DJ / PA Moby Profile

Moby’s seminal house cut, ‘Go’, catapulted him into the mainstream. Yet despite this tracks massive popularity, Moby’s label, Mute, allowed him to explore his own extensive musical tastes and the world watched him mutate from house hero to thrash punkster. Now, he’s back with ‘Play’, an epic album which could be loosely labelled as house.

Moby is one of those people that you think you know, but you don’t really. As one of the dance scene’s great unsolved mysteries, he has captured minds and ears for nearly a whole decade, with no sign of stopping. And his new album, ‘Play’, is the latest chapter in a career which, as far as most people are concerned, started with the seminal house cut, ‘Go’, and progressed through various different mutations, arriving at the present day, still contented with his music and his life.

Since the age of eight, Moby has been making music. Indeed, twenty five years of piano playing hasn’t blunted his appetite. He still makes every ounce of his music in his own studio, a situation that can sometimes have a strange effect.

“Having worked on this album for over a year doing all the parts and production in your own house, can make you lose your objectivity. Music lets me communicate with people. Sometimes I find it difficult to get certain emotions across”, admits Moby, aka Richard. You did know his real name was Richard…

Moby burst onto the scene with a track that shook the foundations of dance music. ‘Go’ is still a tune that house DJs could drop into a set and wreck any dance floor, testament indeed to its quality. The haunting strings and tough drum track are instantly recognisable to old skool house heads, while new ears also find it dramatic and fresh. Just ask any DJ to give up his copy. They’re more likely to give up their Nintendo.

“Go was a defining moment for me. But the truth is, I had been making music long before this track. It just so happens that the public went for that one. I have to give the people at Mute (Moby’s label) the credit for not making me churn out another couple of tracks on a similar tip to ‘Go’, in order to achieve commercial success at all costs. Instead, Daniel Miller (label boss) lets me do what I want, which is the most important thing to me. This freedom is crucial – other people signed to a major label would never get away with the things I do! Remember, I made guitar records for Animal Rights. Now you certainly can’t call that commercial!”.

Moby is a unique individual, capable of turning his hand to many forms of music, even managing to appear on ‘Top Of The Pops’ on three occasions.

“I don’t mind doing thinks like that, in fact, if I was honest, I’d say I really enjoy them. Firstly, if you’re on the programme then there must have been a reason, usually commercial success. For me, that’s not that important, but it’s a different story for the label. Mute is a business. In order for it to survive it needs to make money. So when they make money it keeps them happy and I can disappear off to do whatever I want. On a human level, I get to meet people that I normally wouldn’t. It’s kinda cool hanging out backstage with somebody who is as into the music as much as you are. I met a girl called Jewel at one of the shows and we just talked for the whole day about everything and anything. It was totally unexpected. I’m right into doing things like that. Gaining new experiences and meeting people can be a lot of fun”.

Top Of The Flops

Just imagine, though, if Moby was the producer and chose the acts for ‘Top Of The Pops’.

“The first people on the show would be Reeves and Mortimer, not for their singing but for their comedy. I think they’re very funny. ‘Shooting Stars’ is one of my all time favourites. Next would be the Sex Pistols. I went to see them live at their re-union tour. The idea of middle-aged punk rockers going out and having fun appealed to me. They would certainly bring some presence to the show”, say Moby in full flight now. “Donna Summer would follow them because her material is just so classy. Dance music hasn’t moved on all that much since the days of ‘I Feel Love’. Then Massive Attack, as their music is so real and earthy. I’d then have a rap crew, about 25 of them. Chaos on-stage and backstage. I love seeing things get totally out of control. Maybe fire extinguishers going off, totally out of control. Maybe fire extinguishers going off, unexpectedly, or something like that. The last song would be ‘Jesus’ Blood Never Save Me’ by a guy called Gavin Somebody. He was walking home one night and bumped into a drunk tramp, singing a beautiful hymn under his breath. So he taped it and looped it and made it into that song. A surreal finish, for sure!”

Something that might surprise you about Moby is his self-confessed lack of technical boffinry when it comes to keeping up-to-date with the latest studio toys.

“I’m not envious of the engineers in big studios, not only do they have to know how to get the most out of a live situation, they must also be competent with everything modern. Pro Tools is an incredible piece of recording equipment that requires a great deal of understanding. I couldn’t even begin to talk about it, never mind operate it.

“In my house, I do most of my stuff on sequencers and A-Dat, technology that’s been around for a number of years. So I know how to get the most out of it. I take different sounds out of different keyboards. It’s such a personal thing though – what sounds good to me might sound awful to someone else. Then there’s the piano. It’s like an old friend to me. We trust each other”, says Moby. “The other day I bought one of those vocoder machines. That’s my type of equipment. With only three knobs on it you can just plug it in and go for it. No learning curve at all. Perfect”.

Global Appeal

To most people, the thought of having a hit record would be comforting, but when the success gets to a certain level, then it can become a bit scary. Take ‘The Theme From James Bond’ which Moby produced, for example.

“The record label said that a third of the world’s population had heard the track. Emotionally, I invested very little into the track. I was fulfilling an idea someone else had, you see. But when facts like that get thrown about then, wow, wait a minute! Getting such a vast global coverage can seriously mess up your head”, confesses a genuinely bemused Moby. “A friend and I went to the world figure skating championships for a day out. He turned to me and said, ‘800 million people are watching the television at this precise moment, listening to your tune’, (the skater had used Moby’s James Bond theme), ‘doesn’t it make you feel good?’ I didn’t know what to think. To try and comprehend something like that in an instant is beyond me. If the music affects people in the right way, maybe inspiring them to do something, then I’m happy. I don’t get off on global statistics”.

Play Time

Many artists don’t listen to music in their spare time and some do nothing else.

“The radio is on all the time in my house. I mainly tune to ‘Hot 97’. They play a lot of hip hop and house. If I’m in the mood, I’ll listen classical music. I like to hear a broad spectrum of music as it inspires me to do different things”.

Surely Moby must get out on the town and let his hair down?

“In New York , you can’t just go to a bar and have a few drinks, chill out, then get up and have a dance. It’s a condition of the licence that there must be no dancing in bars”, he replies.

“If a bar has a late licence and the Rolling Stones are playing on the jukebox, if two people get up to dance, then the doorman will actually ask them to stop. The bars are so worried about this condition that most of them have put up a ‘No Dancing!’ sign”.

This in a city that is deemed so good, Frank Sinatra named it twice! “The Mayor is very puritanical”, Moby expands. “He imposed all these regulations to stop young people enjoying themselves. All the strip clubs have been closed down. I mean, what’s wrong with a bit of adult entertainment? The result is, kids are now doing drugs and getting fucked up even more, which is what he thought he was trying to stop in the first place. He’s just an old man who doesn’t understand”.

Moby the artist is well known. Moby the DJ is less talked about. He has, in fact, been doing it for 15 years, so he knows the score. “Now the album is finished, I can do some live shows with the band and get out and about to DJ a bit more. I love playing to a live audience, whether it be on stage or in a DJ box, but it’s definitely more fun being a DJ. I used to do six hour sets in New York clubs. But I got fed up taking my massive record collection in and out. I even used a skateboard to get the stuff in once, needless to say, it fell over and spilled about a hundred yards down the street. Now, I play for about an hour and a half and take on bag with me. When I’m flying, I don’t let the airline handle my gear at all. I always take my stuff on the plane with me. I’ve heard too many stories of people’s records going missing”.

And here, we have to wind up the interview because Moby is due to have his picture taken for some New York fashion magazine.
 

DJ Moby's links to Fantazia

Moby played at Fantazia New Years Eve 1993 in Australia

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