Erin Armstrong

"I want to play a show with The Avett Brothers, I want to open for Tom Petty at the Hollywood Bowl, and I would like to do a European tour with Ryan Adams," says Erin Armstrong, founder of the L.A.-by-way-of-Charleston, S.C. band My Imaginary Friends.
"I have these written down."
There's no doubt that Armstrong knows what she wants when it comes to her music. Her drive is so steadfast and her passion so unshakable, they've not only survived a move across the country, an adjustment to a whole new music scene and the rigors of releasing an album, but found Armstrong a musical family, which, in truth, is what she really wanted all along.
"I grew up listening to such great indie rock that came out of the Chapel Hill boom," she says. "It was all bands, and that really appealed to me. It wasn't just making music and trying to get your name out there and be rich and famous but actually having a family that you could rely on, and you made music together because it made everyone happy."
It's fitting that Armstrong's first musical influence was within a family realm=a family friend by the name of Miss Deborah, who often took care of her as a child. "She taught me how to sing gospel music, and she taught me about blues music, and she would put on Willie Mae Thorton, and she introduced me to Robert Johnson," says Armstrong. It came as the ultimate mind-blowing experience then, when Armstrong was handpicked to open for Ray Charles in Charleston after a manager saw her playing piano at a local bar. "I was a poor little college gal-the dress that the town donated to me to wear to represent Charleston cost more than the car that i drove."
Moving to L.A. by herself in 2005, Armstrong brought along her Southern upbringing, and her blues roots, jazz education and appreciation for indie rock followed. Her good friend, Ben Fordham, eventually did too, and joined My Imaginary Friends on violin, mandolin, guitar, and vocals. Rounded out by Jens Kuross on drums and Yohei Shikano on slide guitar, harmonica, Hammond organ, and electric guitar, My imaginary Friends might seem like an alt-country or piano-pop band, but this description would change each show.
"If you watch us play a piano set you wouldn't say it's a country band," explains Armstrong. "It's when I pick up the guitar that the Southern part of me comes out." It also changes with each song, as seen on My Imaginary Friend's second album "This is My Knife." Listening to "Ruth and Clyde" and "Bumpy Ride," the old-time country influence in clear, but just a couple tracks later, a song like "E Hemingway" changes the entire mood and sound of the album, revealing My Imaginary Friends as highly versatile and talented musicians. "I just keep challenging myself to be more sincere and honest-like the songs where you kind of scare yourself that you wrote it, and you're kind of embarrassed or shy about sharing it," says Armstrong.
Similar to the songs, My Imaginary Friends' live performances can be equally surprising; audiences are often caught off-guard, especially when Ben starts shredding. "The way that we play is a lot more energetic than the album," says Armstrong. "I'm more concerned with getting the idea across to the audience than I am about tuning."
When it comes to making an album, though, getting the idea across can be a bit more complicated. "This is My Knife" took two years to make, a result of DIY reality (i.e. lack of funds) and Armstrong's strong attachment to the project. "We were sneaking into studios, that will remain nameless, late at night to record because we were fresh in L.A. and broke as shit," recalls Armstrong. "It was also because of my unwillingness to be done with the project. Because your songs are your babies, and it's hard to walk away from a baby and be like, 'OK, you're done. I'm gonna let go of you. You're free, go to college."
It's Armstrong's heart-felt attachment to her music that makes it so special. Citing one of her biggest influences, Andy Kaufman, she recalls, "There's a quote where he said, 'When I perform, it's very personal. I'm inviting the audience into my room.' When I read that, I was like, that's exactly what I want people to get. This is just me. I'm not going to Elton John it up and put on some furry boots. I just want to invite you into my bedroom." - PERFORMER Magazine (2009) by Jackie Miehls

What a pleasure it was to see My Imaginary Friends live at the Silverlake Lounge on Monday night. The crowd started off small, but doubled by the end of their set. This band delivers a staggering live performance. They play as if they have been doing it all their lives. My Imaginary Friends made the stage their home and invited us in. I sensed a comradery amongst the band and a seamlessness in their musical timing, it really is something all bands should strive for.

My Imaginary Friends is led by Erin Armstrong. Armstrong's voice is sweet and sultry and can seduce the pants off the human race, she really begs to be heard. The band is charming and sincere just as the crowd was. I could tell that My Imaginary Friends have a small and loyal following, given that most of the crowd really knew all the lyrics and could sing along with Armstrong.

The song titled, "Hello Miss McGinty", I believe it was their second song of the night, has all the commercial qualities of popularity. If this song doesn't show up on television soon I would be surprised and disappointed, especially because so much crap makes it on the tube. Their last song of the night, "Bumpy Ride", sings like a classic, twangy, fun country tune and the crowd devoured it up, along with the song's infectious violin solo!

I wouldn't say that I went to this show expecting to be blown away, especially because it was a free show at 9:30 on a Monday night, but I'm so dam glad I was! They have redefined free for me and I will not settle for less on a Monday night free show. My Imaginary Friends are playing on January, 30 at Mr. T's in Highland Park. Go check them out!
- Loudvine Live Music Network (2009)

The record company suits might call My Imaginary Friends alternative country rock, but you’ll call ‘em irresistible. Erin Armstrong writes songs that sound like your best friend is just plain talkin’ to ya… except you’re surrounded by a soundscape as real and familiar as your favorite streach of sun-dappled country road. If these songs don’t immediately get under your skin and into your heart then you and I got nothin’ to talk about.
Erin and Ben Fordham (fiddle, mandolin, guitar) left Charleston, SC, and joined up in LA with Jens, Grant, and Yohei. They have recently returned from a western tour after the release of their second cd Blue Carolina, which is startin’ to cause a bit of a stir in Nashville as well. And why not? The record opens with Sue Thrasher an exhilarating rockabilly rush of blues harp and slide guitar. It’s a near mission-statement with Erin in full Carolina Firecracker mode (”Even Carolina is turnin’ blue; Darlin’ you don’t know nothin’ ’bout where I’m from”). Blue Carolina is an excellent representation of the band’s live energy, where even the most bittersweet songs in the set are delivered with such infectious bonhomie it often feels like half the audience is floatin a foot above the floor. - LA Buzz Blog (2009)

For as long as she can remember, Erin Kelly Armstrong has been paralyzed by the emotional potency of a good song.

"When I was young there were songs I'd hear that would make me cry, even if I was too young to understand why," Armstrong says. "The first I can remember was 'True Colors' by Cyndi Lauper. I couldn't have been older than four, but she sounded like she meant it. And that's always been what does it for me. You have to mean it."

Years later, it would be another song that helped Armstrong reach a deeper emotional awareness. Vividly, Armstrong recalls lying on her living room's hardwood floor and letting Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" steal her breath and, to a lesser extent, her innocence.

"Jesus Christ," Armstrong starts. "Raitt sounded like she'd given up, that she'd lost all hope. She made me feel that. And I started to wonder about loving someone, about losing someone. I was, like, nine or something, but somehow I knew what she was feeling, and it was great. That song helped me not fear heartbreak, but sort of wonder about it. It was so inspiring to me. Fuck ... sadness inspired me? I am Irish, after all."

It's this deep, passionate connection Armstrong has with music that informs the songwriting of her band, My Imaginary Friends, and their latest longplayer, "this is my knife ." Written and recorded over the course of 2 years, the songs on "this is my knife" chronicle Armstrong's move from historical Charleston, S.C., to Los Angeles.

And before you make any assumptions about any supposed champagne wishes and caviar dreams, Armstrong insists, "I'm not in this for a signed contract. I'm sure there are a lot of starving musicians who hope to one day tell their bosses to piss off, but that's not what drives me. For the first My Imaginary Friends show, I had to face the guitar player and randomly turn my face to the back of the stage like I was Syd Barrett or something. I'd performed in public before, but this was different. This was my music and my soul that was being judged. I kept going, because it was all I could do. I had to do it. I felt like it was where I needed to be."

"I really love playing," Armstrong continues, "to the point where I have to coach myself about all the other crap." The thought of selling my 'look' makes my ass twitch." Fortunately, she is easy on the eyes and was almost cast to play Lindsay Lohan's piano-playing body double for a motion picture. But Armstrong is more than a pretty face: Her voice has been used in a song featured on "Entourage," and she has a songwriting contract with Malcolm Welsford Publishing.

It was actually a competitive streak in a young Armstrong that delivered her to the too-high piano bench in her living room and her earliest forays into music. "I wanted to copy Cary and Beth," she says, speaking of her older sisters. "I especially would compete with Cary. She'd work hard on classical pieces — reading and memorizing — and I would watch her and listen and then play it without the music. I loved getting the praise, and I loved the look on Cary's face."

But what Armstrong found in the piano when she wasn't competing with her sisters was a certain, inexplicable comfort. "I wasn't sad or lonely when I sang and played piano. It was home."

Much like heroes Ryan Adams and Paul Westerberg, Armstrong's earliest songs were an outlet for misunderstood and misdirected teenage angst that was channeled in the short-lived, all-female punk band, Leave It To Beaver. And while you won't find even the faintest trace of those punk roots in My Imaginary Friend's sublime piano-based musings, Armstrong has never relinquished her vigor and venom. She just betrays it sometimes with her delicate, indelible voice.

It was that voice that made her the centerpiece of a successful jazz group in Charleston and landed her a gig opening for Ray Charles at the North Charleston Coliseum in 2002. And as lucrative and easy it was for her to sing those standards or whatever Norah Jones song was charting that week, Armstrong wanted to do more with the songs living inside of her.

She says some of her favorite songs have escaped like a breath or involuntary reflex. "But that's usually how I write. They just burst out all at once. Like I had to sing it to finally make sense of it."

Of course, this purging style of songwriting is not without its risks.

"There are some songs I wish I hadn't written, because playing them again, releasing them again, can really suck." But Armstrong understands that you sometimes must mine the darkest corners of your emotions to retrieve that magic that she found in songs like "I Can't Make You Love Me."

It would take another surrender of sorts for Armstrong to come to terms with a musical influence she'd long pacified but now embraces: country music.
"Country music was always an embarrassing thing to be a part of in our town," Armstrong says. "Our family was poor, so I guess our music was the one way we could - Kevin Foster Langston, Tight Gloves PR (2008)

Erin Kelly Armstrong {Opening for Ray Charles} -Tonight at The North Charleston Coliseum, 7:30 P.M.

Nineteen-year-old, local singing sensation Erin Kelly Armstrong was handpicked to open for living legend Ray Charles tonight before he performs tonight at the North Charleston Coliseum. A jazz-vocal major at the College of Charleston, Armstrong sings traditional jazz with a voice that is smoky and rich. Once this beautiful, poised young lady takes the stage expect to be stunned. Once she starts singing, expect to be awed. Catch Miss Erin Kelly Tuesday night's at Capone's Speakeasy, as well as Friday and Saturday nights at the Charleston Grill with the Frank Duvall Trio. - The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC

The sly cleverness of their name doesn't hit you until you see My Imaginary Friends live, a local band injecting some freshness into the Charleston music scene with piano-based pop-rock. Lead singer Erin Armstrong presents show-goers with something they're not used to seeing: a strong, young front-woman who refuses to pander to male audiences by offering herself up as eye candy.
"A lot of bands with girls sadly get into the idea that you have to make a fashion statement to get ahead in the music business," says Armstrong.
Yet, Armstrong's feminine voice and grace on stage, may capture the male audience whether she wants to or not.
My Imaginary Friends offer up a truly unique show, full of the youthful exuberance and passion that pours out of all members, and Armstrong's precocious song-writing talent turns what could be the same old piano-based rock tunes into heartbreaking, poignant slices of life.
"This is honestly my favorite thing to do," says Armstrong, "Getting to tell my stories and have people come up and say, 'That song meant so much to me.' To have someone feel the sincerity of what you're saying, and they didn't hear it on the radio, they just came out and listened to us...that's the shit." - The Charleston City Paper

Watch out Regina Spektor and A Fine Frenzy…
Here comes Erin Armstrong.
With a nice blend of pop and indie rock, Erin’s music is fun, a delight to the ears! She was runner up in the Deli’s Best Emerging Artist 2009 category. Listening to “Hello Miss McGinty” above, you can tell why. She’s a great songwriter with impeccable musical instincts. If you hit up her MySpace page, you might not leave it for the entire day instead choosing to loop her songs.
She still handles all her music DIY, so friend, fan, follow and stay in touch. She’ll get you a disc -- no worries!
- YNM Management (2010)