Michael Imperioli was in one of last year’s hottest shows, playing a father on a high-wire vacation with his son and dad on HBO’s “The White Lotus.”
Imperioli has been a fixture on the screen since his youth through roles in projects like “Goodfellas,” “The Sopranos,” and “Escape At Dannemora.”
But in recent years, another side of Imperioli’s artistry has emerged, including the publication of his novel “The Perfume Burned His Eyes,” and releases from his rock group Zopa.
The band will be performing as part of the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Tinker Street Cinema.
I think a lot of people know your work on the screen. But you've been doing music for quite a while. How did you get started in that vein?
I started playing in a band when I was 19, certainly after I started studying acting in New York, and you know, in the early 80s, in New York, there was a lot of cross-pollination between actors and writers and musicians, filmmakers, poets, on the Lower East side of New York, especially, it was kind of a ground zero for that melting pot. Performance art as well, which kind of, I think came out of like punk rock meets experimental theater. So I started playing in bands back then. Played in a couple of bands in the 80s and 90s. And then in 2006, we formed Zopa. And we were playing a lot of shows in New York with a little bit of touring in the U.S. and Europe between 2006 and 2013. And then I moved to Santa Barbara, Calif. for a number of years, and we were not active until I moved back to New York in 2021. Since then, we've been pretty busy writing and recording and playing shows. And that's basically the story.
Did you guys pick it right back up after that break?
I published the novel, as you mentioned, in 2018. And I started doing some spoken word events, mostly with Lydia Lunch, who does this verbal burlesque spoken word tour, and I did a bunch of those with her and would have either Elijah, who plays bass in Zopa or Olmo, who plays the drums, accompany me when I did live readings of the book. And that was kind of the beginning. That was 2019 and 2020. We started working together a bit. And then in 2021 we started practicing again, and it was still the pandemic. So the first thing we did was a virtual benefit for the Coney Island Museum. And then since then, we've been we've been really busy.
I don't know how it's impacted you but have you had more time to do music because of the actors’ strike that's still going on as we speak?
I make time. I'm pretty good at budgeting time doing different things. I'm someone who really has to remain creative, even when they're not, like, formally hired for a job like an acting job or something. So unless I'm on location shooting like I was in last year for the ‘White Lotus,’ when I’m in New York we practice regularly together and do shows. We do a lot of shows in New York, but we've done quite a few tours in the last couple of years that have been coming up in the fall, in November.
Do you get something different as a performer from your musical side than you do from your acting side?
Yes and no. In some ways, they're very similar. Live performance I find very similar to live performance of like, theater, you know, you're trying to connect to it, honestly, to a certain emotion, that's part of the story and communicating to an audience. I just love music, you know, and love collaborating, especially with other musicians, especially Olmo and Elijah, and creating music and making that sound and, you know, being with two other musicians for quite a long time, our sound has changed over the years and in really great ways and developed in specific ways. And then the satisfaction of having a band that is very much a band and a very equal collaboration of musicians, not just like a singer-songwriter with a rhythm section or something like that. It's definitely a cohesive thing, developing that over time and that kind of level of communication is really special.
One thing I like about the music is that as a three-piece there's kind of room in it. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but there's space within a lot of the songs. And how did you f decide that you would be a three-piece as opposed to adding more pieces?
Well, I always thought people are a lot easier to coordinate schedules. Honestly, I don't mean to be facetious. That's part of it. It's a little more difficult because you know, you all have to have more responsibilities. The more people you add, the more divided the responsibilities are, but it just really happened naturally. Because the first thing when I was looking to start this band, I wanted to find was drummer. And then when I found Olmo, he said there’s this bassist I’ve playing with since high school. And then it was Elijah. And then there was the three of us and we just started writing and playing and never really thought about adding anybody else. And I do like, you know, one of my big influences with Zopa was a band called Galaxy 500, a trio that I saw a bunch live in the 90s and loved and there was something about what they did as a trio that really inspired me. Also, Dinosaur Jr., another rock trio that I find really inspiring and amazing.
You're also, of course, a big Lou Reed fan, I think, to say the least. It's been a few years since I read your novel, but he has a role to play in the book, as I recall.
Yeah.
So were the Velvets and Lou Reed a big influence on your sound?
Lou in particularly, lyrically. His songwriting was very unique, and I think one of the great lyricists of all time in a way that is very different than Dylan. Lou’s almost more like a novelist. Lou feels more like a poet, to me at least, and brought this really gritty, almost transgressive fiction or in some ways noirish fiction to lyric writing, and I've always really loved that.
Have you had a lot of work disrupted by the strike? Were you in the middle of any projects that haven't come to fruition yet?
I was in the middle of a project with HBO, a pilot that I've been developing there. And my writing partner had just turned in our second draft, and we weren't able to get notes because the writers’ strike happened and you're not allowed to discuss writing projects with the studio. So now that they've reached something, and hopefully we'll get some notes. And I was also shooting, I was shooting an episode of ‘American Horror Story.’ And that kind of got put on hold.
Can you tell us anything about the pilot you're working on?
The pilot is with a wonderful writer and director, Alec Berg, who was one of the showrunners and directors writers for ‘Barry’ for HBO, he also wrote on ‘Silicon Valley.’ And we collaborated on a half-hour dark comedy. Kind of a meta, where I play a version of myself. But it's kind of the intersection of, I guess, celebrity in a way. And spirituality and I practice Tibetan Buddhism. That's very much of one of the elements of the show. But it's done in a in a darkly comedic way.
How did Tibetan Buddhism come into your life?
I was searching out a lot of different spiritual paths, some not so spiritual. What’s the word? Esoteric kind of things. And being open to it, feeling like there was a certain level of, I don't know, wisdom, maybe that was not available to me through other means, rational or intellectual means. There needed to be another way to maybe connect to it.
You used the word practice a moment ago. What does it mean in your daily life to practice Tibetan Buddhism? What does it functionally do?
That’s such a good question. That's a really, really, really good question. Well, there's the actual formal practice, which could be sitting down and meditating. It could be listening to a teaching, could be attending a teaching, it could be reading from a Dharma book, you know. But then there's really practice in your life, you know, which means bringing whatever you're learning, through study and formal sitting meditation practice, with studying with a teacher or reading, bringing that into your daily life. So you have a level of awareness in interacting with the world and with other people and with yourself and your own emotions that is more conscious. And in a way where you're not just led by habitual pattern, immediate emotional responses in defense of the ego. That’s what I would say practice is.
It seems like a lot of those aims are counter to why a lot of people go to Hollywood in the first place.
Well, I don't know. I didn't go to Hollywood. I mean, I've worked in Hollywood. I kind of started in New York. I liked the vibe of being a New York artist, not just a New York actor. But the art scene in New York, which at the time that I kind of fell into it was exactly the opposite of Hollywood. You know, most people weren't, you know, making money or aspiring to kind of whatever Hollywood success was, you know. It was about creating. But I know what you're saying. Yeah. But that goes for anything you do. Any kind of job that you aspire to kind of climb the ladder of, which I certainly did, too. I don't make any bones about it, I wanted to be successful. But that's why you need practice, because those things can really consume you, especially if you have any degree of success. They kind of reify all those habitual pattern, and maybe justify them and kind of make you think that they're correct. When in fact, it may just kind of keep you stuck.
You portrayed the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, in ‘Escape At Dannemora.’ And I'm wondering if you ever heard from the governor at the time about your performance?
Well, I actually met with him before I did the movie. He was kind enough to sit down with me. And I'm not quite sure what he thought of my performance. I'm not quite sure what I thought of my performance. You know, it's not easy portraying somebody, for me, it's not easy portraying somebody who's a living, famous human being especially. I don't particularly look like him. And it wasn't the type of movie, the type of part, it wasn't such a significant role that they were going to do some elaborate prosthetic kind of things that make me look exactly like him or something. But yeah, I don't know what he thought of it one way or the other. We were at some event. I think he made a joke that he wished like somebody like Brad Pitt played him or somebody who was handsome. I'm not sure if that would be warranted for the governor. But maybe he wasn’t as happy with me, but I'm not really sure what he thought of it. I was happy to be able to at least sit down with him and get a sense of who he was before I played him.
Spoiler alert, but your character did make it out of season two of the ‘White Lotus,’ which began with a body in the ocean. Do you think you'll ever return to the ‘White Lotus’ universe?
Do I think I will? Probably not. Do I wish I would? Absolutely. You know, most of the characters don't return. And I understand why. It’s a new cast every season. But I just loved working on that show.
It sounded like everybody had a really great experience being on location together, from what I read.
Oh, yeah, that was a dream job. I savored every minute of that job. I love being in Italy, I had been to some of those places in Sicily before and loved it and adored the cast I was with. And had such great material to work with. I wish that Job went on and on and on.
If I have my history right, at one point you were about to go to the University at Albany for college, but at the last minute you decided to pursue your artistic career instead. How close did you come to coming up here?
Oh, I had been to the orientation over the summer, which was kind of the thing that started to turn me off. Not just about being in Albany, but I really wanted to be in New York City. But I spent the weekend in the dorms, I guess, in like July or August. And to me, it just felt like a continuation of high school only living away from home. And I really didn't want that. So going to acting school, although I only went twice a week for two hours Tuesday and four hours on Thursday, but I was all of a sudden with people who had decided what they wanted to do with their life, which I thought was really cool. But people at very different ages. And I was 17, by far the youngest, technically not even allowed to be in those classes. I was a year younger than you were supposed to be but they let me in because I graduated already. But people in their 20s, 30s, 40s. You know, that was quite exciting for me, to be around people who had been experiencing life as an adult for some time.
