Let's face it — playing music doesn't always bring in the paper. Many of West Michigan's finest musicians tend to 9 to 5 jobs to pay the bills. We followed six musicians to their day jobs and found out what they do when they’re offstage.

• music issue
• slideshow

While it may not be by design, Matt Ten Clay’s workspace is fitting. Ten Clay, 32, owns, operates and sometimes lives out his recording studio, Amber Lit Audio.

• music issue

Mastodon is in every way a gargantuan presence in the metal world, so it's only fitting the band's name is that of a mammoth.

When Pennsylvania-based singer/songwriter Koji was looking for a place to write his first full-length album, he chose Grand Rapids. But why travel all the way to Grand Rapids to create such an important milestone of his career?

• Grand Rapids
• Koji
• La Dipsute
• Pyramid Scheme

Not every concert has to be the Super Bowl Halftime Show. For many, some of their most memorable music experiences happen in smaller venues, where it just feels like you're actually part of the show. 

West Michigan is chock full of untapped musical talent. If you're out and about and see one of these bands gracing a local stage, do yourself a favor — pop in and give them a listen.

Here is the rundown on West Michigan bands that are making noise in the local scene.

• music issue

Though Steve Riedell and Aarone Brink are rarely in the same room, the two just released their seventh mixtape and remixed more than 500 tracks. 

While Riedell resides in Chicago and Brink in North Carolina, the mash-up duo known as The Hood Internet spent the past six years collaborating via the real Internet, remixing tracks that cut indie-rock with underground hip-hop.

Wolff's Law is anatomist Julius Wolff's theory that states bones adapt to the amount of pressure put on them. Meaning that over time, as the amount of stress on a bone increases so does the bone's strength.

There's nothing quite like it, as Michigan's ultra-vibrant summer festival and amphitheater concert scene has demonstrated again and again. And a decade into its run as Grand Rapids' premier outdoor venue Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has again upped the ante in terms of sheer numbers and breadth of genres represented.