A lot of these people have day jobs, you know.

(In the Thick of It (Alex Proimos) / CC BY 2.0)

One thing about being part of the underground music scene is the fact that a lot of these people have day jobs that pay the bills, and music is what they do with the time they have left. I would imagine that means they have extraordinarily little spare time, since they're professionals when it comes to their music. It really must take a lot of drive to succeed.

I may make this a recurring column if there's interest in this. Basically, I just want to share what the day jobs are of a few musicians you all know and love.

Erica Dunham of Unter Null is a pastry chef. Her baking business, Unterbites, focuses heavily on bacon and has a whole section of the merchandise devoted to it. I have yet to try her pastries, but I'm definitely interested. She does have a number of good reviews from her customers.

Brittany Bindrim of I:Scintilla is a graphic designer by trade. She has a degree in graphic design, and she does all the physical artwork for the band. Considering her talent in that field, I've pitched the idea on their Facebook page that she make a Tumblr or another site totally devoted to her artwork. I don't lie when I say that I look forward to the album cover artwork just as much as the music.

Sam Rosenthal of Black Tape for a Blue Girl owns and manages the Projekt independent record label. Prominent artists include Aurelio Voltaire and Android Lust. Owning and running a record label sounds like a lot of work to me. I wonder how Mr. Rosenthal has the time.

I know what it's like to have to work to make ends meet while having something very important and time-consuming in the background. So I can definitely sympathize with these people who probably have insane schedules and little time to just vegetate. A lot of people seem to think that being a musician means you get to just hang out and perfect your art all the time, but that only happens once you get to a certain level of fame and fortune. Before you get there, unless you have someone else doing the work of keeping the lights on and food on the table, it can be a real grind.