Napstamind, a trio from Rome, channels the 1970s’ psychedelic pulse through a gritty modern rock filter. Their performances shift between brooding, introspective echoes and high-energy fuzz-laden riffs, fueled by the dynamic voices of Michele Cipollini, Lorenzo Colombo, and Michelangelo Rupolo. Anchored in the Roman music scene, they’re set to drop their debut album Nel Giardino a Vapore this month, following up on three standout singles: Nessuno Resterà, Lui è qui, and now Rovi.
Il Giardino a Vapore, NapstaMind’s debut full-length, is a kaleidoscope of 90s nostalgia, blending grunge, shoegaze, and the psychedelic influence of the 70s. The album’s compositions traverse a landscape that shifts between dreamy sweetness and gritty aggression, with occasional stoner-rock detours.
All three band members contribute to the lyrics, often addressing intimate relationships and speaking directly to a second person. The harmonies evoke Alice In Chains’ raw edge, while the distorted guitars nod toward garage rock and eerie surf tones with a bit of the Dandy Warhols’ cool swagger.
Napstamind spoke with Post-Punk.com about their latest single Rovi, as well as their inspirations, goals, and ideas for the future:
What inspired the creation of “Rovi”? Are there any personal experiences or stories behind the song?
“Rovi is a song inspired by a state of mind in which I find myself from time to time. I wanted to capture this dark feeling through images drawn from different sources: a poem I wrote, a dream I had, and things I have read. By the time the structure of the song started to come together, I already had the image I wanted to portray in mind.
What do you hope listeners take away from the album?
A valuable feature of many remarkable pieces of music is the ability to allow the listener to form their own interpretation of the song. Thoughts, visions, emotions, and memories are stimulated by melody, rhythm, transitions, and lyrics. In this way, we can think of music as a tool: its purpose is to give the listener the ability to understand their true self, their relationship with the surrounding world, and their place within society, ultimately inspiring a new, alternative, and better human condition.
This is the ambitious goal we hope to achieve with this album.
How does this project set the stage for your future work? Are there any new directions you’re excited to explore?
First of all, making this record represented a new direction for us, from the way we wrote the songs to the way we recorded them.
We tried to write songs in the simplest and most effective way possible, different from our previous EP, while still following our instincts.
Now, the challenge is to bring our music to as many people as possible on our USA tour — starting at the end of October — so that we can see the impact it has on people in a different country and understand how we can interact with them.
Of course, there’s a lot of excitement in the air.
Then, when we return to our home country, we will focus on taking the elements we used in this record and elevating them to a new level, depending on what we have learned over the past months.
Pre-order Nel Giardino a Vapore here.
Listen to Rovi via Spotify below:
The band will soon make their way to the eastern US this spooky season, playing the following dates:
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