Who do you actually think of when you feel like giving up on your creative work?

Not some aspirational figure pulled from a shelf, but the person who shows up in your mind, unbidden, when things feel too hard or too quiet or not enough.

This week, I brought the topic and Breallyn only found out after the recording had begun. The question I asked sent each of us somewhere quite different: I thought of musicians whose lives and music became inseparable, precisely because of past trauma and adversity. Sam Baker, who rebuilt his career after a terrorist bombing left him with hearing loss and a mangled hand; Nathan Cavalieri, the guitar prodigy who found himself unable to get on stage due to crippling anxiety. Breallyn went somewhere quieter, to Melbourne writers with full lives and extraordinary creative output, and ultimately, to someone closer to home.

Oh, and we also introduce you to our newest character, The Petty Postie! 

You might want to listen if:

• You’ve ever found yourself thinking about another artist when you needed to get back to your own work

• You’ve had to renegotiate what success looks like: or you’re in the middle of doing that right now

• You’ve wondered whether the hardest parts of your life are getting in the way of your art, or quietly shaping it

Sam Baker Website

Nathan Cavaleri Website

Ryan Adams Official

Pain In The Arts is a weekly podcast about the reality of creative life: hosted by Breallyn and Lyndon Wesley. One of them never knows the topic until recording begins.

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Theme music by Lyndon Wesley

Produced on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country.

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