PipemanRadio Interviews James Baker About Rebirth of RORSCHACH TEST

0:04 Hey you unto his censure W forty, why crazy Young Row, Wake up America. It's time for the Adventures of White Men on W four c HY dot com. West Pond Beach is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man, Immortal Godi. In the mountain amidst the stones of fire, I once walked a signet of perfection and beauty. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W poor c Y Radio.

0:57 And I'm here with our next guest. And man, I am excited about this because there's some cool new music and it's got a really good meaning to it, and I want to talk about the record label and a lot of things. So let's welcome to the show. James Baker for more shocks tests. Sorry can thanks so much for having me today. Yeah, my pleasure. And so first I just want to talk about you know, it's been a while since you guys have been around, and you've been doing a lot of other things in the meantime. They're helpful to humanity in my opinion.

1:38 So tell us a little bit about your journey getting to this point to this new music. Well, when things fell apart in two thousand and two. It's really no secret to the you know, the fans, and pretty much everyone knew what was going on. And I'm only going to speak for myself. But I was in the midst of an immense battle with substance use disorder, and so the first matter of business for me was to regain control of myself and to get clean and to get sober. And so I had to take a long break. And it was a long road, with many different attempts and this and that and different treatment methods, and finally I have found relief for myself in life. And upon finding that relief, I decided that there was really nothing better for me to do than to try and help someone who was like me, who was still suffering. And so, you know, I took it as far as I could. I actually went to college again and got a degree in behavioral health. You know, if you know anything about my history prior to becoming a musician, I was ordained as a

3:13 Protestant minister, and things did not work out with the church and me when I was a young man. But much later in life, that ordination, that seminary degree that I had turned turned out to work into a position as a hospice chaplain in Phoenix, which has just been some of the most trans transformative moments imaginable in my life. Spending the last few days and hours with people who are on their way out of this life experience, it really helps you gain perspective on what's valuable and what isn't and so I've just been very great to have that going on in the background. I've always wanted to bring rorshock tests back, especially after especially after getting clean and sober, because I wanted to share that aspect of the message of my personal life with the fan base that we have. It's important for me to let them know that as as hopeless as it may seem, or as far down as you may have gone, no matter how hard you've hit the ground, there is hope and things can change. And so, you know, I kind of had that

4:46 in my heart, and then all of a sudden, just all the right elements for a comeback came together. The narcoleptic Goddess handed me some lyrics, which you know, man, I just had to write a song to them. By the way, that's the first time I've ever accepted lyrics from someone else. Nice. Oh, maybe that's what you learn too, right, Yeah, oh yeah, definitely so. And then running into Michael Bolenbach of full Well Recording Studios in Phoenix. You walk into this studio and it's it's like a museum of the recording industry. It's got all sorts of analog stuff, but he also has the most modern and up to date digital stuff as well. And I knew I was home when I walked into that studio.

5:39 And working for him as an engineer and assistant producer was a young man by the name of Colby Peoples, and we were in the process of tracking fall In the song, the single that we just released, and Mike said, you know, yell, let Bobby have a whack at that guitar line's let's And I said, oh, he plays guitar and Mike said yeah. And I was just thinking to myself, well, I better be be polite here, you know, you know, it is his studio, and I understand he's trying to help the kid out and whatnot. So yeah, I said, okay, sure, let's let's hear. Let's hear what your idea is on it. Kobe and I had not gotten hills up and down my spine like that since I worked with Jeff Loomis, you know, just absolutely mind blowing talent, not only on the guitar, but also with all the new digital recording devices there are and software, you know, digital workstations. He knows all that stuff like the back of his hand. He's forgotten more about digital recording than most people have ever learned. And he's still a young man.

6:57 So all the all the elements came to get the other at once, and I thought, wow, we're not just going to record a song here, We're going to do an album. And everyone agreed, and so we you know, we filmed a video for the song to just kind of come out of hiding and say hey, we're active again. It's a real thing, and we're really excited about releasing the full length LP, which has the same title as the single, Fallen in October October thirty first of this year. It'll be out. I love that it's gonna be out on Halloween. That's so perfect. Yeah, definitely. So yeah, That's why I wanted to tell a story because I love hearing stuff like that. You know, you're this part of me is radio personality, but there's another part of me, motivational speaker, personality and yeah, you know, that whole thing of you know, no matter how bad it gets, that that there's still a chance and that there's you know, there can be light at the end of the tunnel is such a big thing for me because you just never know when things are going to change, and you know, sometimes it takes certain, I don't know, certain magical things to happen, kind of like what happened with you, just you know, your whole story of starting one way, leaving that, but then it's coming back later to show you see, there

8:31 is a reason that you went that route to begin with. And yeah, I mean being a hospice chaplain. Ah, that's like one of the hardest and most rewarding things you could do as far as I can. I'm concerned, you know because, like you said, you know, you're seeing people at their last moments and that's hard. But then you're getting these revelations from people because listen, we all grew up this way. You're like, what's important in life till we realize how unimportant everything we ever thought in life was important? Right? Yeah, absolutely, And when I took the job, I really didn't know what to expect, but it has been such a gift, you know, to hold the hand of someone who may have questions, may have fears, may have regrets that they want to clear up. And this amazing transparency suddenly happens when someone knows they're they're on their way out.

9:41 There's an honesty like I've never seen before. There's no reason to put up pretenses or false identities or any of it anymore. Yeah, and I thought to myself after being with the first patient that left this world, you know, this is how human beings should be living their entire life experience. Yes, but we as a motivational speaker, you probably know this. The most hardcore prisons that a person can wind up in are those that we construct within our mind. And you know, especially when it comes to things like suicidal ideation, which is something that this album and rorshach Test really wants to raise awareness on with this album because regardless of the fact that it's not so much in the news anymore, it's old news, it is bigger. It's a bigger problem in America and the world that it's ever been before. Yeah, and I don't think the pandemic helped that very much. It just kind of threw gas lean on the fire. And if you've ever been in that situation or you know someone who has, you know, you get into this mentality where you just feel so trapped in the idea that everything is hopeless, that

11:16 there's no way that whatever mess you're in could unravel, there's no way whatever the situation is could get better. And then if just someone, anyone, offers you a different perspective, it can change, just like that, absolutely. And so you know, one of the main things that we want to really emphasize in releasing this album that's coming out is if you're feeling like that, do not hesitate to reach out and talk to somebody, because just that that conversation could completely change your life. Yeah, no doubt. And then you know, different people experience it different ways, and so there there's some kind of coping tools, and a lot of times people don't know what these coping tools are, and it could be anything that could trigger them to think, wow, maybe there is hope, you know, and that's the key, Like what you said, they're in such a dark place that there is no hope that they think that the better way is out. And you know, it's funny, I have my own coping tool that I'm not saying everybody should use like I said, everybody has their own what works for them.

12:37 But my thing has always been, even if I was in the darkest places of my life, what if it's worse then what do I do? That's something I've always like said to myself. When I get to that really dark place, I'm like, yeah, but what if it's worse, then what do I do? And that's really that those are the words for me that bring me back to you know, hope so to speak. Right, Yeah, I can agree. I can remember sitting in different kinds of meetings that were recovery oriented and listening to people stay over and over again, something to the effect of, I know that if I go out one more time, if I if I use one more time, or I drink one more time, that's it. I'll be dead. And I would always think to myself, if you're lucky, if as the fact of the matter is is that there are things that are worse, you know there there is continuous patterns of addiction that people get themselves into which there is no escape. It's just over and over and over again, a revolving door of pain. And people talk about hitting bottom well, every time I would hit bottom, you know, the ice would crack and I'd fall down another ten levels. You know,

14:07 it's always possible to go lower to your point. But you know the thing is is as quickly as things can can get bad for someone, they can also get good. Instantly things change. And you know, the main thing that has helped me as a musician and as a fan of music is when I listen to my genre of preference, whether it be industrial metal, gothic country, whatever it might be, I try to find kinship with those who are singing about the subject matters that align with my life experience. And I do that because in listening to them, I realize I'm not alone. Yeah.

14:56 I've had a lot of people throughout the years tell me that that's how they felt when they heard our albums Unclean and Peace Minus One and Self Will Run Riot. They realized that there were others who felt like them, who had been through things like them, and it caused them to grab on to hope in that moment because the thought came into their head, Wait a minute, I'm not alone. There's there's lots of people that feel like this. James Baker like this, So yeah, and so you know, I would hope also as an older guy now hopefully with a few more life lessons under his belt, a bit more maturity. I don't want to just stop with identifying the problem and saying, you know, life hurts, it sucks, blah blah blah. I want to go on from there and start talking about solutions too. And I don't want they want to get me wrong. This album's not going to be with sunshine and the power of positive thinking. You know, I believe in that sort of stuff personally, absolutely, But the subject matter of the album is UH is going to create that bridge of empathy for those who listen where they realize, wow, you know there are others who feel like me. And now we're dealing with almost a third generation of

16:27 Worshock Test fans. I does that blow your mind? Or what we had someone to ask me, when are your T shirts going to be ready? I want one for my grants, my grandson wants what. Yeah, you would never think of that, go way back into the beginning. But something you said, I really love too, because okay, so, as somebody that has always listened to dark music myself, people kind of got confused of how somebody that was a power of positive thinking person would listen to music like that. But to me it's just as powerful too, and music is some of the best therapy. And one of the things, like you said, is knowing somebody else like especially if you're somebody that has had their own trauma but also uses the power of positive thinking kind of you don't put that image out there that attracts people that are going to be thinking the same as you.

17:32 But the music you attract is what happens. So the music can speak to you without you having to feel like you know, you're venting or dumping, and you can just relate to it and can be so helpful. I think it makes a well balanced human being to have all sides. And you know, like you said, if you've been an addict or you've been around addicts, otherwise you may not understand both. My parents were high functioning, high class addicts and serious addicts, you know, and serious mental illness. And so I got something out of that by being the observer of that and experiencing that and being part of that, and they get something out of it by being there themselves. But anybody else, it's like funny, while I was young, I used to say, Yeah, I could never meet a woman that came from a family that had no mental illness and no addiction stuff, because they would never understand and you could tell them stuff and they would think you're making it up. You know type of things you know. And so that's the best thing about music and your type of music. And what's great is you can tie it all together. You can die in the beginning of your career. But now Ty, now coming back with this new music, like you said, you're not getting rid of the gothic dark part of it. You're just adding your journey into it so that people can relate and

19:04 they can get hope from the fact that you're on the other side and they can be too. Yes, absolutely very cool. So tell everybody how they can reach out to you guys on the web on socials, check out the new video because it's a really cool video, and get the album right absolutely so. Bes WAYA is probably just to go to our website which is www dot rorshoktest dot com and that's spelled r O R s c h A c h t e s t dot com. Our league tree is there, which will take you to Facebook YouTube Instagram the other channels that are set up there, and that's also where you get the latest news. The release is going to be October thirty first, but there'll probably be another couple of singles coming out prior to that release, so definitely go to the website and keep yourself informed and real quick. I know we're kind of running out of time, but also look for unlabeled artists. This is an exciting new I'm not gonna call it a label, but I'm going to call it a platform that we're really gonna unveil in twenty twenty five, and the concept behind it is to empower musicians who are members of the club here who may have a diagnosis of

20:42 mental health or substance use disorders, and unlabeled it's going to help them find a pathway to earn a living and receive the therapeutic value that music has to offer. So basically, what we going to do is connect those members of the community who are artistic with the right people to help them bolster their career and make a living doing what they are best at, and that's being an artist. So we're really excited about this and we'll have a lot more on it later, Yeah, I do love the whole concept one hundred percent.

21:25 It's kind of like what I think of in my mind, especially as you were saying what you're saying that it's like the anti label label. Yeah, so because the oxymoron, the fact that it's a nonprofit record label, and I love that, you know, it's serving a purpose that I think the music community and artists so neat, and you know, it is very very cool. So I love it. And man, it's amazing that we have people like you, you know, and that's what means all about. You know, there's a lot of gatekeepers out there that a lot of times like, oh, they should just stick to music and they shouldn't use it as a pulpit to say what they got to say. And I say to that, of course they should, because first of all, artists suffer a lot through a lot of things. Second of all, if they have that voice, why not use it to help others? Like there's other people like you said, like there could be one lyric in your one of your songs that could change somebody's life or make them feel like that person gets it. You know, it's you'll get this one. One of my favorite song lyrics of all time, just because I think it's so ultimately brilliant is by bringing me to Horizon and it's you can't drown my demon. I can't drown my demons.

22:51 They know how to swim. And when I heard that, I'm like, damn, that's me right there. Yeah, definitely, Well, yeah, we're we're looking forward to the release and playing some shows and and saying hi to everyone again and saying hello to do all the new fans out there. And I can't say thank you enough Dean for having me on and uh, you know, let's let's do this thing. Let's let's uh, let's create continue to create awareness about the issues that really matter in our lives personally and as a community. And I appreciate your part in doing that as well well my pleasure and anything you got you need. And because what you're doing is certainly, you know, even though you're not, you know, doing what you originally set out to do, you're definitely doing somebody's work, whether it's God or anybody else. You are doing the work help human beings and giving us entertainment with great music at the same time. So for that, I thank you, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

24:08 Thank you for listening to the adventures of Pipemin. I'm w for Cui Radio.