7 Musicians You Wouldn’t Expect To Run Their Own Business
Haircuts, whisky, comics and more.
Musicians tend to be a resourceful, driven and creative bunch, so it’s not surprising that for a lot of them music doesn’t satisfy the itch.
While Dr Dre’s Beats and Jay Z’s Tidal may have been drilled into your mind, other artists run successful companies that don’t get as much exposure and don’t really have too much to do with music.
N'fa Jones
Let’s get this thing into gear with some local talent. Melbourne’s N’fa Jones, who has a strong solo career as well as history with 1200 Techniques, recently opening Café Kalimba. The Northcote hangout opened this week and looks amazing. Savoury waffles, homemade granola and more, with coffee brewed by the one and only N’fa Jones. It’s located at 8/57 Victoria Rd.
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Drapht
Fellow Aussie hip-hop legend Drapht, aka Paul Ridge, has also ventured into the café business, opening Solomon's Café in his hometown of WA back in 2013. The Organic wholefoods restaurant explains why he disappeared between albums. He's mastered the craft when it comes to music, and it seems he's done the same with food. This food looks awesome. What is it about hip-hop and café food that works so well together?
Ta-ku
We’ll stay within the Perth hip-hop scene for a minute, but deviate from the food and drink industry. Beats maestro Ta-ku, otherwise known as Regan Matthews, opened Westons Barbershop & Shave Parlour in Northbridge last July. They offer beard trimming, shaving, style cuts and more. Westons Barbershop for a trim followed by Solomon's Café for lunch?
Rick Burch (Jimmy Eat World)
We’ll take a side step here into the realm of pop punk and venture to the US. While whiskey and music go quite well together, they’re completely different beasts, which is why it’s admirable that Jimmy Eat World bassist Rick Burch is in the process of opening a distillery in Arizona with friends called CaskWerks Distilling Co.
“The format of making a beverage is another creative format. It’s something humans have been doing for thousands of years but can still be very creative in that realm. It also puts a smile on your face, that finished product,” Burch told theMusic.com.au last August.
It will specialise in whiskey, cider and gin.
Gin Run Number One doneIt smells so good in here!!!
Posted by CaskWerks on Tuesday, September 1, 2015
tom delonge and david kennedy (Angels & Airwaves)
The internet blew up at the start of the year when founding Blink-182 singer/guitarist Tom Delonge departed the band through a series of interesting Facebook posts and exclusive interviews. The remaining two members, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, claimed Delonge no longer had the same drive and wasn’t committing enough time to the band.
While it was hard to know what to take away from their blow out, Delonge is definitely a busy man and has been owning and running companies for years. Up until recently, he owned shoe company Macbeth, and used to own Atticus clothing before that. On top of working on new music with Angels & Airwaves, he’s also been working on a number of short animated films, novels and more. And he still finds time to run LA-based store To The Stars, which sells comics, clothing, art and more.
Some of his motivation and vision must have rubbed off on Angels & Airwaves guitarist David Kennedy, who opened coffee shop James Coffee Co.
Monday pour overs!
Posted by James Coffee Co on Monday, September 14, 2015
Oli Sykes (Bring Me The Horizon)
If it’s good enough for Noel Fielding, it’s good enough for you.
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