Moby Rediscovers His Roots (2008 Attic Archives)

New York City—Whatever your opinion of Moby, his contributions to electronic dance music cannot be easily ignored. And it’s always encouraging for readers of this magazine to realize that Moby’s path to success wasn’t so far out of the ordinary.

Before he went 9X platinum with 1999’s Play, before he took his Area Festival to the masses, Moby (aka Richard Melville Hall, 42) was a Connecticut-based DJ. He played bars and small clubs, taking the odd mobile job, including school dances or weddings. He maintained an intellectual curiosity, so New York called to him. It was there that he found his artistic voice and that began with DJing in the Manhattan clubs. Early productions like “Go” and “Next Is the E” lit up the nascent rave scene and he was on his way to an international recording career.

His latest album, Last Night (Mute), is a paean to the joys of clubbing in New York City, something he’s rediscovered in recent years. The dancefloor-friendly CD traces the distinct stages of a typical night out in The Big Apple. Tunes range from Moby’s ecstatic, gospel-infused electronica (“Everyday It’s 1989” and “Disco Lies”) to apocalyptic-sounding hip-hop (“Alice”), the achingly soulful and orchestral (“Live For Tomorrow”) to electro-pop (“Ooh Yeah), plus lush, downtempo moments (“Degenerates”).

He’s even gone back to DJing on a fairly regular basis. His unpretentious “Degenerates” parties at Manhattan’s Hiro Ballroom have brought some of the fun back to NYC nightlife. After upfront jocks like Tommie Sunshine get the floor moving with newer tunes, Moby drops the bombs—material from his new album to everlasting bangers from the Chemical Brothers or Basement Jaxx. And this past Memorial Day Weekend, Moby headlined the first night of Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival. Before an evening throng at Hart Plaza’s “amphitheater bowl,” Moby rocked the joint with tasty local flavor like Inner City’s “Good Life” and his own classics like “Go.”

DJ Times sat down for a one-on-one with Moby to understand how and why he’s rediscovered his dancefloor.

DJ Times: Tell me about your early DJing days.

Moby: It was my lifetime goal to get a job DJing in New York City. My first job here was playing at Mars on the West Side Highway, which is now a parking lot. At that time, I was an unknown DJ living in an abandoned factory. What was amazing about Mars was that it had six levels and on each level they had a phenomenal sound system. In the basement there’d be deep-house, on the main floor there’d be house and hip-hop on the second floor. House music again on the third floor, and then you’d have reggae and dancehall on the fourth, and disco and funk on the roof! It was an amazing place.

DJ Times: What music do you remember from that time?

Moby: What was remarkable about the dance scene in New York in the 1980s was that it was truly underground. You’d have records like Raze featuring Keith Thompson’s “Break 4 Love,” which would be a huge hit in New York, or Bobby Konders’ “The Poem”—monster hits you could play and every person would rush to the dancefloor. Outside the city, no one knew these songs even existed! It was really special.

DJ Times: What was the club scene like?

Moby: New York was being ravaged by the crack epidemic and AIDS. Nightclubs were strange, because there were lots of shootings and all the drug dealers and drag queens would go there. You didn’t know who had died the week before, who was sick with HIV, or who had been shot. It was also truly multi-racial and multi-cultural. As the rave scene made its way to the States, the dance scene took off and my friend DB started these parties called NASA.

DJ Times: What was the first NASA party you threw?

Moby: We had a Halloween party called NASA Masquerave at Sound Factory and it was me and Altern-8 from [England], a techno group. We expected a couple hundred people to show up. We got to the venue and there were 5,000 people lined up around the block! NASA later moved to Shelter—Timmy Regisford’s place—where it found a home. I used to DJ there all the time, and it was a lot of fun.

DJ Times: You’ve been a DJ for 24 years?

Moby: I went to The University of Connecticut and dropped out sophomore year. I had no way of paying rent, so I got a job at a record store and I started DJing in a tiny club called The Beat in Port Chester, N.Y. I played Joy Division records and punk rock and I got into hip hop. I played New Order and Dead Or Alive and Nitzer Ebb. When house music started, I’d play Dead Or Alive into Marshall Jefferson into Farley Jackmaster Funk.

DJ Times: Dave Dresden credits you with having taught him to DJ. Is that true?

Moby: I don’t know if I taught him…Dave and I grew up in Connecticut. He was a club promoter and I was a DJ. I remember having to be really sycophantic and doing all I could to get his attention.

DJ Times: So why the return to DJing now?

Moby: In 1992-93, I was putting out my own records and going out and touring. Because I came from a live background, as well as a DJ background, I started playing live. I kept adding more and more musicians onstage and it got to the point in 2000 where I was on tour playing guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion. I’d go out with a string section, background vocalists, drummers and percussionists—so we’d have 10 people onstage. The tours kept getting bigger. I found that the bigger the tours got, the less I enjoyed them. The last tour we did was a very big tour of Europe and I was really unhappy, and I came back to New York…

DJ Times: Why unhappy?

Moby: Because everyday everybody around me was just employees. They weren’t my friends. When you’re only hanging out with people you pay, it gets kinda lonely. Playing larger venues, you never get to meet people. You’re onstage in front of 10,000 people. You finish, you get on a bus and drive to the next venue, and it’s kind of a lonely existence. All my life I thought that was what I wanted, but when I actually had it, I didn’t enjoy it. I came back to New York and just for fun started DJing at really small places like Nublu on Avenue C.

DJ Times: Was that a revelation?

Moby: I found I was a lot happier DJing and playing house music in front of 100 people than standing onstage in front of 10,000 people playing live. I really feel the dance music scene in the last 10 years has become reinvigorated and a lot more exciting. In the mid-’90s, it seemed like dance music got a little too serious. Everyone was taking themselves too seriously. Towards the end of the ’90s, the era of the “Superstar DJ” became too big. Now, I feel like things are really fun again.

DJ Times: What specifically made you feel reinvigorated?

Moby: Just the last few years being in the Lower East Side and going out in Williamsburg [in Brooklyn]. There are lots of venues I’ve been inspired by. I’ve gone out and had really great nights at Studio B in Williamsburg, 205 Club and Nublu. Nublu is my favorite bar in New York, just because you never know what you’re going to get.

DJ Times: How has your booth setup evolved over the years?

Moby: I DJed with vinyl up until a year ago with a Numark mixer and two Technics 1200s. Last year, I was running through the airport carrying two flight cases filled with records, and the records didn’t come off the baggage claim. That’s when I switched over to CDs. Now I DJ with the Pioneer CDJ-1000s and a Pioneer mixer. I love vinyl and I like DJing old-school with the rotary dial mixer, but the Pioneer mixers and CD players are great. I use the [Pioneer] mixer with the four-channel effects in it.

DJ Times: What’s your DJ approach?

Moby: I try to help [the track] along. If there’s a breakdown, it’s nice to roll off all the low-end on the breakdown and then bring it back when the song comes back in. It’s like taking what the producer intended and amplifying it. I was a hip-hop DJ for a long time, so I still do a lot of looping. But I don’t know if playing around with a track ever really improves the record. I mainly do it for my own entertainment.

DJ Times: You used to play weddings. You were you a mobile DJ, right?

Moby: I’ve done every type of DJing. When I first started DJing in 1984-85, I’d play school dances. I remember playing a wedding where they only had cassette players. It was so depressing because the bride walked down the aisle to a cassette of Bon Jovi. I got paid $80 for that gig.

DJ Times: How long were you doing mobiles?

Moby: I did mobile DJing when I could, but mainly I worked in small bars and clubs in Connecticut. I eventually got a job in New York City from 1984-’90.

DJ Times: What was the most valuable lesson from your mobile days?

Moby: How to fix a sound system very quickly! I cannot count the number of times, even now, you’re playing a big venue and there’s something wrong with the system…it’s nice I know how to fix it.

DJ Times: What about performance lessons?

Moby: DJing for such a long time doing mobile DJing or DJing in small bars and clubs with a really diverse clientele teaches you to become very utilitarian and you learn very quickly what records work or don’t work, and why those records work or don’t work. It becomes instinctual after a while.

DJ Times: What’s your approach to your Degenerates parties?

Moby: Degenerates happens every month or every six weeks. It’s just an opportunity for my friends and I to get together and play records. We play house music and disco and electro. I just show up with my records and start playing.

DJ Times: You don’t program beforehand?

Moby: Every now and then I’ll try and figure out what I’m gonna play beforehand. I just want people to be happy. I admire esoteric DJs who can play really experimental records…

DJ Times: Like Richie Hawtin…

Moby: Yeah, I toured with Richie and John Acquaviva and the Plus-8 guys in ’92. I’ll go to these really minimal parties in Brooklyn at The Bunker or the Wolf + Lamb parties and they’re very experimental and minimal and I appreciate it, but unfortunately, you can’t do that if you’re playing to a lot of people in certain environments. I’m a populist and I like records with breakdowns that people can throw their hands in the air to.

DJ Times: What, to you, comprises a great party?

Moby: The last Degenerates we did was with Tommie Sunshine and DJ Medi from Ed Banger Records, with Spank Rock and Princess Superstar. We’ve had a lot of really interesting guests. For me, a great party’s really simple: You need attractive people, alcohol [laughs], a loud sound system and fun music.

DJ Times: Last Night is #1 on iTunes charts around the world. Do you read those stats?

Moby: Because I’ve had such a complicated relationship with the media over the years, I make a huge effort not to read any press or anything about me. I’ve asked all my friends and the people I work with to not send me anything. Sometimes people write nice things about me, but people have written unbelievably nasty things. And you know what? The quality of my life is not improved by being hated by strangers.

DJ Times: You recorded Last Night in your home studio?

Moby: All of my records have been recorded at home with synthesizers and samplers, but I wanted it to have a really nice, warm sound to it. My friend Dan Grech-Marguerat—he was Radiohead’s engineer—he and I mixed the album together in a beautiful old analog studio because I didn’t want it to sound too slick and high-tech. I wanted it to feel more analog and organic.

DJ Times: Do you have all digital gear in your studio?

Moby: It’s a combination. I have a lot of old analog synths and drum machines. Still, I have no problem with really good-sounding digital plug-ins. Bob Moog had a very spiritual attachment to analog circuitry, and I understand it, because it actually exists. You’re starting with a pure voltage signal and you’re modifying it. There’s something physical and tangible about that. But at the same time, there are some really great-sounding virtual synths and drum sounds now.

DJ Times: Is there one piece of production equipment you can’t live without?

Moby: My Roland Juno 106. It’s a one-and-a-half oscillator synthesizer. It’s such a workhorse. I don’t know that I’ve made a record that that hasn’t appeared on. It’s so versatile and user-friendly. I’ve got a lot of the analog synths, especially the German ones, that are so complicated you never wanna turn them on.

DJ Times: And indispensable DJ gear?

Moby: For the longest time, my answer would’ve been the Technics 1200s. Now that I DJ mainly with CDs, I’m gonna have to go with that fantastic Pioneer CDJ turntable. I resisted it for such a long time, but now I’m a convert. The Pioneer [DJM-800 mixer] sonically does sound good, but it’s never gonna sound as good as an old Urei mixer.

DJ Times: How do you view the evolution of DJ technology since you began?

Moby: From my perspective there’s so much good gear out there! I don’t even know how to use a third of it. I still have yet to get into the world of Serato. I’ll show up and see people using it and I know at some point I’ll have to learn it. Now, people can DJ with Reason, Ableton or Logic—it’s limitless. Some of the things, like timestretching, are incredible. Ableton does amaze me. You throw something in at 120 BPM and you want it to be 128 BPM, and instantly it is. The pitch doesn’t change and it sounds perfect—almost like the more you stretch it, the more interesting it gets. I’m stunned at what DJs can do now.

DJ Times: Do you think the DJ will ever become obsolete?

Moby: The DJ has become so egalitarian. It used to be that in order to be a DJ, you had to go to all the obscure record stores and buy vinyl and know how to use the Technics 1200. It was a very specific and obscure skill. Now, almost anybody can DJ. A lot of my friends who are DJs complain about that and find that to be off-putting. But personally, I love it, because the more egalitarian DJing becomes, the more people get interested in dance music. If you look at James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem, he comes from an alt-rock background. I do like that hybrid of the indie-rock DJs who are playing dance music now.

DJ Times: Which DJs do you admire?

Moby: I don’t remember people’s names. Part of that is because, usually when I go out to DJ, I end up drinking too much. I’ll think I’ve just heard the best DJ in the world, but unfortunately in the morning, I don’t remember who they are.

DJ Times: You’re a vegan, yet you drink!

Moby: I don’t drink bacon. [laughs]

DJ Times: What’s next for you?

Moby: I never expected to have a record contract. I never expected to have a career as a musician. I thought I’d probably teach community college and make music in my bedroom that no one would ever listen to…

DJ Times: I’m not sure I believe that.

Moby: Really, that’s what I thought my life would be. All I wanna do for the rest of my life is make music. That’s it! I’m not presumptuous enough to believe that I’ll have a record contract forever. I’m not presumptuous to believe that people will wanna listen to music that I make, forever, but all I wanna do for the rest of my life is stay home and make music. 

By Emily Tan