Album
Side Quest
Album · by Mike Baker
The next chapter in the ADHD run, alongside the Beautifully Unfocused book.
The story
Beautifully Unfocused was about learning to live with a brain that rarely follows a straight line. It was the story of discovering that being different wasn’t something to hide — it was something to understand.
Side Quest is what happened next.
These thirteen songs aren’t really about ADHD. They’re about life. About getting lost on purpose. About laughing at Walmart because you somehow bought everything except the avocados. About conversations with your Tesla on the drive to work. About disappearing down rabbit holes, building impossible dreams, loving the people who believe in you, and realizing the moments you’ll miss the most are usually the ordinary ones happening right now.
Every detour, every distraction, every wrong turn eventually pointed in the right direction.
The side quest was never a distraction from life.
It was life.
Musically, the album blends melodic punk rock, grungy alternative, power pop, and a little Pacific Northwest soul. It’s loud when it needs to be, quiet when it matters, funny more often than expected, and hopefully honest from beginning to end.
If Beautifully Unfocused was about finding myself…
Side Quest is about finally enjoying the journey.
So grab a Monster, don’t forget your wallet…
…and if you do…
It’s probably part of the adventure.
— Mike Baker
If you only have a few minutes
Start here
01Today's the Day
The opener asks listeners to recognize the ordinary life they are living before time changes its value.
02Hey Tessie
A conversation with Mike's Tesla gives the album humor, present-day detail, and a question about technology's place in human life.
03Side Quest
The title track accepts the productive and disruptive parts of a mind that finds meaning through detours.
04While It's Happening
The album's emotional center directs attention toward family life and ordinary moments before they become memory.
Tracks
- 01Today's the Day
- 02Hey Tessie
- 03I'll Just Check
- 04Rabbit Hole
- 05Hyperfocus
- 06Side Quest
- 07While It's Happening
- 08Wide Open
- 09Avocados
- 10Terms and Conditions
- 11Hidden Blueprints
- 12Go Be You
- 13See You Tomorrow
Track by track
01Today's the Day
An ordinary day receives attention as the song recognizes how often people understand a season's value only after it ends.
02Hey Tessie
Mike talks with his Tesla on the drive to work, turning a private technology habit into a funny and revealing companion piece.
03I'll Just Check
A quick search becomes an open door through which time, attention, and the original task quietly leave.
04Rabbit Hole
Curiosity keeps producing another question until the detour develops its own logic and destination.
05Hyperfocus
An idea takes control of attention and supports intense creation while the rest of life waits outside the frame.
06Side Quest
The narrator stops treating every detour as failure and considers what those unexpected paths have built.
07While It's Happening
The song asks for presence inside family and daily life while the moment remains available to experience.
08Wide Open
Curiosity creates possibility when the narrator releases the need to know where every idea will lead.
09Avocados
A Walmart trip ends with bags full of everything except the needed avocados, giving ADD a familiar family-scale punch line.
10Terms and Conditions
Unread agreements become a way to examine the rules, expectations, and consequences people accept without attention.
11Hidden Blueprints
Projects and ideas that appear disconnected begin revealing the larger structure Mike has been building across his work.
12Go Be You
Permission replaces correction as the song encourages another person to live without reducing the traits that make them recognizable.
13See You Tomorrow
The closer trusts in another ordinary day and makes a common goodbye feel valuable through the future it assumes.
Where it leads
Side Quest closes this catalog at release sixty-five while leaving the creative life open. Beyond the Shadows began the recorded journey in March 2024 with struggle, hope, and the decision to keep going. By July 2026, those same concerns had moved into a more specific life filled with family, work, animals, technology, jokes, attention, and change. The catalog ends here because this was the newest release when the review began. The next song starts the next chapter.