like, doing, like, that elbow remember that elbow bump

people do? Mike, hey. How you doing, buddy? They Mike and they're still they're doing

it now. Yeah. But at the time, we thought we could hug

again, you know, and have you basic human interaction. And so that was,

like, the first time you see people, and then you kind of put your arms

out and see where they were. And if they responded with an elbow, they're not

your friend. No. I mean, they just no. That was just the

level of comfort they were at. Oh, my gosh. But I would say, like, 98%

of the people were just excited to be back, with other humans and and have

that feeling, the communal experience in a rock and roll show. Absolutely. For sure. And

so that that felt great. And so Wendy and I did, Mike, we did, like,

3 performance. It was Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We played every day that weekend. We let

it rip. The

floodgates were open, and the Yes. Music was back. And it was it was a

really, really exceptional feeling. And and so, I mean,

floodgates opened so much that Mike music day on June 21st in the summer

solstice, we played 5 shows at different places in Madison. We bounced around

town. They were all outdoors and things like that, so that was fun. But we,

you know, we really that that's when it felt like, okay. Things are, you know,

getting back to normal. And that was the point where the mask mandate in Madison

stuff ended for the first Mike. And so then you were feeling like, okay. Here

we are, guys. We came out the other side. We we said we'd see on

the other side, and here we are. And then we

got to see people, you know, conventions came back too last summer.

Yes. Live in person conventions. So we got to meet a lot of people in

Duluth, Minnesota. We, you know, perform and played at the the VIP,

party as well as, did a, you know, a show in the convention center.

And then we got to hang out with some of our awesome patrons. Oh, that

was the best part. The Minnisnotans.

And so that was wonderful. And then a couple weeks later, we went

up to or went down to

what's his name? South to Alton. Alton. No. Am I right? I keep it

by St. Louis because he would tell people Alton. They're not gonna be like, oh,

I remember that town from 19th century, you know,

Mississippi River stories. But Alton is in a cute little town

right next to St. Louis and has some, you know, really cool

paranormal stuff. And, Troy Taylor and his Haunted America convention, and and,

Troy's had us perform there, I think, last 5 years. Yeah. Yeah. It was really

fun. We played in the, you know, atrium of the hotel and stuff when

Mhmm. People were having lunch and got to see a lot of familiar

faces. And that just felt good to be back there all the

time. And so then it really did feel like Wendy we get into August, it

really did feel like live music came back. We did a we did a show

with Everclear, in Madison. That was a lot of

fun. And then, the week later, we went up

to Michigan for the Michigan Para Con, and we played our full band both nights.

Yeah. That was great too. And so it was seeing a lot of people he

hadn't seen in a couple of years. And At a

casino. A casino. Right? At the casino. Right. And

the thing is the casino had different, like even had unexpected COVID

regulations and stuff because they had deep cleaning at 3 o'clock in the morning. And

that's when I start gambling. Right. Especially when you're playing all night.

Like, the band finishes, you know, you put things away and then it's like, alright.

Let's go hit the machines. I got a full thing of

cash. I'm ready to go. And they're like, you gotta go you gotta get out

of here. I'm like, what are you talking about? How are we supposed to get

gas for the ride home? Come on. Right. We're gonna have to thumb our way

home unless you let me gamble here.

Right. That was fun. And then a couple weeks later, Summerfest in Milwaukee

happened. And it happened in September, which is funny.

Right? Because Summerfest, should be

in Wendy of June, early July is how it's been since, like, 1970

when they had their first one. Yeah. George and George Carlin got arrested for doing

the 7 words you can't say on television. But, you

know, it's like the 50th anniversary of Summerfest at 51st, and last year they

didn't have it. And so once again, we got to perform with Everclear and open

up for them. That was one of my favorite shows of the year. Yeah. It

was really a great time. And so it was nice to see people and humans

and have that kind of interaction and and Mike a rock and roll show and

everybody next to each other and talking and things, and, that was

great. And then a couple weeks after that, Milwaukee Para Con in person.

And so we're seeing people once again in Milwaukee, human beings,

talking. I did a talk on something called Haunchyville, and that's one of our

episodes. Yes. If you go back, you can talk about Haunchyville because I've

been out to where the miniature murders are in Muskego.

So it was a lot of fun to talk about that. And then that night,

we even did an investigation, at the Brumder Mansion from Milwaukee for the thing

called the world's largest ghost hunt. Yeah. We tried to summon some ghosts with

some music, And, it was a that Brumder

mansion is something else. I had never been there before. I know you have, Mike,

but, I was really impressed by the place, and the owners

had some pretty interesting ghost stories to share with us. Yeah. I bet we'll do

a see you on the other side from there at some point. We'll get back

to the Brumder mansion and, again. Mhmm. And so that

was me and my sister, Allison, and, Wendy's husband,

Scott. And so it was since we're all ghosties,

we went for it and, you know, did about 3 hour

investigation, and Allison hypnotized me and Wendy had

the, and Wendy was doing the, the dowsing

rods. The dowsing rods were working and she was freaking out. Babe, it

did freak me out. And, you know, and then we did a a

long Estes method session. That's right. Yeah. We we did

all kinds of things that night. Yeah. And so and and that was the

Estes method is we really worked on that session at the Maxwell mansion.

And, interestingly enough, now I didn't I haven't gotten good video

evidence of this, but we we have a lot of it recorded. But we were

getting some fairly some fairly amazing responses on the

Estes method session. Yeah. Not not necessarily from

ghosts or whatever. Not necessarily from an entity. But when you have

interesting. Yeah. So you so you take the Estes method, and that

basically is it was developed by, Karl Pfeiffer

and Connor, Randall Wendy they were at the

Stanley Hotel, and they were, like, the house, ghost hunters at the Stanley

Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. And so that's

where you're listening to a ghost box, which is a ghost box

is a it's like a modified

radio that just scans through the channels, and you can set how

it scans through the channels, fast, slow kind of thing. And the

idea is that somehow messages can come through the

static, and so you're listening to it. And the SD's method is only one person

is listening to the ghost box. Everybody else is out of earshot or you you

can't hear them. You're asking questions out loud, and the person is

just saying what they hear through the ghost box.

So that method, it takes away the everybody listening to it at the

same time and and seeing how it can be interpreted. It's one person's

interpretation, and it's other people asking questions, and the

person who's listening to the ghost box can't hear the questions.

So when answers come back to questions they can't hear,

that's when you start really getting interesting things. And that was one of

the things we did at the Brumder Mansion. That's one of the things my

sister did with our Wendy, Max, who at that

Maxwell mansion, and they were getting some crazy they were in separate

levels. And, on yeah. In the

separate level, they were hearing him say answers to the questions they were asking in

a different room. And while that might not be the entity,

communicating with anybody, that's certainly implying that through

the use of and we talked about the ganzfeld and the which is

German for the whole field, sensory deprivation. So your

senses are completely deprived and you are nothing

else to distract you. And that's the idea of also the method is that there's

nothing else to distract you. You're just listening through the

static and saying what you hear. And even if it's not

an entity coming through or a spirit or anything like that, the fact that

you could have some kind of nonphysical communication I mean, I I guess

Wendy and I, we're since we're talking over Google Meet right now, we're having nonphysical

communication. But the idea that it's not Mike there's no way, there's no

connection between the people talking to each other, that would Mike

it really exciting. Like, hey. We're we're seeing something here. You know? And that that

happened when Scott was under the Estes at the Brumder Mansion too.

Like, he would answer some questions we were asking, but there's no way he can

hear it. And, so that made me excited to explore those

things more and spend more time at the Brumder Mansion. Yeah.

Definitely. Yeah. And then, you know, then we in

October, we did a great Halloween show at the Crystal Grand Theater, who had

sponsored that acoustic show that, where we just wrote

you know, we performed, recorded, edited, and showed that all over

earlier May. On October, we got to open up for a band called the Gin

Blossoms and Fastball. And,

first of all, those guys couldn't have been nicer. Oh, yeah.

Which Really got really nice guys and great performers.

Obviously, they have tons of experience, and they're really talented.

And it was just so much fun to see professionals, doing their

thing. Yes. And and and so those,

those things were really exciting. That that show is really great. And just

talking to them about music and stuff like that and their experiences. I think

the, you know, the, the one thing the lead the lead guy

in fastball, the one thing he said that stuck with me and Mike and me

were talking about Ronnie James Dio and Ozzy Osbourne and Black

Sabbath and stuff for a while. But the one thing that we you know, that

he said that I thought was interesting, he was just like, well

you know? And sometimes I think it's because Wendy and I have had

some good shows, you know, and everything. But

we're at the level we're at, and we're we're doing our best. And we're having

fun, and we're playing for people, and it it's still great. And we're still all

enjoying playing this music 25 years after we first shared a

stage. And so that it it I know it's I know that's lucky,

but a lot of shows are still very hard, or you're competing with stuff,

or there's hardly anybody there. You're doing the whole thing. Right? It's not some kind

of rock star dream, but it's still

fun. And so the guys from Fastball, really, he's just Mike,

oh, he's like, that's awesome. You're together. You're playing your original songs.

You're doing those things. And he goes, this is exactly he does he's

like he's like, there's a crowd here. I'm able to do

and they were flown in for the show. So he's like, we're able to we're

able to be flown in and play in Wisconsin instead of just in Texas where

they're from. He's like, we're able to play here because

we got luck you know, we got really lucky with an album that did really

well 20 some years ago. And he goes, off that,

we can, you know, tour and we Mike on it and all those kind of

things. And he's like, but we'd still be doing that same thing

even if that album didn't happen, even if we didn't get lucky in that album.

And he's like, you you know, the important thing is if you're having fun and

keep on doing what you're doing, he's like, that's the best thing you can ask

for. Because there's a lot of people who you think are extraordinarily

successful who aren't even happy, doing those. Yeah. It's

true. And, they I just took it. I was like, okay.

I'll take you know, it's a piece of advice coming from somebody, obviously, who's got

at least a decade on us, but also has been

around, has been where I mean, the last of kinda MTV

popularity, you know? Right. Right. And the the end of the

nineties, where you could have a song on MTV

and Or a radio hit. Or a radio hit. Right. And it would catapult you

somewhere where it doesn't have to be something, you know, huge or YouTube YouTube

viral, you know, or something. And so it just was an interesting phrase. It

just felt like, okay, well maybe we you know, even though,

sometimes driving in the middle of the night or playing for 6 people in some

basement for free beer does, make you,

question your decisions you've made in your life.

It it just made you we realize how lucky we are to be able to

still do the things we are, have an expanding audience, have a community,

and all those kind of things, and and and how important that is to to

do that, to be able to do what we want. And so Yep. That was

a really good lesson, I think, for Mike, at least. It was

it was a great experience. And the guys that we shared the dressing room

with was Fastball and they were just cool. They didn't, you know, sometimes

the the They weren't Mike get out of the dressing room. Yeah. The bigger bands

can be a little, like, snooty to the locals sometimes, but

Yeah. Get out of the dressing room. That. So so props to

them. We found that even though with that band granddad or whatever at,

Summerfest this year Wendy they took over our dressing room, everybody was really nice. They're

Mike, oh, you done in here to get your clothes on? Where other people might

have been like, hey, 3 o'clock, they said it's done.

You know, they said I'm in. So it's nice when

people actually act like human beings to. Right.

Such as Because it's just small thing, but yet we've experienced

Right. It's it's it's a small thing to ask, but it just doesn't

happen often enough. Yes. Often enough. So, I

mean, we talk about positive things that happened or positive things we took from this.

I think number 1, the the Patreon community,

and the people who would tune into Thirsty Thursday or Paranormal Tuesday

and just kept on paying attention and kept on hanging out, that really meant a

lot, and it was awesome. Mhmm. Thank you. The new friends we made from online,

things from the Sage Paragon and to the Milwaukee Paragon and and

things, that, meant a lot. You know?

Yeah. And so the positive things were meeting some new people

and, learning a lot about, well, Mike,

when when you're faced with adversity, what are we gonna do? Let's sit down and,

let's make something happen. Yeah. And being able to find that in

ourselves, I found that was a positive as well. Yeah. I

think you know, and then also just skill development, like

the getting better at broadcasting online and getting better at,

doing the live casts as well as recording ourselves

individually. That's never been, you know, something that we've had a lot of time

to to specifically work on. So that and then, you know,

I took some of the extra time to work on my own, like,

development as a performer, as a player. Just Sure. More time to

practice instruments. So those are things that came out of it that were positive.

But definitely, I think, Mike, you you nailed it with the,

relationships and friendships with people that, you know, either getting to know people better

that we already knew or meeting new friends in a really

strange weird way. Right. But it's kind of a a bond that

we're we're gonna have now forever. So Yeah. That

was that was a good thing to come out of it. Yeah. I mean, some

things, like, we saw these people at, you know, the paranormal conventions that we had

only seen online. It was like, oh, I already knew him Because

Totally. We'd spent time, like and, you see their

updates and things like that, and you communicate on the Internet. You're like, okay. Well,

it wasn't Mike seeing somebody and, like, oh, and what do you do again?

So I thought that was that was a really powerful thing. Yeah. So, I mean,

it's exciting that we're we're kinda getting back into a slightly more

normal way of things again. And I'm looking

forward to releasing some more episodes and doing a little bit

more of paranormal exploration. There's so many

leads that we have and things that we need to go check out and things

that we wanna do, like like we've been talking about with the

Estes thing and, you know, other types of investigations.

So I think we've got a lot ahead of us

here in 2022. Oh,

yeah. You know, and even, we're gonna get one

more episode out for you before the end of the year, and about

something that it's near near to us,

but also near and dear, to us that I think is gonna be fun doing.

And so and then as we get into 2022, we're gonna have some new episodes

and new things to talk about, and so that's gonna be a a great chance

for that. And then some new music, obviously, we're going to the recording studio, and

so we're gonna be, releasing a new album in 2022

as well and getting back and playing shows and all

those kind of things. So yes. Yeah. We just wanna we

just wanna hang out. And if you wanna learn about all of those things

and if you wanna if it's if you're like, hey. All I had we you

were just on my podcast feed, and so I didn't even know you were still

alive. But if you were gonna know regularly what

we're up to, how would, we be able to do that? Oh,

there's there's a number of ways you can do that. You can join the Sunspot

newsletter, email list at sunspotmusic.com, and

you'll get a monthly update of everything related to Sunspot. See

you on the other Mike. All the live events and things upcoming, so I recommend

that. You can follow us on Twitter at sunspotmusic.

Or if you wanna check out all the episodes and the show notes and

everything from all of, like, the 300 almost 300 episodes we

have, othersidepodcast.com is your source

for everything. And you'll find the links to Sunspot and all the

rest there as well. Yeah. So really keep in touch in that in that kind

of thing because, 20 2022, we're gonna have a

whole bunch of new paranormal content and music and video stuff for you that we

can't wait to do. Yes. And so, yeah, we're going

full force into this next year, and this is the the now

we're the 3rd decade of the 21st century.

So I I mean, the future's here, guys. Like, that's

it. Like, it's we're past the year that Blade Runner was supposed to have

happened. So the future is here, and it's not quite

what anybody expected. Right? But that doesn't mean you still can't have a good time

and still can't explore these these concepts that are fascinating, through the

lens of interviews and discussion as well as art and

music. Yeah. And thanks for sticking with us if you did. If you're new and

you never heard us before, we're happy to meet you. Please join the fold. Come

and say hi to us on, Facebook or anywhere

on online on socials, and we will look forward

to all that is to come.

That it? Yeah. I think that was a good.

It's a stinky one. Okay. Oh, nasty.