Welcome to the Get Upsessed podcast. We're so excited to have for the first time Andrew Spalding, owner of Corpse Paint Records. Andrew, thank you so much for being on Get Upsessed podcast. I know that your record company, you're an independent music label. You focus on POC, alternative metal, and I love to know your perspective on life. I want to pick your brain because I know there's something that you can teach me and also share with the entire world listening. And yeah, so good obsessors, me, Andrew. Hey, what's up, rockers? Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited to have this opportunity to speak with you. music has always been an obsession of mine and here i am today living a part of a manifest so like unpack like where it all started from just even being a kid of growing up of being into music something i've always wanted to do and it wasn't until i got on the other side of sobriety that i was able to make decisions in the industry and start carving out my own niche, which led me into being obsessed with meditation and getting into the Dr. Joe Dispenza field and learning about that side of things and applying that work with my dreams. It started with one day, you know, after I think we all experienced a shakeup in 2020, that experience made me feel really uncomfortable because I felt like there was a lot of misinformation everywhere. And I didn't know what to believe anymore. And I was an alcoholic. That played into the fear side of things. And there was a really big fear campaign being delivered towards everyone, regardless of their opinion of what was happening. We were definitely told to be scared of it. And that process led me to feeling out of control. I realized I need to get sober to make clear decisions. For the first time in my life, I feel like the things in my life where you're supposed to look for clarity are purposely trying to muddy the waters. I can't look at the world through intoxicated eyes any longer and feel like There's a safety net. I just said I was going to stop drinking. I stopped drinking. And in that process, it led me to a weight loss journey. Putting on weight is a commonality of consuming beer for decades and being into rock and roll, being a former roadie. The lifestyle of drinking is embrace. And then living almost 20 years in the New Orleans area where drinking is part of the culture. the bars don't close. I never realized how surrounded by I was until I pulled out. In that process of getting sober, that energy that I was using consuming alcohol nightly, I use on this weight loss journey. And of course, I lost weight really fast because if I get obsessed with something, I put my mind to it. I really want to get on the other side and get. So I lost the weight. And after I lost the weight and I was sober, and now three months, I'm now left with my motor. So you stop drinking, get sober, and then you gain weight. How long did it take you to lose the weight? Was it six months, eight months, a year? Can you do this so that we can really see that part of your life? I put on weight. At this point, I'm in my mid-40s, and I put on the weight in the past five years from habitual drinking. How it just added up a system that was no longer useful, and the calories started catching up. When you're consuming 2,000 calories a night in liquid form on top of your meals, you're going to put on weight. So I knew I had an unhealthy amount of weight. At least 40 to 50 pounds is what I wanted to go for. I set a realistic goal of I was 230 at the time and I should have. And I was like, man, there's no way I should be 230 pounds. So that weight loss journey just took ownership of it, which I knew I could, which I knew was diet and exercise. that part I felt like I had some control over. It takes a lot of time to drink 20 beers. I bet. When you can focus that time on how many calories come in a cucumber and a carrot and then in chicken. And I used a app to help me calorie count. And then that kind of facilitated my time too and kind of made it a game to where I had my ideal calories of what I was supposed to consume. And then I kind of had my 25 favorite foods and what their calorie count was. I kind of just played for the first 30-day mix match of those 25 favorite foods with my calorie thing to where I didn't feel like I was dieting a whole lot. It was like, oh, I like pizza. I like that. I can do that. I like that you did that. Yeah. And so it felt like it made it kind of like a game and a challenge. I upped the exercise, but it was small. It was like 15 minutes of yoga. It wasn't these huge astronomical changes. Mentally, it was a commitment and I did something consciously health-wise. Every minute I saw that result, but I didn't realize how much of the mental baggage that left after I lost the weight. That was a moment too of I hit my goal and not only that I hit my goal weight is I shattered it and I was still empty and there was nobody there to hand me a trophy there was nobody there to put this reward right and how long did it take you to lose the weight yeah out of curiosity maybe three months 70 pounds in three months maybe but it snowballed like anything in the first week it was seven to ten pounds and then when the first month, it was, you know, 20 to 30 pounds. From there, it was fine tuning and hitting those plateaus and starting to find your rhythm. When you see results, you get excited and start to believe your own hype. The cucumbers don't taste as bad. When it's all adding up, you start to see the proof in the pudding. And then, so you said that there was no trophy. So So even after you made this major accomplishment you stopped drinking you sober you got clarity you no longer intoxicated And you lost the weight Another huge milestone but still no trophy Yeah. No band cheering you and clapping. No cheer team at the end of it. Yeah. It really felt still really empty and realized that, you know, I've been drinking that whole time and using food to deal with the emotional. trauma from life and even passed down from heritage of learning of starting to understand of what was going on but yeah it was quite a a process and and i realized i was depressed and i was like how am i gonna deal with this depression now that i'm not drinking and managing my diet exercising this is good where's the satisfaction like where um if I'm accomplishing these things I should be feeling good how come I don't feel good like that something's missing I'm glad you mentioned that Andrew because so many people including myself I used to feel like once I get this goal, like once I get this thing that I've been wanting all my life, we're good. That's all I need. I hit that mark and life is going to be perfect after this. You just think everything is smooth sailing after the weight loss, after stop doing, you know, alcohol, stop doing drugs, stop, you know, gambling, stopping whatever addiction someone has. You feel like this thing is keeping me down you know whether it's being obsessed with video games shopping gambling whatever that addiction is you just feel like this is the thing that's holding me down this is holding me back in life this is holding me back from the life that I want to have once I stop this is over game over I'm flying high that's it I mean it's interesting when you're left with okay now what what do i what's really going on if these things aren't filling these voids that i was anticipating how do i and that went to a different i was ready for a change i was on the other side of the alcohol and the way to where i was open to where i knew that folks were getting through life and beating depression without medication. And the reason I didn't want to choose medication was I felt like I was going to abuse it because of the way I abused alcohol and that I didn't think changing the, replacing the alcohol, the food for the pill was going to, I felt like I needed to get to the bottom of what was causing the alcoholism, what was causing the fluid addiction, what would cost me to take a pill. That's where I felt the answer was. And who could do that for me was kind of the thought process that I wanted to receive information in. And also you have a family. You are going through all of this, experiencing this new event in your life. You're experiencing all these moments with having a full family, wife and kids. Yeah. I mean, wow. And so it's for anyone listening. I think that's inspiring to know that you can go through these really challenging moments. I think you're a testimony that you have your family, but you're experiencing these lows and how you came through them. It was discovering the process of buying something for your kid feels great, but it's temporary. You're replacing how you feel about yourself. And you start to realize that no matter is weight loss, what you're chasing, that you can buy them everything in the world. You're still going to feel empty. There's a void that can't be bought. You think it's being replaced. So I wanted to get to the bottom of that. And I stumbled upon it by accident. by listening to a heavy metal podcast. I'm a music guy looking for answers unconsciously. I stumbled upon a music podcast and the musician that I respected mentioned an experience that he had in his life. And the only person that could come close to explaining what that experience was a guy named Dr. Joe Dispenza. That name stuck out to me because I was like, man, I've never heard a doctor speak to a subject matter like that. I usually consider doctors to speak to more of physicality injuries, not necessarily things that could be considered in the supernatural realm. A doctor commenting on the supernatural realm was seems intriguing. So that second means after that podcast interview was over, I Googled Dr. Jettispens. And that's kind of led me to the rest of my process of getting sober, losing weight, dealing with depression, and discovering Dr. Joe and meditation of implementing that in my healing journey and rediscovering who I really am, which is not who I was at all. If you can be brave enough to unlearn some of those program behaviors that don't serve you, if you can tune your awareness and to realize that it's a thought process that you go unconscious to, if you can give yourself a chance to put in the things that you want to do and spend more time shifting that point to when you feel yourself start to go in that direction of the things that aren't. it's going to be the bad day or view yourself as a victim. When you can get good at that and implement it for what you want, you'll see the changes. I was grateful to find the work and realize my favorite part of how I know that it works. I go to the events for excitement because I enjoy it, but it doesn't cost a dime to meditate. Meditation is free. You don't need music. You don't need anything. All that other stuff's just like fashion, which is fine too. Fashion's great. I like it. And so tools, however you want to use a metaphor for folks. And I like it, the guided ones, but that's how you know it's authentic is like, you don't need anyone's approval to meditate. You don't need it. You know, all you have to learn is just to be quiet. That's how I knew how it was the real deal too. Of like, there wasn't any gimmicks behind it. It was like and that is inspiring to get on the other side of yourself to get on the other side of all those program behaviors and the ego that has been handed down and the unconscious guilt and shame that you may have caused in your life realizing where some of it comes from the family and how those things can come up out of nowhere even though you're experiencing life the way you want to those uncomfortable feelings that you used to ignore, acknowledge that they're still there, but now you're able to work with them because you developed a skill set that you didn't have before. And it's a skill set that anybody can learn if they're willing to learn. And that's what I think school part is. If you're willing to learn and if you're willing to learn, I'm impressed by how you took ownership. Even though you were in depression, you stopped drinking, you're sober. Now your new identity is that I don't drink. That's your new identity. You've lost the weight. So now you have a new identity there. I'm fit. But now there's this depression that's still there, still present, still there. The world has changed. The world is still changing. And a lot of fear propaganda is still circling around and you are still taking ownership over your life. It sounds like someone who's not looking to be saved. It sounds like someone that's not holding their spouse responsible for their happiness or to fix it, fix what's going on in me. And you're not looking for anyone else You're not holding the government responsible. You're not holding society responsible. You're not in this victimhood of, you know, I'm a good guy. Why is this happening to me? Which a lot of people wear as a shield, not allowing a change to happen. And you sounded like someone that was just taking ownership. what does that look like I'm happy to hear that you've gotten to this other side which is fantastic beyond fantastic to take ownership of your life while things are not perfect while things don't look pretty on the outside or on the inside and you're taking ownership you heard a podcast and then you're hearing Dr. Joe and then you're like wait a minute I always felt I could be a logical person. My mind could be changed if you could present me with new information that superseded my thought. And you could present, not just tell me because and like put your foot down, but give me the evidence. And I would be open to learning. So that was always my approach. I felt grateful in that process of learning. I didn't know what meditation was, you know. So meditating. That is interesting. It was. I knew, it took me eight days listening to Dr. Joe to understand that he wanted to meditate. One of the first interviews I saw from him was, how do you expect your life to change if you think the same 50 to 60,000 thoughts every day? because human beings thinking an average of 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts and a high percent, I don't know the exact number, but like a 90% high percentile of them are the same ones. That made sense to me. No wonder I'm depressed. I'm thinking the same sad stuff every day. I'm not even giving myself a chance to be happy. I'm like, wow, that makes sense. So I kept digging a little bit further his work. And after about eight days, I was like, huh, I think I have to meditate. And then I was presented of what that looked like, and I didn't know. And I downloaded one of his meditations. Morning one was the first one because the steps that I've learned that you should do it in the morning when you're fresh. And that made sense to me. It was like, yeah, I'm usually happy in the morning. I can wake up good. It's usually once I get going, like I'll start to, there'll be a pattern. And so I was like, let me try that. I laid down and just listened to it the first time. You just listen to the voice, really. And then got up and, you know, nothing, of course. You know, I didn't, wasn't looking for a result because I didn't know what I was doing. It's kind of like swimming the first time before you dog paddle. You're just like, I'll give it a try. In three months, I was at my first retreat. I was starting to realize there's a quantum field, the field of energy. And I was like, I got obsessed and I was like, I want to go. And I manifested a retreat at Marco Island. And I went to my first week long and then there I was, you know, I dove in. And then from there, it's been about five years since I've been doing the work. I've gone to five retreats. And after my first retreat, I stopped meditating. Went almost two years, no days off. I was probably averaging over 60, maybe 75 minutes a day meditating. I just needed that amount of time because I didn't think I had a spirit. I discovered I have a spirit inside of me. and once that spirit awoke in me and took over this 3D avatar, I started living life a different way. I started meditating for different reasons. Way different than what I started. Yeah, it was a spirit that was already inside of you. It was divine awakening that I wasn't aware that some that gave me an unconscious will stronger than the program to execute that day that just chose because I owed it to myself. I've been drinking long enough and there wasn't any more with drinking. I couldn't do other than the bad stuff. Like it hadn't cost me my marriage. It hadn't cost me my job. I haven't gone to jail. I haven't been around. Not yet. And this is like 25 years, like hardcore drinking sooner or later. One of those things are bound to happen. You're going to have a health issue. I'm going to die. That's what I really was because I was overweight. I was afraid I was going to explode in front of my kids. I was like from below, you know, and I was like, oh, my God, what am I going to do? Like on my liver or something gives out. And like while we're eating dinner, because I chose to not regulate myself. Like, what are you going to tell them? Like, hey, I appreciate it. I love you so much. But, you know, this Keystone Light is really good. I needed 19 more of them tonight. That didn sound like good logic Logically that didn make sense So I was like I started having mind and body and opposition and with alcohol for the first time I was like you know what This isn't a good sign. You're not going to be able to convince your kids long enough that this is a safe behavior you want to promote for your children. No. So you're going to have to dial it up. So grateful for that. I'm grateful for you making this change, being brave enough to take ownership and do it and not wait for a savior or someone to come and be your your superhero like you became your own superhero and now your representation in the music industry that you can be in this industry and be sober you're a testament to that and for those of us listening for those of you tuning in and you're not in the music industry and I hope Andrew's story you know you can relate to this you can relate to have needing a change needing a serious life change and what it takes to change this is what change looks like and Andrew I know that you've got a lot of great things happening you want to share with like some of the cool highlights because I know them because we're friends if you can share with the audience some of the cool things that your record company has done, achieved, like what you've manifested real quick? Yeah, I started out with this through depression and then got on the other side of depression and realized a lot of folks came to Dr. Joe's work to learn how to manifest. So I was like, okay, what's my dream job? And I always had my idea of a dream job of owning a record label. I always had an idea of a heavy metal super group from a band I used to work for. I lived in a city. I always felt like these four guys would make the ultimate metal super group because they came from the same influences and had parallel lives as peers. One band's from New York, one band's from New Orleans, but they all ran around the same people. They knew each other, but never played music together and didn't know them in the way that I knew them individually. So I went for it. I put a thought out in the quantum universe of this band. Two years into doing this work, we were recording the first single. Now we are, I just uploaded our sixth single on the 18th of February coming out called Power to Live with video. And then we're going to drop the record April 1st. It'll be almost three years from the time that I started the band to releasing the record four years in the making, I would say, as far as everybody being on board and then making it happen. It's really exciting. We've got some promotions coming up with the Revolver. We've been featured already with them and have some editorial stuff coming out as well with some other publications. So it's been really exciting. The guys are members of Typo Negative and Crowbar and Down. So there was a fan base prior, but establishing a new band is hard because folks aren't familiar with the new band. You can say, Sun Don't Shine, and folks are going to go, oh, cool. Oh, guys from Typo Negative or Crowbar and Down, they're going to, oh, yeah, I like those guys. So it still takes some effort to let folks know that there's something new out there, especially when these guys come from legacy bands. Johnny, the drummer, is in Quiet Riot as well. He's out there playing nightly, waving the flag for the brand. That's been exciting to see the brand represented with such icons in the industry that I grew up listening. And that podcast interview was with a bass player named Rudy Sarzo, who's in Quiet Riot. Really? He was who mentioned Dr. Joe. I had never met Rudy before. And I said, one day I would like to meet Rudy and say it wasn't his music that changed my life, but it was him saying Dr. Joe on Jamie Joss's podcast. and then a few months later I was standing in front of Rudy as he rejoined Quiet Riot telling him this story. So the synchronicities from this work have just been from everywhere and it would have thought through meditation the word to become familiar with of getting on the other side of those program behaviors. If you're brave enough to look, it's the freedom you're looking for and it's a journey I think everyone deserves to take. It's all stuff that I would say was woo-woo or the stuff that the experience of meditation talk I told you would be from another planet. But I'll tell you, it's more real than anything else that I've experienced with these five senses. And I don't know how you can explain that. No, we can't explain it. You got to experience it. Yeah. It's just an experience. And if you've been moved, if you heard something today that Andrew said that resonated with you, let us know. Drop a comment in our Instagram or Facebook or email us because there were several gems that you dropped, Andrew. That definitely imprinted on my mind and made sense. And it was enduring. Your story is really enduring. And you're a great guy. You're awesome. um thanks for being on our show hey thanks for having appreciate the time and and i and i hope as the old cliche goes if anybody heard anything today that helps them that's what i'm here for i can't tell you the countless messages i have received in the past few years because i've been sharing my journey online about my weight loss sobriety meditation and my spiritual journey to see the positive impact of that ripple from strangers to people that I look up to that says, hey man, I got sober or I've lost weight or I've discovered meditation. It's been countless. And that feeling right there is really amazing. I'm grateful to that. And if anyone is looking and needing help, find me on the social. You'll find me at CourseFaint Records. Send me a DM, where to start. Ask me a question. My door is open for anybody that's looking for some help. I'll be there for you. Thank you, Andrew. We're going to drop links for your socials and our show notes. And for you all listening, continue being obsessed with your life. Thank you for tuning in. If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.
