Michael Smoak

And...

I definitely see that, especially after getting kicked in the nuts permanently for the last two years with my health and having to manage an awful lot of things.

It does push you... When you're going against the grain of life, you begin to look at your behavior and your patterns and your motivations and your goals under more of a microscope than you do when things are going well.

You feel the texture of existence more, kind of like swimming into a river as opposed to being lazy rivered down it.

You feel all of the small elements come past you and...

That's a real uncomfortable situation to be in at the time, but it's a beautiful gift afterward.

And yeah, I agree as well that you're almost all of the greatest accomplishments that you've done in your entire life have been germinated from your lowest points.

And adversity is a terrible thing to waste in that regard.

It was very protracted, you know, from...

About two years ago was when I started trying to unearth what was going on.

And about two and a half years ago, when I got COVID before I went on tour with James, was when I started to notice I was getting a bit more tired.

I didn't really want to see my friends so much on a nighttime.

It was strange.

I was feeling lassitude, which is the emotion of being ill.

I didn't want to eat new things.

I didn't want to go to new places.

And I was getting more tired and I was getting a bit of brain fog.

I was ripping 2023.

I was, it felt like my brain was on fire.

It felt like I was permanently on cocaine.