A conversation with Moby, SXSW 2008 - photo by Clint Gilders - staff photographer |
BMI's someone and Moby take the stage
I didn't catch the interviewer's name
Moby was born on 9/11, she asked what that was like
He said that most New Yorkers are innured to the date now -- and constantly being reminded of the events of 9/11 kind of peels the scab of the world. He didn't know anyone killed in the attacks, but he said many people had PTSD from the attacks, even among those like him who didn't lose anyone. He said after 9/11 he took more drugs, drank more, and had more inappropriate sex than any other time in his life
He'd been out late the night before, and at 8:15 he was so annoyed when the phone started ringing.... he ignored the calls, but he heard the second plane hit and he heard a few thousand people screaming
She says, "Well, this was a cheery way to start." So, she asks, you grew up in New York? Mom, dad, brothers, sisters? His dad died and they moved from NYC to CT where his mom grew up. He found out when he was 25 he has a half-brother. Last year he was in DC with Alexandra Pelosi to screen a film called "Friend of God." He started talking to a journalist and he somehow mentioned his half brother who he had never met, and jokingly said "Who knows, maybe he's Karl Rove." So the guy wrote it in his column, and then Moby got an email on White House stationary saying, Dear Moby, or is it Mr. Moby, it's not me. I'm 17 years older than me, I'm not bald, and I have no musical ability. You might consider James Carville. Your buddy, Karl Rove
He used to rent a room above a garage near the Bush family compound in CT -- Bushes had 300 acres. This was during George 1
His first DJ job was at a church in that town. He started playing guitar at age 8. He studied classical music and music theory. His first teacher valued music for how complicated was. Then when he was 13 or 14 he discovered punk and broke his teacher's heart. He went from Bach fugues to Clash covers
There was a small punk scene in CT -- club called Pogo's, every band played there because it was halfway between NYC and Boston. Black Flag, Misfits, the Gun Club. Everybody played there
In college he was a philosophy major
Interviewer: "That's useful." He said the moment you tell people you're a philosophy major, people think you're smarkt
I took one college level music class, and it was so awful. It was mainly focusing on 20th Century classical music, hardcore academic, with huge aversion to conventional timing or intervals. It's interesting but no one wants to listen to it, and no one outside of that discipline is interested in it
Then he went to SUNY [missed which campus] to study philosophy, but it was mainly a performing arts college. The last school in America to offer a degree in experimental film, he believes. Someone in the audience gave a shoutout for Olympia... laughter. All his friends were experimental filmmakers
She asks him how he would describe himself, as he's so eclectic and his artistic palette is so vast
"A bald drunk who makes records in his bedroom," he answered
One of the problems with doing interviews, when he started he was a teetotalling militant vegan Christian, but he said now he's let the militancy fall by the wayside
"Militancy is believing you're right and everyone agrees with you." Activism is trying to make the world better but without illusions. He says militancy is very narcissistic, and he's trying to move away from that
"But you're an artist," she said. Laughter in audience
He says he understands people often think they're changing the world for the better, but aren't. Dictators, social progressives... none of it really worked out. Even though he appreciates the ideals behind the welfare state, but it's become mired down and created an underclass
He says society should help people who can't help themselves, but it's inherent to the human condition that we are born to strive and struggle and work. Some people really can't take care of themselves and a benign enlightened state will care for them
Where do you draw the line? He says all solutions are imperfect. "Complicated problems don't usually involve simple solutions, but people love simple solutions." She asked if he reads the message boards on his site. Yes, sometimes. And he sometimes posts to Facebook, but first he wants to take classes from cool musicians on how to be cool and esoteric
He lives on the Lower East Side and has so many independent theaters. Never has to go anywhere, he lives in the center of the independent film world
They move on from solving the welfare state and go to music and film
He has mainly licensed his music to film or done single tracks. She said his IMDB listing for licensing songs is endless. He says it's very impressive to dates, unless the movie is terrible
moby gratis (mobygratis.com) -- he has many friends who are independent filmmakers who find licensing musick for small films to be very difficult. He started his website to give music away to indie filmmakers and film students. There are around 80 pieces mostly new, unreleased work, plus a few B sides. Only publicized mostly to film stools. Have had around 4000 uses. Some of the films have won little awards. If music is used in a commercial application, the revenue needs to go to the Humane Society. He says it's like what crack dealers do at public schools
He said he structured it so he can never make money from it, so he knows he's doing it for the right reasons. He will keeping adding music and try to get other musicians to contribute, but the musicians he has approached have not been enthusiastic. She asked if maybe their bank accounts weren't as full as his
He thought maybe, and perhaps philisophical reasons too
What motivates you? "The love of what I do." "The things I agreed to do for money are the things that made me the most miserable." Like DJing corporate events
You are signed to a record label.. Mute. Do you like them? Yes, they're great. Mute was started by Daniel Miller, and he was a taxi driver who made electronic music in his spare time. He made the lable to put out his friends' music... some very obscure. Boy Rice, head of the Church of Satanism in the US, Diamanda Galas... and the third artist he signed was Depeche Mode. Then he signed Nick Cave and Bad Seeds, the Birthday Party. So there are three of four artists who make the label money, no one has ever been dropped, but the rest are brilliant and obscure
She said it reminds her of A&M in their early days
Mute was bought by EMI, but at Moby's level things have not changed. The marketing stuff is different
His new record comes out April 1. He says that's not a good date to release anything
"The idea of the record was to take an 8 hour night in New York and condense it to 65 minutes." An eclectic dance record
He said he was doing an interview, and was asked if it was his last night on earth, what would he do, and he realized he's white trash, because his answer would be tacos and beer and Led Zeppelin and sex with someone he'd just met
what is your career highlight? First DJ gig at Mars in Manhattan. FIve levels, really popular, and he got a job DJing in the basement. It was the first time he ever walked into a club with his records
Biggest career disappointment? His expectations were always so low, first record sold 2000 copies, so for his next he wanted to sell 4000, but it was a huge successful single... so he said even his least successful album, a dark obscure punk record called Animal Rights, no one showed up on the tour. But three people told him they loved it: Terence Trent D'Arby, Bono told him he liked it as well as the first Clash album, and Axel Rose
He hates snow. Calls it white garbage
Best advice, take your work seriously but not yourself
Biggest challenge is actually appreciating when things go well. You grow up struggling, it's hard to come to a place where you don't have to do that. He gets bored and restless when good things are happening. Good things are for the cool kids
So, you like suffering? "The familiarity of it, sure." He compared himself to Woody Allen
His neighborhood has become gentrified, and he knew it when he saw Woody Allen and Leo diCaprio having coffee in his neighborhood. Right where they used to sell crack
He says he doesn't like Woody Allen's new movies, but he considers Annie Hall one of the best movies ever made
What would your friends be surprised to know about you? He says he's not private person and he doesn't think there's anything
What are you most proud of about yourself? That he's relatively humble and doesn't take himself too seriously.Ten, fifteen years ago he went to visit a friend who operated a needle exchange, and the people there were either making minimum wage of volunteering, and the night before he'd been at a sleezy record company event, and he realized that compared to what the needle exhange workers were doing, he was "court jester at the Apocalypse." They were saving lives, doing it for nothing
She asked if he gave it money, but he doesn't talk about who he gives money to. (What about the Humane Society? No one asked.) He said he mostly works with HSUS, who are so big and powerful they can accomplish a lot. He doesn't have dogs, he always wanted to have dogs, but a dog he had once attacked his girlfriend, and he had to return the dog to the no kill shelter, and he placed the other with some neighbor kids. But now he has no pets. He would love one but he travels too much
"Not even one of those dogs like Paris Hilton?" "That might be tricky." Question from the audience about his score for "Southland Tales," Moby's only start to finish film score
"The script made no sense whatsoever, which is why I wanted to do it." The movie is big, garish, violent, insane, but he wanted quiet, pastoral, bucolic music
It was written BEFORE they filmed, not after as they usually do. They shot the film listening to the music. Original cut was 3 and a half hours long, but they trimmed it down. Of all the things he worked on, it's what he's most proud of
His favorite film is "Inland Empire," so he's not a good judge of commercial success in film
He feels the Bush administration has created a new generation of activists, a resurgence of activism. Maybe not as much as in the 60s. He says he can't write a good political song, they come across didactic and strident.