We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Opal Vinopal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Opal below.
Hi Opal, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
Opal Vinopal is my solo music project. As a Chicago-based guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the founder of the lyrical funk/soul band Local Motive with a career spanning over two decades, I have honed a reputation as a
prolific and versatile musician, with a catalog of original material spanning multiple genres, from funk and soul to rock, indie, and folk. My ensemble compositions, mastered by renowned producer/engineer Noam Wallenberg (Alan Parsons, Mac Miller) at Rax Trax Recording (Buddy Guy, George Clinton), are widely available across all streaming platforms, but even with all of that, I’ve had so much more to share creatively. That’s how I came up with the idea for Opal Vinopal.
I didn’t feel I was giving appropriate attention to the introspective solo material that has piled up. So starting in 2020, I began crafting a collection of gentler, more vulnerable songs from this pile of treasures. By 2023, I was fully ready to embark on this new musical endeavor, launching Opal Vinopal. This project represents a more minimalist and intimate side of my artistry, focused on vulnerability and deep personal expression. Most of all, it gives me freedom to explore songwriting without boxes, working on material that doesn’t fit with the established sounds of my ensembles.
The debut single under the Opal Vinopal moniker, “Demons”, was recorded at Gentle Bear Studios with producer/engineer Joe George (Emmy-nominated composer) and marked the beginning of this new chapter. The track features a stripped-down, intimate arrangement with my signature guitar work, emotional vocals, and a delicate balance of soul and folk influences. “Demons” is a raw exploration of the human experience, blending personal reflection with universal themes of inner conflict and
resilience. I knew this music would have the opportunity to resonate in different ways with my fans and reach new ones with these different deeply emotional themes.
As a live performer, I am known for my deeply engaging and energetic shows, whether I’m shredding on guitar with Local Motive or performing intimate solo sets that allow my soul to shine through. Whether with a full band or stripped down to its barest elements, my music resonates with audiences because of its honesty, emotion, and sense of connection.
I just put out my second single “Molecules” to end the year, with a new music video that premiered on 1/12/2025. Keeping with the themes I’ve mentioned, “Molecules” is a deeply personal, contemplative song that showcases my unique approach to songwriting, blending intricate guitar work with atmospheric textures and an array of diverse instrumentation.
To produce “Molecules,” I enlisted the talents of Packy Lundholm, an accomplished musician and producer known for his work with Theo Katzman (Vulfpeck), and many others. Tracking took place at Sound Vault Studios in Fort Knox, with Lundholm playing a key role in both production and instrumentation. The collaboration was filled with creativity and joy as we experimented with different instruments, sounds, and textures, blending elements of folk, indie, and classic rock to craft a sonic landscape that perfectly complements the emotional depth of the song.
“Molecules” has been with me for years, and I’ve always known it had to be done right. It’s a song I’ve carried with me, a piece of myself I’ve kept close for a long time. When I finally had the chance to bring it into the studio, I knew I wanted to work with someone I admire deeply—someone who could help capture that vision, and Packy was the perfect fit.
I am particularly excited about sharing “Molecules” with the world. This song means so much to me, and I’m proud of how it came together. It’s a piece of my journey, and I hope it resonates with others in their own lives. It’s about feeling lost but knowing you’re not alone—realizing that even in the vastness of the universe, we’re all in this together.
Looking ahead, Opal Vinopal promises to continue exploring new sonic territories while maintaining the emotional depth and lyrical introspection that have defined my musical career. With another new song “Speck in the Universe” dropping on 2/28/2025 and monthly releases planned through Spring, Opal Vinopal is poised to captivate listeners with its unique blend of vulnerability, musicality, and heart. I do think it’ll make people feel good when they listen to these songs, so thank you for sharing it with your community.
Opal, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, I was steeped in music from an early age, growing up in a musical family where my father and uncles would gather to harmonize around the piano. Inspired by the Beatles and other folk and soul influences, my cousin and I began writing songs together as teenagers, setting the stage for a lifetime of musical exploration. I was quite lucky to have a very loving family with lots of musical people in it. Lots of performers as well. Dad tried to go to Hollywood before I was born to make big as an actor, as a matter of fact. So being on a stage kind of runs in the blood on my Dad’s side of the family. My mom’s side is very Italian and that’s probably why I love so big and why I love food so much. Like her, I like to make sure people are enjoying themselves and that’s precisely why I write and perform songs. I want people to enjoy themselves and music has a long history of making things better. She’s the one that got me in piano lessons early on until I stopped to follow my new aspiration to play electric guitar.
I gravitated to playing guitar and making up songs in my high school years mostly out of survival and the need to express complex emotions that come with coming of age. But I didn’t have an electric guitar at first. My dad taught me the first position chords on a beat-up Yamaha classical guitar that he had actually learned on. It had been uncovered, hiding under the stairs at my grandparents house in Park Ridge. Dad also showed me how to use my ear to match pitches which was a real game changer, I have to say looking back. He never had any formal instruction as a guitar player. He was self-taught and had a knack for learning songs by ear and singing vocal harmonies. So before he even agreed to buy me my first electric guitar, a Fender strat that I still play most of my gigs with by the way, he wanted to make sure I was serious about learning, encouraging me to go play along to my favorite CDs of the day. I developed my ear playing along to the 90s grunge classics like Green Day & Nirvana, eventually graduating to Metallica CDs and other heavier bands that played faster and more complicated guitar parts. You can still hear influences of the 90s in my music today, some songs more than others. But by the end of high school, my cousin and I had started our own rock band, creating our own originals and competing in local Battle of the Bands, like lots of kids do. By the time I was headed off to college, I was absolutely in love with performing and playing my guitar, well-suited for meeting new musicians and soaking up new inspirations.
Bloomington, Indiana is where I exploded as a guitar player and songwriter. I met so many people that would shape my playing through making it together or just sharing music with me I may have not encountered otherwise by taking me to a show or burning me a CD. I got much more into blues, soul, and funk music… music that is just dripping with emotion. That, mixed with improvising and the big festivals like Bonnaroo just beginning, me and my college collaborators were blending genres. And this really expanded my range as a musician.
After studying music at Indiana University and forming several bands, my musical journey took off with Muzaic, a project I co-founded in the early 2000s. The band went on to record two albums—Hundred Acre Parlor and Hindsight—and gained a dedicated following in the Midwest before disbanding in 2010. In our time together as a band, That’s really where I learned to improvise and use my ear to figure out how to play what other people were playing in real time.
After relocating to St. Louis for a brief period where I did session work and developed my solo performance, I subsequently returned to Chicago. Shortly after, I formed Local Motive, a group that combined my favorite elements of soul, funk, and blues into a distinct sound that quickly garnered attention playing at Chicago’s historic Metro. Local Motive’s debut EP, Superconductors, recorded at Rax Trax with Noam Wallenberg, was released in 2014 and marked the beginning of my long collaboration with the studio and its world-class engineer. In 2017, the band released our first full-length album, Grams, and have graced the stages of many iconic Chicago venues including Lincoln Hall, House of Blues, Bottom Lounge, and Martyrs, expanding our fanbase and continuing to develop our sound.
I’ve had the honor and privilege to play lead guitar in some incredibly exciting ensembles fronting by other fantastic songwriters as well, adding my aggressive blue-infused guitar riffs to the recordings and performances of bands Mason’s Case, badcandy, and most recently, wht.rbbt.obj (pronounced “White Rabbit Object). I am so incredibly proud of the depth and variety on display within the catalog of releases that I’ve been a part of.
I will be adding to that extensive catalog with monthly single releases up through Spring 2024 and into the summer. The thing they all share in common is that they are soul-crushing and heartbreaking in their lyrical content, yet philosophical, carrying the themes established in my songs “Demons” & “Molecules” forward. And they all hold that special kind of magic a sad song can have, where the humanity and relatability can actually make you feel like things are going to be ok. “Speck in the Universe” is a song contemplating mortality as a person tends to do when grieving loved ones featuring my longtime collaborator and cousin, Chris Vinopal, out 2/28/2025. “Hard To Be So Sure” is a song about doubt we all experience as we navigate our goals and aspirations in life. It’s very much a companion piece to “Speck…” and will my March release.
I want people to know that I’m a music machine and that they can seek out any of my music and know that they are going to experience something very powerful. I play to continue to creating and sharing as much music as possible with the resources I currently have and look forward to more collaboration and expression in the years to come.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Whenever I’m asked to share a story from my journey that illustrates my resilience, I think about my ensemble Local Motive. We started the group when I first moved back to Chicago with a couple old friends I was living with at the time and a few other friends from our neighborhood. Over the years, we had many of the original members have life circumstances that required them to move to different parts of the country. The co-founding trumpet player, Matthew Sypherd, and I would reassess each time and figure out ways to keep the train rolling, bringing in new drummers when we needed to and eventually a new female vocalist, a new second guitarist, and a new bassist. We even brought in additional horn players throughout the years, incorporating trombone and saxophone into our sound, evolving while staying true to the original spirit of the band.
More than a decade has passed performing the music of Local Motive and we are still creating and growing as a band. The resilience of pushing forward and trying out new people has lead us to a really special place as a band. We made it through a pandemic and managed to finish the album we had just started recording before lockdown. The current lineup has solidified nicely over the last couple years since the release of “Slice of Life.” We are writing new songs that we are excited to record this summer. And it’s worth mentioning that each and every talented musician that has made their mark on this band has proven to be an incredibly supportive friend and support network to everyone else in the band. It definitely feels like a family… like a community and we are very lucky to have each other in our lives. Resilience comes from within ourselves but it absolutely helps to have the support of your bandmates as you navigate stress that happens in our lives outside of creative pursuits.
Music has helped me to understand myself more deeply and the expressive outlet of songwriting has been invaluable in maintaining my mental health. It keeps me well. It helps the shame and the pain get out of me. It helps me to carry on in the face of horrible things happening in the world. Writing songs and sharing in the development of these ideas with my musical family of friends is sometimes the only way I know how to bear the weight of it all. Music is nearly synonymous with resilience for me.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the observing the life cycle of a song, from the point where it’s a small seed of an idea all the way to the point where it’s grown into a very deliberate composition being shared with an audience. In part it’s rewarding because in a way, when you write a song, you are magically creating something in this world that did not exist before you created it out of thin air. The songs we make cannot exist without the individual beginning to dream of them and that’s always just made me feel really satisfied when I’m basking in those feelings of inspiration.
The feeling of knowing that you’ve discovered a small seed of an idea inside yourself is very rewarding all on its own. But as you try to tap into that inspiration and see how it grows, a whole new type of rewarding feeling grows with it. The melody of the singing might guide you in one direction or the cadence of the lyrics might hint at the rhythmic treatment. The discovery as you experiment with an idea is always exciting. And along the way, you may share your ideas with other musicians you trust or even just music-lovers to gain insight and garner feedback. It’s so rewarding to have the song take on a new life with those contributions. When someone cares enough about your song to make it the best song it can be, that song becomes “ours” rather than just “mine” and that feeling is really special. You feel loved and cared for in a way that is hard to de
And finally, when you’ve sorted out how you want the song to be, maybe even before you record it, you have the chance to perform it for an audience. When you touch the hearts of the listeners in the performance of one of your songs and they feel compelled to say something to you about it after you’re done about how it made them feel, that’s an additional reward that goes beyond what you could have imagined. The feeling is indescribable when YOUR magical creation that YOU conjured and shaped with your collaborators resonates with a member of your audience. And to know that with your music out there circulating, it has the power to impact many more individuals across space and time for years to come. Music is a time traveler. Music is magic. And I am grateful for being an artist with the skills and talents to create it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/localmotiveband
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opalvinopal
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opalvinopalmusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OpalVinopalMusic
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/opalvinopal
Image Credits
Personal Photo image credit
Matthew Gregory Hollis
Album Artwork by Opal Vinopal
Additional Photo image credits
Erin Dunbar