1.
Reason #493 to love Grimes. She recently answered a question via Tumblr, and she went in with a real, honest response.
akrasianation asked: Claire, Are you ever scared of anything? I feel too scared to follow my dreams and i get so down about it all and i look at someone like you who appears fearless and i wonder if you ever get rattled? and if so, how do you overcome that in order to live the life you want to live?
This is the only question im gonna answer here. I think I need to turn off the Q/A thing because I’ve been getting like, rape threats and stuff lol. i guess that’s not funny. And I guess it sort of leads directly into my answer to this question:
which is yes, I get scared a lot and people can be incredibly cruel. Generally, other people are the biggest barrier between you and whatever it is your want to do.
sometimes I completely break down. there is a ton of pressure on me all the time, and a lot of people really hate me and are certainly not meek about letting me know that. If you decide to do something and it’s different from what other people are doing, you will probably make some people very angry and words can be devastating. Furthermore, it’s obviously risky to do something that isn’t for sure going to pay out. But like, if you never do it, then you’ll always wonder what would have happened if you did.
I lost my family (temporarily), the relationship i had been in for three years, and a lot of my friends because I decided to put my art first. At the beginning I toured with a tent because I was playing shows for like, ten people and not getting paid, so we had no where to sleep. Granted, this was incredibly fun but sometimes it got really dark. Especially if you’ve abandoned everything else in your life to the point where if it doesn’t work, you’ll have lost everything.
I mean, I think Grimes succeeded because I had to discard everything else in my life in order to do it. I was so fucking desperate to make it work, I don’t think I could have possibly allowed it to fail. I can’t stress how powerful the human mind is. If you want something bad enough, you can probably find a way to make it work.
But the way I see it is that very few people on the planet have the opportunity to even follow their dreams at all. Most people live in poverty, or in communities where the repercussions for behaving how they want are a lot worse than just people talking shit. If doing what you want is an option for you, you should do it, because your one of the few lucky people who can. And even if you fail, you will be in a better position than if you’d never tried. The competition probably isn’t that crazy. Most people are too scared to even try. Bad things can happen, but every horrible thing that has ever happened to me has added integrity to my art and improved my understanding of the human race.
I don’t see the point of living if you’re aren’t doing the thing you love. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do obviously, but if it’s for your family, or for your passion, then it’s worth it. You are never making a bad decision if it is the decision that makes you happy, so if not following your dreams gets you down, then you should probably try to find a way to make it work.
maybe this is a cheesy post, i dunno. im not good at giving advice, i just feel very strongly about this kind of thing. It’s kind of what I stand for, I guess.
but yes, whenever I’m really freaked out, I usually recite this under my breath. lol
i hope this helps,
now i have to turn off the questions.
OH thats the other thing. I don’t know what it is you want to do, but absolutely avoid haters. Like, if you want to be a doctor thats one thing, that is a very difficult thing that a lot of my friends are doing and theres a whole series of perils that go along with that
but if you want to make music or art, DO NOT READ YOUR PRESS, DO NOT READ COMMENTS
thats like, the best advice anyone ever gave me.
(actuallygrimes.tumblr.com)
