Joy Zipper are the accident that waited to happen. The misunderstanding began eight years ago when Vincent Cafiso, an intense Long Islander prone to fits of melancholy, decided he might like to be a songwriter.

One morning, not long after, Cafiso (who strikes you as subtly yet irrevocably detached from the world) woke up and found himself in an indie-pop group with his girlfriend Tabitha Tindale. How did Joy Zipper come to be? Darned if they know.
“We didn’t set out to be in a rock and roll band. One thing just led to another and suddenly there we were,” says Cafiso, just pitched up from New York and with the frazzled air (and hair) of a man three-quarters asleep.
“Vinny started working on some songs, mostly as a way of keeping himself occupied,” adds Tindale, who has a perky demeanour and a smile so sharp and earnest you fear to venture too near in case it puts your eye out.
“Really, it was a therapeutic thing. He enjoyed the challenge of learning how to use a studio and put music together. But originally the songs we’d written weren’t really intended for wide release. What happened is that some people from the UK picked up on our first record and we got signed and... well, it just snowballed.”
Light of mood and gentle of melody, Joy Zipper’s new album, The Heartlight Set comes across as brittle, naive and instantly likeable. The contrast with their self-titled 1999 debut, a languid avant-pop suite, feels vast and unbridgeable. Is this really the same band?
“We’re starting to listen to other people’s music and pick up influences and we’re also playing live more now,” explains Cafiso. “At the beginning, we were like this totally sealed off thing. There was just the two of us in the studio and we didn’t really perform live very often or listen to a whole lot of music. The story of Joy Zipper has been a continuous process of discovery. We’re learning about being in a band as we go along.”
Joy Zipper have a reputation as slow writers, an impression largely owing to the five year gap between their debut and the follow-up, 2004’s American Whip (co-produced by My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields). In fact, American Whip, completed 18 months earlier, was mired in a legal wrangle among record companies.
“It was frustrating to have this album sitting on the shelf and not be able to do anything about it. People got to thinking that we were one of those bands who took their time, but the truth is that it was completely out of our hands,” says Cafiso.
Following American Whip’s unhappy gestation, Joy Zipper were determined to come back as quickly as possible. As a result, The Heartlight Set was, by their standards, assembled at a feverish pace.
“By the time the last record finally got released, we were just itching to do new stuff,” says Cafiso.” We wanted to go in and put those songs down as fast as possible. We’ve never been so direct before. I like to think it’s given a real power and freshness to our songs."

The Heartlight Set is out now on Vertigo.