WEIRD CLUB: Alex Lemay and Ricky Olsen

[00:00:00] Hi there, and welcome to Out There: A Cryptid Podcast. I'm TJ, and this year we're doing something a bit different for Halloween. Each year, Josh normally reads a famous scary story, but this year, I wanted to change things up. Today, I will be talking to two guests who actually just started their own podcast called Married and Scared, Alex Lemay and Ricky Olsen.

[00:00:24] We'll be discussing the couple's recent encounters in the Superstition Mountains, ghosts with foot fetishes, and if a certain show is all it's cracked up to be. Let's dive in.

[00:01:09] Welcome everybody to a very special edition of Weird Club. We've got a little special for you today. I'm joined here with Alex Lemay, who you may know from her appearances on Living for the Dead and Ghost Adventures, or from her personal YouTube channel, Paranormal Alex, or from her personal business, Moon Goddess Market. I'm also joined with her fiancee, Ricky Olsen, who many of you may know as the guitarist from Motionless and White. Welcome guys. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

[00:01:36] Thank you. This is great. I am so happy to be with both of you. I've got many questions. I've got a bunch of joint ones that we will start with. All right. So, I'd like to give this as a general starting question for everyone we have on here. What are your guys' thoughts on the paranormal?

[00:01:55] That's such a big question for me. I have many thoughts on the paranormal. They're all pretty positive. I feel like it's a great place to be if you're a little spooky, you enjoy being scared, and you also like thinking a little deeper into what the meaning of life is.

[00:02:17] I like that it encompasses a lot of things like what you bring into an investigation. If you want to explore grief, you can. If you want to just have fun, you can. If you just want to get scared, you can. I think it's a really cool little place to be. I don't know. I like the paranormal as a whole.

[00:02:36] Yeah, I think the paranormal is fascinating. I mean, I've experienced a whole bunch of things my whole life. And it's one of those things that I think everybody more or less has had some sort of experience with, even if they try to say they don't believe or that they're like, that's not real.

[00:02:57] So it feels like they, even them, they have some sort of experience with that. And I think that there's something more to that than just surface level paranormal thing. You know, I think we're all connected to it is what I'm trying to get at.

[00:03:14] Yeah. So, yeah. I'm just interested in it. I love it. And I, it just, I think the more that we experience it, the more questions I have, and the rabbit hole is just never ending. Okay. How long have each of you been involved in the paranormal investigation industry? Oh, in the industry? When you ask industry, do you mean like media, like entertainment, or just as a whole?

[00:03:43] Oh, like, when did you start actively, like investigating regularly? I started maybe, I think I was 10. I started seeing spirits in the house I was in. And that's my earliest memory. But my mother tells me that I've been seeing ghosts my whole life. So I've been experiencing it. And that has caused the curiosity and it's just snowballed into what it is today.

[00:04:10] Wow. Like, when you say your mom's told you, you've seen him your whole life, like even like, like prior to 10?

[00:04:18] Yeah. She said that she'd have me in my high chair, and I'd be eating spaghetti. And it was just her and I, and I would look past her and start giggling and smiling and waving at whoever else was in the room. And she always chalked it up to maybe being like my grandmother or maybe a house ghost. She said she just ignored it because it freaked her out. Fair enough. All right, Ricky, Ricky, what about you?

[00:04:46] My first real investigation was with Alex, actually, I've done little stuff on my own here and there just kind of dabbling. But I've never done anything to the extent that Alex has, until I've done it with her. Yeah, one of our first dates actually was ghost hunting. Hey, that's a good first date. Yeah.

[00:05:11] To bounce off what you were talking about, Alex, do you guys believe that like children are kind of more in tune with the, like the paranormal? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think that society tends to push us into the direction of not believing what we're hearing and seeing if it doesn't fit into society's ideas of like what is okay, because, you know, Christianity plays a big role in a lot of people's upbringings. And they don't like you talking about spirit.

[00:05:39] They don't like people talking about those things because they can see it as evil. So I think naturally it kind of pushes you into this box of pretending that you didn't see what you saw. And you just, as you get older, shut it off. So I think a lot of kids, they don't have those rules yet. And they're accepting to everything that comes to them as far as energy goes. And that I think a lot of kids do experience seeing their like ancestors and wandering spirits.

[00:06:09] A lot of kids say that they do. So I believe them. I believe them. Of your guys' joint investigations, which one has been your guys' favorite? That's tough. Oh, yeah. The most recent one. Oh, I don't know. It was the scariest. And I think after I'm not as scared of what we've experienced, I'll be saying that that's my favorite one. Because I'm still really freaked out by it.

[00:06:40] Yeah. Yeah. I would say I have, outside of the most recent one, I'll say we did an investigation at a place in Mesa called the Nile Theater. And my band has played there multiple times way back in the day. So it was really cool to kind of bridge both worlds together and be like, wow, I've been in this place doing something completely different.

[00:07:06] And now here I am after hours, you know, investigating some place that like I was in this green room. That's crazy. Yeah. So that was a really cool experience for me. But I think my favorite is probably our most recent one that we just finished. And we're working on editing it right now. Yeah. But it was at the Superstition Mountains out here in Arizona. And there's a lot of lore with these mountains.

[00:07:33] And we stayed the night right at the base of it and experienced some of the scariest stuff I've ever experienced. I'm still freaked out about it. My heart's racing talking about it. Gosh, I can't wait. Oh, when I was watching you guys' Nile Theater episode, you had that moment where Alex over the spirit box, a spirit said, here he comes. Right when Ricky was on his way. And that freaked me out. It was weird. Yeah.

[00:08:02] That was a really cool investigation. And when the, I think it was the Ovilus said front man after I was under Estes and said, where's the front man? I was like, no way. Yeah. Very strange. It was. The answer to this next question may be from your guys' last investigation. What's the scariest thing that has happened to you while investigating? I have some really good ones.

[00:08:29] I think our investigation that's coming out for Halloween, it's a two-part special. We investigated at the Superstition Mountains. And I personally have a story about a skinwalker. I don't even like saying the name. I've been saying flesh pedestrian. So if it's okay, I'm just going to say flesh pedestrian. That's what we say on here. Okay, cool.

[00:08:56] I had an experience with a flesh pedestrian where I saw something I can't explain a long time ago. And I was driving out at night. And I had seen something that I thought was a coyote turn into a human on two legs and disappear over the embankment. And I was going like 65. So I went past it pretty quick. But I saw it enough to know that I saw what I saw. And it's always terrified me about the Superstition Mountains. So I don't really go out there at night after seeing such a thing.

[00:09:25] And we decided to be brave. Yeah. Go out there. Just for context, there's a ton of Native American lore in connection with the Superstition Mountains. So that kind of coincides with what you experienced. Yeah. And a lot of kind of what we experienced out there together too, which is what made it so scary. Because it's like, what are we dealing with here? What actually is this? Oh, yeah.

[00:09:53] It's probably the most scared I've ever seen myself look. We're editing it. I'm just like the whole time. Oh, gosh. Yeah. We went with the intentions of maybe speaking to Jacob Woltz. Yeah, one of the miners. So there's a mine that's attached to – there's a mine called the Lost Dutchman Mine that is attached to this mountain. And supposedly this person came over and hid all of his gold here.

[00:10:22] And there's been numerous records over the course of the last, I don't know, 100 years of people trying to find the gold. And then the people who go out and search for it either never come back or they show up beheaded. And their heads completely like miles away from their body. And nobody really knows who's doing it or why. So a lot of our investigation was trying to talk to some of the miners to figure out if that was really true.

[00:10:51] Is the mine really there? Or was it all made up? Yeah. I have this – well, I have this theory that Jacob Waltz showed up with a bunch of gold one day and he said he found a mine that only he knew of. And in that mine was all this gold and that's why he was loaded. But I think he maybe stole all of this gold and made up a secret mine to be like, oh, no, I got it here. And no one knows where that is so that he wouldn't get in trouble.

[00:11:20] And we were trying to find the answers to that. But we got way more than we bargained for. And we ended up experiencing a creature came forward that called itself a witch that was tapping on the windows of the cabin we were sleeping in. Oh, gosh. And mimicking me and my voice. And we have it all on camera. It's absolutely one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. Yeah.

[00:11:48] I mean, that's the scariest thing that's happened to me probably. Yeah, I was in a tent by myself far away from you. And I'm doing – I think it was while I was doing the spirit box. I was doing a spirit box session inside of the tent by myself. This was really late at night, by the way. So like 1 a.m. Totally dark. Yeah.

[00:12:15] By yourself in a little tiny tent at the base of Superstition Mountains. And I felt like somebody walked up to the tent. And I said, Alex, is that you? And then I hear somebody go, yeah. And it sounds like they're right there, three feet outside of the tent. In my voice. Oh, gosh. And for some reason in that moment, I said, is that you or is that somebody pretending to be you? And there was no response.

[00:12:45] What? And so I'm like, hello? Are you there? And at this point, camera's on me, so we have proof of our distance. I'm on the porch pretty far away. I can see him panicking and I can kind of hear him because he's getting louder about it. And so I take my camera and I turn it around and I start walking towards him because I was like, oh, he's not okay. Something scary is happening. And you hear me walking up for real this time. And you hear me talking, being like, are you okay?

[00:13:16] And it's chilling. It's so scary because you can tell that I was far away when this was happening, when you heard my voice. Yeah. And when you heard those footsteps, you can hear them on camera. And I'm all the way out at the cabin. Oh, my gosh. It was so scary. It was so scary. I had a conniption about it when she came into the tent because I was like, it was you. I heard you. What do you mean? It wasn't me. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. It wasn't.

[00:13:44] We were also in Halloween costumes while this is all happening. So I have this crazy wig on. Which makes it even better because we're both terrified. We're terrified and we look ridiculous. I cannot wait. We're both in the tent just scared. I cannot wait to see that. Oh, my gosh. While we're on the topic of flesh pedestrians, what do you guys think about cryptids?

[00:14:13] I love me a cryptid. I think they're great. I love the lore behind them. And some of them are so funny. We were just talking about this earlier. And we were talking about the squonks in Pennsylvania. Oh, yeah. And I just, it's just so funny. Like, where does the lore come from? Where, like, who created that, you know? Or what did somebody see that made them think that that's what they saw and then created this whole lore about it? I just love the idea of them. I just imagine, like, somebody out in the wilderness, ugly crying in a corner and someone saw it really quickly.

[00:14:43] And then that's where the squonk came from. It was just, you know, I don't know. I love Mothman, too. I love the nightcrawlers. You know, the typical ones. I do adore all the stories. I don't know. I somewhat believe that it's possible that maybe dimensions are overlapping. We really don't know the answers to everything. So anything could be possible. Yeah.

[00:15:11] Is there a spirit that either of you have encountered that you will never forget? Ooh. That's a good question. Aside from what we just talked about. I don't even know if we should, if that's even categorized as a spirit. Because I know Navajo traditions, it's a witch.

[00:15:31] So it's somebody who's done something and they become this, you know, this flesh pedestrian. It's just so scary even thinking about it. So I don't know if they're categorized as spirit. I personally have had some pretty interesting interactions with spirit.

[00:15:53] I think my most eye-opening and interesting one was when I had a conversation with the malevolent entity at Waverly Hills. That place was really scary. And I went by myself into where they keep the bodies in the morgue and just sat and had a conversation with this entity. And I asked it all these questions. And it was answering me very frankly. And I asked if it was feeding on fear. It said yes.

[00:16:21] I asked if it was scared that if it didn't get enough fear that it would cease to exist. And it said yes. And I think that that was one of my favorite interactions because it helped me feel less fear when I was coming into contact with these malevolent beings or how they claim to be malevolent. To have less fear because that's what they're after and what they're being fed off of. And they only have as much power as we give them. So it definitely changed how I investigate.

[00:16:51] Yeah, that's my favorite. That is a really good one. Do you think an entity like that is someone who's passed or that it could be something else? Like entirely? Well, I know we have a lot of names like thought forms and egregores and things like that. I think we're very powerful beings and we could create something that originally wasn't there.

[00:17:16] I think if you put enough energy in, if you put some ritual into it and you wanted to create a being, you could infuse this idea with enough fear or whatever it is that it continues living on without you. And it continues searching for fear, which is what it's feeding off of. So I do think that we're very powerful. And even though we are in control, we are creating these things that can make you sick, that can affect you in different ways.

[00:17:45] And so I think it's kind of a grayscale answer because yes and no, I think we can create them. And then I think some spirits actually were human at some point. This one I was talking to, though, I do believe was created by humans because it was in the area that there was they made this section of Waverly Hills into a haunted house. And they had body parts and there was like a testing table.

[00:18:14] And it's a little dark to do that in a place that actually has a history of humans going through really traumatic things. Yeah. And I think that created it because of it. Yeah. So do you guys believe that areas with the large amounts of emotion, whether it is positive or negative, does influence activity like that? Yeah, I think definitely.

[00:18:42] I think you were the one that told me about the stone tape theory. I think that that's a perfect example of that. Yeah. I mean, they proved that water holds memory. I think we're, you know, slowly discovering that things can hold memory, can hold energy, can hold or maybe even trap memories in a way that we could have them be replayed in perfect conditions.

[00:19:09] I think it's a cool idea to kind of ponder when you're investigating. Possibilities are endless, I guess, with that. Yeah. So houses are made out of wood. There's wood everywhere. There's limestone everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys think there's a difference between like a residual haunting and like intelligent hauntings or is it all kind of maybe the same thing but caught at different points?

[00:19:39] That's a good way to look at it. Yeah. I've always thought that there was a difference for sure. I think that there's times where we've experienced things where it feels like, especially if it's a room where a lot of people congregated, it feels like people are just talking around you and they're kind of oblivious to you being there at all. And I definitely feel like that kind of thing feels more residual.

[00:20:03] And then we have the opposite of that where people are directly responding to things, you know, setting the REM pods off exactly yes and no to our questions. And those feel very intelligent. And both things definitely feel different. Yeah. I agree with that. I think sometimes this might be really out there, but I do think that sometimes we could be interacting with different timelines too.

[00:20:32] I think there's a possibility that when we walk into a space that hasn't been touched since like the 60s, we're picking up on or maybe interacting with time in a way that we don't understand quite yet. Because I understand it as not being linear. It's something that's more stacked. And maybe there's a possibility that we're picking up on not only residual, like we were saying, the stone tape theory, but possibly a form of maybe time travel is a way to say it.

[00:21:02] Like we're hearing echoes of a different time that's happening at that instance. Like it's overlapping in a way. Yeah. Yeah. I've always thought that that theory is interesting because like, especially with like objects like falling and moving, like whether it's alternate dimension or time, like maybe someone in another dimension moved that object and it fell off for us as well or something like that. It's so interesting. I love thinking about that.

[00:21:31] It's the rabbit hole that never ends. Yeah. Because what if I'm grabbing a glass from a cabinet that hasn't been touched in forever and there's somebody in the future watching that move? Like for some reason. Who knows? That might be way out there, but I think it's a cool thought. Yeah. All right. What is your guys' dream investigation? Oh. This is something we've never talked about, I don't think. I think the Superstition Mountains was so high on our list.

[00:22:01] And now that we've done it, we haven't really talked about anywhere else. Yeah. I think mine, I've always been fascinated with the Winchester Mystery House. And I've never been there just as a patron. But it's someplace that has always fascinated me. And every time that I see videos of it, I'm like, man, I just want to know what it's like in there. I know that it just feels crazy and I want to experience it so bad.

[00:22:31] Yeah. Me too. That's high on my list. Good. I need you guys to go there because back when I was writing our paranormal episodes, I was like looking into the history. And for me, it was one of those areas that it's on paper very haunted. Then I did my research and I found out that like an amusement park owner, like he bought it. And that's when more stuff started happening. So it got kind of iffy for me. So I need you guys to go there and find some evidence for me so I can change my mind.

[00:23:01] I would love to go there. I want to. Yeah. Because I've done a lot of digging too and looking up Sarah and her life and how she came to the conclusion to make this house. And it's so different because I think people want to lean into it being haunted and they want to make the story so extravagant. But there's so much more to that, you know, it'd be cool to find out the truth. Yeah. All right.

[00:23:23] For looking forward to the future, now that you guys have done the Superstition Mountains, do you know where you will be investigating next or have plans? Ooh, what's next? We're looking at Flagstaff. There's a couple of places up there that we really want to do. We've been talking about the Queen Mary at some point. The Queen Mary. That'd be a good one. Meat Man. Yeah. Yeah, Meat Man.

[00:23:53] There's a man that haunts. Where was that? I get it mixed up with the other one up there. There's two hotels up in there. The Weatherford and then. The Monte Carlo. No, not the Monte Carlo. I can't remember the other one. There's two hotels up in Flagstaff and one of them, there's a man that supposedly haunts the rooms known as the Meat Man. I gotta look it up. The Meat Man. The Meat Man. How'd that name come about?

[00:24:24] So there's a patron that stayed there. It's Monta Vista, I think. Monta Vista, that's what it is. We'll have to double check. I think it might be Monta Vista. But there was a patron that stayed there and they would find meat hanging from the ceiling. And so they called it Meat Man. I think he's still there. And then the other person who haunts the place, she's got a great name. Her name is Girthy Patch.

[00:24:53] And she haunts down the hallway, I think. So those are two spirits I would love to investigate. That might be next on our list. Oh gosh, that would be fantastic. Yeah. All right, Alex, I've got a question for you. And let's lead into it this way. The Meat Man might be the second weirdest thing I've heard from the ghost.

[00:25:18] Because you and a couple of your friends once encountered a ghost named Roger with a foot fetish. Can you tell us a bit about that? Yeah, that was a very interesting experience. And someone's brought it up to me before in my YouTube being like, what's going on with the foot fetish thing? Because I've been to multiple hotels now where a ghost will come forward and say that they have a foot fetish.

[00:25:47] And I don't know what that's about. I'm not asking for that. Like, I don't know. It's weird if it's happening at multiple hotels. And with different ghosts. Yeah. Like, they all have different names. I'm like, what's going on? Like, I don't understand it. That's weird. It cracked me up, though. That was hilarious. It was so funny. It was at the Hotel Downtown Phoenix, the San Carlos.

[00:26:17] And this guy, Roger, definitely came forward. And he kept talking about feet. It was over the Ovilus. We heard it over the Spirit Box. Oh, my gosh. On every device, it would come up something about feet all night long. And then we finally put it together. And we're like, oh, well, maybe this guy has a foot fetish. It's me and my girlfriends. And so we thought it would be funny to maybe joke. So we took our shoes off.

[00:26:44] We put REM pods at the bottom of the bed. And we, you know, took the sock off real slow. And we're like, we'll take the sock off. If you make it go off, every device in the room starts going off. It was absurd. It was crazy. So, yeah. That might be one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. Listeners, if you haven't, please go check out Alex's YouTube channel. It is hilarious. Best paranormal channel you will find. Thank you.

[00:27:16] All right. Ricky, on your recent interview with Livewire, you mentioned your first paranormal experience when you were very young. Tell us about that. Yeah. So one of the first times that I ever had anything paranormal happen to me, it must have been, I don't know. I probably changed the age every time I tell this because I can't remember exactly how old I was, but it must have been around five or six.

[00:27:43] And I remember waking up in the middle of the night, sitting up and there's a little boy standing in my room that had kind of old, I don't know, 20s, 30s attire on like overalls and newsboy cap, a white shirt that was kind of collared. And immediately I was like terrified. My heart starts pounding. I throw the blanket over me and I'm just laying there, just breathing super hard.

[00:28:12] And I was so scared. I laid there for probably, I don't know, 30 seconds to a minute and I'm slowly peeking my head back over and there's nobody there. And that was my first kind of introduction to that. And it was after that, I was like, what is that? What was that? Who was that? Was that real? Was I dreaming that? And that's something that I've always thought of going forward was I always think about that and I'm like, was that, was I awake for that? Was I asleep? You know, it's so hard for me to remember all that time ago.

[00:28:42] But that is definitely the catalyst for my wondering what's out there and what's beyond this. Did you ever see that kid again or any other thing? Never. Anything else? Never. Never? Never that kid. I've had many experiences since then, but never seen him again. So I don't know if he was attached to that house or where he came from. I have no idea. It's freaky. Yeah.

[00:29:12] Yeah. No, I feel like, I mean, it's better for a child to see a child ghost than to see a, you know, adult. I agree. Standing in the corner of your room. As an adult, seeing a adult-sized shadow at the foot of your bed is just as terrifying. So I can imagine that it would be way more terrifying to see that as a kid. Yep. All right. Alex, you've been on Ghost Adventures twice.

[00:29:40] You were on House Calls and the Classic Show. What was it like getting to investigate with them? It was fun. They're all a lot of fun to be around, which made it easier. I think that was my first experience really being on television. So I was pretty nervous. Just having cameras on you all the time changes the experience a little bit. You're like scared and everybody's watching.

[00:30:07] But they made it really easy and just helping me feel more grounded and I'm around people I can be comfortable with. And it was really fun because they're all just as excited when the REM pod goes off versus my experiences prior where I would take people that would be like, oh, that's crazy. You know, I think it's different when you investigate with like people that are curious about it. They're like, oh, that's kind of cool versus like us who nerd out on it. When the REM pod goes off, we're like, yeah. And they all have that same energy.

[00:30:36] So it was a lot of fun. All right. So what was it like winning the like your initial sweepstakes where you went the first time and investigated Zach's Museum? That was kind of a cool situation. I wasn't one of the original people that was chosen.

[00:30:56] There was a girl or a woman that was supposed to be on and she got like a flat tire or something happened on the way to the airport and missed her flight and then completely canceled. She like took it as a sign, I believe. This is what someone had told me. I didn't hear this directly from her. So I'm not quite 100% sure on the story. But I know something happened where she decided not to do it. And then they called me like the day before and they were like, hey, this fell through. I don't know.

[00:31:24] Maybe it was meant to be that you're supposed to be on this. So we're calling you. And then I flew out the next day and we did that episode where they locked me in Zach's Haunted Museum. That was a lot of fun. It was very scary. Okay. While you were in the museum, you looked into Bela Lugosi's mirror. Do you remember what you saw? Yeah. Wow. This is, you know, what's crazy is I dreamt about that mirror. I haven't thought about that since that investigation.

[00:31:54] But like four days ago, I thought about that mirror again and how I felt like I know. And now you're asking me about it. It's so strange. Because that was like 2017, 2018, I believe when that came out. It was a while ago. The mirror was an interesting experience. The guy that had also won was with me at the time. And we both decided to open the curtain and stare into it for a while.

[00:32:23] I initially saw what kind of looked like fish, like two fish swirling in it, which was kind of interesting. And then if I recall, it felt like someone touched my arm and that kind of pulled me out of it. But the guy who was with me had a very intense reaction to it. And he ended up screaming. I think that was the catalyst to him having a really bad time for the rest of the night and having to exit the museum.

[00:32:51] So whatever he saw was much more intense than whatever I experienced. I think somebody who ever tapped me kind of pulled me out of whatever I was experiencing in the mirror. But it was pretty cool. It's definitely, I would do it again. I mean, it's a cool scrying mirror. Was he like pulled out or did he willingly leave? Oh my God, I wish I could remember. I don't think they pulled him out.

[00:33:20] I think my experience helped pull him out a little bit. It was so intense and there was so much going on that I have a hard time remembering exactly how that went down. But I remember him having an intense experience. It was either when he was staring at it and then he left and had the experience, like something followed him. I remember him telling me, though, that like he I don't know if he saw his own face. Something really scary happened to him, though.

[00:33:47] So I'm definitely going to go look back and see what it was because I remember him talking about it for a while after. All right. All right. Ricky, let's get a little more lighthearted. Do ghosts hit on you often? Because it seems like it happens on every investigation. You know, I've never had that happen to me in my own solo dabblings.

[00:34:15] But I don't know, maybe you bring it out of the ghost or something. I have no idea. I think it's the locations. It could be that, too. Because the places where like the foot ghost showed up or the investigations we've done, there's been ghosts hitting on either of us. They have a history of being a bordello, a place where sex workers used to work or something like that. So I think they're very like sex positive places or they have been in the past.

[00:34:45] So it's kind of the energies that still exist in those spaces are very flirty and very open. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. It's always really funny to hear and catches me off guard every time. That one ghost loved you. She was so in love with you. She would not leave me alone. She wouldn't. And I remember joking and being like, we're not in an open relationship. Stop trying.

[00:35:15] Oh, my gosh. Yeah. You guys had one episode where you just, Alex, you just stopped saying what the ghost was saying because it was getting weird. She was moaning in my ear. She was like moaning for you. It was crazy. Yeah. It's flattering, but I, you know, I'm good. We kind of love it, though. It's fun. It's fun to experience. Yeah. That's got to be some special compliment.

[00:35:44] There's not many people who get hit on by ghosts. That's true. Yeah. I will take it as a compliment. Yeah. All right. Ricky, have you ever experienced anything while on tour? You know, I try to not experience things on tour just because a lot of times we don't really have control over where we are and going into a place and automatically just leaving that door open feels unsafe to me.

[00:36:15] But we have definitely been places where I feel like something weird happened here that just recently happened. We had a day off in, oh, man, I think it was somewhere in Mississippi down south. And we stayed at a hotel that on the outside. It looked like it was super rundown. You walk in and the entire first floor looked like it was plucked straight out of like the Bellagio from Vegas.

[00:36:44] And it was super ornate, all these columns and pillars. And I was like, wow. And it smelled like Vegas, too, which is I think everything smells like Vegas. He does. I have a hand sanitizer. And every time I use it, he goes, smells like Vegas. I don't know what they use, but it's yeah. Anyway, it smelled like Vegas. And I remember going up to my floor for my room. The second I got off the elevator, entirely different vibe.

[00:37:14] It was super old carpet. The wallpaper was kind of peeling and old. And I was like, man, something bad happened in this place. And it just smelled weird. And, yeah, I tried to not really think too much about it or look too far into it because I don't, you know, I'm in there for the day. I'm not trying to have an experience. But, yeah, there are definitely times where I experience things like that.

[00:37:43] Like being in somewhere like the catacombs in Paris, like that kind of place is super heavy. And, yeah, I feel like I could give you a billion places that have all sorts of different crazy feelings. But I try to actively, like, keep it closed and not really experience that.

[00:38:06] Until that, the most recent investigation that just came out at the Ohio State Reformatory. That was the most recent on tour where I was like, okay, I'm going to try this and see how this feels. And, yeah. Have you, like, after you've left the area, ever looked into the history of somewhere you thought was off? Or still just keeping it closed?

[00:38:34] You know, I'm pretty sure that I have. But I couldn't tell you off the top of my head of some place. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. Have any of your bandmates witnessed anything while on tour? Or felt something similar to what you were talking about? I think everybody is so... I don't want to say they're not into it. But I think everybody kind of holds all of that at arm's length. Because they just either don't want to deal with it.

[00:39:04] Or they maybe don't really believe in it. But... So... I know that there's been a couple people that have had experiences that they can't explain. But as far as them just experiencing things randomly, I think that they try not to. Okay. So... Back to Alex. When you were...

[00:39:29] So what was it like getting called for the Ghost Adventures House Call episode? Like, how did that happen? Oh, like the casting? Yeah. Zach just hit me up one day and he's like, I got a show for you. And I ended up doing an episode and it was fun. And then I ended up getting signed for Living for the Dead. So that was pretty quickly after that. But doing house calls was really fun.

[00:39:58] I got to go to Florida. And I met this family that had some pretty spooky things happening in their house. And it was a blast. But it really was just an email being like, hey, I got a show for you. It's pretty easy. I think after my initial episode on Ghost Adventures, I... You know, they were so much fun to work with. And I think he just kept me in mind. And that's just how it ended up happening.

[00:40:27] I feel pretty lucky. It was pretty cool. What was it like investigating the house? It was pretty spooky. They, like, transformed the garage into a nurse center. So it was just like tables of equipment. And we're all just in the garage. And then we would go into the house. And you could definitely feel something was going on there. The grandpa, I was told from the family, used to hit on the nurses.

[00:40:53] So they gave me a heads up that grandpa would probably say something to me. And he did. He ended up saying something. He said I was pretty when I was in the back room. And we had the spirit box going. And then a couple other really spooky things happened. Their attic felt the scariest. And we never ended up going up there. But from what I've heard, it's gotten better. I've been in contact with both, with the family there.

[00:41:23] And, you know, helped give them advice on what they could do to keep themselves protected. And just to help fill the house with more positive energy that they could live around and feel more comfortable. I'm trying to remember. She's so sweet. I'm still good friends with the daughter. And she's really into ghost hunting now. I think a lot of us have that experience where something scary happens. We grow up in a haunted house. And then it just never leaves you. It, like, becomes a addiction. Yeah.

[00:41:54] Yeah. We'll leave this one very vague. But so you were on Living for the Dead with Roz. Okay. Roz recently did an episode of her podcast, Ghosted, with Shane from The Watcher. She discussed how she's been denied investigations because the location had a certain TV show come there. And they alleged that all the evidence was faked. What are your thoughts? What can you say?

[00:42:23] You know, Roz and I have talked in depth about that exact situation she's alluding to. We were speaking that night when she went there to go film and had those issues. And we all know who she's talking about. That's the sad part is, like, you don't really have to say any names. Like, people just know.

[00:42:50] But that place is really hard to investigate because, you know, a certain group came in and investigated and didn't said certain things. And now it's off limits to everyone else. Like, they ruined it. So it's kind of sad that that happens. It's happened with a lot of locations with this group. But that's all I can say about it. You know?

[00:43:15] Just to branch a little bit off of that, Shane on the same podcast also mentioned that the TV show may intentionally try to do that. Thoughts? You know, I have never personally seen them do that.

[00:43:37] But I think that a lot of people in the entertainment industry, especially the ones that are very far into the entertainment industry, probably do feel the pressure to make something happen, especially if they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to a location.

[00:43:54] That's why I like indie investigators way more than the ones that are on mainstream media, because I have a hard time believing mainstream media ghost hunting versus paranormal investigators that are really in there staying the whole night with all the equipment. And I believe their story a little bit more than I would the people who are doing it for entertainment value. I think it's layered. I have no, like, straight answer for that. You know?

[00:44:24] That's pretty fair. So you kind of mentioned the differences earlier. But how is it going from something that's got, like, a nerve center to, like, just you two going to a hotel room with your, like, handful of equipment? I think that taught me a lot. So I was like, okay, nerve center is good. We do like having everything in a space that's organized, because I think before it was just me in a bag.

[00:44:51] And I'd be wrestling through the bag, like, getting something and then running back or, like, you know how it can be kind of chaotic when something scary is happening? I have my own version of a nerve center every time we set up where I have at least a table where all the equipment's set out. And then I have motion-activated cameras in most of the room. So if I'm not in it, at least there's not, like, closed caption or there's closed caption, not security cameras.

[00:45:18] But I'll have cameras that are at least going if I can't have somebody there who's watching all of them. And then I'll find out later when I'm editing it. We do a pretty good job of trying to cover as much as we can with what we have.

[00:45:31] But it's difficult when it's just us, you know, because it's kind of I think we rely more on our intuition when you do it that way and feeling like the energy has moved and following that versus waiting and seeing if anything's happening in any of the rooms and then going there. So I think it's a little bit different of a style of investigating because you're kind of doing it from the seat of your pants. But it's different, but it's fun.

[00:46:01] Yeah. I think it's also one of those things, too, where I'm sure going from having a camera crew to then just you and me are in charge. And it's like, how do we get all these camera angles? And I know that you were fed up with just me being like, what about this? We got to have this camera here, though. And it's a lot of us being like, well, we're going to have to edit this also. So do we need six cameras going at once? Yeah, yeah.

[00:46:30] I'm always like, let's have a good middle ground. Like, let's get two or three. That's all we need. You know, we don't need any more than that. You know, and I think like I was talking about the intuition. Oh, sorry, my dog's snoring. I think our intuition really helps us help guides us into where we need to set up those cameras.

[00:46:54] So if we're having an experience in just the basement, we usually can tell when the energy is moving and how to follow it. And we're quite quick with it now where we have cameras on tripods. You'll grab a camera. I'll grab a camera. We'll have everything set up to where we can just go and chase it. Yeah. I was going to say that exact same thing. Yeah. I don't remember where you guys were at.

[00:47:17] In one of your episodes at a hotel, you guys figured out really quickly that the activity was like centered in one room. And you guys seemed to be really quick with it. I was impressed. Thank you. We try to be. We're definitely listening to our gut the whole time. And it's hard to be like, oh, we're the producers and we're experiencing it. And we need to be listening to our intuition, our gut, the experiences that we're having.

[00:47:45] And then also be aware that all the cameras are recording, that they're looking at us and they're not like at the wall over there. We don't need to change any batteries. The SD card isn't full. Yeah. We're juggling a lot. But after, you know, one or two investigations, I feel like we've really gotten good at it. Yeah. What are your guys' favorite pieces of equipment to use while you're investigating? Oh, man.

[00:48:13] I think mine is probably, I think mine's probably the dead bell because it's just so simple and so scary. You know, it goes off because half the time you don't even remember that you have it on. And then it goes off and it scares the absolute bejesus out of you, you know? And I think that I love that about it because you can just turn it on and let it go. And it's just silent forever. It could be silent for an hour.

[00:48:43] And then all of a sudden you hear it and you're like, oh, my God, I forgot that I left that in the other room. Maybe we should go in there. And it's kind of helpful. Yeah. That is one we like to leave in, like, a room somewhere as, like, a ring for service. Like, if the spirits want us to come in and talk to them, they can ring it, you know? We kind of set it up like that. Yeah. And they have used it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys like doing the Estus method?

[00:49:13] Because I feel like you guys do that a lot. It's my favorite. It gets good results. Yeah. I like the thing that we've been doing recently a lot where we've been doing a double Estus method where both of us are headphones and on the spirit box. And it's really interesting to hear the conversation back and forth of what we're getting. So we've been doing that a lot more, too. Yeah. We've been splitting up. And I saw people doing, like, the human ghost box experiment, doing the Estus with distance, doing things like that.

[00:49:41] And I had the idea of maybe just doing it at the same time as somebody else to see if, I don't know, what we would get from that. If we would say the same things at the same time, if we pick up on the same energy, the same conversations. We've gotten really interesting stuff out of that. And to have the Ovilus going. So I've had things over Estus come out that also came out over the Ovilus that also came out of you, like, 20 feet away from me. And that is crazy.

[00:50:10] One of my favorite things ever is when either of us asks a question and the other person answers and they're in the other room. That just blows my mind every time I see it. Yeah. Our recent investigation at Superstitions, we had an instance where we were split up. And we were, I think, both doing Estus. I wasn't at the moment, though. I had just put mine down because I started hearing whispering around me and it was getting kind of scary. I put my headphones down and turned it off.

[00:50:39] And I turned the Ovilus on. And he had said out in the tent, way out there. He had said gateway. And then the Ovilus said gateway. And then he said gateway again, like 20 feet away from me. It was so freaky. Yeah. I love when stuff like that happens. Because, I mean, something, it could just be a random word that's coming out. And you're like, oh, well, maybe it was a coincidence. But when it happens two or three times, it's hard to write that off. Yeah.

[00:51:09] Especially across different places. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. Got a couple more individual questions for you. Ricky, you kind of answered these earlier. So we'll just hit with them real quick. Do you try to investigate when you're touring? No. I try not to. I don't bring anything with me. The most that I have ever done is just try to be like, don't hurt me, please.

[00:51:38] I'm alone in here. I had that happen. And actually, in the hotel that I was just telling you about in Mississippi, I was in the shower. And I like to shower with the light off. It's like a just reset. It's a reset thing. Yeah. And I had the light off for about 10 seconds. And I was like, no, I can't do that in here. Something is just around me and I don't like it. So that's the most that I try to do is just be like, please just leave me alone.

[00:52:07] I'm just here passing by. It does happen because he'll FaceTime me and be like, I saw a shadow. I'm going to go sleep on the bus. Oh, gosh. Oh, no. All right. You also alluded to this. Do any of the band members believe in the paranormal? I think Chris does. He has expressed that he is very scared of it.

[00:52:33] So I don't think that he has any interest in trying to do anything with it. But as far as everybody else, I've made kind of satirical episodes of ghost hunting with Vin, our drummer in the past. And he is a diehard skeptic. Like he doesn't believe in anything. So a lot of that came from him. Like, let's put on this crazy persona and I'm going to try to prove that this place is haunted.

[00:53:00] And then me being the person that is, you know, really, really believing in it. And so I think that he's still very much like, you know, rolls his eyes at a lot of the stuff that I have to say or stuff that I've experienced. But everybody else, I think, is just kind of gray area. You know, they kind of maybe do, but they don't really talk about it.

[00:53:25] Is that why Vinny went to the Livewire investigation with you? Because he's so skeptic. Yeah. So we got an email about that from our manager. And our manager was like, does anybody want to do this? And I was, of course, interested right off the bat. And I just sent the email back. I was like, Ben and me will do it. He didn't even have a chance to answer. And I just forced him into it because I knew that he would do it.

[00:53:54] I just think that that makes a good duo, you know, of people investigating where one person is super diehard believing and the other person is finding any way they can to disprove what you're experiencing. Yeah. Because they think that it's just interesting. So, yeah. I love investigating with a skeptic. It's my favorite. Especially when they experience something and they have no explanation. Yeah. Especially the ones that really don't believe.

[00:54:22] They have to have something crazy happen before they're like, okay, I don't know what that was. Because even the small things, they'll be like, oh, no, it was a coincidence. Oh, it's just the house shifting, you know? Well, I think a lot of times the people that say that they want to believe, I think that that mindset already kind of closes you off from experiencing anything. Because it's basically just you saying, well, I want them to prove to me that they exist.

[00:54:47] Well, you kind of have to be a little bit open for you to even experience anything that might be just outside of your perception of normal reality. So, it's always frustrating to hear that from people. That just irks me. They just need to go on one investigation with us. Yeah. You should bring a skeptic on, have them do the Estes method. And then when they watch it back, maybe they'll believe. They want to.

[00:55:17] We've been talking about maybe adding another person here and there. Yeah. Seeing if some friends want to go with us. Ricky, are there any, aside from Vinny, because you guys just did that investigation, would you want to investigate with any of your other band members? I think just because I know that Chris is afraid of anything paranormal, I would love to put him in a room in the dark by himself and just see what happens.

[00:55:47] Just lock him in a room. That's so mean of me to do, but I just think that the footage from that would be comedy gold. Oh. You know? That would be great. It would be very entertaining. I'm sorry, Chris. I don't think he'll ever hear this, but just the off chance that he does. You know, maybe one day he'll come around and be like, hey, I would do that, actually. Yeah. Maybe just keep mentioning it and passing and he'll cave eventually.

[00:56:17] Who knows? Yeah. All right. Alex, I did not get a chance to watch Living for the Dead before this interview because it's not on streaming anywhere. So I don't have specific questions, but what was it like being on that? Oh, Living for the Dead was so much fun. It was honestly like a labor of love from everyone that was involved. It was created by Kristen Stewart, the makers of Queer Eye.

[00:56:47] There was just a lot of people involved that just had a lot to offer the world. And I'm always going to be very sad that it's no longer on streaming services. I think they polled it like two or three days before the elections. It feels very, it feels like a sore spot because I feel like, you know, people should still be able to stream it.

[00:57:14] But I understand that the society we're in now, maybe it was just a little too much. I mean, we had episodes that were called like a gaycation in Arizona. It was so fun. It was so much fun. Really loved it. I became close with everybody on set and we experienced some really scary stuff. We experienced some life-changing stuff.

[00:57:41] We grew friendships and really had an amazing time making that series. I still hope that maybe one day it'll be put back on Hulu. I don't want it to be lost queer media like so many things. So I just keep my fingers crossed that eventually it'll show up again. I know there are some like bootleg places you can stream it. I don't know where, but it's out there somewhere. I tried finding it, but I had no luck.

[00:58:10] It's so hard to find. Yeah. For those like myself who didn't get a chance to watch it, what were some like notable moments that you can remember? Oh, we had some really amazing moments where we went to certain towns. There was this place, Birdie and Vise, that was a bar. It was a queer bar. It was really amazing. It was a place that we would all go hang out.

[00:58:40] And we had an experience after Waverly Hills where the couple that we were helping wanted to get engaged at the end of the episode. And people used to make the joke that they're like, what, you guys are helping this straight couple get engaged on this queer show? And we're like, yeah, why not? It ended up being such a cute, like heartwarming thing.

[00:59:00] That was a really good, heartwarming ending to a very scary episode because that was the Waverly Hills episode where I was talking to the malevolent entity and getting all those answers. There were some pretty special moments where we got to open up about our experiences growing up as LGBTQIA plus people and not feeling alone in those conversations, being surrounded by people who have experienced that.

[00:59:29] Even some of the spirits themselves were coming forward and resonating with some of the things that we had experienced. And I think it was a very special show that I hope will make its way back into streaming at some point because those conversations, I think, were very important. And I still think very fondly on all of them. That's good. Yeah, it's a shame that it is gone.

[00:59:58] For the time being, hopefully. Yeah. I mean, Hulu said that it might come back. They've said it twice. So I don't really know. It was never officially canceled. So I have no idea. Hmm. Interesting. Where do you guys get your equipment? Equipment? Oh, my gosh. I've been collecting it for so long. And every show I've done, I've been able to keep pieces of it.

[01:00:27] Ghost Stop is where I got some of it. But I make a lot of my own equipment, too. So I have some pieces that I have made. And then the Ovilus. I have a friend. Well, we all know Gary Galka. He's a great engineer in the paranormal field. He sent me a couple of my pieces. And I'm trying to think where else we've gotten everything. You're really into cameras.

[01:00:55] So he's the one who's gotten all the cool cameras. So if you have camera questions, this is the guy to ask. Yeah. I just do cameras. Yeah. He's great with cameras. I'm the equipment nerd. It just happens. I am curious to know what cameras you guys use. So you guys like GoPro or more advanced than that?

[01:01:18] We have our main cinema camera is the NFX3. And then we just started using two Luna 360s from Insta360. They're like the little handheld DJI looking things. I highly recommend. They're perfect. They're great. Yeah. Because they have the lock-on feature where you can lock it onto you and then just step away.

[01:01:47] And it tracks you wherever you go. And those have been really great. We use the trail cams that we have, the motion activated ones. And then we have your Sony night vision camera. That's the camera I used on Living for the Dead. I got to keep it. That one's great. I don't even know what the model is, but it's great for night vision and still being good enough quality. Yeah. Just a Sony camcorder, I think.

[01:02:17] It's just a Sony camcorder. I think so. Yeah. It's one of the more recent ones. That's it. Yeah. All right. Yeah. That's it. Interesting. Yeah. I try to, people who we have on, I try to get a gauge of what equipment they use because I'm in the middle of trying to figure out my own equipment. Yeah. So I just love getting a gauge for what people are using. Yeah. That FX3 is gorgeous. It's really amazing.

[01:02:45] I mean, it's pricey, but it's a beautiful camera. The Lunas I love because they're kind of like in the middle. You can still make it look very gorgeous, but you can also put it in low light. It's very versatile. The mic settings are great. It sounds great. It looks great. It's a great camera that's kind of in the middle for price point. I think that's it for my questions. So, yeah. It's been fun talking to you guys. Well, thank you for having us on. This was great.

[01:03:15] It was jarring to, I've been keeping it cool, but this is, Ricky, very jarring to be meeting you. It was nice to meet you and nice to be part of this conversation. It's cool to talk about something other than music. I'd never get to do this, so it's been fun. Yeah. No, I would love to have you guys back because this is fun.

[01:03:39] Not that I don't know if you guys would ever be open to it, but investigating together sometime, maybe. But that's up to you guys. Okay. And, yeah, I had a lot of fun with this. You guys are a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing what you guys have coming in the future, music-wise and paranormal. Thank you. Yeah. You guys are great. Thank you for having us on. This was a really cool opportunity. Thanks for having us. No problem.

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