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Feelin’ the blues? Let this tale of rock n’ roll resurgence revive your spirit.

In 1990 Alice in Chains burst onto the music scene with their dark, grunge sound and the unique harmonizing style of guitarist Jerry Cantrell and lead vocalist Layne Staley.

By 1996 the Seattle band had released three top-selling studio albums, a trio of EPs, and corralled legions of fans with songs such as “Man in a Box,” “Rooster,” and “Down in a Hole.”  The future looked as bright as the stage lights until Staley added his name to the long, sad list of musicians with lives cut short when he died of a drug overdose in 2002.

At that point, as far as Cantrell and his bandmates were concerned, the last chapter of Alice in Chains had been written.

As the years passed the surviving members of the band began jamming, and eventually began kicking around the idea of recording again. In 2009 Alice in Chains released a new CD–their first in 14 years—as a tribute to their fallen friend. Touring in support of the now-certified gold record, the band recently released their fourth single from the album.

Cantrell handles much of the lead vocal work on “Black Turns Into Blue” along with newcomer William DuVall. But before the album’s release there were many skeptical fans of the opinion that no one could match Staley’s stage presence, personality, and especially his amazing vocal range. Cantrell himself knew this to be true. He also knew he couldn’t let that stop him.

In interviews Cantrell explained how he found the confidence to reunite the band and tackle the microphone despite the long shadow cast by his friend. He remembered how Staley had believed in him and regularly encouraged him as a singer—an unusual trait in a business often dominated by paranoid, ego-laden frontmen. Cantrell recalled one particular poignant exchange:

Jerry Cantrell: “I just can’t sing like you, man.”

Layne Staley: “Well then learn to sing better.”

After several years of mourning, Cantrell took that advice to heart and got to work writing and recording; the ghost of his friend as his muse and inspiration. But it was also about a new beginning and letting go of the past.

The band recorded the title track in the studio with none other than Elton John on piano. (In a full-circle twist of fate, the first concert Staley had ever attended was an Elton John show.)

In an interview with Spin, Cantrell said,  “(Stuff) happens and things are not going to work out the way you want them to all the time in life. You get knocked (down), like you inevitably will, and it’s really about how you go about picking yourself back up. This is our process, this is what we’re doing.”

It’s a great story of a band that found its way back from the brink. There will always be others better than you.  But that shouldn’t discourage you from improving your abilities and honing your strengths and talents. You have a right to do your thing. There will always be reasons to quit–and people encouraging it–but that doesn’t mean you have to listen.

Somewhere there’s an audience that needs what you’ve got, and a stage waiting for you to step up and give it your all.

Many of us know the importance of maintaining our own personal brands. From Twitter and Facebook, to business cards and personal brochures, we’ve heard the message.  Determine your brand—and own the space—as business today is all about niche marketing.

But what happens when there’s more to you than just one brand? What if you are a polished finance-type during the week but on Saturday nights front a hard rock band? Maybe you’re in marketing by day but a writer of trashy romance novels at night, or perhaps you pay the rent as a department manager while off hours auditioning for theater roles.

How should a person effectively manage more than one personal brand, or dual identity, without jeopardizing career prospects or compromising artistic pursuits? Let’s look at some real-world examples.

Be upfront

By day, Juliette Mutzke-Felippelli works in PR in Orange County, CA. But when the sun goes down she’s part of a husband-and-wife DJ team pumping out the hottest House and Techno mixes in clubs from Rio to New York. Mutzke-Felippelli believes the best bet is to be straight up about her two roles and show how they are not only compatible, but offer a strategic advantage.

“At my job interview I was asked to bring in press releases I’d written, so I showed examples from my DJ/music producing project,” Mutzke-Felippelli says. “I also got to show off my experience in designing and managing the social media profiles that I use.”

Mutzke-Felippelli has found a way to combine her two brands, and the skills she learns in one complement the other. “As a DJ in my free time I can practice the skills I’m learning in PR and social media to enhance exposure for my side project, which makes me better at what I do in all areas.”

Jeff Perry of Minneapolis-St. Paul is another believer in marketing the different facets of one’s life. He bills himself on Linkedin as a “Recruitment advertising executive by day and a professional, conservatory-trained musician by night.” Perry advises those with alter-egos to look for employers that are compatible with your artist brand and to showcase the advantages your talents bring to the table.

“I used to think a music degree and the skills that go with it—composition, performance, improvisation, arrangement, project management—was not valuable in the business world until I realized one thing: good companies don’t seem to complain when someone has imagination and knows how to apply it. For musicians and other artists this is second nature.”

Christine Tieri, Creative Director of Smith & Jones advertising in Boston, agrees. “For many years, we employed a graphic designer who was one of the most professional, talented and buttoned-down employees by day, but also played bass in a very successful hardcore band,” Tieri says. The same creativity, energy, and team work he brought to the band he also brought to the office.  “Our clients actually thought it was pretty cool he was on our staff, and they loved him.”

Keep it undercover

Not everyone wants their off-hours activities under the purview of their employer, however. Performers and writers have have long used a stage name or nom de plume to indulge the artist within and avoid potential reprisals.

Michael Lovas is a business consultant in Spokane, Washington. But when he’s not speaking or coaching professionals and entrepreneurs on building credibility and emotional intelligence, he plays drums in a blues/funk band where he’s known by the moniker “Psycho” to the musicians and bikers he relaxes with.

“I associate with some pretty strange looking people,” Lovas says. “It doesn’t serve anyone to co-mingle the identities. I had a stage name long before the internet, and as I bump into people who knew me back then, it’s always a surprise when I realize that don’t know what my real name is. I kind of like the anonymity.”

But what if you already use your given name in your weekend band but don’t want to have to water down your rocker persona for the corporate world?  Here’s a tip to promote your band while keeping yourself below the radar. “You can circumvent the search engines by creating a JPG art work incorporating the names of the band members,” says William Howard, a marketing and communications professional in Charlotte, NC.  “Make sure the name of the JPG file doesn’t include your name to keep it from being discovered in an image search.” People searching for the band will find it— and see your glam-rock self—but the site won’t come up when that finance recruiter searches your name on Monday.

Leverage the unusual

Vanessa Holmes, a London-based Brand Development Director, sees an alter-ego as a way of differentiating oneself in the marketplace. Holmes has a friend who is a dapper healthcare economist and college lecturer. However, in his off hours he communes with the hereafter through tarot card readings and séances. At first these identities appear to contradict one another. But Holmes realized economics and fortune telling both involve predicting human behavior based on making observations.  “Since this is his personal brand we are talking about, all aspects of his character seem equally important so we figured one area could potentially inform the other,” Holmes says.

They let the professor’s dual identity out of the bag and as it turned out, the professor’s undergraduate students liked the idea of attending a séance delivered in a more intellectual way, one that demystified illusions and explored their fascination with the unknown.  And what of his peers and business associates? “We found that a little bit of magic can certainly help liven up business meetings and economic presentations,” Holmes says.

If you can find compatible ideas that can guide both your day and evening jobs this can help make you a more interesting person in both endeavors and you will probably feel more satisfied not having to be at war with yourself.

“Authenticity and relevance are of the utmost importance in personal branding today,” Holmes says. “The trick is to find a way of communicating one’s personality, skills and interests in cohesive, well differentiated and meaningful ways.”

The Grateful Dead have managed to stick around long enough to see many self-professed “Deadheads” reach the upper echelons of the media, academia, and politics. There is at least one book and business school course  on how to learn from the  band’s “long strange trip” of successes–and mistakes. In this clip, guitarist Bob Weir talks to CNBC about the band’s business decisions.