Nick and Sue. This edition is brought to you
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More from them in a bit. Chatterbox. When the
stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. Welcome
back to the Chatterbox Redux Podcast with Sue
and Nick and today our special guest is Michael
Armstrong. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox
giving you all you need to know about musical
entertainment. Oh yeah! Chatterbox! My next guest
went from managing his family business to singing
in front of the Queen. Good morning. Good morning.
I'm covered in humus. This is a new record. Michael
Armstrong. The Radio Years. I figured she was
either in the music business or a serial grouping.
Either way it was worth getting to know her better.
Michael Armstrong, hugely anticipated because
this guy's seriously good. And then McCartney
is, you know, he's my hero. To meet him and to
get to hang out with him and sing with him was
just made everything worth it. I'm not sure I
could ever top that, you know? You may well have
heard Michael performing on Michael Ball's show
in July or even on a Good Morning Sunday last
month. I love the songs of... Paul McCartney
of Bob Dylan. She touches my face, she murders
a curse. I reach into her bag and I steal her
purse. And I, you know, I just didn't want to,
I didn't want to be on my deathbed and have any
regrets. Joining us on the line now is Michael
Armstrong. Great song great song. That's a good
song. Look at my team applauding. That is very
good I mean really really good Honestly, that's
I've never heard that before and I was I was
hooked Michael beautiful. Thank you so much.
Absolutely beautiful Honestly the response to
you coming into the show before you even said
a word and now in Chatterbox UK We welcome back
Michael Armstrong. Hello, sir. How are you? Hello
Michael. Hi guys. Thank you very much for having
me It's great, great, great to have you back.
Now, I think you've been on Chatterbox UK a couple
of times already and I seem to remember the first
time you, I think it was your second album had
come out, it had got in the UK album charts from
memory and it was doing pretty good. We speak
to you in the earlier part of summer at June
time or something and you had a new album called
Oh Hi. That's correct, yeah, well done. Thank
you. Now, what we're talking about today is a
single being brought out from Ojai. It's called
Each Other's Eyes. But we're not just talking
about a single, are we? It's sort of like, I
think, congratulations, really. You got to number
two, to my knowledge, of the US indie music singles
chart. But in the Billboard Hot 100, number 18.
I tell you what, it's all like a surreal for
us, I don't know what it's like for you, because,
you know, we speak regularly, we, you know, deal
with each other quite, quite regularly through
the business. And, you know, putting that aside,
the before I knew it was actually you, these
weird sort of like smoke signals were flying
around, you know, the radio industry, the music
world, all about this 47 -year -old dad who gets
in the Bournemouth Hot 100 after 35 years of
trying, or something like that, and it's you!
Brilliant. It's me. It's me, I know, it's incredible.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, and as... That news has actually
been updated because the American charts are
announced on a Friday and I find out a day or
two before and we found out that the song has
actually gone to number one in the indie music
singles chart and up to number 17 in the top
20. So yeah, really thrilled. It's been great.
I drank a expensive bottle of champagne last
night, I can tell you that. In fact, it was funny
because about four weeks ago I'd heard that the
song had got into the, I woke up. in the morning,
I'm sitting in bed having a cup of tea and I
check my phone and I got this email through saying
that the track has gone to like number 35 or
something in the indie music singles chart in
America and I was like, wow, is this genuine?
And I said to my wife, I'm number 35 in the American
charts, we better get the champagne on ice. And
she in a typical Sarah way said to me, we'll
leave the champagne until it gets to number one.
That's encouraging, thank you. And then we kind
of heard it had climbed into the top 10 and then
it was top five and then last week top two. And
then yesterday morning I woke up and my wife
had gone to work. and I found out that it was
number one. So I just sent her a text saying,
I've put the champagne in the fridge. And she
came back to me and said, are you number one?
I said, yeah, you're damn right. We had a good
old party last night. I do like a quote that
you've given. Quotations are saying, I'm an overnight
success after 35 years of trying. you're like
brilliant yeah that's yeah because you know actually
someone quoted that and me and said how does
it feel to be an overnight success and i thought
are you kidding are you kidding me do you know
the blood sweat and tears that have gone into
this but i guess if no one knows you one day
and then the next they do that's how they see
it but yeah yeah 35 years is not quite overnight
is it Not at all. It's brilliant. It just makes
a good little punch point there, doesn't it?
Obviously, we know that you were busy during
the lockdown. There's indeed many of the artists
that you do within your working world. But do
you believe you would have still completed Ojai
and got the single out? Had it not been for the
lockdown, would you still have got that out,
do you think? That's a tough question, actually.
I mean, there's no doubt that Lockdown and being
at home Enabled me to finish the album quicker
than I would have done no question about it But
so the answer is probably no not probably not
not timing probably wouldn't have quite been
the same and obviously timing is He's everything
timing and luck, you know Because you know you
can release something it can go nowhere one day
and then the six months later something could
happen to it So there's a lot of that. So yeah
lockdown I think lockdown definitely helped.
Most importantly it got me away from homeschooling
making the album. That was my key objective because
I've really struggled doing homeschooling with
my youngest son and I thought if I had the excuse
that I was actually making an album then I'd
be able to get out of it and so that worked in
my favour. No, you do obviously mention it's
timing and luck. But of course, there is that
element of skill. You've got to have that skill.
You've got to be good at what you do, unless
you're doing some novelty song, which you most
definitely aren't. But of course, I do promote
a few artists, as I think you know. Some of them
have had hits in the 80s and 70s and before.
And you know, as well as I do, how hard it is
to get into Radio 2 to get a song played. You've
achieved that. Says everything, doesn't it? Really?
Yeah, that's down to Lisa, my partner here. She
does an amazing job for me and knows the guys
at Radio 2, so they've been good to me. America
was unexpected and just didn't realise. To be
honest, what I did was when my first album came
out in 2015, Someone said to me that you know
your music is really would sound good in America
Americans are like it's got an American sound
to it because I love those kind of West Coast
artists and so one weekend I thought I would
make an email list of radio stations and presenters
in America people in America that basically do
what you do here in the UK and I Thought I'd
knock it out in a weekend, and it took me about
six months because America is so damn huge that
I decided to go state by state alphabetically
and get emails of every single radio station
it just took forever and I've always whenever
I've released a single I've got this list so
I think I might as well send it out and I've
in the past I've had the odd kind of person from
some station in Hawaii or something say yeah
we're giving it a spin and oh that's cool but
this time with this particular song it was picked
up by a DJ in in New York Contacted me and said
really like this we're gonna play it and pass
it on to a few people and a few people became
more people and it just kind of spread organically
and And the radio charts in America, they're
not done on great record sales like they are
here. They're done on radio play So when you
look at that indie music chart, I'm number one
and some bloke would Ed Sheeran is number seven
What times are they cheering in the last seven
days, which is which is pretty cool you're definitely
doing something right uh nick and sue we're taking
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show notes and just add CBUKRDUX. Now, dare we
ask? I mean, you haven't crash landed yet and
I hope that you stay at number one for a bit
and let's hope that billboard pushes up a bit
more as well. But to even get in the top 20 in
the Build Top 100, I dread to think what AirPlay
and what number of silos and downloads you've
got to have just to achieve that. We know what
it is roughly to get into the UK Top 100, but
the billboard Top 100, Top 20, I would have no
idea. What do I? I have no idea. People have
been saying to me, what does it mean? What's
going to happen? What does it mean? I've got
no idea. I've never been here before. I don't
know. you know i'm just enjoying the ride and
you know whatever you know a number one anywhere
just just to have that and to i'm going to print
it out and frame it the chart you know what i
mean because that's uh you can't you can't take
that one away from me so yeah i'm very proud
what's really lovely is is the people around
me as well that's what's been so it's a bit of
a cliche but i guess it's a cliche for a reason
and that's people like my mum and dad and my
wife and children and Lisa here, all these people
who have worked so hard for me and wanted it
so much for me. They're so proud. You know, they
asked, you know, even I had a, you know, I'll
drop some names now, Susie Quattro, who I work
with. sent me an email yesterday saying that
she was really proud of me and I thought that's
a strange way why would she be proud you know
proud I guess because we're associated and Dean
Friedman who I toured with a few years ago called
me called me last night I was in the pub celebrating
he told me just to say what a fantastic achievement
and things like that so you know it's yeah it's
been really overwhelming but particularly my
family and my mum and dad they're proud as punch
so that means an awful lot to me Well, we're
proud to have you among our music friends, you
know? Bless you, thank you. Now I'm looking at
the, you know, you mentioned a few people that
you are like higher than Ed Sheeran, but of course,
you know, we could say higher than Billy Eilish,
but what we're not looking at is the bigger picture
of Billy Eilish. We are talking about the theme
to the brand new Bond film, which isn't out yet,
and you're higher! That's fantastic. That takes
a doing. Billy Eilish is really lucky isn't she?
I mean she recorded that theme and they released
the song whenever it was 18 months ago and it
topped the charts or whatever and because the
films had to be popped back several times she
gets another shot and it gets to come out again
and go all over again. I mean that's going to
be the most successful Bond theme ever, great
stuff. Well, it wasn't until the last Bond film
that they actually had a number one, believe
it or not. It was only the last one. Is that
true? I didn't know that. That's a pubquease
fact for you. Thanks for that one. I like that.
Anyway, Mike, what is next? We're hoping this
goes on for a good few weeks and you're in charge
for a long time. But what's next? Is there anything
else off the Ohio album or what do we think?
Well, I mean, in terms of the American thing,
I've got to capitalize on that and certainly
get another track out over there. It would be
madness not to. So I think we'll probably do
a radio edit of what was the first single in
the UK, a song called Matters Apart from the
album. So we'll do a radio edit of that because
America really even funnier than english radio
stations they really want it to be no more than
three minutes 30 seconds for these stations and
you can have no long introduction you've got
to be right in there so i need to chop chop and
change that one a little bit so that's the plan
over there and i'd certainly like to go and visit
hopefully next year when uh when things are opening
up again uh the um the uh virus is picking up
a little bit again in the states at the moment
and some people i know over there are having
to cancel cancelled gigs, so still a little bit
precarious for getting over there. Here, yeah,
I've got plans for another album. I haven't quite
got around to starting it yet. I know what I
need to do, but I've been so busy that I haven't
had the chance to sit down and make music, which
is what I love doing more than anything else,
being in the studio. So I've got some plans.
I've got like a little kind of five -year plan,
actually, of what I intend to do. um whether
i can achieve that we'll we'll see wait and see
plenty of interviews coming up then i think right
websites facebook everything social media how
do people find you please sir uh well the website
is michaelarmstrongmusic .co .uk and uh michael
armstrong music is that is the thing to look
for on facebook and instagram and spotify and
all those kind of things and uh yeah he popped
up my name in and My ugly mug will pop up somewhere,
I'm sure. Did you mention YouTube? YouTube, Michael
Armstrong Music's on YouTube, yeah, YouTube as
well, yeah, they're all there, yeah. Perfect.
Every success with this wonderful American run.
Fantastic news, isn't it? Absolutely amazing.
It's very rare that I'm stuck to think the same
thing. Amazing news. I was like that for a couple
of days. I'd say everyone else around me is getting
like crazy. It's very surreal, like I've been
hit by a bus or something. It's slowly sinking
in. number one now do you get like something
to say you're number one do you get a certificate
what's what do you actually get to say that you've
achieved number one well i mean i've got them
i've got the official chart printout and the
chart with all the details on it other than that
i don't know i've never been here before it's
been an absolute pleasure and we look forward
i've got a feeling you're going to be a regular
on chatterbox uk and we look forward to the next
time we really do thank you Thank you. I do too.
Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux
podcast with Sue and Nick and today our special
guest was Michael Armstrong. If you're interested
in becoming a future guest on the Chatterbox
Redux podcast or the radio show Chatterbox UK,
you're welcome to submit songs, books or whatever
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