{"id":411,"date":"2011-08-12T20:30:53","date_gmt":"2011-08-13T00:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=411"},"modified":"2011-08-15T02:59:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T06:59:34","slug":"a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In part two of the Whole Notes interview with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos, he talks about how his cousin’s near-death experience impacted him, how his faith has evolved and how the band has dealt with bouncing back and forth between different audiences and markets:<\/p>\n

Bonham: How did John’s near-death experience test your faith?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Steven Delopoulos (second from right) and his Burlap To Cashmere bandmates (Photo by Chris Phelps)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delopoulos: I\u2019d lost a grandfather within the past five years and had experiences of illness and then my cousin got hurt. That\u2019s a tough question and a very deep question and it\u2019s not simple to answer because faith is an evolution. It\u2019s really something that, when you get tested like that, it\u2019s hard to see what that is and put it into words right away. God is not that simple, yet God is that simple. God is love, period. God is love. And how do you experience love when a family member is hurt? It doesn\u2019t test your faith. You\u2019re not thinking on those terms. You\u2019re just thinking, \u201cIs he gonna live? Is he gonna die?\u201d You\u2019re thinking about how you\u2019re going to comfort his sister Nicole. You\u2019re thinking \u201cHow do I comfort his mother Jean?\u201d You\u2019re thinking these things. You\u2019re not thinking, \u201cWow, my faith is being tested.\u201d But looking back, it\u2019s been part of this evolution of coming back into a faith-based program for me personally. I can\u2019t speak for the guys. I can\u2019t speak overall and put a stamp on it. That wouldn\u2019t be fair to the guys. But for me, that was definitely a turning point. But there have been lots of turning points for my faith and my growth in my faith.<\/p>\n

Bonham: That\u2019s something that takes years to assess, I would think.<\/p>\n

Delopoulos: Exactly. Exactly. But yeah, faith is a big part of the way I write. It\u2019s sort of a reflection of Christ within. It\u2019s a reflection of experience. But it\u2019s not an intellectual decision. It\u2019s just something you feel and it\u2019s something you express. When you\u2019re in a situation where a family member\u2019s gonna die, to be honest with you, the last thing you\u2019re thinking about is prayer, even though I did pray. I mean, all I saw was horror. Sometimes that\u2019s okay. It\u2019s okay to go through that process because then you really do grow. You grow from pain. You grow from fear. But you never want to go there again. It was a lesson. Thanks for reminding me.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Early on, you guys were thrust into the Christian market having come out of the club scene in New York. Now that you have this deal with Jive and Essential, are you more comfortable with the idea of going back and forth between the Christian and general markets or has the audience ever been that big of deal?<\/p>\n

Delopoulos: That\u2019s a great question. It\u2019s definitely a paradox. Dealing with it the first time around when you\u2019re younger, it\u2019s hard to understand it because there\u2019s this agenda. With any marketplace, there\u2019s an agenda. The thing about my writing is I\u2019ve never had an agenda. I\u2019ve never had an agenda as a person. As a band, Burlap To Cashmere has never been about an agenda. But there\u2019s always been a story. There\u2019s always been something mystical behind it that all we can do as human beings is listen. So if you go back to the Old Testament, a lot of those prophets were not perfect people. They were not perfect people. David was not a perfect man. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve heard, but he was a mess. They all were. But what made them different from the rest was that they listened and they expressed from what they heard. I think what makes this band a spiritual band and the reason why we do fit into the evangelical, Christian circuit is because we\u2019re not too far off the tree. I\u2019m a Greek Orthodox Christian. I hopefully do as much listening as my evangelical friends do and hopefully express it. To answer your question, we don\u2019t have an agenda. We don\u2019t say that we\u2019re this or we\u2019re that. We try not to wear any labels at all.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How has your music evolved over the years?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Delopoulos: That\u2019s a good question. I\u2019m the writer of the group, so I can talk about the songs then and the songs now. The songs now were coming from folk-based music and the songs now are still coming from folk-based music. A song on our first album, for example, \u201cChop Chop,\u201d let\u2019s say, it was like a Harry Chapin rip-off sort of song and then we have a song now called \u201cLove Reclaims the Atmosphere,\u201d that\u2019s a Simon & Garfunkel-esque song. It all comes back to the guys I used to listen to. So no, it\u2019s not different. It\u2019s more organized. It\u2019s more focused. And I think it\u2019s more true to who we are as much more mature men.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonham: Do you feel the same excitement from the old days?<\/p>\n

Delopoulos: You know what\u2019s funny? We\u2019ve sort of become this novelty act as far as our brand name goes because of our live shows. Thank God! People come back and they keep wanting to see us. So it\u2019s great. We do play some of the old material. We\u2019ll play \u201cAnybody Out There.\u201d But a lot of it is about the new material. The energy is still there. My cousin on guitar can still play all those rhythms. I\u2019m still the writer and singer. So the essentials are all there. I think people who liked our first record have grown with us in maturity. I think they\u2019re going to listen to this and they\u2019re going to get it. They\u2019re going to get that it\u2019s not that different. But it is more mature. We\u2019re organized chaos whereas back then it was pure chaos. Now we\u2019re drinking decaf before shows.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Now that you\u2019ve decided this might be a long-term career, how will you go about making that happen?<\/p>\n

Delopoulos: It\u2019s definitely about having good help and organization. We are looking to make a career out of this. We are looking to serve the country and play for whomever we can. One of my favorite things about doing this is connecting with fans because they really became family. That\u2019s what I look forward to. I remember being on the road and just having strangers say, \u201cHey, we\u2019re going to make dinner for you. Come over. You can sleep on the couch.\u201d We were making lifelong friends. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about. In this era and in this time, as much as technology is advancing, everything is really becoming about human connection. To make a living as an artist, it\u2019s about hitting the road, playing shows, connecting with people and that\u2019s it. That\u2019s what I love to do. That\u2019s what Johnny loves to do. That\u2019s what Teddy loves to do. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be about. We\u2019re going to be about reconnecting with fans and potential friends. We\u2019re very blessed.<\/p>\n

Click HERE<\/a> to read Part 1 of the Whole Notes interview with Steven Delopoulos.<\/em><\/p>\n

To stay up on the latest Burlap To Cashmere news, visit the band’s official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click “Like” to share this with your friends! In part two of the Whole Notes interview with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos, he talks about how his cousin’s near-death experience impacted him, how his faith has evolved and how the band has dealt with bouncing back and forth between different audiences and markets:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,70,131,120],"tags":[81,320,312,319,310],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-music-feature","category-new-music-release","category-qa","tag-burlap-to-cashmere","tag-greek-orthodox","tag-harry-chapin","tag-simon-garfunkel","tag-steven-delopoulos"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2) - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2) - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! In part two of the Whole Notes interview with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos, he talks about how his cousin’s near-death experience impacted him, how his faith has evolved and how the band has dealt with bouncing back and forth between different audiences and markets:…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-13T00:30:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-15T06:59:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/08\/BurlapImage_ChrisPhelps-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2) - Whole Notes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2) - Whole Notes","og_description":"Click “Like” to share this with your friends! In part two of the Whole Notes interview with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos, he talks about how his cousin’s near-death experience impacted him, how his faith has evolved and how the band has dealt with bouncing back and forth between different audiences and markets:…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html","og_site_name":"Whole Notes","article_published_time":"2011-08-13T00:30:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-15T06:59:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/08\/BurlapImage_ChrisPhelps-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Chad Bonham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html","name":"A conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2) - Whole Notes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/08\/BurlapImage_ChrisPhelps-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-13T00:30:53+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-15T06:59:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/08\/BurlapImage_ChrisPhelps-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/08\/BurlapImage_ChrisPhelps-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-burlap-to-cashmere-lead-singer-steven-delopoulos-part-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A conversation with Burlap To Cashmere lead singer Steven Delopoulos (Part 2)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/","name":"Whole Notes","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1","name":"Chad Bonham","description":"Chad has been working in mass media for over 20 years. Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}