Copium Poppies

Okay, we are an independent band located in the Pacific Northwest.

We are not going to bullshit you with some sob story. None of us are dying or going through a major catastrophe, or anything like that.

If you don't have much to spend and want to help someone who REALLY needs it, we recommend donating your money to another, more worthy, campaign.

ANYWAY.

One of our band members is in a precarious financial situation. He is basically stuck at his job that he absolutely hates and is quite literally driving him crazy because it qualifies for PSLF and his student loan debt is far more than he could pay off and he is in a state of limbo because of certain court rulings in regards to student loans. He is currently blocked from making payments because he is on the Save plan and is in a mandatory forbearance that doesn't count toward his PSLF. He was making all the required payments, and even made payments during covid when he didn't have to. He qualified for the $20,000 loan cancellation that Biden promised but never delivered on. If the hold the courts placed on the Save plan wasn't in place, he would be eligible for loan forgiveness in about three years, but since that is up in the air, he has no clue how long he has left at his current job.

Anyway, he rents a room and has been doing so for years to try and save money, and with inflation and his employer not giving meaningful raises (COLA raises don't even keep up with inflation, and the state minimum wage was raised a few years ago, which made the gap between his wages and minimum wage closer than they were prior, which had the effect of devaluing his work because his employer didn't give proportional raises to those making above minimum wage.

Anyway, because of the hours he works and the physical nature of the job, and the dehumanizing and disrespectful treatment he gets on the job, it makes job hunting extremely difficult, because he is absolutely exhausted physically and mentally during normal business hours especially since that is when he usually sleeps.

The job, while it funds our activities as a band (i.e. buying gear, paying for what little advertising/promoting we can afford, etc), it also is getting in the way of our ability to operate as a band as his schedule prevents extensive touring (which is the number one way bands make money and gain exposure today), in fact, that is one reason we don't play live yet and his living situation gets in the way of band practice as he lacks adequate space for an entire band to practice in the same room and at the volume that is necessary, and even if he moved to an actual apartment, he would be in the same predicament or worse (since apartments are even closer together and tend to have provisions in the lease against noise above a certain volume-he can make noise where he is, but a live drummer even if he had space would be another story altogether).

So we have come to the conclusion that he absolutely needs to buy a house if we are going to progress as a band.

We are asking for 200K which isn't enough to outright buy a house, even a cheap one, but it is enough to payoff his student loans, and use the rest to invest and continue saving up to buy a house and relieve the pressure on him to stay at his current job and in the state he resides in. At the very least, it would give him some financial cushion to quit his job, move to another state, find more suitable work when he gets there, and put a down payment on a house.

We don't know any other way out, so we have turned to crowdfunding.

We have our first E.P., Sybil The Soothsayer, plus a single released available on all platforms (copiumpoppies.com/pages/music) as well as a couple music videos from the E.P.

That is what we are capable in our current shitty situation. Without the above constraints in place, we know we are capable of so much more, and we are hoping people can see that as well and donate to this campaign.

Thank you.

-Copium Poppies