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 05 July 2008 05:09 BST

Moby: People have got a little bored of hating me

Friday, 25 Apr 2008 16:42
Moby's ninth studio album Last Night is released on May 5th
The dance/chillout legend talks to inthenews.co.uk's David Hewitt ahead of the release of his new album Last Night.

Growing up in Harlem, New York, Moby admits that he was depressed that he was an American "because all my favourite music came from the UK". Several decades later, during which time he has mixed his childhood influences with a successful musical career in punk, disco and even classical music, he is happily settled in his native city and set to release his ninth studio album, following on from 2006's best of compilation.

As he goes back to his disco roots with Last Night, which includes the single Everyday It's 1989, it could be easy to think that, at 42 years of age, the world's most famous vegan is looking to the past with misty eyes. Not so, he argues, explaining "I didn't want to restrict myself and only make a nostalgic record or make a record that was forward thinking, I just wanted to make a record that was, sort of, a fun, eclectic, diverse dance record." As such, Last Night attempts to condense a full night of New York clubbing, where 22-year-old DJs play disco, house and hip-hop records from the 1970s and 1980s to multi-age crowds not worried about musical fads or trends, into 62 minutes. "It's a record about going out and drinking too much," he says, "taking drugs and staying up too late and falling in love at 5 in the morning and just encapsulating the experience of going out for eight hours."

What the new record isn't, therefore, is Moby weighing in on political or environmental issues, as he has done in the past, but is in fact quite the opposite. "I guess there are still a lot of issues that are very important to me, but I don't think I could draw attention to an issue people aren't already aware of," he explains, citing the way the internet and 24-hour news manages to keep people well-informed of current events, making music his music relatively unnecessary in this regard. "And also, the Bush administration is drawing to a close and so this is a kind of celebration of the fact that we've just endured eight years of the worst president in the history of the United States."

Speaking to him, it soon becomes clear that Moby has now reached that comfortable part in an artist's life when, through a combination of substantial record sales and age, his desire to see his work acclaimed by critics has somewhat waned. While global sales of nine million and numerous lucrative advertising deals would no doubt have made it easier to bear, there is no avoiding the fact that his 1999 release Play led to widespread accusations that Moby had sold out his artistic soul for the corporate dollar, a reaction which he admits he still finds strange. "I mean, it's a weird phenomenon being hated by people you've never met. There are a lot of people in the media that, no matter what I do, are just going to hate me. And, in the interests of self-preservation, I just can't pay attention to that." He adds, however, that "it seems like people have got a little bored of hating me. Which is good I mean, you can only hate a stranger for so long before it gets tedious."

The New Yorker has also adopted this relaxed attitude to the tabloid press, which in past weeks has outed his womanising prowess and "stealth slut" status and quoted him as offering his hand in marriage to Britney Spears. Sadly, he explains "the way my life is written about by the gossip press actually makes it seem a lot more interesting than it really is. [Tabloid rumours] kind of leads me to not want to open my mouth in public or just be a loudmouth and not worry about the fact that people are going to pick up on things."

Given this relaxed attitude to critical reception and commercial success, where next for Moby?

One thing that is for certain is that, despite quietly creeping into middle age Moby has no intentions of giving up the lifestyle he celebrates in Last Night, though he jokes that perhaps his friends will run an intervention on him soon to preserve his "crumbling sense of dignity".

"That idea of going to a bar for a couple of drinks and coming home at a reasonable hour is not something I ever learned how to do "In for a penny, in for a pound," he muses. "A good night always involves coming home when the sun's coming up."

Musically, he admits that he has no idea which area of his diverse background he will draw on next. "Maybe the next record will be a hardcore punk record that sounds like Minor Threat or maybe it'll be an R 'n' B record that sounds like Otis Redding. I honestly have no idea."

However much he claims he is making music for himself which needn't be taken apart and analysed, it seems a safe bet that Moby is unlikely to release an album like 1996's Animal Rights, which alienated critics and fans alike, anytime soon. "The only thing that bothers me is that being hated by people in the media actually prevents people from listening to the record I make," he says "And, ultimately and selfishly I like the idea of making music that people are willing to listen to."

David Hewitt

Last Night is released on May 5th.

Check out the video for lead single Alice below:
End of story


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