Yiannis Papadopoulos is an award winning guitarist, composer, solo artist, as well as the energetic lead guitarist of Scott Stapp (Creed) who engages his audience with unforgettable performances. Yiannis is currently on tour with Scott Stapp.
The tour for “The Space Between the Shadows” has been the most extensive and ambitious of Stapp’s solo career, and Yiannis Papadopoulos has taken leadership roles and shown his servant’s heart beyond steering the band onstage. Since 2014, Scott and Jaclyn Stapp have been active ambassadors for the charitable organization Child Fund International. Yiannis accompanied the couple on a mission trip to Ecuador and conveyed the fullness of his own father’s heart as he visited families in homes and schools. On the current tour, he shares his own heartfelt experiences of children’s lives being touched and transformed by the combined caring of donors.
Music Madness: Congrats on the tour. How is everything going on tour?
Yiannis: Dude, so far the tour has been a blast. I think its been more than three months on the road now and the new album, The Space Between the Shadows, is out. It’s heavy, it’s rocking, it has melodies and the people seem to enjoy it a lot when we play the new songs. They sing the lyrics, they’re very passionate about it.
We’re having fun actually on and off the stage and that makes it even more special, because when you’re on the road for so long, sometimes it can be frustrating. The good thing about this camp is that everybody is friends with everybody. You can see the smiles we have on stage man and that proves that there’s a chemistry between the band and the members of the crew. It’s such, such, such a good environment to work and spend time making music.
Music Madness caught up with Yiannis on the road prior to their show in Springfield, MA. His passion was evident from the onset and his excitement was infectious.
Music Madness: Absolutely. I’m sure that the fans see that and it spills over to them as well.
Yiannis: Yeah, definitely.
Music Madness: When you’re on the road for an extended period of time, do you travel with your families?
Yiannis: No. We have family members coming on and off, but we can’t travel with our families the whole time. My wife flew from Greece and she was here for two weeks, Scott’s wife and children are coming and going.
I’m a father and my daughter is two and a half years old, man. I really, really miss her, I miss my wife, I miss my friends. For me it’s an even bigger burden to be away, because when we have a break I can’t fly home, it’s a very long trip. So I’m away from them for longer periods of time, but you got to do what you got to do, man.
Music Madness: Absolutely. I know you’ve done a lot of solo work and composing…Is there a big difference for you playing in a band versus working on your own projects?
Yiannis: As a musician sometimes you are required to play things that may not exactly be your cup of tea. The good thing about this scenario is I love the music man. I loved it from day one and that’s why I contacted Scott. I like rock. I like shredding. So the heavy riffs and all this energy inspires me to play on stage and to write this kind of music.
Originally, when Scott and I were talking about it, I was like, “Yeah man, if this happens it’s going to be a blast.” And here we are four or five years later, still having fun on stage and playing. And the good thing about it is I have the space to put my own things in the songs. I mean play the solos that I like and giving it my own touch to some of the old songs and of course the new ones.
Music Madness: Is it an awkward thing when fans are expecting to hear the old Creed hits and it’s not your music?
Yiannis: No man, I mean if it’s good music, it’s good music. So obviously when you have written something and you play it on stage and you see the excitement in people’s faces, it may be more fulfilling. But on the other hand, if you’re a musician, you appreciate a good song and a good melody and a good vibe from the artistic standpoint in any case. And again everything comes back to the chemistry that you have with people on stage. This is a very, very important thing man, a very important thing. And from my experience when you have something good going on on stage, people are having fun when they see you.
People have all these things on their mind when they go and see a gig. They want to hear the songs that they love but at the end of the day they want to have fun. That’s the bottom line. You have to entertain them. They need to leave a gig with a positive feeling and for me it’s not something that art creates in general. We are trying to do that every night on stage, man, every night.
Music Madness: Absolutely. Most musicians that I speak with always get excited about new music but agree that its equally important that it translates well to a live performance. People can enjoy and appreciate audio music but true lifelong fans are made through that live experience.
Yiannis: Yeah. I feel you and this is exactly what motivates us to play live, man. Because these days with technology, you can do anything you want in the studio. Then for me, the real test is when the band comes out on stage and they just freaking go for it. They play and you get the chills when you’re a fan and you’re watching and for us that’s the ultimate thing.
That’s why we pour our sweat and energy every night. We just want to pass our energy onto the fans and have fun. I agree 100% with you, man. When you’re on stage, you have to give your everything. That’s how it goes.
Music Madness: At the end of the day, if you guys are having fun and they’re having fun, you can’t ask for anything else.
Yiannis: Yeah, I completely agree with you.
Music Madness: Can you tell us about how the whole audition with Scott went down.
Yiannis: So at some point I sent a message to Scott on Facebook and I’m like, “Hey man, I’m a fan and I’ve done these things in my life.” I put out my video and the things that I’ve done and won in the past for guitar and stuff. I’m like, “Hey, if you like what I see, I’ll be happy to come on the road with you. I love your voice, I love your songs.” This kind of message.
The next day I get, “Hey man, I like what I see. I’m hitting the road soon. Let’s be in touch.”
We exchanged a few emails back and forth, talked via Skype and we hit it off immediately. I had very good energy with Scott, like we’re brothers. One of the last things he said on that call was, “Man, I like your energy” and I felt the same thing actually. He’s like, “Hey dude, I want you to do these four songs for an additional. Just learn them, play them, send me a video of you playing the songs.”
I got them ready, sent them over. And yeah, I just got a very, very, very nice email back saying, “Man, all right, you got the gig.”
Music Madness: That’s awesome.
Yiannis: We got everything sorted out and here we are, man. I can’t believe it. It’s already been four, five years on the road with this guy.
I adore Scott man. He’s voice always moved me and the lyrics and the fact that we are out now playing new material and I’m having so much fun. He’s killing it man, every night he’s killing it. He never, never settles for something less than perfection. You see how the guy warms up and how he pours his soul into everything he does and for me that inspiring and it just motivates me to move forward.
Music Madness: Did you come from a musically inclined family?
Yiannis: My father actually is a guitar player. Generally the family from my father’s side is a very involved in music. One of my cousin’s plays the violin, the other plays the piano, my uncle plays the guitar and my father plays the guitar professionally. So it’s like a thing in the family. Nobody forced us to. But hey man, from day one when I saw my father holding the guitar, I’m like, “Man, I like this.” For some reason it resonated with what I felt as a purpose in life. It made sense and I kept asking my father and my mother to enroll me in the conservatory so that I could learn how to play properly.
My parents were always in favor and they were pushing me when I liked something in that direction to just go for it. They were never like, “Hey man, don’t do this. Leave it aside.” Don’t give up on your dream. It’s going to come. We believe in you.” And I think that this is something that every parent in my opinion, should tell their kids. They should stand by them.
Different people can express themselves in different ways. Not everybody’s good with communication. Not everybody expresses their feelings the same way. So for some people, art and music might be one very, very healthy and beautiful way to express themselves and show what they have inside them and in their hearts to other people. I believe personally as a parent, I’m going to try very hard to tell that to my children. I don’t know if they’re going to go in that direction, but I will definitely help them if they decide to go there.
Music Madness: Do you remember your first show you performed in?
Yiannis: My first rock show with Scott or my first concert because I think I remember both to be honest. My first concert as a kid, I was 11 if I’m not mistaken, and we played with the conservatory, “Sweet Child of Mine”. I remember playing this last part at 11 years old and everybody else in the band was like 18 or so. Everybody was like, “What is this kid doing here?” but you know, when you nail the bars, everybody’s like, “Yeah man, go for it bro.”
My first year with Scott it was in South Africa and we played at a festival. It was killer, because after the rehearsals, it was the first time that we met with a band in Nashville, we did the rehearsals. The first show was in South Africa. We hadn’t played on stage together yet, we didn’t know how we’re going to move on stage.
So we hit the stage. We had a blast on stage, people were screaming and it was a day to remember. We were playing and there were crocodiles around us and different wild animals in the back of the park. You don’t see that every day, at least not me.
Music Madness: That’s awesome. Do you remember the first rock concert you attended?
Yiannis: Yeah, I do. I’m the metal head in general. These are my roots, rock and metal. So my first concert was Iron Maiden in Athens, Greece. It was loud bro, I’ll tell you that. I love that band and I had a blast.
In my opinion, very few artists these days, write from the soul, man. Music, unfortunately, tends to be plastic, if you know what I mean. It’s like everybody is trying to copy everybody. Everybody sounds the same. That’s one of the reasons that I like Scott. His voice has always been unique. His music has always been unique. His lyrics have always been unique. They touch the soul, they have something to tell you. They have something to make you think and inspire you. It’s true, it’s come from within. You can’t duplicate that. You can’t mimic it. If it’s true, it’s true and it comes out and people see that. Not a lot of artists have it these days, and that’s what makes Scott special, in my opinion.
