The actor, writer and musician answers your questions on Buddhism, The Sopranos and his musical heroes
You’ve said starting bands helped you come out of a period of dissatisfaction after The Sopranos ended. Why do you think it had that effect? laurasnapes
Zopa started in 2006, the year before The Sopranos ended. I hadn’t played with other musicians in a while. Over the years I missed that experience of creating music with other people. There’s a literal component to acting and writing. You have to be faithful to the story, the words and who that person is. Music is much more abstract. There’s a bit of magic to that, at least for me. You don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going. And that’s very fun and satisfying.
The first time you saw My Bloody Valentine you had to leave afterwards because you were so blown away. Have you had a live music experience like that since, or recently? dennylayne
I went to see Dinosaur Jr and this band My Bloody Valentine was opening for them. They were on the Loveless tour. It was in Athens, Georgia, at a small club called the 40 Watt. To experience that without expectation was very profound and overwhelming to the point where it’s hard to take anything else in after that. The sonic weight of it, you’re just so filled with it that that’s enough of an experience for one night. When I saw the Smiths it was like that – The Queen is Dead tour, 1986, in the outdoor venue on Pier 86 [in New York]. The Queen is Dead was a very important record to me and my friends, and to see them live at that moment in time was magic. I felt like that when I saw Lou Reed for the first time, Patti Smith, Suicide. There used to be this very small but really important rock club in Hoboken, New Jersey: Maxwell’s. Black Francis played solo while he was still in the Pixies, just him on electric guitar doing all Pixies songs. I got there really early and I was right in front of him. I’ll never forget that.
