We were lucky to catch up with Jonathan Armstead recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jonathan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

Life is full of setbacks and a creative journey is no different. As a musician coming out of college in 2010/2011, I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my music. I knew I wanted people to hear it and I knew I wanted to perform. As a kid, if you’re musically inclined like I was, you’re constantly given opportunities to perform in school plays, talent shows, concerts, etc. But they don’t really have talent shows for adults…so I had to figure something else out.

I moved to Dallas in 2011 with about $20 to my name and no clue where to even start in the music scene. I love Dallas but a decade ago Austin was probably the better destination for an aspiring musician. Over time I found a few open mic nights and began performing weekly. Some nights there would be a really solid crowd (I’ll never forget when an Occupy Wall Street group came in one night and the place went bananas), and many nights it would just be me playing to the sole bartender as he aimlessly wiped the bar down.

I would sometimes stop playing for months at a time because it felt pointless. Who was I even playing for? I tried to record music on my laptop (not my forte) and put it on SoundCloud but I had no idea how to promote it. I’d record myself playing a song and put it on YouTube or Facebook only to receive a dozen views at most. I just kept going though, not really sure what would be on the other side.

My two most unexpected problems were: (1) How do I gain momentum as a young musician in a new town? (2) Why am I really doing this?

The answer to #1 was to be creative and never stop trying. I can’t count how many bars I walked into and asked the managers if I could play. For every 10 ‘No’s’ I got 1 ‘Yes’. It’s a snowball effect if you keep it up. More doors will open.

The answer to #2 was not something I fully figured out until the last few years and I’d imagine even the most famous musicians struggle with this. When you start playing music, you do it because you love it, but it’s easy to get jaded and for it to stop being fun. Over time playing music became more about ‘getting seen’ and even felt like I was just ‘showing off’ at times. That might not make sense, but it can sometimes feel like you just want to tell people you’re a musician so they’ll be impressed, without actually putting in the work and enjoying the process.

After wrestling with this internally for nearly a decade, I finally found peace by dropping all expectations for myself (and my music) and just playing because I love it. Like I was a kid again. Who cares if nobody knows who I am? Only a dozen views on a YouTube video? Hey, that’s 12 people that hadn’t heard me before. I’ve written over 30 songs and no one can take that away from me. My children and their children will hear those recordings and that’s enough for me. I’m very content now.

Now for the happy ending: In late 2012 I was on a date with my future wife when I saw a band play in Deep Ellum. The guys were about my age and they were fantastic musicians. I talked to them after the show and exchanged contact info. Shortly after one of the sax players started playing with me at my open mics. Two years later we ended up forming our own band. We’ve been together going on 8 years now and we’ve played at some of the biggest venues in DFW. We also just released our 5th song on Spotify this week.

As lost as I’ve sometimes felt, I knew that music was just always going to be part of my story and to stop worrying about it. As my mom likes to say, “You’ve got to share your gift.” So, that’s what I’m doing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a Dallas-based singer/songwriter. I’m a musician and an entertainer. I’ve been singing and playing music since the age of 5 and I guess I never got the memo that you’re supposed to magically stop doing that once you’ve become an adult.

I’m the lead singer and rhythm guitar player in my band Armstead (original music + covers) and my other band Topanga (90’s cover band). I also have been known to play the trombone.

What sets us apart is that we play music that we truly love and we hope to share it with anyone that sees us perform. My bandmates and I are extremely good friends and we only play gigs if each person is available (no substitutes) because we just prefer playing with one another. We said the minute it feels like a ‘job’, we’re out, so we’ve learned over time how to make it not feel that way.

We’re authentic music lovers playing authentic music authentically.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It’s going to sound obvious but for me the most rewarding aspect of being creative is “to create”. I don’t know why it fires me up so much, but creating something that didn’t exist until this very moment, is one of the coolest parts of the human experience. It can be a song, a painting, a blog post, a funny meme, whatever.

You’re either consuming or you’re creating. There’s nothing wrong with consuming and I do plenty of it, but sometimes it’s awesome to be on the other side of the equation.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My father-in-law is a business coach and he’s always giving me exercises to apply to my life. One of them was to figure out what my “verb” is. What’s one “verb” that could sum up my entire goal in life. Is it “to build”? “To teach”? “To influence”?

For me, I arrived on “to entertain”. It’s three-fold: I love to entertain people with music/creativity, I love to entertain people with stories and laughter, and I even love to entertain in terms of hosting people at my home.

Everything that I do in life can be summed up with “to entertain”, and if it doesn’t, then it’s out of character for me.

My creative journey isn’t just about me, it’s about entertaining people and bringing joy (or other positive feelings) in their lives. That fulfills me, just like I’d imagine teaching, building, influencing, etc., fulfills other people.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armstagram16/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.armstead.16
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-armstead-mba-46abb919/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZApTVzBtHB_yTBo6gS59hQ
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ehg2AXgbN6J93HpF9LulO?si=psuPF7ptRcuj9xO1s9EwWA https://www.instagram.com/topangadfw/ https://www.instagram.com/armsteadmusic/

Image Credits
Travis North Adam Henderson AET Photos