Artistic practice has a well-established presence in graduate research training. Extant writing on creative arts doctorates considers various issues, ranging from policy and process requirements to programme design, and the nature of the text itself. In the disciplinary domain of music, narrative accounts are often employed to explore doctoral candidates' decisions to pursue practice-based doctorates. This article builds on this approach by comparing and contrasting the experiences of three creative and performing arts doctoral candidates from Australia. It describes their attraction to the doctorate and their motives for undertaking doctoral study, with the aim of enhancing our understanding of arts industry professionals as graduate research candidates.