Can a corporate day job actually save your creative freedom?

Melbourne guitarist and digital marketer Neil Boland has spent years straddling two worlds — playing gigs on weekends, running SEO consultancies on weekdays, and funding his music career entirely through work that has nothing to do with music. He’s part of what he calls the 99% of musicians who don’t make a living from their instrument alone. And he’s completely at peace with it.

In this episode, Lyndon and Breallyn sit down with Neil to talk about the practical reality of building a creative life on a working wage – how a redundancy payout from a music store bought him his Martin guitar, how his corporate skills made him a better bandleader, and why the musicians who end up playing for big artists are often the ones who spent years playing other people’s music in covers bands rather than waiting to be discovered.

Neil also gets unexpectedly candid about not having it together as much as his Instagram suggests – recording this episode between day jobs, rebuilding a freelance consultancy in a tough economic climate, and still finishing an album in his spare time.

Also in this episode: the correct side of the Yarra River, the flanno rule for band aesthetics, and a Vince Gill gig in Nashville that took twelve years to turn into a client lead.

You might want to listen if:

• You have a day job and a creative life and you’re not sure whether to feel guilty about that
• You’re a musician, artist, or writer who wonders what it would actually take to fund your own work
• You want to feel less alone in the gap between how your creative life looks online and how it actually feels

Pain In The Arts is hosted by Lyndon — musician, studio owner, and producer – and Breallyn – copywriter and novelist in progress. New episodes every Tuesday.

Want to know more about Neil? Click here Who Is This Neil Boland Character?

Pain In The Arts is a weekly podcast about the reality of creative life — hosted by Breallyn and Lyndon Wesley.

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Theme music by Lyndon Wesley

Produced on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung Peoples of the Eastern Kulin

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