TORONTO SUN MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2009 n n 43

Tomorrow In Your Sun Sun Media music critic Editor Bill Pierce [email protected] Darryl Sterdan interviews 416-947-2270 No Doubt about their Canadian concert tour. Call him Moby 2.0 After hitting it big with his album Play, the musician lived hard and partied even harder, but that’s all history as the detoxed New Yorker prepares for his new CD, Wait For Me

Except that going clean isn’t necessarily a very New York thing to do. “There are about 250 bars open until 4 a.m. between my studio and my apartment in Chinatown. People come to Marie-Joelle New York to go wild. Th ere’s a Parent bloated version of every 21st Century vice here.” IN NEW YORK After losing himself for sev- eral years, Moby finally had NEW YORK — Ten years his epiphany a year and a half after the album Play and ago while listening to a talk on movie The Beach vaulted creativity given by one of his underground artist Moby into idols, fi lmmaker David Lynch instant stardom and a global (Mulholland Drive). success he wasn’t prepared for, he’s back with a new and Unassuming very personal off ering. “It hit me, what’s more This is Moby 2.0 — sober, important? Accommodating vegan, spiritual and with no the marketplace or aspiring to unrealistic expectations. make art?” “It’s the fi rst time in my life That was the inspiration where I’ve accepted being for Wait For Me. The result is normal. Before, being normal a much calmer, unassuming was horrifi c for me.” and thoughtful recording than Moby greeted me in his its predecessors. The singers all-white studio in the Nol- involved are all unknowns. ita neighbourhood, located The first track, Shot In the above a former prison that’s Back of the Head, is an instru- been converted into lofts. In mental piece. the ’80s, the basement here “Th ere’s no chance this will was used as a practise stu- get on the radio,” Moby said. dio by Iggy Pop, The Beastie And he couldn’t care less — Boys and Sean Lennon. David his goal now is to make “per- Bowie lives across the street. sonal” music. After spending the sum- Overplayed mer in Europe, Moby will tour At age 43, he’s finally man- Canada in September. aged to shed the party-boy “Every time I go, it hits me image he’s had since the success how much I like Canada. Cul- of Play. The album sold nine turally speaking, it’s the per- million copies world-wide. Th e fect mix,” he said. song Porcelain was overplayed MARIE-JOELLE PARENT/SUN MEDIA “Th e politics are sound and in every bar on the planet. Moby Moby sits among his collection of retro mixing equipment in his New York studio. The musician looks forward to touring here for progressive, except for your was everywhere, at every event, his new CD, Wait For Me: “Every time I go, it hits me how much I like Canada. Culturally speaking, it’s the perfect mix,” he says. prime minister. And every on every red carpet. He went all time I do interviews in Can- out on the party circuit. And then there’s the dis- I was hated by people who music has to be vulnerable “I’m in a very healthy, very ada, the journalists are nice “I’ve exhausted my life- armingly normal Moby him- didn’t even know me.” and fl awed.” honest phase,” he said of his and well-informed. It’s the time supply of drink tickets,” self, drinking tea and looking Moby doesn’t hide the fact The musician, whose real present life, which includes a opposite of England where he said. like anything but a celebrity. that he got hooked on the name is Richard Melville vegan diet and transcendental the fi rst questions I get asked His studio has platinum “I clearly wasn’t prepared celebrity life. Hall, also decided to give up meditation. “Being sober gives are which stars I’ve slept with records lining the walls, retro for it. I became a global celeb- “I started making music drugs and alcohol, habits he’d me more time for my music. and how much money I have. mixing equipment piled to rity, but at the same time I for the wrong reasons, to sat- had since the age of 11. Hall There was a time when I was Th at’s not a joke.” the ceiling, a ladder that leads was still the nerd who makes isfy the industry. Hotel (2005) was raised in Harlem by his drinking way too much and I Wait For Me will be released to a rooftop terrace, a picture music in his apartment,” he is the one I’m least proud of. mother. The nickname Moby was losing half of my week to June 30. taken with Hilary Clinton over explained. “I liked it, but it I don’t like songs that are too comes from the novel Moby being drunk or hung over. Th e by the fridge and alien figu- depressed me at the same polished, just like I don’t like Dick. Herman Melville is one pleasure it gave me wasn’t Marie-Joelle Parent is Sun Media’s rines to round out the decor. time. I became too public; that kind of person in life. My of his ancestors. worth the pain anymore.” New York correspondent.