We were lucky to catch up with Joe Armstrong recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joe, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience is like water. If you try to hold it, it slips through your fingers. If you try to fight it, you may drown. But you need it to live. Every single day. No one thinks of a snowflake as being particularly resilient, and in truth a singular snowflake is delicate and temporal. But snowflakes, together, formed the glaciers that carved out Yosemite Valley. Snowflakes, together, doomed one of the greatest 20th Century symbols of humanity’s hubris, the Titanic. But they also can be combined to make snowmen, and our very own human bodies are comprised of 60% water. So, in that spirit, accept that you’re part of the creative force in the universe and make things. Give them life. Imbue them with everything that makes you you. And remember that you’re not alone. Find your tribe and treat them like gold. In lifting others up you are also lifting yourself up, because the people you can truly count on in your life will be there for you when you stumble.
Failure is absolutely inevitable. My belief is that the only true failures in life are the failures from which we do not learn something. We’ve all heard the phrase “Fall ten times and get up eleven,” or something similar. That’s pretty close to what I tell myself when I get down about the situation in which I’ve found myself. Sometimes my challenges are happenstance and other times I brought the ill fortune upon myself, but either way you have to keep going. Or maybe learn how to change your sails to keep moving forward in changing winds. Sailboats can sail into the wind with a technique called “tacking.” But sailors have to both learn how to read the ever-changing sea and hone their seamanship skills to do it. Put in the work. If you fail, which you will sooner or later, get up and ask yourself how and why. And then get back to work.
Always remember that just because the wind is blowing against you, it doesn’t mean that you’re moving in the wrong direction.
To switch the metaphor, there was a television commercial in which basketball legend Michael Jordan said “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” I think about that a lot, because, honestly, I’ve failed over and over again.
When I think of stories of resilience from my life, I feel as if I’m living the story of resilience with every breath. All musicians have played shows to empty rooms, and it never feels good when it happens. Somewhere upwards of 60,000 new songs get uploaded to Spotify every single day, and it can seem nigh-impossible to get your music heard over the roar of that deluge. Give yourself a gut check to remind yourself why you’re making music, or why you’re participating in whatever creative endeavor in which you’re engaging. I make music. Maybe people will get it or maybe they won’t. Maybe people will buy it or maybe they won’t. But I will continue to make music either way. I can’t not do it.
Listen carefully to the advice you give others when they’re struggling. Many times that exact advice is exactly what you need to heed yourself.
Be as true to yourself as you can possibly be and make the best art you can make. All you can ever really do is be yourself, so do that. And remember that it’s OK to take some time to lick your wounds after a fall. Sit with your dog. Go outside. Have a pint at the pub with a friend. Climb a tree. Watch a sunset. Read a book. Art is boring without the living behind it that makes it matter.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
After releasing two albums of what I might call “new-school classic rock,” my third and most recent album, Burn It Down, (July 19th, 2024 – Greentown Records) was inspired by the dearth of empathy in our current society. While I typically come from the show-don’t-tell school of songwriting, I felt that it was crucial that I pared back some of the metaphors in my new lyrics in order to lay bare the hypocrisy of certain elements of our social and political conversation. Rather than alluding to what I believe the problem to be I decided to just say the thing out loud. Rather than being a cliched “angry white guy” ranting about the diversification of our society, I decided to not pull any punches in calling out the cruelty that has become so pervasive over the last decade. “Wake up from the American daydream, and wipe the stars from your eyes,” I implore listeners in the song “American Daydream,” following that line up with the call-to-action: “Speak up ’cause things are not like they seem. Don’t pledge allegiance to the corporate lie.”
The resurgence of vinyl pleases me, and I believe in Burn It Down to the extent that I spent the money to have it pressed on gatefold vinyl. Aside from the nostalgic vanity of seeing my name spin around on a turntable, rock and roll is best experienced on the same format that the titans of the genre had the last time American society was facing an upheaval. Drop the needle into the groove, crank up your stereo, and Burn It Down will take you on a ride.
I hired the wonderful and talented artist Karen Walker Chamberlin to render the gatefold art into a resonant collage that reflects the dichotomies of American society: racism, sexism, religion, xenophobia, the military-industrial complex, weaponized patriotism, urban decay, the rapid rise of alienating digital communication, media addiction, late-stage capitalism, celebrity culture, gun violence, and other complex issues are apparent in both the music and the album art.
When I wanted to make t-shirts to promote my music, I started researching local and online retailers that made shirts and other promotional items. I found them all to be too expensive for my budget. How in the hell am I supposed to guess how many large, medium, and small t-shirts my fans might purchase, and who wants a colossal pile of unsold t-shirts next to their giant stack of unsold vinyl records in their living room? After some research I decided that I could make my own t-shirts. So I built wooden frames, stretched fabric over them to make screens, applied emulsion to the screens in my bathroom in the dark, designed my art using Photoshop, printed my art on transparencies as the local print shop, exposed the screens in my yard using sunlight, clamped the blank t-shirts to my dining room table, applied the ink and screen-printed them myself. I made a mess, but I got them done for basically nothing. And I learned a hell of a lot along the way. All knowledge ultimately helps you.
My whole life has been built around building and creating things, and it is far easier to destroy something than it is to build it. It is my belief that the role of art is to reflect reality back to ourselves in a way that can help us better understand it. I set ambitious artistic goals with creating Burn It Down, and I couldn’t be happier with it. I sincerely hope that people get it into their ears, hearts, and minds.
You can stream all my albums at your favorite streaming service or purchase a copy of Burn It Down on vinyl or CD at my website: www.joearmstrong.com.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
While I recommend that everyone read everything that they can get their hands on about topics that call to them, nothing beats jumping in with both feet. Get your hands dirty. Get your heart broken. As my late mentor Ray Bradbury wrote, “Jump, and build your wings on your way down.”
Hang around places where people are doing the things that you want to do. Be open to experiences, because you never know the path your life will take. I formed my first rock band in high school, and when I got to college I was looking for a new group of musicians with whom to play. That lead me to the first time I mixed live sound for a band onstage. I always had been fascinated by the technical aspect of making music as much as I was the performing itself. At that point I had never even touched a giant mixer console, but one night I found myself at a show helping my friend’s band set up their gear and giant PA system. As showtime was drawing near, their audio engineer hadn’t yet shown up and in a panic they turned to me and asked “Can you mix the show?” While I had never done anything like that before, I said “Yes, I can!” and proceeded to turn knobs until things sounded good in my ears. Long before that night I had read stacks of books about how to operate a the gear and mix a band so I was confident that I could do it when the opportunity presented itself. They were impressed and I was on my way. I later ended up joining that band, and many other bands followed. Fast-forward to the current point in my career and I have circled the globe as a musician and audio engineer. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.
Say ‘yes’ to things.
Be yourself. It’s all you can ever really be. That said, work hard to be the best version of yourself you can be. Change is inevitable, so you might as well change in ways you decide. Because if you don’t make choices, choices will be made for you. Guaranteed. Oh yeah, never be late for lobby call. Or anything else, for that matter. If you’re late, you are wasting other people’s time and wasting people’s time is rude. The motto is: On time is late!
Have real experiences in the world. Travel. Talk to people. Listen to people.
Watch carefully how people treat others who can do nothing for them. It’s very telling.
Be curious. There is always more to learn.
Never surrender. I call it ‘quixoticism.’ As far as anyone knows we all have one shot at life. Since people are going to criticize and complain no matter what you do, you might as well do what you want.
When I was much younger I was repeatedly told that success in music (and indeed in any endeavor) is predicated on “who you know.” Looking around my suburban hometown I could readily see that I didn’t know anyone in the music business. It was pretty deflating that I didn’t know a single person who I could turn to for advice or any other information about how to get my career started. What I wasn’t told, and what I eventually figured out on my own, was that if you keep working in a direction – any direction – and that if you surround yourself with other people in your age group who are also working hard towards similar goals, someone you know will eventually get a gig on that next level. If you have built a reputation of being reliable, affable, talented, and easy to work with, they are more likely to bring you along with them. Or if they hear that another opportunity is available that they themselves can’t do, they may remember and recommend you for that gig. Personal recommendations can take you a long way in life. So, in short, work hard, show up on time, be prepared, don’t be a jerk, and have an attitude of making other people’s lives easier. And if opportunities aren’t arriving, do it yourself. Find a way.
Oh, and take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. We’re all human and we’re all going to get mustard on our shirts at some point or another.
That’s more than three, but I have never been very good with rules.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I have incredible parents. The most impactful thing they ever did for me was believing in me. They never told me that I wasn’t capable of doing anything, and as such I didn’t have to unlearn what they taught me in order to believe in myself first. Life has shown me how incredibly lucky I am in this regard and I appreciate it every single day. I have known so very many people who were saddled with all manner of their parents’ own hangups. While it is sadly common for successful people to have had lackluster parents (“I’ll show you!”), I would opt for support and love every time. My family wasn’t wealthy, but that can be its own blessing. I know plenty of people who had significantly more financial resources than my family did, but time after time, money served as a facsimile for love. While it would have been nice to have had a more reliable car to get me back and forth to college, having a series of questionable automobiles break down on the side of the interstate on the regular taught me to be resourceful, how to diagnose and solve problems, and how to figure it out when there was no one there to help me. And it also taught me to help others when they have found themselves in a jam.
Second to that, my parents not only let me explore, they encouraged me to get out there and do it. My siblings and I climbed trees, jumped off the shed, dammed the creek, built forts, dug holes, rode bikes in giant drainage pipes under highways, and had so very many adventures that taught us that we were part of it all. As I said, I am lucky beyond measure and I will always revere my parents.
If you have kids, give them a good set of wings and then encourage them to fly!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.joearmstrong.com
- Instagram: @JoeArmstrongMusic also @IndepDay
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JosephArmstrongMusic
- Youtube: @joearmstrongmusic8768
Image Credits
Joshua Weinfeld, Julie Smith, Karen Walker Chamberlin, Erich Wilhelm Zander, and Christopher Lockett.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
