- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: COMPOSER MOBY TALKS ABOUT HIS CAREER AND NEW SINGLE "PORCELAIN"
- Date: 9th June 2000
- Summary: LONDON, UK (JUNE 9, 2000) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOBY TALKING ABOUT BEING STEREOTYPED "At this point, most people have recognized that the pigeon wholes people have tried to push me into just aren't appropriate and most the clichés really aren't appropriate and don't describe me so those whole clichés of me like the vegan Christian whatever, it's like, they
- Embargoed: 24th June 2000 13:00
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- Location: LONDON, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment,General
- Reuters ID: LVADSL5CX03O8B1T1RTWW8SRYU0U
- Story Text: If you've been to the cinema in the past year or have watched TV lately, chances are you've come across his music more than once. Box Office hits "Heat", "The Beach" "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The Saint " may be very different movies, but they have one thing in common - they feature the talents of young American composer Moby.
"The Beach" is only one of many blockbuster movies featuring his music. Others include "Scream", "The Jackal", "Any Given Sunday" and Madonna's latest film "The Next Best Thing".
Moby - whose real name is Richard Melville Hall - is no one of the world's most sought-after composers.
His last album 'Play,' a mix of blues, gospel and electronic, is a true music industry success story.
It hit music stores one year ago and initially looked like a long shot for any commercial success. Now "Play" has topped three million sales, and spent five weeks at No.1 on the British charts - a success that not even the artist himself expected.
"No, when I made the record, I didn't expect it to be successful and I didn't expect people to buy it let alone use it in advertisements or movies or TV shows or whatever. I really thought that when the record came out, it would be out for a little while, a few people would buy it and it would just disappear. I never for a second expected it to have the life that it's had."
Moby's music has appeared in a number of advertisements, amongst them big brands like Nordstrom, LaBatt's and Nissan.
But how does the 34-year-old philosophy student feel about that? "The whole phenomena of using my music in advertisements and TV shows and movies and whatever, I mean on the one hand, I find it a little bit distasteful but on the other hand a lot of these advertisements are really well made. The production value is great and there are some really wonderful creative people involved in making adverts and it's also a very interesting way of exposing people to the music that I've made."
There is only one industry that will never benefit from Moby's music. He feels strongly about tobacco and the damage it can do to smokers.
"The one place I really draw the line as far as licensing my music for adverts is with tobacco companies. I cannot in good conscience allow my music to be used to sell tobacco products because my mother died of lung cancer. All my life I've had a real problem with tobacco products in general because they're destructive and addictive. I don't see that any good comes from tobacco products at all. I smoked for about two weeks when I was ten years old because the cool kids in my school smoked and I wanted to hang out with the cool kids so I tried to smoke but in the end it seemed like such a waste of time and there isn't that much benefit and you don't get that much out of it, at least you know I'm speaking as a nonsmoker, maybe someone that has been smoking his whole life is passionately devoted to the idea of smoking. From my perspective it just seems like a complete waste of time."
Smoking isn't the only area he feels passionate about. A strident environmentalist and a practicing Christian, he doesn't take drugs and eats a vegan diet.
This hasn't stopped the music world from going Moby-mad, but it has led some to stereotype him.
"At this point, most people have recognized that the pigeon holes people have tried to push me into just aren't appropriate and mostly the clichés really aren't appropriate and don't describe me so those whole clichés of me like the vegan Christian whatever, it's like, they don't get used much any more because people finally realized they're not true. I first became a vegetarian when I was 18 and I'm 34 now so it was a long time ago and I became a vegan when I was about 20 or 21 mainly because I love animals and I really have a problem with unnecessarily causing suffering.
"If I'm given the choice between one action that causes suffering and an action that doesn't cause suffering, it just seems sensible, ethical and logical to choose the action that doesn't cause suffering. But having said that, I'm not in any way a judgmental vegan. My friends eat meat and it doesn't bother me. I respect the democratic tradition. I respect people's ability to choose for themselves."
Moby's been on tour since March last year to promote his music. Not the easiest lifestyle, and with the amount of interviews he does, he gets occasionally annoyed when people ask him silly questions.
"Since March of '99 I've done about 2,000 or 1,500 interviews. Sometimes if I'm doing an interview, if the journalist is just always asking about my sex life or whatever, sometimes I'll make up stories just to see if they'll get printed. As I was doing an interview with a British music magazine, I remembered a story that my friends told me, when they were at university they used to play this game where they would take their penises out of their pants and walk around a crowded room and touch people with their penises and I thought that was really funny.
"And so this guy was interviewing me for a British music magazine and he wanted a good story so I just took that story that was told to me and embellished on it and said that I'd done it and I'd done it with celebrities. But the truth is I was just trying to make up an entertaining anecdote for this guy. If I'm talking to a journalist and they're asking substantial questions that really interest me certainly I'll be honest and straight forward, but if someone starts asking me what celebrities have I had sex with, it's an absurd question, but rather than not answer the question, I make up something interesting.
"Oh I've had sex with Rosanne repeatedly, and her whole family, and the cast and crew of "Friends", so I just make stuff up and see if it actually gets printed."
The penis game DID get printed and claimed Moby's "victims" included Madonna, Kate Moss, Winona Ryder and Drew Barrymore. .
When he talks about his music though, Moby knows what he's after.
"I find it really boring and uninteresting when people are either always serious or always goofy or...the most interesting people I know are people who sometimes are serious and sometimes very silly and sometimes silly and serious at the same time. I have no problem with mixing high art and low art and mixing the sacred with the profane, mixing the crass with the commercial. It's possible to have all these things within one person and within one artistic project."
His latest single "Porcelain" featured in "The Beach"
was released in the UK on June 12. "With 'Porcelain' my perspective on it is sort of a wistful, sweet, melodic love song. A wistful tribute to a relationship that couldn't be.
You know being in love with someone but knowing that you just shouldn't be in love with them and being torn. Knowing that you're involved with someone when you shouldn't be involved with someone. That's pretty much the inspiration behind the song."
Moby, whose real name is Richard Melville Hall claims a famous relative. He believes that "Moby Dick" author Herman Melville is a distant relative.
"As far as I know my parents told me that I'm related to Herman Melville and they gave me the nickname Moby when I was born, pretty much when I was 10 minutes old so it's my nickname. My real name is Richard Melville Hall. But Moby's been my nickname since I was about this big."
When you ask him how he would describe himself, his answer is philosophical.
"I'm 34 years old and any degree of objectivity I might have about who or what I am is completely compromised by the fact that I've been myself for the last 34 years and my perspective is so flawed, I don't think I can see myself objectively at all." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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