About the owner

Thom Conant

(10/21/50 - 5/29/25)

Thom grew up in Eugene, Oregon the youngest of 4 children, with 2 brothers and 1 sister. He started playing guitar in high school, joining several bands with his friends and developed skills that would later become useful in his teaching career through his 20’s. In his late teens, he bought a one way bus ticket from Eugene to Portland with $50 in his pocket and started working hard to make connections in a new, bigger city.

Of those connections, perhaps the one that turned out to be most pivotal was the one he made with Lyle Heater, owner of L.D. Heater Company. Thom was given the opportunity by Mr. Heater himself to sell a half-dozen Lyle guitars without needing to front money of his own. One of Thom’s favorite stories to tell was of him standing on a street corner in downtown Portland in front of a shop, playing his guitar full volume and singing. The owner of that shop, annoyed with his playing, came out and asked him to leave but Thom remained committed to selling his guitars. Eventually the shop owner offered to buy all of his remaining guitars just to get him to leave that corner.

The commissions he made from those first guitars were reinvested to buy more and eventually Thom started teaching in a slot at Cascade Music while selling guitars to his students. In his late 20’s, he had become one of the busiest guitar teachers in the Portland area with students around the clock and no breaks. He also taught music theory and guitar class at Concordia University. Before starting Eastside, Thom worked at another Portland based small business called Music Village where he would meet other important people that he’d continue to work with later. It was here he learned more about the band and orchestra side of the music business. He saw a need for instrument rentals in the community and decided to open his own shop. 

Thom started Eastside Music in 1984 as a partnership with his friend Lindy Wunn. Thom ran the business end and Lindy handled all instrument repairs out of a small commercial slot in the Menlo Park shopping center in Portland. After just 1 year, Lindy went on to take a repair tech position at Portland Public Schools while Thom stayed behind and continued to run the business with the help of his wife Brenda. Thom’s son Jeff grew up as a child around the business and as soon as he was big enough, started cleaning brass instruments starting around the age of 5. In 2000, Thom bought the building they are in today from St. Vincent de Paul and renovated it to meet the needs of a functioning music store. Jeff continued to work at the store in his spare time while going to school before eventually moving to college at Oregon State University. When he moved back to Portland, Jeff chose to work with his dad at Eastside again, taking on larger, more important roles around the business. Although it took many years, Thom eventually taught Jeff the inner workings of the store and the philosophies that shaped it.

Despite various hardships and economic challenges faced over the years, Eastside has continued to operate within its core principle of providing fair and honest prices to the community and helping schools obtain the products necessary to teach students about music.