Denney Joints, 34, has lived out of his minivan for about a year and a half in the Bay Area of California. Before this, he lived in the Tenderloin district. After his rent spiked dramatically, he had three choices: either leave the Bay Area, where he's lived all his life, work much longer hours, or live out of his van. He said he loves the Bay Area and the people he knows in it, and he wanted more time and creative space to work on his music, so he chose the latter and enjoys it. Denney is one half of the Bay Area band Deth of the Cool, and said his significantly lower cost of living now gives him more time to work on music. He makes most of his money through doing odd jobs through TaskRabbit, and also sells drawings and his music, and sometimes plays gigs with his band and others. He said the confined space forces him to focus, and he loves the freedom of being able to take it anywhere.

Denney Joints smokes a joint he rolled in his van June 2, 2019.

Denney relaxes in his van while a couple does the same on the bank of Emeryville Marina, where he sometimes stays for the night. He said the location is beautiful and the bathrooms and nearby gas stations are 24-hour.

Denney meets up with Sean Valentine, the other half of Deth of the Cool, at his Oakland apartment. After a client rescheduled a small job (fixing the bed frame of a dominatrix) Denney was set to do, Denney and Sean decided to meet up for the day to work on some music and hang out.

Sean plays Denney's 12-string guitar and they sing at the bank of Lake Merritt, where they often go to practice. Most of their most recent album's music focuses on political and social issues in the Bay Area. Denney also wrote and performs a song about living out of his car.

Denney rolls a joint on his guitar case while he and Sean practice at Merritt Lake.

Sean plays violin and Denney plays the 12-string guitar while they practice at Merritt Lake in Oakland, California.

Denney plays with a caterpillar he found on his knee while he and Sean were playing music. When not playing music, Denney seemed to be always playing with something with restless hands.

Denney and Sean look out over Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. Denney said they often hang out there, and once filmed a music video there. He said his friend Kiyomi is buried there, after dying in an Oakland condo fire. He has also written songs about the prevalence of Oakland condo fires.

Sean relaxes in the grass among gravestones at the top of a hill at Mountain View Cemetery.

Denney drives through Mountain View Cemetery, drinking a coffee, talking about music, and pointing out the gravestones of notable musicians who are buried there.

Sean hands Denney a joint as they look out over the top of Grizzly Peak, one of their favorite lookout points.

Sean plays violin while police talk to a car full of young people drinking and smoking on top of Grizzly Peak. Denney and Sean played to kill time while they waited for the police to leave, as Denney didn't want to open his van in front of them and show the missing seats and sleeping pads and raise any questions. While he hasn't had issues with police over living in his car, he prefers not to call law enforcement's attention to it.

Denney plays the 12-string guitar while Sean plays the violin on top of Grizzly Peak.

Sean and Denney walk back up to the lookout point after scrabbling down the hill a bit.

Kazem Zia Ebrehimi, friend of Denney's and bartender at Telegraph beer garden in Oakland laughs with Denney at Telegraph.

Denney walks to where his van is parked for the night in Oakland, close to one of his friends' houses. A few other people were also sleeping in cars there.

Denney puts his keys on a backseat shelf and starts clearing his sleeping area for the night.

Denney puts up cardboard over his windows at night for privacy, and to keep some of the light out in the morning. He opts for this over curtains, because they are easily removed and keep his vehicle from being as obviously lived-in to passersby during the day.

Denney reaches to turn off the car light while he gets ready to go to sleep. "This is punk to me, this is freedom," he said. "If I couldn't do this, I'd have to leave or I'd have to work more and make less music. I want to make weird Bay Area [music] because that's what I grew up on and I loved it. I want other people to be able to, also."