David Armstrong was making up songs before he could read or write. As a young boy, he would invent songs and perform them, quite enthusiastically, for his parents and their friends. By the age of seven, he had apparently worn out his welcome as the family entertainer and began singing to the cows instead. They seemed happy to listen.

David grew up in a rural North Dakota wheat-farming community of about 60 people and attended a one-room schoolhouse through fourth grade. Music teachers were not exactly plentiful, so David learned the way that came naturally to him: by ear. He listened to songs and figured out how to recreate what he heard.

At 14, David got his first guitar. By 15, he was playing as much as six hours a day. His parents allowed him to own just one record, so he learned every song on it. He began playing guitar in church as a freshman in high school and joined his first band the following year. At 16, he joined another group that practiced in a chicken coop and played high school dances.

College took David from school dances to nightclubs. During his freshman year, his band played throughout North Dakota and Montana. Later, he performed Top 40 music primarily in Minnesota and became a lead vocalist. His vocal range and ear gave him an unusual ability to imitate the voices and styles of other singers.

But at 17, something happened that changed the direction of his life.

After consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol, David had what he describes as a lengthy afterlife experience. Although only hours passed physically, he experienced what felt like approximately two weeks on the other side. David says the experience strengthened a connection with his spirit guide that he had sensed since childhood and profoundly changed both his spiritual life and his relationship with music. When he returned, hard rock no longer appealed to him in the same way, and his musical interests gradually shifted toward lighter rock and country.

Music remained part of David’s life throughout his twenties. At 25, he joined a country-oriented band and, when asked if he could play bass, simply said yes—and quickly taught himself. He also played keyboards, and the band performed in nightclubs throughout North Dakota and Canada. Six months later, with a new daughter at home, David decided that life in smoky bars was no longer the life he wanted. Fatherhood and providing for his family took priority.

By 30, farming and several entrepreneurial ventures occupied most of his time. Then, at 38, several parts of his life collapsed at once. His marriage ended, his organic farm was contaminated, and business accounts went bankrupt, forcing him to close his business. He spent the next two years doing whatever he could to repay old debts.

Music eventually found its way back.

David's partner, Meg, encouraged him to return to something that had always been part of him. She bought him a $3,500 Clavinova keyboard—an extraordinary purchase for her at the time—and helped reignite his desire to create. One keyboard eventually became many guitars, recording equipment, and a home studio where David began producing his own music.

Then another life-changing event occurred.

At 43, David severely crushed and nearly severed his left arm while unloading a car from a dolly. Facing the possibility that he might never play again, David made a vow to God: if his arm healed and he regained the ability to play, he would return to music and use it to do God’s work.

David eventually regained enough use of his arm to play again, and he kept that promise. He returned to writing, recording, and producing music with a renewed sense of purpose. What had once simply been a lifelong love of music became something more: a commitment to create music that could uplift, inspire, heal, and help others.

That vow has remained at the heart of his music ever since.

Music and the Spirit World

David's spiritual experiences and music have long been intertwined. He describes communicating with spirit guides since childhood, with that connection becoming much stronger following his afterlife experience at 17. Over the years, he says he has received lyrics, melodies, musical ideas, healing information, and spiritual teachings through these connections.

Around age 40, David began experiencing what he describes as musicians from the spirit world wanting to play through him. He also noticed unusual experiences with used guitars, sometimes sensing the playing style of a previous owner when he picked up the instrument.

One particularly memorable experience involved what David describes as a lively deceased Mississippi blues guitarist who seemed eager to play through him. David spent the evening immersed in the music while hearing the musician encouraging him: “Now, bend that chord!” For David, experiences like this reinforced his sense that music could become a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.

In his early forties, David created Joshua Tree, an instrumental album designed specifically for healing. David says his guides incorporated particular healing frequencies into the compositions, with individual pieces intended to support different aspects of healing for the body, mind, and spirit. The album gave him a way to share the healing experience with people who could not work with him personally.

After recovering from his arm injury, David also created Talking to the Choir with his son and daughter-in-law.

Years later, David became curious about a very different question: What might music sound like on other planets?

He asked his guides and describes subsequently connecting with a light-body being he calls “the Traveler.” Although David considered his own keyboard abilities relatively basic, he says the music that emerged during these sessions was complex and arrived complete, often recorded correctly on the first take.

The result was three albums of what David calls galactic music: Galactic Groove, I Am Free, and Music from the Stars. David believes this music was intended to help listeners acclimate to changing spiritual frequencies associated with humanity's transition from the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age.

Six galactic albums were originally envisioned. David completed three before a stroke made him feel that he could no longer continue the project, even with what he describes as the Traveler’s assistance. Whether that unusual collaboration will someday continue remains an open chapter in his story.

Finding Another Way to Make Music

David later experienced two strokes that affected the control of his left arm and his ability to sing and play as he once had. For someone whose life had been intertwined with music since childhood—and who had made a vow decades earlier to use that music for a greater purpose—the losses created another major obstacle.

For a time, the physical limitations made it difficult for David to create music in the way he had throughout his life.

Then, in the fall of 2025, David discovered a new way forward through emerging artificial intelligence music tools.

AI did not introduce David to music, songwriting, or composition. Those had been part of his life for more than five decades. Instead, the technology gave him a way to continue creating despite the physical effects of his strokes.

Today, David combines more than 50 years of musicianship and more than 30 years of songwriting with AI-assisted production. He co-creates lyrics with what he describes as his guides and musicians in the spirit world, then uses AI tools to assist with vocals and instrumental arrangements he may no longer be physically able to perform himself. David then works with the recordings and applies mastering techniques he says were taught to him by his guides to produce the finished songs.

For David, AI became more than a new technology. It gave him a way to continue fulfilling the promise he had made decades earlier: to use music to do God’s work and create something that could uplift others.

His recent music centers on positive and uplifting themes including life, love, faith, gratitude, humor, relationships, country living, spiritual growth, and becoming a better version of ourselves.

David and his guides have also developed a musical style they call Heartwave, which blends elements of classical, pop, and country music with the intention of evoking deep emotion while encouraging personal reflection, transformation, and spiritual insight.

David’s recent resurgence has produced a substantial new body of work, including twelve country albums such as Back on My Feet Again, Pray for America, It’s a Great Day to Be Alive, Comes Straight From the Heart, The Best Time Is Now, We Are More Than Memories, Let the Universe Work This Out, God I Love Series, The Gamer’s Collection, The Chosen Trail, Living in the USA, and Dream Chaser. He has also released five Heartwave albums, including The Authentic You, Astrological Heartwave, My Country ’Tis of Thee Volumes 1, 2, and 3, along with the gospel album Full Armor of God, a pop album, Echoes of Tomorrow, and the holiday album Country Christmas Memories.

These newer releases build on decades of earlier recordings, including the instrumental healing album Joshua Tree and three extraterrestrial-inspired albums: Galactic Groove, I Am Free, and Music from the Stars.

David is also the author of Messages From The Spirit World, in which he shares insights drawn from his afterlife experience and his continuing spiritual channeling.

Today, David creates music from his home studio in a small town in central Minnesota, surrounded by a substantial collection of guitars and a lifetime’s worth of musical inspiration. He shares his home with Meg, his partner of more than 26 years, and their family of six cats.

Meg is an author and artist who has spent more than 45 years studying philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and paranormal phenomena in her own search for truth. Her encouragement played an important role in bringing David back to music at a pivotal point in his life and has remained part of his journey ever since.

From a one-room North Dakota schoolhouse and singing to cows, to nightclub stages, spiritual experiences, a nearly severed arm, two strokes, and a new generation of music made possible through emerging technology, David’s path has rarely been conventional.

But one thing has remained remarkably consistent: he keeps finding a way to make music—and to honor the promise that gave that music a deeper purpose.