From Insanity to Sanity Inn aka Mike Goulet

Photograph property of Mike Goulet

Born Mike Goulet, but prefers to hide behind the moniker Sanity Inn. The name was derived from “insanity” during a period he wanted relief, a place to escape, “if you will. Its about music more than Mike,” he states, “a secure place to visualize during the rough times, or cleaning day, or party night. A “place” that makes one feel the most comfortable for the time or duration one needs. Sanity Inn (the place)– Music is the rooms in the inn; each room represents the song to which we listen to reach the emotion we are feeling.”

Growing up seven hours north of Toronto, Canada, in the small mining town of Elliot Lake, with a father that dabbled with playing the piano, organ, saxophone, clarinet, drums, and guitar… all these instruments were there and available for Sanity Inn.

Beginning with the piano, Sanity began writing “sucky” songs through his teenybopper years. He didn’t “get into” the guitar until around the age of 14 when he bought his first 12 string acoustic, a ElDegas; with a Gibson Marauder 6 string Electric joining the collection a short time later, “and the guitar phase began”. Sanity headed off to college near Niagara Falls at around seventeen years of age thinking he would become an electronic technician, but figured out that wasn’t his “thing.”

He began going through what he calls the “campfire phase,” where he would learn the basic chords of a songs he liked, but due to lack of chord knowledge never got around to learning the whole song. One of his greatest regrets is never sticking to music lessons. Around 1994, Sanity got more serious about his playing and song writing when a relationship ended; he began writing what he describes as a “therapy song.” Upon sharing it with a buddy, Sanity was talked into going to a studio to record the song Deception Queen. While recording that track, Sanity learned what one writes and how it turns out can be completely different. With no band to work with Sanity had to hire out parts of the song. It turned out, unbeknown at the time, that some very talented people were hired. Seppo Salminen produced and played drums, and Marc Cooper played lead. Luck brought that caliber of artist to his first attempt at recording, and Deception Queen along with what he calls “a writing craze” was the result. This event changed everything for Sanity, even the way he enjoyed his stereo; he left the studio hearing music in a totally different way. Sanity began wondering about how they did a sound “this way,” gave it “that effect,” and gave him ideas about layering. Basically, the production end opened its door and he began slowly gravitating toward production because he suffers a fear of performing. A heart pounding, hand shaking, brow sweating, almost paralyzing fear of performing in public, enough fear that many times he walked into a club, guitar in hand, for open mic night, and walked out again before his chance to perform.

Asking Mike (Sanity) about influences for his music, he responded:

Influences, I read this somewhere, hate to misquote, but can’t recall who to credit. “Beethoven said: good composers borrow, great ones steal.” I guess this is looked at two ways by me. (A) You can blatantly go rip off a song, part of a song, or lyrics. (B) You can be influenced by the song. Hear a chord progression done slightly differently and it sticks inside your head; brewing inside you unknowingly. I guess this is where the artist influences come into play, and of course there’s another point. There are only so many notes and how many songs? Someone’s bound to repeat a phrase without influences involved. I think I have a tendency to write music that is geared towards relationships and observations of them. I try not to make it direct and leave ambiguity in it so listeners can apply their own reasoning behind it. Case in point, when I wrote Deception Queen it was obvious what my pain was, but I had a friend tell me she listened to this religiously because of the line, “you always said you loved me, but never when you look into my eyes”. Her mom was an alcoholic and when she did say she loved her it was through blood shot eyes. It makes me feel great that a song that was therapy for me has done the same for someone else, only in a whole different situation. I know that what you go through in life is generally what you write about. My songs reflect my historical view of how I see it, and how I lived it. Ya know what? Maybe one day there will be a few happy ones.

My next question to Sanity was how he made a living in the real world.

I have been self employed for a while…dabbling in a few ventures over the years, presently, I am involved with an asthma medical product that is an FDA approved class II medical device. Only thing we’re missing is public awareness. If you or someone you care about suffers from asthma; you may want to check out our device. Have a look at our web page.

When I asked Sanity how he came to Second Life I got a long drawn out answer, but because I feel it shows the turmoil he goes through to perform I quote it here.

Ok, one day long ago I get my PC back from the shop, and for some unknown reason, I see this link to a chat program. At that point, other than e-mail, I’d never seen a chat program and it was a basic text one. I created my online name, Sanity inn of course, and finally managed to enter a room. Someone says “hello Sanity”… Holly Crap, my hands shook as I began typing hello back. This was unreal to me. The first part of my fear factor (about typing) kicks in, and yes, to this day I still type by the hunt ‘n’ peck method, then I hit enter and read the typos along with you, but, it’s gotten faster. Eventually, someone put me onto mplayer.com, a voice chat, well of course I had to investigate that site. I wasn’t to thrilled about the banter and non sense chit chat which took place, but hung in, and I’m glad I did. I found a category called “Live music,” and thought to myself, “well now this is cool.” After seeing how it worked, I asked if there was a way to play my new track, and learned there was. People liked it, and they asked if i played live. I asked can I ??? Turn the Page, was the first cover song I learned fully, and that was just so I could do a whole song. (Remember campfire? lol) Doing cover songs which forced me to learn new chords was a blessing because it opened up my writing potential. Up until then, I only knew the basic major scale, but when I learned the B(minor) my writing started to change. Well for about six months my friend, Kory Brody, from paltalk had been telling me about Second Life. I didn’t have a good PC, not even XP. So back in October (2006) I finally got a new computer. The first thing that went on it after installing a firewall was Second Life. I have a lot of people to thank for my experience once I got in. Starberry Lane, also from paltalk, took the time to help me understand the Second Life client. She bought me hair and skin, and lectured the heck out of me because I wasn’t singing yet. I ran into Calmtommy Lowel, and it wasn’t 30 seconds later I was TPed to a place, had a roof over my head, anything I needed he got me, and even set me up with my first set at Towers venue. I guess I still owe him for my Guitar, lol, and if you need a guitar please consider Bill Havercamp. I met Bree Darling through Calmtommy, and she helped me understand the workings of Second Life. Louis Landon for the story of the roaring lions which helped me get up on stage, Neil Morrison, who I had the pleasure to meet in real life, Amberly Kinsella (you are a sweetie!) is the owner of the Tusk Junk Yard, and gave me a place to park. Macaria Wind for helping me believe, Valiant Strangelove & crew at Laguna Beach for patience and for kicking my butt, kat Vargas for pushing me and believing in me, Slim Warrior, at Menorea open mic, for letting me sit in on short notice (can’t wait until we get our toy, lol, that is a clean insider folks), Cryene Madonna of the Sterling Vineyards who also let me play on short notice and for the impromptu new position as Sterling M/C for open mic, Azheni Something, an amazing painter that will get the recognition she deserves and for flattering me with the offer of painting my CD cover, Dimi Vanludwig and Leira Vaughan for inviting me to their open mic where I sang my own songs, had a revelation, and for the first time logged off Second Life not kicking myself for sharing my works. (Thank You Thank You) Of course by no means the least, anyone who has heard me sing, that has contributed, and that will listen again.

When asked what ways has he participated in Second Life Sanity responded,

When I first came into Second Life I visited any place I could find, but now that the WOW! factor has worn off; I am trying to share my music, help newbies when I can, and now I focus on the music scene trying to deliver a performance worthy of an audience.

Sanity says the benefits he receives from performing live music inside Second Life are:

Second Life is my training ground for real life. Man, even looking at the stage makes me wantto run. That is why when I am not singing you will find me off in a corner towards the back of the room. I don’t like to draw attention to myself, and yes I know that is not a great fit for someone trying to perform LOL. Heck, I even feel weird putting out the obligatory tip jar. By the way, the tip jar is something I had never done for online singing, before Second Life.. In a way Second Life has trained people that it cost something if you want it, and since I don’t feel like learning scripts etc. I guess I have something to offer, at least I hope.:) Second Life is a great place to make friends, discuss life, and see if we can help each other get through another day.

When asked about a performers need to interact with the fans, Sanity replied,

Well, if I wasn’t so worried about them being out there, I would say that interaction it darn important. The 30 second lag doesn’t help with real time feedback, but it does come; not only in the attendance and applause, but in very kind donations. I believe the audience, the listener, and what become the friends are very open minded and patient with us performers. That is something I am slowly realizing as I test my own material. To know you touch someone in a night with one song, and make their whole day better. To have them thank you for it is the fuel that make me want to deliver more. For some of us, we need as much fuel as we can get.

SanitInn Wind’s performances are top notch. One of the best voices I have ever heard… and that is ever heard, Second Life, real life, radio, television, or in person. I believe your time is well spent attending one of Sanity’s performances, but that is just one mans opinion.

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