What else do you do for money if you do something else?

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Brian
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What else do you do for money if you do something else?

Post by Brian » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:26 am

Many of us have other "jobs", some have other "businesses", some prefer a "complete getaway" for a while. Some have ideas to keep themselves flush with the green stuff!
Watcha got? Help a brother out!
Harumph!

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Post by mpedrummer » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:28 am

Through a long series of conincidences and "right place right times", I started a job answering phones and 2 years later, I'm employeed full-time as a database and web application programmer for a fairly large Enterprise Maintenance (rent-a-geek, for hardware, at a large-corporation (Fortune 500) level) building custom web applications and such for them.

While that all sounds very boring, it boils down to large-scale projects that involve lots of thinking, and my boss rocks. He actually understands that there's going to be weeks that I have nothing concrete to show, despite working 50+ hours.

As far as integrating into the music life goes, it's pretty great. I make my own hours (within reason), and work remotely, so I can be on the road and pull out the laptop. Excellent.

That, and health insurance really makes me feel like a grownup ;)

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JGriffin
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Post by JGriffin » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:22 pm

I'm lucky enough to be employed full-time as a recordist, actually. I work for an ad agency that has an in-house production facility and I'm the audio guy. We have a ProTools HD system and I do all of the radio and some of the TV mixes.

I also own a small production company that does sound design for theatre, music recording, independent films, and has a line of sound effects CDs.
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Post by Disasteradio » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:48 pm

as well odd TV & DVD composing or mix jobs I'm a stained glass cementer / polisher.. uh, I'm kinda like the mastering engineer for leadlights. (that's what I keep telling myself, heh..)

It's one of the filthiest jobs I've come across.. but not as bad as our Guitar-Centre-A-Like I pulled minimum wage from for five months.

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;ivlunsdystf
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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:54 pm

Sorry to beat the Eric Clapton thing even deader, but wasn't he a stained glass artisan before the guitar thing got going?

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Post by mjau » Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:26 pm

I work for a local history museum, writing grants and finding ways to bring in money. It's good work, but I miss grad school and will probably go back in a few years with the ultimate goal of teaching international relations or comparative politics at the college level. For now, I leave work at 5pm and don't think about it again until the next morning, so there's some time for music otherwise.

John Jeffers
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Post by John Jeffers » Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:08 pm

I stare at a computer screen all day long and occasionally make it do interesting things. I'd love to do the recording thing full time, but...ever heard of "golden handcuffs"?

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Post by kayagum » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:59 pm

Back in the early 90's, there were no jobs. So I started working for theater companies (everything from "Spearholder #2" to tech to eventually sound design) and temp'ed during the day to cover the bills.

Well, the temp gig eventually led me to my current job, designing finance datamarts for a bank. Although I stopped doing theater for a while (mostly because I couldn't stand many of the people), I have two theater gigs that I'm excited about for 2006.

My girlfriend often reminds me that I have the option of turning down bad gigs and still pay bills. It's nice to pick gigs for artistic fufillment.

I know many people on this board are down on hobbyists, but I think there's room for people who do music and art to make better music and art, not just to make rent. People can also make better music and art, and use the proceeds to pay rent too. Whatever works! (Even Einstein was a patent clerk in Switzerland when he came up with his theory of relativity).

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Post by mertmo » Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:14 pm

I work some of the time for a company that does acid staining of concrete floors. Pretty wacky sometimes, dealing with construction trades, and we all have to wear respirators 'cause some of what we do is pretty goddamn toxic.

But the recording work is finally starting to pay which is blowing my mind in a great way. It's because I finally opened a proper studio after twelve + years of freelancing with my mobile rig and/or working at someone else's place. Everyone used to tell me, "if you build it they will come" and I knew they were right but it took me a long time to trust myself. As soon as I committed to opening a place, I had work lining up, the place wasn't even up and running yet!

Now the next challenge is learning to trust myself with writing and playing my own music...

I've written and recorded at least 3 records worth of material that everyone else seems to love, but for some reason I have never been able to really put it out there.
Life is a strange beast, no doubt about it.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, staining concrete... 8)

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Post by allbaldo » Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:05 am

I'm doing a couple of days a week doing data entry and filing for an adoption agency on a project that will end in a month or so. I have my studio 3 days a week, and other engineers have it the rest of the time. I hope to move to 4 days a week soon, and keep it there. I'll spend the rest of the time with the kids, and hopefully retain some perspective.

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Post by lsn110 » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:02 am

I work as a Database Administrator. I know the "Golden Handcuffs" well. As of late, I've begun vegetable farming on my mother-in-law's farm, which is a break even venture at the moment. I'd love to farm full time though.

I had come to realize while flirting with recording commercially, that I would have had to compromise far too often with regards to who I was recording, so I abandoned the thought. Now I record much less, but have more time for my projects and have the luxury of handpicking the other folks I record.

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bannerj
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Post by bannerj » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:22 am

I teach sixth grade language arts and miss grad school too.

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ubertar
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Post by ubertar » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:38 am

My steady work is teaching kids how to build electric guitars and amplifiers from scratch (they even coil the pickups), how to play, then how to compose, record/mix/edit their work. Here are some of my former students making guitars.

Aside from that, I do some freelance composition stuff-- right now I'm doing the score for a psychological horror flick. When that's done, I'm going to start a business making and selling some instruments.

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Post by mjau » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:48 am

bannerj wrote:I teach sixth grade language arts and miss grad school too.
I used to teach - 7th and 8th grade. Fun - but really exhausting - and I miss it quite a bit. I taught social studies.

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surf's up
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Post by surf's up » Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:29 pm

I play poker for cash. It has quickly become boring and frustrating, but Im sure that could be said of most other jobs I could get. I was just about to finish college, but I switched to a new major (physics) which will take a few more years, after which I hope to get a job involving acoustics, sound, or maybe electronics, something that can be a companion to my recording hobby.

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