I met him in his recording studio in the back of a tucked-away record store in Northeast Portland. You have to walk through the record store entrance to get to the studio.
Mo was very shy but he took me into this private space, this cool area, with all these old amps and musical instruments everywhere. We moved around the rooms and I had him sit in different spots as we chatted, and I eventually got pretty inappropriate with my jokes.
My favorite spot for the shoot ended up being in a hallway with really bad lighting. I was like, ‘Oh, the lighting here is terrible. It looks like a gas station bathroom.’ Then he stood in it, and it had really good atmosphere. So we hung out there and did some shots. But it was very quiet — quiet and peaceful — even though there was no natural light.
He has a loud look to him — like his hair and his clothes — which would make you think that he has more of an outgoing personality, but he’s loud on the outside and quiet on the inside.
Afterwards, I walked back into the record store, and all of a sudden there’s light again and sound; there’s punk music and people milling around and t-shirts hanging.
Read about the character assassination of Mo Troper.
