• Zopa •
Michael Imperioli has always been a storyteller, whether on the screen or through songs, and Diamond Vehicle, the new album from his three-piece indie-rock band ZOPA feels like a full-circle moment. Formed alongside bassist Elijah Amitin and drummer Olmo Tighe, ZOPA - Tibetan for “patience” and a key piece of Imperioli’s Buddhist name - feels less like a side gig and more like a transmission straight from New York’s legendary music underground. On the new album, Imperioli comes across like a more sophisticated Johnny Thunders, part poet and part pirate. And please don't take that as a slight on the late, great Mr. Thunders (big fan here).
The story of how it all came to be reads like the happiest of accidents. Imperioli, at 17, was already cutting his teeth in the city’s art scene while Amitin and Tighe were just being born. Amitin, raised on the rhythms of New York City's Latin music heyday, and Tighe, with his avant-garde background, crossed paths as teenagers, bonding over a shared love of groove and texture. By the early 2000s, they were making music together. Meanwhile, Imperioli and Tighe’s connection goes all the way back to the 1994 film Postcards From America, which they both appeared in. But it wasn’t until years later, through a chance encounter at The Strand, that Imperioli brought Tighe in as ZOPA’s drummer. Amitin joined soon after, finalizing a lineup that’s been playing together since 2006, and their special chemistry has only grown tighter over time. The connection between past and present isn’t lost on Imperioli. “What’s even more serendipitous is that they are two of the best human beings I have ever had the privilege of knowing,” he says of his bandmates.
ZOPA’s sound is deeply rooted in the past but never stuck there. Their live shows and recordings lean on analog warmth, minimal overdubs, and a raw immediacy that places them squarely in the lineage of NYC’s greats. As if the record wasn’t “New York” enough with the originals, covering Lou Reed’s “Ocean” and “Heroin” adds that special touch that goes above a simple homage, it’s a pledge that this band is proud of being from New York City. With a list of influences that runs the gamut from Dinosaur Jr, the Smiths and My Bloody Valentine to the Replacements, Joy Division, and Violent Femmes, ZOPA don't just mimic these bands, they channel their energy into songs that feel lived-in and urgent.
If 2020’s La Dolce Vita was your introduction, Diamond Vehicle is its expansive, powerful evolution. If one song truly captures the band’s ethos, it’s “A Still Life,” about the search for something just out of reach, a longing that pulses through every note that all of us can relate to. “The sound is the story. The story is a sound,” Imperioli reflects. And in Diamond Vehicle, that sound is timeless, forever existing in the hazy space where youth, art, and the eternal hum of New York City collide.
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