Redefining Creative Havens: Is the Big City Move Still Worth It?
Redefining Creative Havens: Is the Big City Move Still Worth It?
Reflection on my anniversary of moving to Los Angeles
This week marks the anniversary of my Western migration from my home state of Michigan to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams of creativity.
I still remember vivid scenes of the journey across the country marked with vast expanses of open highway with nothing but corn or red rock on the horizon. The majesty of Western elevation, unveiling itself along sunsets and an infinite horizon. They are visions that I will never forget.
With all my belongings stuffed into my Oldsmobile Cutlass, I cruised into the famed city on a rainy Monday night, brimming with excitement and promise of new dreams and possibilities.
The spring in Southern California is magical, filled with the unique scents of jasmine and orange blossom, heralding the warmer months after a colder than you might think Southern California winter season.
So many years later, that smell still fills me with excitement and inspiration for new dreams and possibilities.
This City Made Me Who I Am
I made the journey out west, like so many others to pursue aspirations of achieving something greater, and in the process, test the upper limits of my potential to find a higher version of myself.
My dreams out here were two fold:
The typical LA moonshot of becoming a famous musician, and
Finding a career in creative technology.
A short month after landing on my friend’s couch in Santa Monica (then a shared apartment in West Hollywood) I was lucky enough to land a programming and animation job at Disney.
So quickly after finding the courage and taking the leap to pursue my dreams, one of them was already well on its way, and would define the trajectory of the rest of my career in creative technology.
That opportunity would have never been possible had I stayed where I was.
As might be expected, the dream of music didn’t happen so easily.
After recording a handful of demos singing in the closet of my Hollywood apartment (for sound proofing and neighbors’ sanity, of course) and a handful more crazy auditions, I ended up in a band and playing shows around town.
That led to recording an album with Rhys Fulber (electronic artist from Delerium, Frontline Assembly and Conjure One), which was an exciting collaboration that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t moved to the City of Angeles.
Being in a band with a professionally recorded album was a dream in itself, and as things went along, my band (Socionic, [heavy rock]) grew and we ended up playing some pretty incredible shows in LA.
Among them were headlining shows at The Whisky A GoGo and the Viper Room, and opening up as direct support several sold out shows with Volto, the side project of one of my favorite drummers (Danny Carey of TOOL).
Add a couple regional tours to that and we actually ended up getting closer to my dream than I ever expected. But as happens with bands, we didn’t quite make it far enough and things kind of fell apart.
I can honestly say though that the memories of those days are some of the best of my life.
So far…
I’ll never be done with music and art, and in this era of online opportunity, perhaps my biggest tour is still ahead of me.
The New Frontier, Now Online
Even though many of the best memories of pursuing my music dreams are from stages and studios within Los Angeles, by far the biggest success and return on effort investment has been online.
Putting the effort in to write some great songs with good production recorded in your bedroom, then backed by some online promotion, can get music into the algorithms and yield continued passive growth well into the future.
That growth can enable connections and then opportunities.
Conversely, the effort and often times money that would go into booking and promoting a single show would be comparable in effort and cost and, even though nothing can beat the feeling of being on stage and the connection made with a hundred or so people face to face, when it was over, that was it.
Then on to the next one, which you hope some industry type will be at to recognize your creative brilliance and sign your dreams into reality.
That was the way it used to be in music anyway…
But now, in this era of social media virality, a single post can connect with a million people and change your life. And that can be done from anywhere with a cell connection, which pretty soon will be just about anywhere on earth.
That’s not to say that these things are the same, I love live shows and want to get back to doing them regularly, but if your main ambition is to get your art and message out there, nothing beats the scale of the internet.
I say all this to acknowledge that where living cities like Los Angeles were essential for advancing ambitions in creativity as recent as a decade ago, these days you’ve got a better chance of doing it online.
The same goes for other forms of media as well. Hollywood is still the center of film, but if you’re a writer, director or actor and want to get the attention and clout needed to connect with anyone one here, you’ll most likely need to have an online following anyway.
And the amount of creative work you can produce with an iPhone from just about anywhere on earth is mind blowing.
With AI advancing so quickly and enabling smaller creators and their teams to do more and more, this potential is as apparent as ever.
Opportunity Cost and Imbalance
The path to dreams through cities of opportunity often involved toughing it out with expensive city rent, hustling your craft and connections, and then eventually achieving success to the point where big city cost is no longer an issue.
You “made it” and now everything is easy and happy.
But that doesn’t feel like the case anymore.
Sure, there are still one in 10 million pop singers, actors, directors and tech founders that make it to mega-stardom and wealth as part of a bigger system, but I’m talking about real, career creatives. The musician middle class, or other online creators that make a living off their art.
The growing cost of living, especially in big cities, is far more prohibitive than it has been in the past. The middle-class in general is getting pinched tighter and tighter in an economy that doesn’t lend much sympathy to moderate, let alone uncertain, income.
Sure, things will get better as cycles ebb and flow, but it feels like there there is a bigger trend happening.
The obvious reality is, as a creative you can focus more time and effort on your creativity and personal business then you don’t have to work 40+ hours a week in an unrelated job only to spend half that income on rent.
The tech indie hacker community has known this for awhile already as it pioneered digital nomadism by working from cheaper countries around the world in order to maximize time spent on building apps and business opportunities online.
There are still many creative jobs that require you to be on site and working with a team, but for smaller, more independent and entrepreneurial efforts, it is no longer a requirement. You can create from anywhere and publish it online for all the world to access.
Perhaps these sentiments are circling my head more presently at the moment due to my personal situation with rent and cost of living.
Having lived at my current place for 7 years, it remains considerably below market amidst the run-up in rent and housing that’s happened in recent years. As a result, it has become a target for appreciation as my landlord raised rent 10% previously and is almost certain to do so again in a few months, which might end up pushing me out due to affordability.
A new place at an affordable rent in the current market would mean a significant downsize and loss of my dedicated music studio room, which has long been a mark of my ‘making it’ out here.
Admittedly all that has me a little grumpy and overly reflective 😅
New Destinations
So, how do we solve both sides of the equation?
Reasonable cost of living allowing more freedom to create
Connection to opportunity and like-minded community
This is a question that frequents my mind often these days.
In the last few years a handful of my creative friends have moved out of LA for more affordable pastures. A couple of them abandoned their creative dreams completely, while others continue their journey, but now with a larger creative space and smaller rent.
Big cities are still hubs of rich, creative culture and the best places to connect with like-minded, ambitious people, but it does seem like more and more of that culture is spreading out from the biggest and most expensive of these cities such as New York, San Francisco, and LA.
How could it not?
The imbalance in affordability in premium areas is clearer than ever. When I moved here there used to be grungy musicians and venues lining the Sunset Strip, there are now luxury hotels and corporate suits.
In the end, the community and people found in a vibrant city are the real value. Community, belonging and the inspiration found in them are very immutable human traits that are best experienced in person. I definitely don’t see that ever changing.
But these things definitely aren’t tied to one location, they can manifest anywhere.
In my time here I’ve lived in Hollywood, West Hollywood and generally the cooler (read: more expensive) places of LA. Maybe the answer lies somewhere just a little farther out.
A group of my creative friends just moved from the center of the city to a creative compound farther out in the valley and they’re all stoked about the change. It is still close enough for all the culture, events and shows that the LA hotspots have to offer, but it allows for a little more space physically and breathing room financially.
As more people flee the coastal cities to smaller markets due to affordability, other cities are becoming more diverse in creative culture as well.
As technology enables creative endeavors to be more independent and detached from huge investment and corporate control thereby allowing geographic freedom and flexibility, perhaps new hubs of middle class creatives will start to spawn.
Whether on the more affordable outskirts of existing cities like LA, by expanding middle sized cities into diverse creative centers, or perhaps completely new destinations, it will be interesting to see how cities and creative communities evolve.
Closing
My move to Los Angeles was one of the biggest and best decisions of my life. It solidified my commitment to finding a path true to myself and set in motion events that created cherished relationships and experiences that have shaped who I am today.
Besides career and creative opportunity, its a beautiful city with amazing people and diverse culture, and the greater Southern California area has world class outdoor adventures within only a couple hours drive.
Given the choice again, I would without question eagerly jump in my Old Cutlass and head West.
But as is the theme of our current era, change is happening fast and the imbalance of economy is a catalyst.
Even making good money working in tech, it feels harder to survive here than it used to, and I can never seem find enough time outside my job to work on creative projects.
It makes me wonder…
Maybe the future of creativity lies beyond the borders of today’s Dream Cities.
Maybe there will be new ones.
Maybe they’ll be better…
If you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them in the comments.
~ Michael
Exciting Tech of The Week
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My Creative Updates
Expanding on the sentiment of this article, I haven’t found as much creative time lately as I would like. I’m still making good progress on the Niche Creator app, but I’ve only spent a few hours on music in the last couple weeks, so I don’t have much to share there.
I’m always trying to be more aware and get better at time management, but its definitely a weakness. Blocking off and protecting time for passions is so important in this demanding world. I’m working on getting better. I want to, I have to.