Moby works his magic all over again
By Andrea Keelan
Feature Writer
September 23, 2009
 For those of you who haven’t gotten the message yet: electronic music is happening in a big way.
The Detroit Electronic Music Festival is gaining more and more popularity every year and DJs are selling out clubs in Windsor and quickly becoming musical royalty.
In this world one man, Moby, is king. Only, he’d probably never refer to himself as such. In a recent interview with The Lance, from the rooftop of his home in the lower east side of Manhattan, Moby discussed topics from his current North American tour to his DEMF performance in 2008 and everything in between.
With a European tour that kicked off at the beginning of the summer and a North American tour that continues throughout the fall for his latest album Wait for Me, Moby is learning from past endeavors.
“In the tour that we just did, I wisely chose to not drink during the tour because I found in the past that there was a period where I was just getting a little too involved in the debauched aspects of touring. And as much fun as that can be, it’s also really exhausting. And I’m also 43 and my metabolism has slowed down and my liver is kind of shot. The hangovers that used to last only three hours are now lasting days. My liver has waved the white flag and I’m finally listening to it.” That doesn’t mean Moby’s not having fun on tour, of course.
Smaller venues have been selected to provide a more intimate experience. The Detroit show is happening at the relatively tiny Saint Andrew’s Hall, which Moby first played in 1992.
In addition to the smaller-sized theaters, Moby says fans can expect to see him and seven other musicians on stage. “It’s a really, almost bizarrely, eclectic show. There’s some dance songs, and some very quiet ballads, and there’s like a punk rock song or two and there’s some blues songs. It’s just a really eclectic show and I say that the set itself is 40 per cent songs from the new record and 60 per cent songs from older records.”
If you haven’t heard any of the 40 per cent that he talks about, you should. Wait for Me is a delicate and somewhat melancholy album, which Moby describes as dealing with an underlying theme of resignation and mortality.
And while he has explored genres from dance to punk, this album is something different as he explains, “As much as I love a lot of different types of music, the music that means the most to me is more introspective and more emotional so that’s really what I wanted to focus on with this record.”
Needless to say, Wait for Me doesn’t offer the type of music that Moby dazzled Detroit with two years ago when he played a set at DEMF.
When asked if he plans to participate in DEMF again, he responded, “Yeah, I mean if they asked me, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Sometimes when you get asked to play a festival or asked to do something, you take a bit of time to deliberate but with DEMF, I was just so happy to be asked that it took me about five seconds to say 'yes'.”
Not only would Moby play DEMF again, but he also said he would either DJ or play a live set in Windsor if asked. (Get on that, Windsor club owners!) He explains, “I’ll go wherever anyone asks me to go. There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing in life, but playing live or DJing, those are almost always at the top of my list. I know there are some musicians whose criteria for choosing venues or dates to play live is basically how much money they can make. And for me, it’s just fun. I mean, hopefully I won’t lose money playing live, but even if I did, it’s money well spent. It’s better to spend a thousand dollars playing live music than, I don’t know, buying a fancy suit that I wouldn’t ever wear. Or that if I did wear, I’d look like an idiot in.”
As Moby is only one man, he has often collaborated with other musicians to make his catalogue of music truly vast and widespread. David Bowie is one such collaborator, not to mention Moby’s favourite artist.
In terms of artists he hasn’t yet collaborated with, he expresses a desire to work with Leonard Cohen (seriously, imagine that) and Chicago-based blues musician George “Buddy” Guy. Here’s hoping his next album features the work of either one.
Moby may be a veteran of electronic music but his work is constantly evolving and shifting.
If you haven’t had the privilege of seeing this master work his magic live, you don’t want to pass up to opportunity to see his upcoming show at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit on Sept. 29. Tickets are still available at www.livenation.com.
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