Miloe — aka rising artist Bobby Kabeya, who has released two EPs and an incredible remix — will perform at our 17th anniversary party on Jan. 22. Ahead of the show, Diane chatted with him about his next release and a recent tour. Check out an interview clip above or keep reading for the whole Q&A.

Miloe — Bobby — you've had a really, really big year. You went on tour with Beach Bunny. You've been playing sold-out shows. I saw the show that you played with Papa Mbye at 7th St Entry. Oh my gosh, that was so fun.

Thanks for coming! That was a crazy night.

Talk to me about about your year and what's been exciting, some highlights, and this trajectory you're on. How does it feel?

It feels pretty crazy, pretty surreal. There's been a lot of changes for me, personally, this year. Like, my family moved. I wrote and recorded an EP this year that's going to be out [in 2022]. I finished that in LA. Shows came back this year, which was really fun. Last summer was crazy, because I got to play a few house shows, a few stripped acoustic sessions for people again. And then we started warming up for the Beach Bunny tour, which I just came back from. My sleep schedule is still a mess. But I got to see the whole country, basically.

Was that your first big tour?

Before that, the longest [tour] I'd done is four days. We did six weeks [with Beach Bunny]. It was going in the deep end pretty immediately. And Beach Bunny is so kind. They were so tight every night. Their fans were so kind, and the venues were so crazy. I'm excited to continue to write down what I can remember from that experience. I've seen so many YouTube videos of a lot of these venues online, so it was crazy to finally pull up in person and play it too.

Do you have certain cities that you really enjoyed the most?

Yeah, surprisingly, Columbus, Ohio went crazy. I really, really enjoyed playing in Washington, DC. The venue was on the campus for Howard University, so I took a walk around the campus and enjoyed the vibes of an HBCU, which I [had] never experienced before. I loved San Francisco. I loved Orlando. It just felt really absurd to be super far away and playing my music.

Did people in the audience know who you were, or was it a lot of people mostly getting introduced to y'all?

I think it was definitely mostly being introduced. But it was always cool to see a few people kind of mumble the lyrics.

How did this Beach Bunny pairing come about?

It came about in 2019, actually. One day, I saw that Matt [Henkels] from Beach Bunny posted the song I made called "Pleasure Skies," which is a really old song, on his Instagram story. And then we just DMed, and they asked us to open for them at the 7th St Entry. We played one show with them at the Entry. That show went really well, and they asked us to come on for the longer tour. And the pandemic happened. It's been all this time, and they blew up even more. So we really got lucky to be a part of their ride as they continue to skyrocket and take over the world.

Tell me more about this EP that you got coming out. It's how many songs — four songs? And do you know what time of year it's gonna come out?

It should be six songs. And it's gonna be out before summer, for sure. I played, like, every instrument on the EP. And [I] spent a lot of time on my own, in GarageBand, working on the sounds. Then I brought it to a producer called Lars Stalfors in LA, and we rerecorded the main elements of all the songs, and they helped me finish the whole project together.

That's so exciting. So "Winona" has gotten a lot of airplay on The Current. It's such a great song. And you've done remixes with it. Give me more context into "Winona" and your decisions between the remixes.

"Winona" came about as — I had the riff. And then right after, I started doing the drumbeat, and the layers just started coming out organically. The song is about reflecting on past mistakes, and trying to make amends with your past, and wanting to make things better and move forward. But within that, I use the metaphor of: in a rom-com, when there's a falling out between the couple, and then the person that's in the wrong addresses their mistakes and fixes the relationship with that person.

Love it. You seem to really be embedded in the Minneapolis music scene and working with different local artists and stuff. How would you describe your relationship with the Minneapolis music scene, or even how the city influences you?

Yeah, it's absolutely exploded in the last few years. When I was in high school, coming up, we were stanning bands like Hippo Campus, Happy Children, and Early Eyes. Good Luck Finding Iris. I feel like those people paved the way for this whole generation of people that have been making things. And this pandemic, I feel like, gave some people more time to work on their side projects. I feel like we're all influencing each other and supporting each other, and really cool bills are being put together. Blending genres and spaces. I feel like Minneapolis has been segregated artistically a lot, and a lot of scenes are starting to merge into one big thing. I'm excited to see that continue to grow.