Love Don’t Pay the Rent

Sometimes it can be easy for us to forget that the musicians and DJs that we see in clubs are real humanoids with normal, everyday lives. All we see are the parts of their lives that revolve around music. And it’s always interesting to find out that these musicians, who can seem like celebrities when they’re behind the decks, have regular day jobs just like the rest of us schlubs.

So I thought I’d ask a few people what they do for a living and, you know, write a little story about it. That was my plan anyway. I sent an email to 20 to 30 musicians and DJs and got like, five answers. To be honest, I was pretty surprised by the poor response rate. I had a couple of them tell me that they didn’t want to “ruin the mystery.” But what I find most mysterious is why some of these musicians felt that they needed to keep their employment secret.

Having a job isn’t something that anyone needs to be ashamed of. We can’t all live in Berlin and be deadly techno artists. We can’t even all live in Berlin and be crappy minimal producers. But for some reason a lot of musicians–and ones that I think are pretty awesome–got a little touchy about the day jobs issue.

What’s the deal? Do they think that copping to having a job makes them look less cool or less successful? I’m not sure how that’s possible after Omar-S so proudly repped Ford Motor Company and his employment there. “Working in the auto trade does more than just pay the bills,” he said in an interview with Fact Magazine about his job at Ford. “This shit is more guaranteed than selling records and DJing, trust me.” Jeff Mills happily admits to running a clothing shop with his wife and dude from Adult drives big trucks.

Even the London police force is getting in on the fun by openly recruiting DJs to the force in a recent ad campaign that has posters reading “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” plastered all of the tube. “Whether your job involves mixing tracks, drinks or cement,” the poster reads, “there’s no more rewarding way to spend your free time than as a Special Constable with the Met.” 

So I didn’t really get enough material to bust out a whole article, but I did get some interesting answers from the ballsier musicians and DJs that I reached out to. The rest of you are dicks.

“I’m a courier. I drive stuff around. I’ve done lots of odd  jobs over the years… security guard, house painter, or whatever. I was working around 40-50 hours weekly until about a year a ago. In an ideal world maybe I wouldn’t need money. I dunno what I’d do for a job. Some of these jobs have been fun at times. I don’t know really.“  Convextion

“I sell fake antiques… just like my music actually.

While I think it’s perfectly healthy and almost a must to also do stuff besides music, in that perfect world I’d only be doing music related things.“ Mr Pauli

“As art students, Alex and I paid our rent by hanging up art in Haus Der Kunst München. This is a massive old building that Hitler had built to be the center of art of the whole world, he just had to take over the rest of the world… we would wander into storage spaces stuffed with over sized Nazi chairs & tables & shiver at the swastika decorations. Anyway, besides that we spent a lot of working hours wandering around the administrative office, using their phones to build up our Obsession. Chicks on Speed!

We would be drilling into the walls, hanging Breugels, Warhols or Cindy Sherman & planning excitedly. I don’t remember consuming drugs while working, some people say we hung paintings so fast, that gave us our name.“ Melissa Logan, Chicks on Speed

“Now I work at an online media company, but I’d prefer to be working in music. Before it was the case – I ran a record shop for 6 years, was dj’ing and promoting regular club nights but then vinyl sales were dropping each year and had to close the shop. It was always close to pay rent and bills–the daily struggle. Not possible to make much money from promoting and dj’ing without either being a producer too, being a cunt or being pretty self-promotion focused… Unfortunately, I’m none of those. Now, I still dj & run monthly club nights in Dublin & Poland. It’s not to make money, more to hear good music out loud….but it’s not to lose it either.“ Simon Conway, Electric City

“I’m teaching and training people (typical business people) in communication. I have education as an electronic engineer…but shifted some years ago to this kind of job. I like my job–“helping a lot of people getting more succes in their life.“ Flemming Dalum, King of the Cut

“I’m an editor (for tv and commercials and such).  When editing is slow I spend more time on music and vice versa.

I studied to become a psychiatric nurse for 2.5 years, which meant I worked full time in a psychiatric hospital for 2 years. After that I worked a few months in a galvanic factory or whatever you call that in English (I chromed chairs), and I worked a few months for the advertising department of a supermarket chain. And of course I did the lousy student jobs, like hospital laundry (free stethoscopes and scissors!), washed dishes, stuff like that.

I wouldn’t give up any of the things I’m doing now, I’m having a lot of fun as it is. The only thing that may change in that highly hypothetical ideal world without banks, landlords, taxes and mortgage loans is the insecurity. It kinda sucks never knowing how things will be in three months from now.“ Orgue Electronique

—Lina