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Indie power-pop artist Mo Troper has been dropped by his record label, publicist and manager in the wake of abuse allegations by his ex-partner, fellow Portland musician Maya Stoner of the band Floating Room.
“In light of recent information, we will no longer be releasing Mo Troper’s album Svengali,” Lame-O Records posted in a statement on X yesterday. “We are sending healing thoughts to Maya and victims of abuse everywhere.”
Stoner posted a series of videos on X on March 15 in which she tells her story, occasionally tearful but more often furious, speaking directly to the camera about their past relationship.
“It wasn’t a toxic relationship, it was an abusive relationship,” she says. Stoner says she’s “still fucking healing from it.”
Stoner did not respond to an emailed request for comment. Troper declined to make a statement but thanked WW for “considering my perspective regardless.”
As previously reported in outlets such as Pitchfork and Stereogum, Troper’s publicist Grandstand Media and his manager, Luke Phillips, have both also cut ties with Troper.
“I believe Maya,” Phillips posted yesterday on X. “I hope everyone involved can take the steps to heal and grow from this, and I hope that those blindsided by these allegations like I was can find space to support each other through whatever they need going forward.”
Phillips wrote that the allegations were “overwhelming” considering that he considers both Stoner and Troper friends, briefly managed Floating Room, and was asked to officiate their wedding.
In a preview in this paper of Troper’s January concert at Show Bar at Revolution Hall, Daniel Bromfield characterized Troper as “a pillar of the West Coast underground rock community...regularly releasing records of short, concise power-pop songs.” (Troper has contributed music writing to several local publications.) In 2021, Bromfield wrote that Floating Room and Stoner were “in full rock-band mode, and so confident is this longtime DIY fixture that she sounds like she’s floating in air even as she’s screaming.”
Stoner’s allegations came after Troper dropped press materials for the album Svengali online, including the inspiration behind the title. “It is a meditation on evil-ness. At certain points across Svengali’s 13 tracks, Troper relishes his own innate evil-ness; just as often as he’s repulsed by it.”
Stoner posted a screenshot on X with the comment: “he can say it himself lol.”