Meet Stephen Pappas | Musical artist & producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephen Pappas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephen, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I see it a couple of different ways. My journey has been unique to myself as a person under the calling I’m walking out in my life. I’m in a place now where I have a free-ish lifestyle to tackle the projects that I want to. I work full time at a day job to support myself as an artist, but it’s a job that I feel is in line with my calling and passion. So I don’t feel like Im necessarily even working. I’m having fun!

In the beginning I would use survival jobs, eventually over time I’ve suffered and matured enough to where I’ve been released into some providence. I can finally enjoy my life as it happens and not worry about anything. I work full-time and around that I can still produce and write with my band as well as perform and take on production work. The key is having a logical mindset and displaying self control over my emotions and decisions. I can make it all happen at once without feeling any pressure.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
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 listening to pop on local radio stations. 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 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.

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.

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 show proper self control over your emotions and decision making and it varies depending on the situation. 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 the lullaby 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.

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. 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. When I think about her I feel strong. I know she’s with me. I don’t want to be out for my own self interest going forward. I’ve gotten past the selfishness and the pride.

I am excited for 2024! I started putting together some fundraiser gigs to raise money for thymoma research. We have one coming up on March 2nd of 2024 at a new venue called Rock Bottom. It’s on the 4 year anniversary of my moms passing away. We are going to be donating that night to thymoma research. I also plan on writing for our next record. I have some ideas and seeds planted. We have a new single coming out soon as well. I’ve been working on it for a couple months now and it’s gonna be a nice heavy song for our live set and fun to perform. That will be on Spotify and Apple Music with the rest of our catalogue. It may have some special guests on it!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The first place that comes to mind is my church, it’s called Victory Church. I grew up at that place and have a long history there. Just walking around the grounds brings back memories of the 90’s and the revival days. We would also visit Josh Roman at MindRocket. MindRocket is the studio I liaison out of and where I record most of my music. It’s owned by Josh Roman and he’s the mixer and engineer. His studio is definitely a vibe and Josh is one of my best friends. He’s super cool and super chill to hang out with. We have plenty of Italian restaurants and good pizza places like the Elmton. When I think about it Youngstown has some very diverse places to eat at, anything from greek food to Mexican or Indian, I think the people here take that for granted. We would also have to stop at my work, Phantom Fireworks. It’s been my favorite store since I was a little kid. Fireworks made me so happy as a kid and still do now. Another cool place is the WestSide Bowl. It’s a good music venue if you want to catch a show and have drinks or dinner. There’s a lot more good happening in Youngstown than we get credit for.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There is, my longtime friend and mentor Daniel Tompkins. When Daniel first took me under his wing, I was quite immature and somewhat timid. I always wanted a strong male leader in my life to look up too. Daniel was more than a voice teacher to me or a music industry contact. He became a father figure to me and I found salvation and a door to God through his presence in my life. I think what really matters at the end of the day are the enduring things like salvation and not so much my plugins or my studio knowledge. It’s about relationships with people. I have a friend for life in him and he has friend for life in me. I truly believe I am the man I am today because of his guidance. Thank you Dan.

Website: www.centrepieceband.com

Instagram: @centrepieceband

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/cpstephen/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CentrePieceband/

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@centrepieceband

Other: www.linktr.ee/Stephenpappas

Image Credits
Kellie Dunham Larisa Kerik