TOPE lets go of a new yam with Miss When Im Gone featuring fellow PDX’ian Dizz. After releasing BrokeBoySyndrome and a group of big shows, TOPE decided to take his talents to the Bay Area. ‘Miss Me When I’m Gone’ finds TOPE at his best over a Soulful slapper, this is probably my favorite TOPE record at the moment (Im a sucker for those soulful samples)!
I recently got to chop it up over email with Tope about his move down south, check out what he had to say about the move!
Why the move to Oakland?
I decided to move down to Oakland to try to expand my network a little bit. I feel like I’ve done a decent job at building my name up in Seattle, Portland, and Eugene but if I can expand to LA, SF, Oakland, and Sacramento its only going to help my brand. The opportunity presented itself and I really just ran with it before I thought it all the way through, but I think its going to be a good thing in the end. In Portland I’ve won best new band twice, played every venue I’ve wanted to 5 times, opened for countless major acts, collaborated with everyone I wanted to work with – I was just feeling like I needed a change.
When did you actually move?
I officially moved down at the first of the month, but I was down here in April playing shows and scouting things out.
Whats the rest of 2015 looking like for you?
Looking at the rest of 2015, I have a lot of music to finish up. Currently I have 11 songs written, all to Stewart Villain beats but I don’t know if I want to put out another album “album” this year. I might just drop singles we’ll see. Other than that, try to get on some shows in these new areas and reach some new fans. This will be a big year of growth and challenges for me but it’s good. I’m ready.
