Around five months ago, Sruli Friedman (Supa Vilda) and I sat down to chat with our friend Avi Goldstein (Your Cousin Avi).
Avi is a very talented producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, videomaker, DJ, songwriter, and rapper. In fact, I don’t know anyone else in the world who possesses all of those skills the way Avi does, except for maybe Jack Stratton (Vulfmon).
While being recognized by his friends and community as a true artist, Avi is still in the early stages of getting his music heard by its full potential audience—which is why I was excited to talk to him. I wanted to hear about his trajectory, mainly leaving a well-paying job in the tech industry to fully dedicate himself to his artistic pursuits.
“Why can’t you do both?!” my inner Jewish mother wants to scream out at Avi in disappointment throughout the conversation.
You can watch me attempt to understand the psychology behind a creative and ambitious person trading in the coveted security of a nine-to-five for the uncertainty of the life of a paycheck-to-paycheck creative.
Seriously, what’s wrong with the regular American Dream, where so many kids seem to reject it for a life of artistic despair? Are we all simply victims of its success? Perhaps we were too comfortable and bored living regular life and somehow decided that creating art for a dedicated fanbase is the most fulfilling way to live. But for real—are we simply drunk on John Mayer and The Beatles, thinking that somehow all of us have a role to play in the history of pop music?
Riding the L train, I look next to me and there’s another thirty-something-year-old girl, nose-deep in The Artist’s Way. I know that book. We are all artists. God wants us to create. God demands it. Cue the Rick Rubin.
Anyway, here is our conversation with the talented "Your Cousin Avi.”
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Ben
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