The Arguments is a band of Cuesta College students who came together and have been making music with the help of the resources, faculty and classes at Cuesta College. It’s a collaboration between four first-year students: music majors Darian Lamar and Jamison Winstead, welding major Haden Harpster, and child psychology and education major Hunter Wilson.
The Arguments bring a classic rock ’n’ roll sound a la Chuck Berry and George Thorogood with splashes of rockabilly, jazz and ska mixed in. The music that inspires and informs their work varies from The Beatles, The Cramps, Rush, The Stray Cats, Men at Work, The Aquabats and more. While listing inspirational bands, they spanned decades of music history and showed their knowledge of the artists that led the way for modern bands like them and a deep understanding of how their own sound came to be. “I love a lot of older music. Like music that is kind of forgotten,” Winstead said. “With this band, there’s a lot of 50s, a lot of 60s, some 70s in there.”
Winstead, Wilson and Harpster have been playing together since high school and started the unnamed band that would become The Arguments in January 2025. When they began attending Cuesta College in fall 2025, Winstead convinced old friend Lamar to join their jazz combo class and the band was fully formed.
They practice together twice a week at Cuesta’s SLO campus as part of their jazz combo class and under the supervision of Performance Arts Division Chair Ron McCarley. McCarley himself came up with the name for their ensemble. “Pretty much every time we were in a room together, and Ron came in, we were arguing over what to play, what our name should be, etc.” Wilson said. “Then one day, Ron sarcastically looks at us and says, ‘you guys should be called The Arguments.’”
Despite playing together as part of their jazz combo class, their sound is very distinctly not jazz. McCarley said that once they got on the same page as to what music they were making, he fully supported them. “They are creative. They are excited. And they are growing,” McCarley said. “Those are the most important things when it comes to music.”
On top of supplying a practice space for the band, Cuesta has provided a lot of resources for the budding musicians. “The faculty is amazing. The campus is amazing. They have pretty much everything you need,” Lamar said. “They have like a whole piano lab, which is awesome for music production and what have you.”
Winstead takes advantage of the applied music program. The program offers students who are in both a music theory and an ensemble/combo/performance class, free private lessons in an instrument of their choice by adding the two-credit Applied Theory class at registration. This can be done every semester a student is in both applicable classes. “This is one of the coolest things we have in the music department. It’s pretty rare to have a program like this at a community college,” McCarley said. “It’s truly amazing. We have some of the best musicians and instructors available.”
The Arguments are still making new music and playing shows. You can follow them on Instagram or YouTube to stay up to date with them. Cuesta College’s music program is always accepting new students.
