Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephen Pappas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stephen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My mother was an actress and a singer and an author. My father is a classical guitarist and composer and also taught public and private music lessons. My brother Michael is a drummer and also a co-writer for my band Centre Piece. It’s always been a mix between passion, genealogy and my faith. I believe my gifting comes from God and for that reason I always give it back to him live. Along the way I studied bands and have watched thousands of hours of concert footage and have gone to numerous concerts. There’s a certain amount of command and phycology that goes into having stage presence and knowing how to work a room. The big shift happened for me in my early twenties. That was a great time period in my life where I fell in love with songwriting and spent a lot of time playing gigs and meeting like minded producers. Surrounding yourself with talented people that are better than you will help level you up in the long run. I learned from being a student of the game which allowed for the right mentors to enter my life. People like Daniel Tompkins (TesseracT) and Josh Roman ( MindRocket Recording Studios) knew how to push me in the right direction. I think the only thing that could have sped up the learning process for me would have been maturity. Early on I didn’t have the patience or the maturity to see the bigger picture. I wish I would have maybe taken things day at a time and not have worried so much about the future. My communication skills were sharpened from my time writing and recording my first record. There was so much going on at once I had to have my head on a constant swivel. I learned to respond logically to situations and to my peers rather than react on my emotions. I think that my vocal lessons taught me how to have a daily routine and a schedule. I really took on the lifestyle of a singer and embraced it. Studying the voice and knowing how to record myself and how to edit and comp my vocal takes shot me up a few levels as a singer. learning vocal production and vocal science were absolutely essential. My biggest obstacle was my financial situation. I thank God everyday for bringing me out on the other side of what was easily the hardest time in my life. I’ll never forget the years I spent writing Lullaby. It changed me and grew me into a man. I am so grateful everyday to be where I am.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been a musician for 33 years and a professional musician for about 11 years. My father is a classical guitar teacher and composer. I grew up hearing renaissance era pieces of music throughout the house. When I was In elementary school I was obsessed with Walkmans and CD players. I was always off on my own with headphones on listening to local pop radio. I found mixing and production fascinating. I started to understand the relationship between bass and guitar in a song and how those things related to the vocal melody and what the drummer was playing. Sometimes I would hear one thing going on in my right ear and something different in my left ear like a repeating vocal or a big reverb on a guitar. It seemed like magic and I had no idea how those effects were done but wanted to know. It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I decided to commit myself to the guitar. I spent thousands of hours watching DVDs and going to concerts and studying different artists and guitarists. I took in as much inspiration as I could. When Youtube and Myspace came around that changed everything for me. I started to see that the internet was slowly circumventing the music industry and that I could make connections with people from other states and share ideas with like-minded people. The internet opened up opportunities for DIY artists like myself to have a platform and reach.

I am a songwriter at heart, it’s my true passion to write songs with memorable melodies and hooks. I had a lot of song ideas but I didn’t have the studio knowledge or the gear to record my ideas. I met some like-minded local musicians that introduced me to “self-production”. That was the beginning of a personal awakening for me. I realized that I could take the power Into my own hands in a home studio environment and have complete artistic control and ultimately release songs on the internet and build a catalog. I started making demos back in 2011 of the current album that you hear today. In those early days I learned as much as I could and over time I decided I wanted to be a music producer. My goal at the time was to write and record my own album and use that as a resume to break into the music industry. So I wrote the best batch of music that I could and themed a story around it. (I’m really into motifs in music and recurring themes). In the spring of 2016 I met a singer named Daniel Tompkins based out of England. He’s the lead singer for a band called TesseracT. Dan also runs an online vocal coaching school. I decided to take private singing lessons with him over Skype as a part of his vocal coaching program. I wanted to sing my own songs and be conditioned enough to track in a studio. In the fall of 2016 Daniel introduced me to another producer named Randy Slaugh based out of Salt Lake City. Randy has worked with artists like David Archuleta and bands like Periphery, so it was a real honor to have Randy involved. Those early demos came in handy and opened the door for me to work with highly respected musicians. I’m lucky that they liked what I was doing and they were willing to get involved. I took private lessons with Daniel for three years and tried to be the best student I could be. During that time I invested in my own personal studio and learned from Daniel how to record and edit my own vocal takes. For 14 years I worked retail jobs to support my dream. I would go to work, save money, and come home and write with my brother Mike who is the drummer for our band Centre Piece.

Around the time I met Daniel, I also met a mixer and engineer named Josh Roman who owns and runs Mind Rocket Recording Studio. I spent my time from 2016 – 2020 saving money and recording my album Lullaby. It was a grind. I was being coached by music industry veterans while working a day job and recording in a professional studio while doing pre-production at home. I was also booking shows across Ohio and taking my project live. 2018 to 2020 was very difficult. My mother was an 8-time cancer survivor and wrote a book called “Courage Hope and Healing”. She passed away on March 2nd, 2020. My album took on new meaning and became a concept album based on my faith after living with a sick mother for 30 years. In the fall of 2020 I finally released Lullaby and vowed to carry on my mother’s work. I now have a platform to share her story and testimony along with my own testimony.

I’m currently leading the band Centre Piece as a singer, songwriter, and executive producer. When not performing, I also work as an artist consultant and producer/liaison for Mind Rocket Recording Studio owned by Josh Roman. I’m here to help artists through the record-making process with the goal of publishing professional releases. From my experience I help artists theme records and craft songs as a hands-on producer, arranger, and editor. I am also the director of the Columbiana Performing Arts Center’s School of Rock program. I teach rock guitar technique and composition along with scales, modes, music theory, and much more. I also work from home as a publishing, marketing, and music business consultant for bands and solo acts.

I am happy with my record Lullaby and how it comes across live. I don’t know if I’m necessarily a proud person or proud of what I have achieved. I’m definitely happy with it. It was also nice seeing the singer from TesseracT (Daniel Tompkins) share my music on his twitch streams from time to time. That definitely meant a lot to me. I guess if I was proud of something it would be knowing that my mom trusted me with her legacy. I sell her book “Courage Hope and Healing” on my website and I really hope I get a chance to help the sick like she did. I want to be just like her. Many people say that I already am. I have memories of her on phone calls with cancer patients from across the country. I’d like to start doing that and really make a difference like visiting hospitals and being there for families. She was a true leader. When I think about her I feel strong. I know she’s with me.

As an artist consultant, I am happy to pray with my clients and to encourage them into their dreams. I actually care and can’t help but have perspective. I never got into this for self interest or for money. I see It as a ministry in a lot of ways. I’ve been through some things in my career that would shock a lot of people. I’m here to guide upcoming artists on their journey and to share my story with them. I’ll always be honest and transparent.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This band has been through a dozen line up changes due to all kinds of circumstances. I have had setbacks, falling outs, theft, band mates getting in trouble. It’s hard finding the right people to work with. I’m blessed that I can write albums from scratch and do most of the work on my own. Centre Piece was always intended to be an internet project. It’s also good to have a live band, because you do have to keep that muscle flexed. For myself and the current lineup I have now I’m more focused on touring. That’s our next step. Getting here took over a decade mixed with delays and struggles, real setbacks that costed me time, money, relationships and friendships. Im happy with the band mates I have now they’re all solid dudes. Hopefully they are still with me in a few years.

This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You have to be willing to make sacrifices and accept the suffering along the way. You have to be good at budgeting your finances and staying logical when you make decisions. Staying humble and grateful will get you ahead especially when you are suffering for your art. Writing and recording while taking care of my mom was extremely hard and it took a real toll on my health physically and mentally. When one person gets sick in your family it affects everyone around that person. I went into financial debt and lost twenty pounds and my coworkers at my day job were helping me buy groceries. I developed ulcers and IBS. I didn’t let my health hold me back from finishing my album. I sang and gave it my all on this record. I remember there were days at the studio I felt like I was barely hanging on. I think I’ve entered a grace period now, some sort of providence under God. It took extreme suffering and turmoil to get here. I was making regular trips to my doctor around my work schedule. Working a day job to support this was tough.

I don’t know how I survived in that environment as well as I did while also managing a band, taking care of a sick mom, taking voice lessons, communicating with producers from different countries or states, staying on top of my voice, booking gigs, and bringing my pre-production to Mind Rocket for mixing late into the night. Even getting things like the artwork right and writing the lyrics was all a part of what felt like birthing pains. It’s a process most will never understand unless you have done it yourself. I would like to write a book about it. I’ve seen a lot from my short time in the music industry. You can’t come into an industry like this with a know it all attitude and expect the right industry people to enter your life.

A negative mindset won’t get you very far and if your cutting down other artists you are asking for your plug to be pulled. Doors will open if you can just enjoy the ride and trust God. Surround yourself with successful people that are living right and have a positive mindset. Get away from the dream killers and don’t become one yourself. The best advice I can give anyone looking to get started is to be coachable and seek out teachers that have a good head on their shoulders and are passionate about sharing their knowledge.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s really simple for me, Im just happy I get an opportunity to express myself. Being on stage is such a release and so cathartic. From having an idea and recording that idea and how its brought to life sonically and ultimately printed for someone else to hear through their airpods and then that person comes to a show and hears you live, its such a cool process. From there you get to meet that person and it just goes on from there. I have had messages from people on my social media about how my music has moved them to tears or touched their lives. You can’t beat that, there is nothing else like it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.centrepieceband.com
• Instagram: @centrepieceband
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CentrePieceband
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cpstephen/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC848IckgHlhf8fXJVITWJCg
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Stephenpappas

Image Credits
Kellie Dunham Clifford Bozarth