Richard Melville Hall, better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, record producer, singer, songwriter, and photographer known for his electronic music, veganism, and support of animal rights. He has sold over 20 million records worldwide, and AllMusic considers him to be "one of the most important dance music figures of the early 1990s, helping bring the music to a mainstream audience both in
Background
Moby was born Richard Melville Hall on September 11, 1965, in Harlem, New York. However, his parents felt that such a grand name was unsuited for such a small, fragile child, and thusly decided to call him Moby, after the eponymous whale from Herman Melville's classic novel. In fact (and as suggested by his middle name), Herman Melville is actually Moby's great-great-great-great uncle. "I've tried to read the book several times," Moby has said of the legendary novel Moby Dick, "but I never quite got through it."
When Moby was born, his mother, Elizabeth McBride Warner-Hall, was a student, and his father, James Hall, was a young lecturer in the chemistry department at Columbia University. Theirs was a troubled marriage and, when Moby's father died in an alcohol-related car crash in 1967, some hypothesized that the accident was a suicide. Moby was just 2 years old when he lost his father. Soon after his father's death, Moby's mother, who was then only 23 years old, moved the family to Darien, Connecticut. There, Moby's maternal grandparents helped raise him while his mother finished her college degree.
With his mother and grandmother both working full-time, Moby was often left to his own devices. "I spent a lot of time by myself," he once said of his childhood, "and a lot of time was spent at my grandmother's house which was rambling and old and had big overgrown gardens, so there were a lot of places to get lost and entertain myself. I am grateful that as a little boy I had lots of strange and interesting places to play."
Education
Upon graduating from high school in 1983, Moby attended the University of Connecticut, where he studied philosophy. He dropped out after just one year, though, in order to pursue his budding music career full-time.
Career
In college, Moby began spinning records at the campus radio station. He then dropped out of school after just eight months and began hanging out in clubs in New York City, where he learned to love dance music. "I just realized how powerful and celebratory dance music was," he recalled to Norris. "I love that real anthemic quality. Just big piano breaks, screaming diva vocals, and real high energy." He began working as a DJ for a club in Port Chester, New York, and then moved to venues in New York City, including the club Mars. By 1987, under a variety of stage names like Voodoo Child, Barracuda, and Mindstorm, Moby was spinning for big names like Cher, Run-D.M.C., and Big Daddy Kane, and started recording his own club mixes on the Instinct label in 1989.
When Moby remixed the theme song from the popular David Lynch television series Twin Peaks with a thumping beat to create the track "Go," he became a major name not only among the ranks of deejays but also on the charts. The song reached the top ten in Britain in 1991, and Moby continued to churn out club singles for Instinct, such as the hits "Next Is the E" and "Thousand." He also compiled a number of singles on Moby (1992), and experimented with a minimalist sound on Ambient in 1993. In 1993 Moby signed a five-record deal with Elektra and released the EP Move, which appealed to many fans who had not previously been fond of dance music.
Right after the release of Move, Moby toured with the Lollapalooza festival concert, headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This exposure helped reveal Moby to a much more mainstream audience and made him virtually the only techno deejay at the time who was known to a widespread audience. Neil Strauss wrote in Rolling Stone, "A year ago, the name Moby and the word techno were practically synonymous." However, Strauss added that some techno fans had begun to think of Moby as a "traitor" due to his lifestyle, not to mention the fact that he had worked on a remix for pop star Michael Jackson.
In 1995 Moby released his debut album, Everything Is Wrong, deriving the title from his philosophy of the world. "I think 500 years from now, people are going to wonder what was going on now," Moby told Strauss. "They'll see this race of people that smoked cigarettes and drove cars and fought wars and persecuted people for their beliefs and sexual orientation, and none of it accomplished anything... Everything is absolutely 100 percent wrong, and how do we change it is the question." For the album's liner notes, Moby listed 67 statistics concerning topics such as the plight of the rainforests and the destruction of trees.
Everything Is Wrong cut across several musical genres, from jazz to classical piano to hard rock to disco grooves, but as Ali noted, "Amazingly, these transitions aren't jerky or abrupt; rather, the music evolves naturally from one style to the next." The album soon became a critical favorite, although some techno purists rejected it as a "sellout."
Moby's discontent with dance music came to a head with Animal Rights (1997), in which he gave up his synth sound in favor of a hard rock style. Much of the content revealed his early punk influences and featured his screaming voice and wailing guitar riffs. This effort was not warmly received, but did not slow down his career. In the meantime, Moby was busy working on other artists' projects, remixing "1979" for Smashing Pumpkins, "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)" for Aerosmith, "Until It Sleeps" for Metallica, and "Dusty" for Soundgarden. He also produced "Walk on Water" for Ozzy Osbourne.
Subsequently, Moby began getting calls to mix music for film soundtracks. In 1997 he came out with the album I Like to Score, a collection of 12 pieces that he originally created for movies and television (thus the title, a pun on the word "score," which refers to writing music for such media). It included an energetic re-mix of the "James Bond Theme," as well as his early hit "Go," in addition to "First Cool Hive" from the horror flick Scream and a cover of Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades" from the film Heat. After this, he began to indicate that he was regaining his enthusiasm for techno. "Overall, the scene feels healthier to me, and I certainly like the music more than I did two or three years ago," Moby told Michael Mehle of the Denver, Colorado, Rocky Mountain News.
In the summer of 1999, Moby issued Play, an effort that harkened back to his techno roots while displaying an even more fervent eclecticism that intrigued and delighted many critics. In addition to the drum machines and hip-hop beats, much of the structure was developed from old blues and gospel music. Moby sampled, or excerpted, a 1943 version of the gospel classic "Run On for a Long Time," featuring slide guitar and a haunting piano. He also used samples from Alan Lomax's field recordings of African-American folk music from the early twentieth century, and included the Bessie Jones blues tune "Honey."
Play seemed to indicate a shift from Moby's earlier works, in that it did not contain any overt references to his thoughts on subjects like the environment, politics, and the like. He commented to David Proffitt in Arizona Republic, "With Play, I wanted to make a record that was very personal but also that people could bring into their lives and fall in love with." He also remarked to Vickie Gilmer of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "The songs I used are … beautiful songs, and the lyrics are interesting. But it's me singing, too." He noted that it was a pet peeve of his that people think his electronic music consists solely of samples.
In 2001 Moby founded Area: One, a traveling festival partly inspired by Lollapalooza and featuring the OutKast, New Order, and Nellie Furtado. He also organized Area2 the following year with David Bowie and the Blue Man Group. Moby followed Play in 2002 with 18, and toured heavily to support the album. Although many critics gave the album a lukewarm reception, 18 rose to number four on the Billboard 200, and three songs reached the Top 20 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Moby incited a controversy in 2001 after calling rapper Eminem's music racist and homophobic, and the two singers confronted one another during the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.
Moby continued to collaborate with a number of artists, co-writing "Is It Any Wonder" with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and collaborating with Public Enemy on "Make Love, F—War." The latter song was released before the 2004 election, and Moby publicly supported Democrat John Kerry during the U.S. presidential election. In 2005 Moby issued Hotel, which spawned two number one European hits with "Lift Me Up" and "Slipping Away." In 2006 Moby accepted an acting role in Pittsburgh, a film starring Jeff Goldblum, and also worked on soundtracks for Richard Kelly's Southland Tales in 2007.
Released in 2008, Last Night was an eclectic album that found Moby exploring earlier musical terrain. Andy Kellman wrote in All Music Guide, "A good number of Moby fans who began to follow the producer's moves well before Play will be inclined to think of Last Night as the best Moby album since Everything Is Wrong." Ian Roullier, writing in OMH, concurred: "If you're one of those people that rued the day Moby stopped producing storming, hook-heavy dance music, then you'll welcome Last Night with open arms." Moby also continued to combine his love of music with his interest in film, performing with two turntables and a mixing board at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival in June of 2008. The producer-DJ surprised audiences by delivering a remix of Guns 'n' Roses' "Paradise City" for an encore.
On February 15, 2011, Moby announced the release of his new album, Destroyed. It was released on May 16, 2011. A photography book with the same name was also released around the time of the album. On April 30, 2012, Moby released Destroyed Remixed, a limited edition 2CD collection of remixes of songs from the 2011 studio album, Destroyed. The release included three new exclusive remixes by David Lynch, Holy Ghost!, and System Divine, and also featured a brand new 30 minute ambient track by Moby called 'All Sides Gone'. Compiled and mixed by Moby, Destroyed Remixed was described as 'an eclectic mix of some the most exciting and interesting artists and DJ's in contemporary music'.
For Record Store Day 2013, Moby released a 7-inch record called The Lonely Night which featured former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. An accompanying video was created by Colin Rich, of which Moby stated: "I’m really excited to have an experimental music video from this great video artist, and I feel like the slow, rich, and languorous desert visuals fit the song perfectly."The track was subsequently released as a download with remixes by Photek, Gregor Tresher, Freescha and Moby himself.
In July, Moby announced that he would be releasing a new studio album entitled Innocents. The album had been written and recorded in the previous 18 months and was due for release in October. The album was recorded in Moby's apartment and features a number of guest vocalists, in keeping with earlier releases such as Play, 18 and Wait For Me.
In September 2016, Moby announced a new album named These Systems Are Failing. It was released on October 14, 2016, under the name Moby & The Void Pacific Choir. The first official single of the new album "Are You Lost In The World Like Me?" was included in the announcement. The video for that single, created by animator Steve Cutts, addressed smartphone addiction. The video won the film & video: animation category at the 2017 Webby Awards.
On December 11, 2017, Moby announced his new trip-hop inspired album Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt in an interview with Billboard Magazine, to be released March 2, 2018. The announcement came with the video for "Like A Motherless Child", the first single from the album. On January 29 this was followed up by the second single and video, "Mere Anarchy", which Moby described as "post apocalypse, people are gone, and my friend Julie and I are time traveling aliens visiting the empty Earth."
Religion
At times, Moby has been reluctant to use the word "Christian" to define himself, due to its ambiguity, but self-identified as a Christian in a 2003 BBC interview. In the BBC interview, Moby spoke about his encounter with the Gospels: "In about 1985 I read the teachings of Christ and was instantly struck by the idea that Christ was somehow divine. When I say I love Christ and love the teachings of Christ, I mean that in the most simple and naïve and subjective way. I'm not saying I'm right, and I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone else's beliefs." Also in 2003, in an interview with Amazon.com, Moby said, "I can't really know anything. Having said that, though, on a very subjective level I love Christ. I perceive Christ to be God, but I predicate that with the knowledge that I'm small and not nearly as old as the universe that I live in. I take my beliefs seriously for myself, but I would be very uncomfortable trying to tell anyone that I was right."
In a September 20, 2006 audio interview with Sojourners magazine, he says, "I read the New Testament, specifically the gospels and I was struck at their divinity, feeling that humans could not have figured this out on their own. We're just not bright enough." He also discusses his faith on his own blog. On January 19, 2007, in his reaction to seeing Alexandra Pelosi's Friends of God, a film about evangelicalism in the United States, Moby writes, "The movie reminded me just how utterly disconnected the agenda of the evangelical Christian right is from the teachings of Christ."
In a 2014 interview with Mother Jones, he was asked if he identifies as a Christian and said that he has been "led ... away from any sort of conventional Christianity," but that he "still love[s] the teachings of Christ." Moby explained to Mother Jones that if he needed to label himself, it would be as a "Taoist–Christian–agnostic quantum mechanic."
Moby's 2016 book Porcelain: A Memoir introduces him as a "devout Christian, a vegan, and a teetotaler" and discusses the evolution of his spiritual views.
Politics
Moby acknowledges the complexity of political, social and religious issues, but seems to lean very much to the left. If viewed through the lens of American political party ideology, some of Moby’s views could be seen as contradictory–even if they aren’t in reality.
But all of his political donations, totaling $12,500 to date, have gone to Democrats including both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Notice there are no libertarians getting Moby’s money.
Views
Moby is a vegan and supports animal rights. In March 2010, Moby made his debut as an author when Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety (Thinking Twice About the Meat We Eat), a collection of essays from people in the food industry, was published.
In March 2016, Moby supported the social media campaign #TurnYourNoseUp to end factory farming in association with the nonprofit organization Farms Not Factories. He is an advocate of the anti-cruelty Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, even auctioning off his own musical equipment and his personal record collection to raise funds for the organization.
Moby is an advocate for a variety of causes, working with MoveOn.org, The Humane Society and Farm Sanctuary, among others. He created MoveOn Voter Fund's Bush in 30 Seconds contest along with singer and MoveOn Cultural Director Laura Dawn and MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser. The music video for the song "Disco Lies" from Last Night has heavy anti-meat industrial themes. He also actively engages in nonpartisan activism and serves on the Board of Directors of Amend.org, a nonprofit organization that implements injury prevention programs in Africa.
He is an advocate of net neutrality and he testified before United States House of Representatives committee debating the issue in 2006.
In 2007 Moby started a website called MobyGratis.com, designed for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short; it allows users to apply for free licences to use Moby music in their film. However, if a film is commercially successful, all revenue from commercial licence fees granted via MobyGratis is passed on to the Humane Society.
Quotations:
"Better a loving single parent family than a 'conventional' family wherein the parents hate each other and the father is a demagogue."
"Could you look at animal in the eyes and say to it "my appetite is more important than your suffering"? I hope not."
"Why can't a Democrat get fired up about protecting the environment and enacting gun control legislation just as right wing republicans get fired up about making sure that children have access to assault weapons and banning 'The catcher in the rye' and 'Harry Potter'?"
"It will be interesting to see what the long term fruits of our national apathy will be, 'cos so far they've been pretty foul."
"One simple word: ugh. Is something still considered a conspiracy if it's played out right under our noses?"
"For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you're an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion."
"Call me a nerd if you like, but I do find it hard to leave home without my laptop and a good book."
"Mainly the fact that I love animals and don’t want to be involved in anything that causes or contributes to animal suffering. Also, I never really liked meat that much, unless it neither looked [n]or tasted like meat. Like taco filling. But, mainly because I love animals and don’t want them to suffer. Death is unavoidable, suffering is avoidable."
Membership
Moby is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing scientific inquiry on music and the brain and to developing clinical treatments to benefit people of all ages.
Personality
Moby identifies as heterosexual as well as cisgender.
Physical Characteristics:
Moby is five-foot, eight inches tall and sports a shaved head.
In an interview with Psychology Today, Moby admitted that when he was 19, he tried LSD and began suffering from panic attacks. He says that he no longer experiences them as frequently as he used to, but occasionally he will "have too much caffeine, be stressed out about work and be in a relationship that's not going well, and it will happen again." He is very open about this in an attempt to help fans who suffer from similar panic disorders.