Ten years of corporate taught me a lot. Starting a punk band in a pandemic taught me what I'd stopped asking.
I've got ten years of corporate on my clock - and I live the life of a millennial. What does the data say? According to Deloitte, 34% of my generation feel stressed or anxious most of the time, and about a third of those say the job is to blame. Surprise. I had mostly positive stress - went straight from university into industry, met people all over the world, learned and managed everything there is to know about embroidery and textile production at an industrial level. It always made me feel light, motivated, inspired. That's how ten years go by fast.
Around the halfway point came the thing nobody really saw coming (except that humanity, given everything it gets up to, really shouldn't be surprised by anything): Naaa - who remembers? EXACTLY. A global pandemic. Suddenly there was no more travelling. After two weeks of genuinely enjoying being home, cleaning the flat, taking responsibility for houseplants - it slowly dawned on all of us: this might go on for a while. The inner creative restlessness didn't take long to show up.
Fortunately, one of my closest friends came around and asked if I wanted to come check out her new punk band (look up Cunte from Düsseldorf - absolutely fantastic, wonderful people). Long story short - five years later, I'm part of the punk band Clitter and I play guitar.
But why is this exactly the right time - and why is it so good for you?
1. Brain Training - Cool, Not Pathological
After work - Feierabend - you're forced to use your brain for something completely different. Brain training, basically, but make it cool and not pathological.
2. Music as Therapy (Free of Charge)
Writing your own music (or even just agreeing on a cover song) forces you to check in with yourself. How are you feeling right now, what's annoying you, what made you sad, what was good, what was weird, who did you meet - and so on and so forth. If you're lucky enough to surround yourself with the right people on top of that, you end up with an intimate space where you can process pretty much anything. The most irritating things from the day, the month, the year - suddenly bearable and survivable, at least for a moment. The ABRSM, four British Royal Schools of Music, asked over 4,000 people about this in 2025: 84% say music helps their mental health. The other 16% are probably lying.
3. Your Own World
You're not just making music - you're building your own little world. When you've spent the whole day malochen - grinding away in the capitalist machine - it's incredibly refreshing to create something that doesn't have to answer to anyone but yourself. And ideally the other Clitters (how democratic band voting actually works is a question I may or may not answer in my lifetime).
4. DIY aka Being Allowed to Be a Beginner
DIY - something I'd almost forgotten in the midst of digitisation and constant access to professional tools, software, machines. How useful it is for creativity to be limited in your means. That's exactly what a band project offers, no matter what you're an expert in - there will always be something you've never done before. I love machine embroidery, I work with digital file creation every day and have access to the most expensive professional tools the industry has to offer. Does any of that help me record songs? Or organise gigs? Nope. Basically: band projects are potential for completely new rabbit holes - and those refresh the mind enormously.
5. Skillsharing With Actual Skills
Skillsharing hits harder when you've already got a few years of experience in something. Clitter was from the beginning a band with rough songs, a lack of timing - but plenty of merch. Where embroidery usually blows every budget, we could deliver premium from day one. There's always something in a band that you've never done before - and always someone who's done exactly that. Usually, anyway.
6. Remember the Cool Kids at 16? Exactly.
Hand on heart - who actually wants to be 16 again? Not me. With all the stress and focus on other things, most of the teenage drama has fallen away, and how you show up is shaped more by who you are than who you thought you wanted to be. And besides: remember the cool kids in school? Ever checked what they do today? Exactly. According to my own statistics, the cool kids are now mostly the conformists, and a lot of it was genuinely just a phase. Life is considerably more relaxed, and leaves more room for others and other things, when the world doesn't revolve around you and when you care less and less about what society expects of you.
7. Punk Is Solidarity
Solidarity. You've seen enough by now - environmental disasters, political disasters, social injustices - to know that looking away isn't an option. Sometimes it's genuinely exhausting and drains every last bit of energy alongside everything else in daily life (which, as a privileged cis woman, should stay relatively manageable). BUT: you also have more tools than you did at 14. Your own income. A real network. A vote. Punk was never just music. It was always also a decision about which side you're on.
The Dead Serious Tees are here. Clitter has merch now - and it says who you are without you having to explain it. Embroidered, limited, made to last.
To Wrap It Up
It was a teenage dream I never really thought through. Then life happened - and here I am anyway. Guitar in a punk band, merch that says who you are without you having to explain it, people around me I wouldn't want to miss. Times are chaotic, they always were and always will be. But you get to decide what you do with that. (You don't have to be a millennial to start a band, by the way - wink.)
So: go forth and form bands. Fight fascism. Be loud. Stay weird. We still have so much to do.
Clitter on Instagram @clitter_punk and Bluesky @clitterpunk.
FAQ
Is it too late to start a band in your 30s?
No. If anything, your 30s are better for it. You have more patience, more skills, more self-awareness, and significantly less interest in what other people think. The drama-to-music ratio improves considerably after 25.
Do I need musical experience to start a band?
Not really. Most bands figure it out as they go - and the ones that started with everyone already being great at their instrument are usually the most boring ones anyway. Clitter started with rough songs and a lot of merch. You work with what you've got.
How do you find time for a band with a full-time job?
You don't find it, you carve it out. One rehearsal a week is enough to start. The point isn't to be a full-time musician - the point is to have something that's yours, that has nothing to do with deliverables and quarterly reviews.
What do I actually need to start a band?
One other person who's up for it. That's it. The instruments, the rehearsal space, the songs - all of that comes after. The hardest part is asking.
Does a band have to play live?
No. Some bands write music for years before they play a gig. Some never play live at all. The value isn't in the performance - it's in the process. Though playing live does something to you that's hard to replicate anywhere else.
What kind of music should we play?
Whatever you actually want to listen to. Don't start a jazz band because it sounds sophisticated. Don't start a punk band because it seems easy (it isn't). Start with what moves you - the genre figures itself out.