Take This Job And Keep It Part 2

Another job that's surprisingly common among Prog musicians is software programmer. Original Dixie Dregs Bassist, Andy West is one. That's how he makes his living now. His musical activities are now part-time. ProgRock records artist, Zen Rock And Roll is another one. His real name escapes me for the moment, but I've read an interview somewhere. In it, he reveals that programming pays the bills.

Now I'll tell you about the Prog musician who has what I think is the coolest non-music job. Roger Powell was the keyboardist for Utopia. That's right, it's Todd Rundgren's old band. After Utopia broke up in the late 80's, he started doing programming. He started out working for the company that was going to put the WaveFrame. This was going to be one of those mega-expensive sampling music computers. It would compete with the Synclavier and the Fairlight. The WaveFrame never came out, and Synclavier and the Fairlight bit the dust. Eventually, Roger found himself working for Macromedia on a Video Editing software. Apple then bought the project from Macromedia along with its programmers. Roger Powell's current title is something like, Senior Software Engineer, Lead, Professional Applications. He's basically in charge of Final Cut Studio.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

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