Third-year popular music major Joe Armstrong recalls his earliest obsessions being The Beatles and B.B. King. For as long as he can remember, he has loved playing the guitar.

Armstrong had a winding journey on his way to becoming a third-year student at USC, from a musicless high school experience to a senior-year Thornton rejection to eventually deciding to study psychology at UC Santa Barbara. For years, Armstrong strayed away from his passion. After high school, though, Armstrong found his way back to what he loves.

“I was pretty into music at a young age. Music has been a fascination,” Armstrong said. “When I got to high school, I kind of stepped away from it. I tried to conform … there was just gravitational pull from my guitar. I made the decision that I was going to take it seriously.”

After a year at UCSB, Armstrong dropped out and took a gap year working as a personal trainer before starting at USC. After a second audition, having had more time honing his craft, Armstrong was admitted to Thornton as a popular music major. But just as Armstrong was beginning to advance in his music career, he received life-changing news: he needed to have his stomach removed.

“I immediately had to go into surgery at Stanford,” Armstrong said. “I had this journey where I found music again, and I got into USC. I had a great freshman year doing what I was supposed to be doing, and then right away I had this huge obstacle that I had to navigate and figure out.”

Nowadays, Armstrong plays gigs as a guitarist-for-hire, but he’s also beginning to dabble in finding his voice as a solo artist. In his songwriting, Armstrong said he focuses on portraying raw, candid emotion, drawing from his life experiences.

“I love playing guitar for other people,” Armstrong said. “I don’t see the point in trying to [write dishonestly]. I couldn’t write otherwise.”

Armstrong has confidence in the continuation of the music market as a vessel for connection with others.

“There’s an intrinsic human desire to share experience with other people,” Armstrong said. “Music is one of those that I don’t think that connection could be replicated by anything.”

Armstrong’s teacher, Tim Kobza, said he has worked with Armstrong since he started at the Thornton School of Music. In that time, he has gotten to know Armstrong on a personal and musical level.

“He’s got the three ‘T’s’ going on: time, tone and ‘tude. I think his future is really bright because he not only is a great musician, but he’s a great person, and people want to be around him,” said Kobza, an assistant professor of practice at Thornton. “He’s sensitive. He’s caring. He’s funny. He doesn’t take himself too seriously.”

Kobza said Armstrong’s personality shines through his playing.

“He’s an excellent collaborator, plays well in ensemble situations, has a really strong voice on the guitar, which is a really hard thing to develop at a young age,” Kobza said. “[He] brings good energy into the room, makes people feel good, knows how to make singers sound good.”

Armstrong’s friend and fellow cohort member, junior popular music major Wallis Schriver, also said Armstrong’s passion for playing was potent.

“He just has really a natural feel — he showed me these videos of him playing guitar as a little kid, and it was just so fun to watch because it’s nice when you can see so much passion radiating from a person, even just in facial expressions or the way that people move when they’re listening to music,” Schriver said. “He puts his love for people and music into each performance that he has.”

Armstrong plays a variety of genres – he started with blues, but has branched out to pop, R&B, rock and jazz.

Another friend and peer of Armstrong’s, junior popular music major Asher Belsky, has known Armstrong for roughly four years, and in that time, he has seen both improvements and amplification of Armstrong’s natural talent.

“Joe has come the farthest as a musician out of anyone that I know here. He’s the best guitar player in our cohort, period,” Belsky said. “I remember the first time that I met him, we tried to play together, and it was difficult because Joe was having a hard time not speeding up or slowing down playing rhythm, which is crazy that it’s been two years, and now he’s, like, Jimi Hendrix.”

Belsky said Armstrong has always been authentic in his music.

“He has always sounded like Joe, which is amazing, and there’s not a lot of people who just right off the gate kind of sound like themselves and then continue to sound like themselves and just foster that sound more,” Belsky said. “He’s just strengthened it and applied it to so many more things. I love hearing him play. He’s incredible.”