Zopa: The indie-rock band led by the “Molti”-talented Michael Imperioli
Photo by Minna Abdel-Gawad
By Kaitlyn Hardy
Emmy award winning actor Michael Imperioli is most known for his roles in The Sopranos, as Christopher Moltisanti, the troubled protege of Tony Soprano, and briefly in Goodfellas as Spider, who (spoiler!) Joe Pesci’s character kills in a fit of rage. Yet, in the past month and a half, he has graced the screens of HBO once more, starring in the second season of the anthology miniseries The White Lotus.
Outside of acting, however, Imperioli is also a musician, leading as singer and guitarist in his band, Zopa. The band also features the talents of bassist and backup vocalist, Eljiah Amitin, and drummer, Olmo Tighe.
Their debut album, La Dolce Vita, was released on streaming platforms in 2021. The band performed throughout the U.S and Canada on their Midsummer Tour in August, and on Thursday, December 8, performed at Brighton Music Hall in Boston.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
How did Zopa begin?
Michael Imperioli: I was first in a band in 1985, when I was 19. It was called Black Angus, a kind of no-wave, post-punk thing. I was learning how to play guitar as we went along. Then, when Olmo was eight, he was in a movie. I was 25. His brother was 10 years older than him, we played friends in the movie, and we became friends and stayed in touch. Fast forward 15 years, I was looking to put together a band again. I ran into Olmo’s brother at a party and he told me he was playing the drums so I started looking for him. So Olmo and I met up to play a little and we had a good time. He said, “Do you want to play with a bass player?”
Olmo Tighe: Elijah and I met the summer before seventh or eighth grade.
Eljiah Amitin: We both grew up on the West Side of Manhattan. We hung out outside of school together and we would jam together.
Imperioli: And so the next practice, Elijah came and we just kept playing.
And the rest, as they say, is history. How would you describe Zopa’s sound?
Tighe: At first it was more like New York gritty punk, but now I think it’s evolving, each song feels a little different. It’s more shoegaze-y.
Imperioli: I call it indie rock.
Amitin: Yeah, I think broadly speaking, it’s indie rock or alternative rock.
Zopa means “patience” in Tibetan; why did you choose this name?
Imperioli: It sounded good. It’s four letters, it’s kind of mysterious. And in Russian, “zhopa” means ass.
How is patience important in music?
Imperioli: You have to be patient in your development of anything creative. Things ripen as they ripen not as you want them to ripen; you have to give things time.
What artists have been your influences?
Amitin: Well, certainly The Velvet Underground, Hole, Nirvana.
Imperioli: Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Neil Young, Galaxy 500. Galaxy 500 was a really influential band for me in the late 80s and early 90s. Oh, and Cat Power—they were a really big influence on me.
If you could collaborate with any famous artist, alive or dead, who would it be?
Amitin: Would they be dead while performing with us? Because an Elvis hologram would be pretty cool, or Neil Young.
Imperioli: Marc Bolan or Diana Ross.
When did you first perform together?
Imperioli: We started playing together at the end of February 2006. Then at the end of April or beginning of May, I went to Portugal for a month to do a movie. A friend of mine was involved in a music club there and said we could play our first concert there, so at the end of the month, [Tighe and Amitin] flew out to Lisbon. We really hadn’t been playing together for very long, but 500 people showed up to see us. Plus, that night, I realized I had never sang on stage before, but it was a tremendously fun, exciting experience.
Do you ever get nervous before or while performing?
Imperioli: I get less nervous now because we’ve been working a lot. As you go, you own it more and when you put in enough work, you feel like you belong there.
Amitin: If I’m gonna sing one of the songs, then I’ll get more nervous because I’ll be more in the spotlight, but no, not really. It’s more of a matter of your attitude: if you’re afraid of messing up, then you’ll get nervous, but if you’re not afraid of messing up then you just roll with it. Plus the audience has just been so positive, it feels like they’re really rooting for us.
Tighe: I’ll get nervous once in a while. I was nervous when we were performing and the kick pedal broke and you guys didn’t realize.
Imperioli: I don’t even remember that.
Tighe: Right, I know. You guys didn’t even know it happened. I was just like, “Fuck it, no bass drum for the last three songs.”
Do you have any pre-performance rituals or superstitions?
Amitin: Michael always plays guitar in the corner somewhere.
Imperioli: Yeah, I warm up. I try to warm up my fingers for playing guitar and my voice a little bit too just because it always helps.
Tighe: In Philly you were jumping.
Imperioli: Jumping!?
Tighe: Yeah, like before a boxing match.
Imperioli: Well, sometimes you have to get prepared for battle.
Michael, I’ve heard in some videos of Zopa performing, crowd members yelling out “Chrissy” or “Christopher” in reference to your character on The Sopranos. How do you feel about this? Are you proud to keep holding the legacy of the show, or would you like each of your projects and successes to be independent of one another?
Imperioli: No, no, it doesn’t bother me at all. I understand it, that show is very beloved to a lot of people and they’ll always associate me with that, and if it gets them to the concert, that’s cool.
What is your favorite song that you’ve made?
Imperioli: That’s kind of like asking which kid is the favorite, but we’re almost done mixing a new album, so all of those are my current favorites.
How exciting! What else can you share about the new album?
Imperioli: It’ll come out probably spring of 2023. One of the songs on it, “Red Sky,” we released as a single earlier this year. Another is a cover of two songs put together, “Ocean” by Lou Reed and “Heroin” by The Velvet Underground.