Even though he's one of the biggest recording stars the
American rave scene has produced, Moby is somewhat disenchanted with dance music -- so much so that he hesitates to call himself a dance-music artist.
"I mean, I've been making music for about 20 years, and for about the last seven years, dance music is what has excited me the most," he says, over the phone from his Manhattan apartment. "From hip-hop to reggae to house music to techno, that's what has excited and challenged me the most.
"But within the last year and a half, I've lost a lot of interest in it. Because it seems like there was this naive, uninhibited, celebratory energy [to dance music] that has been dissipated."
What happened? Moby hesitates to place the blame, but feels a lot of the problem lies with the current generation of DJs. "You have a lot of white, male DJs who are really uncomfortable in the presence of anything celebratory and who feel that there has to be a justification for being involved with this type of music other than the fact that it makes people dance and have a nice time.
"That's what really has hurt dance music and techno over the last couple years -- trying to make it respectable. Whereas the music wasn't particularly complex and sophisticated, the emotions it produced for me were, which is what good folk art does. Whereas before, you played it, and if people responded to it, it was good; if they didn't respond, it was not good. Now, it's like: 'Where did it come from? Who made it?' "
Despite his disillusionment with the current dance aesthetic, Moby isn't going to stop making dance music. But neither will he limit himself to that or any other musical style, as "Everything Is Wrong" -- his new album, due out in March -- will make plain.
"I didn't sit down and think to myself, 'OK -- I have to write two speed metal songs, three disco songs, some classical things and some ballads,' " he says. "It was more like that out of the 50 or 60 songs I was working on for the record, the ones that survived were just the ones that seemed to sit well together and just satisfy me on an emotional level."
Besides, he still has hopes for dance music. In fact, his most recent single, "Feeling So Real," included a track of "Remix Parts" as part of a contest designed to bring new talent onto the scene. "I spent a long time before I started making records trying to understand how things within the music business worked," he explains. "Like how remixes happened, how people got record contracts. I didn't have a clue."
Deadline for the contest was Nov. 18, and Moby was astonished at the response. "We had 400 responses, and I'd say at least 75 percent were good to very good. So picking winners was really tricky."
Moods of Moby
To hear Moby's "Feeling So Real," call Sundial, The Sun's telephone information service, at (410) 783-1800. In Anne Arundel County, call 268-7736; in Harford County, 836-5028; in Carroll County, 848-0338. Using a touch-tone phone, punch in the four-digit code 6131 after you hear the greeting.
Rave with Moby
When: 10 tonight to 8 a.m.
Where: Rise, 1801 Bayard St.
Tickets: $10
Call: (410) 523-1882