Lame-O Records has announced it will no be longer be releasing the new album from Portland power-pop musician Mo Troper, Svengali, after Troper’s ex-partner, Maya Stoner of Floating Room, accused him of abuse. “In light of recent information, we will no longer be releasing Mo Troper’s album Svengali,” Lame-O’s statement message reads. “Refunds will be available at point of purchase. We are sending healing thoughts to Maya and victims of abuse everywhere.”
Troper’s manager, Luke Phillips, has also dropped Troper as a client following the allegations. “Mo and Maya are both people I consider friends—I was briefly managing Floating Room and was even asked to officiate their wedding—and to read these tweets / see these videos has been overwhelming,” he said, adding:
Everything I knew about their relationship was from afar and. in light of all this, I don’t think I can go on working with Mo, and will give him space to make his own statements.
I believe Maya. 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 eachother through whatever they need going forward
Grandstand Media, the publicity company that had been working with Troper, is also no longer representing the musician, and Troper is no longer listed as a client on the firm’s website, as Stereogum points out.
Camp Trash, who were set to begin tracking their second album with Mo Troper this week, will not go ahead with the recording, the band’s Keegan Bradford said on X: “Abuse is always something to address and to take seriously. This news comes at the cusp of the members of Camp Trash arriving in Portland Saturday night and we were scheduled to begin recording our second LP with Mo Troper today. Upon hearing Maya’s story, myself and the band have made the decision not to move forward with recording our album with Mo, and we hope Maya can find comfort and healing.”
Since Friday, Stoner has shared several posts on her social media accounts accusing Troper of abuse, calling him “a straight up sick in the head violent and depraved person” and “a serial abuser.” In a video message shared on X, which she later clarified was about Troper, Stoner said, “This man abused me. I’m still fucking healing from it, and he’s just bragging about it. And he can brag about it because I’m just an autistic sex worker indigenous brown person, and he’s a popular white guy. Rich white guy.”
In another clip, Stoner added, “I didn’t want to participate in call-out culture, but if he’s going to fucking brag about it, well, he’s the one that is fucking bringing it up.” She attached excerpts from Svengali‘s press bio, which reads:
Before “Svengali” came to describe any vaguely megalomaniacal personality in the entertainment industry – from the genuinely evil Phil Spector and Colonel Tom Parker all the way to their Diet Rite equivalent Jack Antonoff – he was a literary character who was probably the prototypical megalomaniacal personality in the entertainment industry. The antagonist in the famously mid and otherwise unmemorable 19th century novel Trilby, Svengali is depicted as a machiavellian manipulator who transforms the guileless titular character into a famous singer. Mo Troper’s Svengali is a deeply psychological record with the throbbing heart of a fragile giant. 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 he’s repulsed by it.
“he loves being evil and he was evil to me,” Stoner wrote. She also highlighted a passage from the bio that refers to “a toxic relationship where you can’t quite tell if you’re the manipulated or the manipulator.” Responding to the excerpt, she added, “he’s bragging about being an abuser in the album description. it wasn’t a ‘toxic’ relationship it was abusive.”
As of Sunday, Troper has deleted his social media accounts. Svengali was originally set for release on May 3, and, as of publication, is no longer available for purchase on the Lame-O Records website.
If you or someone you know have been affected by domestic abuse, the following organizations may me able to help:
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline (UK)
The National Domestic Abuse Helpline (US)
