In March 1997, thousands of people in Phoenix saw lights in the sky, and the “Phoenix Lights” story is one of the great mythical UFO sightings in history. Isaac Brock was there. The Modest Mouse frontman recently told Studio 360’s Kurt Anderson the story: He was on his way to master the album The Lonesome Crowded West, and his plane was stuck in the sky in a holding pattern, presumably because authorities were investigating. That night, he went to a hotel room that was “surrounded by police tape.” Brock never saw the lights, but he was there for the weirdness that those lights caused, which is somehow the most Modest Mouse story ever. “The Best Room,” one of the song’s from the band’s new album Strangers To Ourselves, was inspired by the incident. Here’s Brock telling the story.

Strangers To Ourselves is out 3/17 on Epic.