Iggy Pop never gave a fuck about financial stability. During The Stooges early years, Iggy and the rest of the band lived in a drug den called the "Fun House," sold small amounts of heroin, shot up larger amounts of heroin and somehow managed not to lose an arm like Jared Leto in Requiem For A Dream. But through all of the bullshit, they made the most advanced music ever. The Stooges, Fun House and Raw Power, all seminal albums, were a result of The Stooges not giving a single fuck about our fallacious obsession with being financially comfortable, and, of course, heroin. Would Iggy and company have been able to create such FUCK-YOU-IN-THE-FUCKING-FACE music if they spent their time working side jobs to live in the cool part of town? Fuck no. People who worry about trivial shit like that don't write "Search and Destroy."
This method of thinking does not apply today. No artists are living with 10 people in a one-bedroom on McKibbin Avenue. There isn't a fuck-you-in-the-fucking-face band trapping out a LES bando. Not that every artist needs to do drugs and be unemployed, but people are so worried about making enough money to hit the new all you can drink brunch spot on that everything sucks.
I was just in Bushwick visiting my friend who just quit some indie rock band. Sure, they fucking sucked, so it wasn't like he was about to be the next Iggy Pop, but, still, I hate to see people quit doing the shit that they love for financial reasons. Naturally, the reason he decided to quit was work. He kept saying how his boss was going to promote him, how he didn't have time for silly rockstar dreams and other various fuccboi nonsense. He actively wanted to work more hours, get paid more, sign a lease with his girlfriend and attend more overpriced brunches. You know, typical shit that people think makes them mature. In my mind, I was like, "Damn, fam, I'm so sorry it had to be you," but I could already tell he was already a lost soul. A lifetime of unlimited mimosas and overtime hours became more important to him than making anything even resembling fuck-you-in-the-fucking-face.
Instead of people biting the bullet and living in some shitty studio where they won't have to work 70 hour weeks, people will take the job and drop the dream.
Of course, he's not the first dude who's been down this unfortunate road. I see it happen to so many people, especially living New York City. This city is evil. It's designed for you take a high-paying, shitty job that you hate just to live in the aforementioned "cool part of town." Instead of people biting the bullet and living in some shitty studio where they won't have to work 70 hour weeks, people will take the job and drop the dream.
Listen, I'm guilty of this shit too. I spent a disgusting amount of my time working at an awful job so I could live in a nice place and feel grown up. There was rent, my cellphone bill, internet, brunch with my girl's friends and all the other bullshit that I wanted to my waste money on. I worked all the fucking time, drank to forget about working all the fucking time and never wrote anything. Instead of working to live in a city with mad building opportunities, I was working to simply keep a roof over my head and continually get shitfaced. And that's dope if you want to become a self-loathing professional asshole, but, otherwise, it's really not an efficient way to exist.
Right, so, I spent six months doing just that: not writing, wasting money and missing out on too many opportunities to count. Then, through the grace of Iggy Pop himself, and, really, every other ill musician who didn't ever give a fuck, my dead end job fired me. And it was probably the best moment of my adult life. I was dead broke, with the only things I owned to my name being my laptop and tons of groundbreaking ideas. Not having a job or any money whatsoever finally gave me the freedom to do what I loved, all of the time. I no longer had anyone telling me what to do. I no longer was attending brunch. I no longer cared about anything, but making dope shit.
And that's exactly how it's supposed to be as far as I am concerned. People should be putting all of their time and effort and energy into whatever it is that they love. Fuck dead end jobs. Fuck making sure you have some extra loot. Fuck eggs benedict.
Brian Padilla is a writer living in Brooklyn. You can follow him on Twitter here.
