What's New

"Musicians and Addiction: Research and Recovery Stories" examines the enormous vulnerability musicians have towards addiction and dependency issues and offers suggestions and practical advice. The book commences with a literature review, surveying academic research focused on the pressures faced by musicians and other contributory factors. Excerpts from published autobiographies are woven into the discussion to illuminate the points being made. The book then presents a series of personal recovery stories from musicians which have been specially written for the project. The final section presents practical advice from a range of experts, targeted at both musicians and organisations that employ musicians. The book potentially has relevance to visual artists, novelists and other creative people.

Dr Paul Saintilan is the CEO of Music Australia, the peak advocacy body for the Australian music industry. He first studied with the late Australian music composer Peter Sculthorpe and went on to work as an international Marketing Director at EMI Music and Universal Music in London in the 1990s. He has a PhD from Deakin University and has published a textbook with Routledge. In the 1990s he partied hard, and then decided to drink his way through a marriage breakup in 1999. This triggered an addiction problem that was ultimately solved through AA initially teaching him some hard lessons about addiction, and then finding Buddhism which sublimated sobriety and made it beautiful for him. In 2008 he hosted a gathering at Cannon Beach, Oregon,of Buddhist teachers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and addiction researchers, interested in using Buddhist practices to address the suffering caused by addictive behaviours. This meeting ultimately led to the creation of the Buddhist Recovery Network,a non-profit international organisation. He served as the inaugural Chairman of the organisation, during which time a website was established, www.buddhistrecovery.org and the organisation was incorporated with IRS tax deductible status in the USA. He also co-hosted the 2009 International Buddhist Recovery Network Conference at Against The Stream in Los Angeles. In 2019 he was 16 years sober.