Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, September 7, 1999
Moby speaks on his life at Play
Moby plays at the SpiritFest in Kansas City, Mo. Though he eventually was at peace with the venue, Moby at first was uncomfortable performing in the carnival-like atmosphere. Photos by Kate Levenson/KANSAN
By Emily Hughey writer kanson.com Kanson staff writer
Sweat twirls up like a tornado from the bald-headed blur at center-stage. Moby dabbles back and forth from the microphone to the guitar to the drums to the bongs to the synthesizer and back to the microphone again.
No one knew Moby didn't want to be there.
Energy pulses from his face and runs down his sallow cheeks in the form of sweat. His deep-set eyes, studying the scene, are raging with life. They dart around, calculating his plan of action, the music, the sound, the lights and even the crowd, a sight at which he cracks a half smile.
"This is probably the weirdest event that we've been on to this tour." Moby said, sipping on a Tropicana Twister in the back of his tour bus before Friday night's show at SpiritFest in Kansas City, Mo. "Normally we play theaters or clubs or big festivals, but this is like a county jamboree or something. It's just bizarre. The reason we're here is the radio station invited us. Originally, the plan was to come to Lawrence and do a concert there, but unfortunately we got roped into doing this."
Despite his chagrin in the venue and the fact that he had to perform in little more than one hour, Moby said he was at peace — with the time on the clock, with the ensuing performance, with his music and with himself. In contrast to the frantic disposition Moby exudes during a performance, in his trailer, he is relaxed and gracious, an unassuming rock star in old jeans and a ragged T-shirt.
**Hughey:** Your new album *Play* is a mixture of many styles. In which genre would you say it fits best?
Moby: I don't work within one musical genre. The music on this record certainly has a lot of dance influences, but there are a lot of classical elements and a lot of hip hop elements and blues elements and folk elements. It doesn't immediately fit into one specific genre — I like all of them. I think that distinctions between different musical genres at this point are very arbitrary. At one point maybe it made sense to have a distinction between a rock band and a classical orchestra because their approach to making music was very, very different. But now, especially for myself, whether I'm working on quiet instrumental music or dance music or rock music or what have you, it's all just me in my stu-
Hughey: How do you react to critics referring to you as a Christian?
Moby: I'm not really a Christian. There are a lot of sort of clches that follow me around. Essentially the way I perceive myself as is being fairly ambiguous. I don't necessarily align myself with one specific religious dogma; I don't necessarily align myself with one specific musical genre. But I guess that makes people uncomfortable so they sort of try to lock me into something specific.
Although I love Christ, and I love the teachings of Christ, I don't think of myself as being a Christian in any conventional or contemporary sense.
Hughey: How did you start mak-
Hughey: How did you start making music?
when I was 8 years old and over the years I taught myself how to play different instruments, and then, when I was about 18 or 19, I put together a very rudimentary studio with a four-track and some microphones, got a drum machine, got a synthesizer and just went from there and kind of taught myself the basics of studio engineering.
Hughey: Which direction do you see your next album taking?
Moby: I started playing music
Moby: I just want to make records I love, I don't really think about what genre I'm working in. My only goal with making a record, with every record, I just want to make something I think is powerful and I love and that other people will love as well. Music affects me very strongly, and I love the idea of being able to make music that affects me strongly and hope that, in the process, I'll be able to influence other people and affect them strongly as well.
Hughey: Right now, binge drinking, underage drinking and drunk driving are major issues in Lawrence and at KU. Where do you stand on drunk driving, particularly regarding your father's death?
Moby: He was drunk, and he drove into a wall. He was a drunk driver. In
some cases, liquor can be a terrific thing, and it can also be really destructive and dangerous. It all depends on the individual and the circumstances, really. As far as drunk driving goes, just walk. Usually, with issues like that there is such a simple solution. Usually people will do anything rather than the obvious solution.
Hughey: What about underage drinking?
Moby: You can't curb underage drinking. The decision to let people drink once they reach a certain day in their life? That's so bizarre. I'm really wary of social policy that's enacted for one group by a completely different group. If you have a 40- or 50-year old business man trying to enact legislation to affect a 16-year-old teenager, how can that 40- or 50-year-old man in any way understand the circumstances of a 16-year-old in 1992? They always approach it from this high and mighty position like they know better, and that's not always the case.
Hughey: Do you feel like you have the answers?
Moby: No, not for a second, no. I think I'm pretty good at being analytical, but there are a lot of things I'm genuinely clueless about.
—Edited by Ronnie Wachter
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