Meet Jonathan Armstead of Armstead / Topanga / Spire Agency

Jonathan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve been singing, performing and playing instruments since I was five years old. First it was the piano, then the trombone, then guitar, then bass guitar, all while doing school plays, musicals and choir recitals. I played sports too, like most kids, but music was always my number one thing. I started a punk rock band in high school. We were terrible, but it’s how I learned to read guitar tabs and pick up new songs quickly.

When I got to college, I was completely lost. I wasn’t technically talented enough to pursue music at that level, but I still felt compelled to perform; to entertain. My parents had always been supportive of my music, but my Dad was always insisting I get a business degree. It was the logical thing to do. Music was just for fun, he’d say. I decided to major in marketing – the most “creative” of the business degrees. After several semesters, I fell in love with it, especially the advertising side of things. Then “Mad Men” came out and I was hooked. I’d write jingles for my marketing projects and write TV commercial scripts, even when no one asked me too…

But then I finally got the guts to do my first open mic night my senior year of college. This is sort of where my “double life” began: marketing guy by day, musician by night. When college ended, I thought I needed to make a choice. Marketing was cool, but music was my first love. My plan was to move to California after graduating to see if I could make it.

But, then my Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. Instead of “pursuing my dream”, I moved to Dallas, TX to be my Dad’s caretaker in his final few months. He died in August of 2011, but several days before he died, he told me he was wrong about what he’d said about my music. He told me to never lose it and to keep pursuing it, no matter what.

Today, I’m eight years into my career in marketing and advertising, having worked at some of the best agencies in Dallas. I currently work at Spire Agency, a B2B branding/design agency in North Dallas, during the day. On most weekends, I perform with my band, Armstead, at several awesome venues around DFW. We’ve released an EP on Spotify/iTunes and have just launched a new 90’s tribute band called Topanga. I have a beautiful wife, Sara and a newborn baby boy, Brooks, at home.

For years I always thought I had to choose between my passions. What I eventually realized is that if you’re determined (and stubborn) enough, you can do both.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Absolutely not.

Failures time and time again. Barely having any money to my name. Death of family members. Procrastination. Having too much fun. Not having enough fun. I couldn’t even find the right guys to form a proper band for years in years. I was a one-man band for half a decade.

All that being said, the biggest struggle I continuously faced was confidence. There are so many amazing people in the world and with social media, it’s incredibly easy to compare yourself to others and their accomplishments. I would perform to empty bars and send my original tracks to studios and radio stations, only to be told it’s not good enough.

But no matter what, your passions never stop nagging you to keep moving forward. At a certain point, you just think, “I’ve come this far. Well, what else am I gonna do?”

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
Our band Armstead started as original music – just an acoustic guitar, a saxophone, a bass guitar and drums. We started in 2014 when we assembled for a Battle of the Bands at the House of Blues in Dallas (we won, by the way).

But over time, we gained more of an electric sound and morphed into sort of a good-time party band. We still find certain venues to play our originals, but mainly we play songs that make people feel nostalgic and like they want to dance. While we play multiple genres from the 60s through today, we continued to be mistaken for a 90’s cover band, due to the fact that we’re all 90’s babies and love that period of music. That’s why we’ve decided to start a spin-off band called Topanga that will play nothing but 90’s: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Montell Jordan, Macy Gray, Weezer, Backstreet Boys – you name it.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I never felt like I had bad luck in the beginning, as much as the absence of luck. I felt unlucky when my Dad got really sick and I had to give up moving to California to pursue a music career, but now I see how much good came from such a sad situation and it doesn’t seem like bad luck anymore, just “what had to happen.”

As for good luck – where do I start?

As for working in marketing/advertising, I was waiting tables at Breadwinners in 2011 after my Dad died and was having no luck finding a job. My friend told me her uncle went to high school with the founder of Slingshot (very prominent Dallas digital agency). That helped me get an interview which led to an internship which led to a full-time job which led to a career. How about that?

As for music…I was getting burned out on the open mic scene in Dallas (there wasn’t a lot going on in 2011 – 2013) and I was ready to hang it up. I met my wife in June 2012 and in December of that year, I took her out on a date to The Freeman in Deep Ellum for live music. There was a band playing to the mainly empty club but I thought they were incredible. I started talking to them after their set and told them I was a singer/songwriter. I exchanged info with one of the saxophone players and a few months later he started joining me at my gigs at Opening Bell Coffee in South Side. In 2014, a friend of mine happened to be judging a Battle of the Bands at the House of Blues and asked me to perform. My sax player, Marquise, convinced some of the other guys to help me out and that’s sort of how the band got its start.

I wasn’t having any luck finding any gigs since we were so unestablished, but because I had worked at Breadwinners and knew the owners, they offered our band a gig at their new establishment, Henry’s Majestic. That led to us getting better gigs and eventually being discovered by our current booking agency, 13th Floor Music. The latter has opened up so many doors for us. It all came full circle!

Contact Info:

• Website: spireagency.com
• Phone: 2149985381
• Email: armsteadmusic1@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armsteadmusic/, https://www.instagram.com/topanga_band/, https://www.instagram.com/armstagram16
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArmsteadMusic/, https://www.facebook.com/topanga90s/