Michael Armstrong Talks New Album, Tenth Anniversary And More

Jul 3, 2025 | Interviews

Words by Glenn Sargeant

Feature Image Photo Credit: Andy Newbold

Singer-songwriter and musician Michael Armstrong has been a friend of JLTT for many years and he is celebrating his tenth anniversary and has released the album ’10’. Michael kindly sat down with us to chat all about it:

Firstly, congratulations on celebrating ten years since the release of your debut album. Do you have any memories/stories/highlights from your career so far?

The three main highlights from my career so far would be 1) Meeting and hanging out with Paul McCartney. He is the reason I ever picked up a guitar, started to play the piano, and write songs. He is my musical hero and has written not just one, but most of the greatest songs of all time. He was incredibly humble, kind and generous. 2) Hearing my first single ‘The Radio Years’ played on BBC Radio 2 by Terry Wogan. His producer had advised my PR team that he would be playing it, so my family and I sat by the radio one Sunday morning listening to his show. After nearly 3 hours he still hadn’t played it and I thought it must have got dropped but then he announced it. Great feeling! 3) When I learned that my single ‘Each Others Eyes’ had gone to No.1 in the USA Indie Music Chart (No.14 in the USA Top 40). We had quite a party!

You have released your fifth album ’10’. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

This is a compilation album made up of some of my favourite recordings from over the past 10 years. It was fun listening back to the early albums and selecting the tracks to include. I’ve gone with some of the fans favourites, some obscure album tracks, and a few previously unreleased radio-edits and rarities.

The album includes the single ‘Getting Better’. What was the story/inspiration behind the track?

In 2017 I was deep into recording my second album with producer Warren Bennett. Despite our best efforts, we could see that we were a long way from completing the album and I was keen to let people know that I was still around. 26th May saw the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ – undoubtedly one of the most important and influential records of all time. Both Warren and I are huge fans, and Warren had spent several years replicating their songs to the Nth degree in order to better understand their musicianship, arrangements and production techniques. It seemed like too good an opportunity to turn down and so we recorded our own version of ‘Getting Better’ to celebrate the anniversary.

Do you have any visualisers planned to accompany any of the new tracks?

I make my own videos so nearly every track on the album has an accompanying video on YouTube.

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

As it’s a compilation album there are various producers. Keith Bessey did my first album, Warren Bennett did the second and I produced the third and fourth myself. The vast majority of all my albums have been recorded at my home studio, with outside musicians adding their bits remotely.

Was it difficult picking which tracks to include? Did you have a specific song selection process?

I decided to select 3 tracks from each album, which definitely made things tricky. There are some songs which had to be included – the US No.1 ‘Each Others Eyes’, my version of Billy Joel’s ‘Allentown’ which is the fans favourite, and my recent UK Heritage Chart No.1 (and US No.3) ‘The Greatest Thing’. Other than those, I tried to select tracks that were varied and showed different sides of my songwriting and musicality.

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

I have my trusty Ovation acoustic guitar and my Roland keyboard which I’ve used on all my recordings over the last 10 years. I’m not really a ‘techy’. I try to use real instruments as much as possible.

Did you have any additional musicians accompanying you on the record?

Yes, I have a great pool of musicians that I call on whenever I’m making a record. The wonderful Elliott Randall, who famously played guitar on several Steely Dan tracks, features on ‘The Cola Paranoia’, and Phil Palmer (Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits and many more) plays some great guitar on ‘The Radio Years’. Bass duties and handled by Steve Walters (George Michael, Cliff Richard) and Phil Mulford (Lionel Richie, Beverly Knight), and saxophones by Ed Barker (George Michael) and Adrian Revell (Jamiroquai, Bonnie Tyler).

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

Happiest – ‘The Greatest Thing’ / Angriest – ‘Periscope’ / Most Reflective – ‘Matters Of Heart’

Was it a difficult album to write?

As it’s a compilation I didn’t have to write any new material for this album.

Who designed the album artwork?

The concept was mine and John Eaden did the clever stuff. He’s worked on all my albums.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

My hometown is in Banstead, Surrey. It’s green, lively, friendly, desirable and pleasant.

How do you look after your voice?

Drink plenty of water and steam before and after a gig.

Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2025/2026?

I play local venues with an amazing band several times a year but nothing more than that.

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

To have entertained the audience and given them a night to remember.

Another track that you have included is ‘How Much More Of My Heart’ which was co-written by Warren Bennett. How did that opportunity arise?

Warren produced my second album and we co-wrote a few songs on that. Then, when Lockdown came along in 2020, we started writing remotely and came up with a whole bunch of songs (around 70 in total!) that were intended to be for other artists. ‘How Much More Of My Heart’ was one of those tracks, as was ‘The Greatest Thing’.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

I think it would be ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. It has to be one of the greatest novels ever written and the characters are wonderful. It’s a book I’ve read many many times.