Moby

Not to be confused with Mooby the Golden Calf.

Moby

Moby (born Richard Melville Hall, September 11, 1965) is an American songwriter, musician and singer.

He was born in Harlem, New York, and raised in Darien, Connecticut. After eight UK Top 40 singles in the 1990s with techno music, his biggest success was his more mainstream album Play, released in 1999, which sold 9 million copies worldwide. He continues to record and release music today.

His parents nicknamed him Moby soon after birth, partly after the novel Moby-Dick, which was written by Herman Melville, his great-great-great-great uncle. He plays keyboard, guitar, bass guitar and drums. He has also released music under the names Voodoo Child, Barracuda, Brainstorm, UHF, The Brotherhood, DJ Cake, Lopez, Mindstorm, and Pippy Baliunas. He has received a lot of attention for his political, environmental and religious beliefs.

Music career

Early years

After graduating from SUNY Purchase with a degree in sociology, he began to focus more on music performance. In the early 1980s Moby was in a hardcore punk band called the Vatican Commandos, which released an EP called Hit Squad for God. He was a house disc jockey at The Beat and Media Bender's Instant Gallery in Port Chester, New York from 1985 and signed a recording contract with Instinct Records in 1989. During this time, Moby lived in an established artist loft community in Stamford, CT and borrowed a friend's tag sale treasure, a Library of Congress record folio of Alan Lomax recordings from 1943. This historic album set, still owned by Marc Latzky of The Harry Jingles Band, was used on "Natural Blues" and other recordings. Moby was previously quoted in CNN saying "I wish I had stories about me getting them myself, hanging out in prisons and farms in Georgia, Atlanta or Alabama, or whatever. But no, I just went around the corner to my old record store and bought the reissues," but he actually digitally sampled the original pressings.

His first success was "Go", a progressive track using the string line from "Laura Palmer's Theme" from the TV drama Twin Peaks. It reached the UK top ten in October 1991 and earned him an appearance on Top of the Pops, and features on his first album, The Story So Far (aka Moby).

In 1993 he toured with The Prodigy, Orbital, and Aphex Twin.

1994–1998

Template:Sound sample box align right Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end His first album for Mute Records was Everything Is Wrong in 1995, which earned early critical praise and minor commercial success. (It was distributed in the USA by Elektra Records.) He followed this up in early 1996 with the double album Everything Is Wrong - Mixed and Remixed.

Soon after, his original record company, Instinct, released a B-sides album named Rare: The Collected B-Sides 1989-1993. One song on this album, "Thousand", earned him a world record for the fastest song ever. It reached 1015 BPM.

Later in 1996 he released a hard rock/electronic album called Animal Rights and toured Europe with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Unusually for Moby, who usually writes all his own music, occasionally with collaborators, Animal Rights included a cover version, Clint Conley's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver".

In 1997, he released I Like to Score, a collection of his music that had been used in movies. Among those tracks was an updated version of the "James Bond Theme" used for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

Animal Rights and I Like to Score were commercially unsuccessful, and Elektra declined distribution of future Moby releases.

1999–2004

After a decade's worth of music, Moby's breakthrough album was 1999's Play. The album has 18 tracks and was the first album in history to have all of its tracks commercially licensed (see 'Moby's songs used in other media' below). The album's tracks eventually were accepted in various radio formats, but because of Play's extensive licensing, the album could have been financially successful even without radio play. In addition to fame garnered through its licensing, Play is also notable for its extensive sampling of old blues recordings collected by Alan Lomax. In a 2005 posting on his web site, Moby theorized that his eagerness to license his music is a result of "growing up in poverty".

In 2001, Moby co-wrote and produced "Is It Any Wonder" with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, for her solo debut album, Read My Lips. But a different version of the song was released as a B-side on the "Music Gets the Best of Me" single and included on the re-release of Read My Lips. The version Moby produced has since leaked onto the internet.

In 2003, Moby produced a song for Britney Spears for her album In The Zone. The song was called "Early Mornin' ". It was not released as a single, but it has been a fan favorite.

In 2001, Moby founded the Area:One Festival. It was a popular touring rock festival that featured an eclectic range of musical genres. A second tour was organized for the following year.

In 2001, Moby also earned the ire of Eminem after calling his music misogynist and homophobic; Eminem later satirized Moby (among others) in "Without Me", calling him a "36-year-old baldheaded fag" and questioning his relevance, and declaring "Nobody listens to techno!" Moby replied that he hadn't played techno since 1992. The two were in a confrontation at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, though Moby expresses respect for Eminem as an artist.

In 2002, Moby released 18, an album that had 18 tracks. The most popular song on the album was "We Are All Made of Stars".

Moby briefly had a television show on MTV in 2002, Señor Moby's House of Music, which focused mostly on more obscure electronic music. Moby also appeared on Ride with Funkmaster Flex.

File:Moby-RareDJSet.JPG

Moby performs a rare DJ set at NASA Rewind 04-03-2004 in NYC

2005—2006

In 2005 Moby released his album Hotel. Instead of his usual usage of samples, all of the vocals and instruments on Hotel were performed live in the studio by Moby and vocalist Laura Dawn, who is the Cultural Director of MoveOn.org.

The 2005 multi-award winning documentary Earthlings, narrated by Hollywood actor and animal rights activist Joaquin Phoenix, features an original score by Moby.

Moby scored the soundtrack for Richard Kelly's 2007 movie Southland Tales; he was a huge fan of Kelly's previous film, Donnie Darko, and could not resist the offer the director gave him.

On November 6, 2006, a compilation album of his greatest hits, entitled Go: The Very Best of Moby was released, which includes a new track, "New York, New York" for which Debbie Harry provided vocals. Different versions of this album have his single "Slipping Away" in different languages and with different co-singers.

Was referred to in the 2006 Movie "School for Scoundrels" in which the character Eli pretends to be Moby to trick women.

Moby reunited Richard Barone's legendary 80s pop group The Bongos to produce and play on a new version of their song "The Bulrushes". The result, "Bulrushes 2007" is included as a bonus track on the special edition release of the band's debut album, Drums Along The Hudson, released on Cooking Vinyl Records on June 12, 2007. He also appears in the music video for the track.

2007

On 24 February, 2007 Moby announced on his online journal that he was currently in the process of whittling down 400 songs to about 20 for a new album due out around September.

On the 29th of September Moby joined Richard Barone onstage for "20th Century Boy" at the T.Rex tribute in Central Park, NYC.

On the 4th of October moby.com announced the name of his seventh album. Last Night is to be released on March 10, 2008. The lead single from the album will be entitled "Everyday It's 1989".

Moby made a remix compilation for the video game BioShock along with Oscar The Punk, titled "The BioShock EP". The disc was made available by purchasing the collector's edition of the game. The "BioShock EP" features three remix tracks and one original recording: Beyond the Sea, God Bless the Child, and Wild Little Sisters.

Innovation

Moby has used some unusual innovations in his career. His 1995 single "Everytime You Touch Me" (CDMUTE176) featured a remix by the winner of a competition, Jude Sebastian. For certain dates on Moby's 2005 European tour, Live Here Now provided concert-goers with compact disc recordings of the show 10 minutes after it ended. His 2005 single "Lift Me Up" featured, in addition to numerous remixes, UK company Digimpro's software, which allows users to remix the song, using any or all of the samples included, and save it as an MP3 file. Digimpro had previously seen exposure with group Erasure's singles "Breathe", "Here I Go Impossible Again", and "Don't Say You Love Me".

Essays

Many Moby albums include essays that he has written himself in the inlay card. Everything Is Wrong had essays on over-consumption ("We use toxic chlorine bleach to keep our underpants white") and US religious leaders ("Why doesn't the Christian right go out and spread mercy, compassion and selflessness?"), and The End of Everything discussed being a vegetarian ("Could you look an animal in the eyes and say to it, 'My appetite is more important than your suffering'?")

Besides music

Moby is a vegan, non-denominational Christian and self-proclaimed "simpleton" (for his often sincere and idealistic political assessments). He has expressed pro-choice views. Moby lives in New York City's Little Italy, where he has lived for a decade in a small apartment in a five-story building across the street from David Bowie. Until recently he co-owned a small restaurant and tea shop called TeaNY, where he occasionally waited tables. He also organized the Little Idiot Collective, a group of artists.

Moby has signed up to pay $207,000 to become the first pop star to travel into space on the space tourism company Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise spaceship in 2010.

In an interview with Psychology Today, Moby stated that when he was 19, he tried LSD and began suffering from panic attacks. He claims 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.

Activism

Moby is a well known advocate for a variety of progressive causes, working with MoveOn and PETA, among others. He created MoveOn Voter Fund's "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest along with singer/MoveOn Cultural Director Laura Dawn and MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser.

He also actively engages in nonpartisan activism, and serves on the Board of Directors of Amend.org [1], a nonprofit that implements injury prevention programs in Africa.

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 . He has also performed on various benefit concerts to help increase awareness for music therapy and raise funds for the Institute. In 2004, he was honored with the IMNF’s "Music Has Power Award" for his advocacy of music therapy and for his dedication and support to its recording studio program.

He is an advocate of network neutrality and he testified before the US House committee debating the issue in 2006.

Moby tends to take libertarian stances on political issues, when asked about drugs he responded: "I'm sort of a libertarian. People should be able to do what they want. I ultimately defer the wisdom to an adult to make their own choices. If someone wants to do drugs, I think it's their own business and not the business of the state."

Faith

In a 2003 BBC interview, Moby speaks 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 way. I'm not saying I'm right." In a September 20, 2006 audio interview with Sojourners Magazine's John Potter, (a magazine considered to be a voice in the evangelical left), 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 weblog. 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."

Moby's songs used in other media

"We Are All Made Of Stars" was featured in:

• A 2002 Intel Pentium television commercial in the United States

"Ah-Ah" and "Next Is the E" were featured in:

• The 1992 motion picture Cool World

"First Cool Hive" was featured in:

• The movie Scream.
• Opening credits of Finnish IT news program verkoss@ (produced by Media-Active Oy, aired on MTV3 circa 1996—1998).

"Inside" was featured in:

• The WB's hit show Popular.
• The big wave surfing documentary, "Riding Giants".

"Find my Baby" was featured in:

• The WB's hit show Charmed, Season two.
• Oliver Stone's football film Any Given Sunday.
• Les Mayfield's western film American Outlaws.
• Commercials for the former generation of Nissan Almera car.

Also used in an advert for Nescafé coffee in the U.K.

"In My Heart" was featured in:

• One of the trailers for the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness
• Commercials for the Nokia Nseries phones

"God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," was featured in:

• The climax of the 1995 motion picture Heat.
• The 1996 Rover 400 car commercial.
• The 1999 documentary One Day in September.
• The trailer for the 2005 movie Syriana.
• The 2006 Apple commercial for the Intel-based line of iMac PCs.
• Lil Wayne sampled this song for his track I'm Me off The Leak (The Carter III Mixtape).

"I'm Not Worried At All" was featured in:

• TV-series CSI: NY episode "Oedipus Hex", Season Three Episode Five.

"Flower" was featured in:

• The 2000 movie Gone in Sixty Seconds.

"Natural Blues" was featured in:

• The movie Freddy Got Fingered.
• Television promos for the BBC News, 2000.
• The movie Basic.
• The TV Show Cold Case
• The documetary "Go Tigers"

"Rafters" was featured in:

• The 2003 Australian Swimming Championship, Broadcast on the Seven Network.

"Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" was featured in:

• The climax of the documentary film Peaceable Kingdom
• The trailer for the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down.
• Episode 3 of the 6th season of the BBC TV-show Monarch of the Glen
• The last song to be preformed on TFI Friday featuring Elton John (who was hosting)

"Rushing" was featured in:

• The 2002 premiere trailer for the film Unfaithful
• Background music for the local forecast on The Weather Channel

"Extreme Ways" was featured in:

• The end of the 2002 movie The Bourne Identity and its 2004 and 2007 sequels, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.
• Trailers and promos for various PBS Shows
• Over the closing credits for the 2005 BBC drama-documentary If... Drugs Were Legal .

"Honey" was featured in:

• The Ben Stiller movie "Permanent Midnight"
• The 2003 movie Holes
• Commercials for the Maxwell House coffee

"When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" was featured in:

• The final scene and end credits of episode 67 of the HBO original series The Sopranos ("Join the Club")

"Porcelain" was featured in:

• The 1998 film Playing by Heart
• The 1999 film The Beach and its trailer.
• Commercial bumpers for Spanish TV channel TVE
• The 2001 film Dancing at the Blue Iguana
• The 2001 film Is Harry on the Boat
• The May 30, 2000 series finale of TV drama "Party of Five"
• A 2000 Canadian Baileys Irish Cream Television Advertisement
• A 2004 MTV Documentary on Auschwitz and the Nazi Regime
• Virgin Atlantic's Boarding Music during November 2005
• Promotional Commercials for the High School Network Channel One News

"Everloving" was featured in:

• The movie Seabiscuit
• The movie version of He Died with a Felafel in His Hand
• A trailer for the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream
• A trailer for the 2003 film We Don't Live Here Anymore
• A series of TV adverts for BP South Africa during 2005
• Oliver Stone's football film Any Given Sunday
• An episode of the WB cartoon series Mission Hill

"My Weakness" was featured in:

• The season 7 episode of The X-Files, "Closure"
• The movie Any Given Sunday
• The 2001 film Behind Enemy Lines
• The 2002 film The Salton Sea

"The Sky Is Broken" was featured in:

• Episode "All Things" of season 7 of The X-Files

"One of These Mornings" was featured in:

• Multiple episodes of Without a Trace
• The 2006 theatrical version of Miami Vice

"Lift Me Up" was featured in:

• The racing game Asphalt Urban GT 2, with the Nokia N-Gage and Nintendo DS versions featuring a slightly edited version of the song, while other versions (Java & Symbian OS) featuring only the main tune.
• The 2006 Bemani game beatmania (North America)
• During 2006 on Channel Nine Australia's coverage of Rugby League
• ITV coverage of the Formula One racing
• The 2007 commercial advertising Discovery's show called Expedition Borneo
• In Doctor Who Confidential The Valiant Quest
• Commercial for the Polish mineral water Kropla Beskidu.

"Oil 1" was featured in:

• The movie The Saint
• A Nissan Sentra commercial

"Bodyrock" was featured in:

• The video game NBA Courtside with Kobe Bryant featuring the main guitar melody during the opening cutscene and menus.
• The video game FIFA 2001
• The opening credits sequence for later episodes of Veronica's Closet
• Joss Whedon's series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• The trailer for the 2001 film Ali
• The opening credits sequence for Hype

"Memory Gospel" was featured in:

• The 2000 film Get Carter
• The 2001 film Ali
• The 2002 film 40 Days and 40 Nights
• The 2007 film Southland Tales

"New Dawn Fades", originally by Joy Division, was featured in:

• The 1995 film Heat

"Anthem" was featured in:

• The 2006 film Miami Vice

"Go" was featured in:

• The 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, although it does not appear on the soundtrack.

"Slipping Away" was featured in:

• Movistar commercials in Spain in October 2006

"Love of Strings" was featured in:

• Jaguar commercials in 2003

"Beautiful" was featured in:

• The 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada

"Signs of Love" was featured in:

• A second season episode of Smallville.

"New York, New York" was featured in:

• Citroen C1 commercial released in Italy in 2007

"In This World" was featured in:

• The skateboard video Zero: New Blood, in the advertisement of the video Mystery: Black and White
• The Preview song for the third season of the ABC hit show Alias.

"Run On" was featured on the soundtrack to the 2001 movie He Died With a Felafel in His Hand.

Discography

Main article: Moby discography

Videography

• Play: The DVD (2001)
• 18 B Sides + DVD (2003)
• Moby Presents: Alien Sex Party (2003)
• The Hotel Tour 2005 (2006)
• Go: The Very Best of Moby (2006)

Biographies

• Moby: Replay, 2001 Olmstead Press Paperback ISBN 1-58754-011-8

External links

• Official site / journal
• Moby page at Mute Records web site
• Listings of all Moby songs
• Interview with Moby
• Moby discusses Southland Tales