Day Jobs (or what else you do apart from engineering)

[Int'l Feel]

9-5. Software. 100% non-music/art-related. Usually that sucks, but at the same time, it gives freshness and perspective to my "hobby."

Definitely coming from the same place here. I handle cell phones for an IT company. Nothing music-related about it, except getting acquainted with T-Mobile's and Verizon's hold jams. I can't complain though. Having steady income+benefits after college is a rare thing and I'm extremely fortunate to be in this situation.

I've dabbled in sound design for a friend's theatre company. They want to do a rock opera. Guess I have to dust off Bat out of Hell...

[Nate Dort]

Full-time product designer (PCB layout, chassis design, prototyping, etc.) for an audio hardware company, primarily dealing with location sound recording for film/tv. Part-time freelance electronics technician, doing repairs and mods to new & vintage gear.

[LupineSound]

I work in IT as well. Not music related in the least :-\

At least it allows me to buy studio toys.

[iamthecosmos]

9-5. Software. 100% non-music/art-related. Usually that sucks, but at the same time, it gives freshness and perspective to my "hobby."

Definitely coming from the same place here. I handle cell phones for an IT company. Nothing music-related about it, except getting acquainted with T-Mobile's and Verizon's hold jams. I can't complain though. Having steady income+benefits after college is a rare thing and I'm extremely fortunate to be in this situation.

Yeah, I'm stuck with needing the regular pay and benefits, which means recording and being in a band for almost entirely the rest of my time. I'd really like to shift one of those back to being full time but it's tough. Even very experienced techs and live sound engineers I know are struggling for work (for months at a time with some which used to be unheard of).

[nobody, really]

I used to do lighting for theatre and live sound. now i am a full time carpenter with more work than i can handle. my ears are going to hell, and my hands are getting f'd up. but hey, when it finally comes time to build my little studio, it's going to be baddass!

[gregovertone]

i teach guitar / bass / music / studio stuff out of my basement studio

beyond that, i run a teen center / venue for kids in the town.

[cgarges]

The way of making a living in music/production at the "less than Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones" level is usually the way of diversification.

I would definitely say so. Unless you're playing in a cover band that works high-dollar private gigs fairly regulary, or unless you're in an original band that tours A BUNCH and plays in front of lots of people, you're probably doing a bunch of different stuff. That's certainly been the case with me since I started playing professionally in 1986.

I probably split my time evenly between playing and recording. My last two "day jobs" were studio staff engineer jobs. Before that, I worked three different music retail jobs in the mid 90s and taught a bit back then, too. My last non-music-related day job was in 1994.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[tonewoods]

I cut up big trees and stick them into little boxes and send them to folks who make wonderful musical instruments...

Here's my site...



But I'd rather be recording...

[Int'l Feel]

Yeah, I'm stuck with needing the regular pay and benefits, which means recording and being in a band for almost entirely the rest of my time. I'd really like to shift one of those back to being full time but it's tough. Even very experienced techs and live sound engineers I know are struggling for work (for months at a time with some which used to be unheard of).

It definitely gets difficult with a 9-5. I work solo now (musically), so it's especially hard to find the motivation to get things on tape some days. Because I'm basically doing the music and recording thing for myself at this point.

I tried getting into the jingle house thing, but it didn't pan out. You send those guys a badass 80s groove jam and they don't give you an interview...Probably took my pseudo-Michael McDonald backing vocals seriously?

BTW iamthecosmos, really glad to see some Gene Clark on this board. Dillard & Clark is probably the most played group in my iTunes.

[thethingwiththestuff]

Yeah, diversification is the only way to get by without a day job. I work live sound at two clubs (about 15 nights every month), teach a handful of drum students, record a couple of records a year, sound design for small theater companies and college programs a couple times a year, and usually do 2 musical theater productions a year. Once I give up on performing and touring as a musician, I'll devote myself to touring live sound and/or try to join IATSE (stagehands union).

It sure would be nice to have a single 9-5, though I'd get bored fast. I do sometimes worry about splitting focus over so many fields, and would like one of these income streams to really do well and allow me stop some of the other ones..

[trodden]

After taking a 3 year break, i'm back to the 8-5 legal secretary biz.... Boring yet easy... and healthcare. Started that gig a couple months ago..

I left that field in 2008 for a "tech" job and then was laid off right before the economy TANKED.

Spent the 2.5 years recording, moving my studio and rebuilding it, screen printing, landscaping, cooking at a bar and whatever odd jobs I could find, scraping by...

I'm also a part time production assistant for KEXP.

Finally got my new place up and running and ran into a lot of broken gear problems that put me out of recording an additional 3 months on top of the 6-7 spent building out my new place..

Was offered and took the current legal job with the state, and my studio got REALLY BUSY, of course. Between the day job, my studio, KEXP, and the band i'm playing in.. I've been working 14-16 hours a day, 7 days a week for the past two months and its killing me....

[Gregg Juke]

Feast or Famine...

GJ

[iamthecosmos]

BTW iamthecosmos, really glad to see some Gene Clark on this board. Dillard & Clark is probably the most played group in my iTunes.

Amazing record, very hard to find any information about the recording of it. There's a tune he did in the 80's called Dark Of My Moon that's easily one of the best songs I've ever heard.

Back to the thread, has anyone made the leap from secure employment and been happy with the decision? I'm looking at what other relevant services I can get into that don't involve touring.

[cgarges]

Back to the thread, has anyone made the leap from secure employment and been happy with the decision? I'm looking at what other relevant services I can get into that don't involve touring.

This might not be exactly what you're asking about, but quitting my last studio staff job (almost ten years ago) was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had spent some time posturing for it (my boss set me up for it by making it difficult to book studio time for projects I was bringing in, so I started booking stuff elsewhere outside of my normal hours there), so when I made the decision to quit, I had about two months' worth of work. I just wasn't sure what would happen after that, but it's been going okay for the last decade or so.

It was a great studio and I learned a lot working there, but I was certainly able to take what I had learned to other places. There was a lot I enjoyed about that job, but I wasn't getting paid any more than I could make doing freelance stuff on a good month and getting out from under that particular boss really changed my outlook on things. (I also met my wife around this time.) I had just gotten to a really dark and depressing place working there. A lot of what I was doing was kind of soul-sucking and I rarely felt appreciated for the hard work I put into what was assigned to me. (None of us there at the time did.) I got to where I felt bitter about a lot of things. I thought the music scene here sucked, I wasn't happy with a lot of the gigs I was doing, and I felt bad about this kind of "superior engineering type" attitude that permeated that particular studio. I didn't realize that a lot of this attitude and the person I was becoming was really related to working there. So when I was finally able to move on, it was really eye-opening. Like I said, a number of things changed for the better around that time, but quitting that particular job was a really great thing.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[joelpatterson]

Ummm... nothing else, this is it, I'm afraid. There's a tremendous quantity of concerts happening in my little corner of the world, and I've been fairly vicious in pursuing all of their music directors-- and once you get into their orbit, and onto their schedules, the rising tide lifts your boat. I continuously try to break into the interview/feature production world, but I worry that my innately sarcastic/comedian nature and cutting-edginess works against me, especially with the wimpy, conformist creeps I solicit for work. Very mysterious!