Big cars and big houses, hobnobbing with stars, hedonistic backstage excess and borderline insane rider requests all add to the general conception of the gloriously glamourous world of music. It is, however, only a small part of the many, many bands and artists out there who can actually make a living off their music. Eduardo Alonso from Glue have taken a look at some of the not so glamourous jobs occupied by Finnish musicians who – like everybody else – have bills to pay.

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me if I knew what Finnish musicians live off. Music, duh? Well, not really. The truth is that the market is so small in Finland that only a few musicians can make a living just playing music. Let’s see: The gold record certification is achieved after selling 15.000 copies and it is not rare seeing bands play at clubs in front of an audience of less than 100 or even 50 people.

There are not many clubs or even cities to play regularly, but there are hundreds of bands. It is a small country after all and only a handful of bands make a significant amount of money. Most of them are cheesy pop artists or artists with a long career behind them. If one is into other genres, like electronica or alternative rock, the market is so marginal minority that getting the music out is a struggle.

Rather than living a bohemian life and starving while playing small gigs, many artists take a regular nine-to-five job that offers some stability and allows them to dedicate their free time to music. Here are some examples:

Henry Sorvali plays guitar and keyboards in cult metal band Moonsorrow, which, despite the Finnish lyrics, has become popular among the metal fans around Europe. He also plays keyboards in folk metal band Finntroll and participates in several side projects, but when not working on those bands his tattoos, piercings and leather outfits can be seen in an office composing music for mobile phone games developed by Digital Chocolate. Incidentally, this is also where Juho Pääkkönen manages the QA department when not playing keyboards for glam rockers Carmen Gray. And then a big Finnish corporation like Nokia of course hosts a few rockers like Samuli Peltola of death metal band Medeia, while others have less conventional jobs, like Ninni Luhtasaari of Pintandwefall who makes some money making hats.

Many do have their careers in the music industry. Jukka Melametsä works for giant promoter Live Nation and plays guitar with legendary punk rocker Pelle Miljoona. Milla Palovaara, who once banged the drums in girl band Thee Ultra Bimboos, promotes gigs for a couple of rock clubs in Helsinki and do promotion for the label Backstage Alliance. Another drummer, Jarkko Jokelainen of The Flaming Sideburns, is a well known music writer and journalist for Finland’s main newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

The list could go on with more varied jobs and students of many disciplines showing that the life of a musician can be far less glamourous than the spotlight and the smoke machine indicate. This double life takes a lot of energy, especially for upcoming bands. A few months ago one of Peter’s new favorites, Delay Trees, were playing a late night show in Tampere which ended past 1 am, and after that the guys needed to pick up the gear and drive back home. The lucky ones had taken next day off, but I felt sorry for a couple of them who had to get up very early, after just a couple of hours of sleep, and go to work. There was no time for a good backstage party.

A regular job does not match very well with touring. Fortunately Finland is a small country and most of the distances can be covered in one day. However, when bands start playing abroad and need to organize a tour in Europe or even do some gigs in Japan, many musicians will need to devote their holidays to the band. Olli Varis of Underwater Sleeping Society (Photo) once explained to me the trick to get time free for touring: “You must have very nice bosses – and get along with them!”.

Do you know other examples? Let us know…