It can be difficult to make ends meet if you are working in the arts in 2025. Musicians, actors, poets, film directors, dancers, graphic novel artists etc must often take one or more extra jobs to make ends meet. The modern musician, in particular often needs a second source of income to keep the wolf from the door.

The most ingenious of them all must surely have been that late-great entrepreneur, The King of Rock and Soul, Solomon Burke. He started his business career cooking and selling barbecued chicken sandwiches backstage and then went on own a snow clearance business and chain of funeral parlours.

Gothenburger, Jens Lekman has slightly more modest ambitions. I am a big fan of his bitter-sweet love songs and thoroughly enjoyed this Guardian interview with him about his parallel career as a wedding singer. SEE COMMENTS FOR LINK TO ARTICLE.

“I was at a point in my life where I was searching for purpose. In this era of streaming, music has become like a scented candle. And singing at weddings is reversing that for me. I began playing weddings because I just thought it was a fun, weird thing to do. And then I realised » Continue Reading.