Moby Transcript Moby: If you can have any response to the existential question of what's the best use of a life, it might as well be dancing with Wayne Coyne and a bunch of weirdos on a roof in Southern California. Well as sunsets and you happy songs. [00:00:14] Bryan: Bryan Smith here and welcome to the dream path podcast, where I try to get inside the heads of talented creatives from all over the world. [00:00:24] My goal is to demystify and humanize the creative process. And make it accessible to everyone. Now let's jump in folks, Moby's on the show. That's right Moby. I was so excited when prepping for this interview, but I got lost in his music catalog with 19 studio albums under his belt, the prep was quite an undertaking. [00:00:46] But I was glad I took the time to do this deep dive into his music because it made me appreciate all over again, his contributions to the music that was part of the soundtrack of my musical consciousness in the nineties, two thousands and beyond. Although Moby probably requires no introduction, I'll say just a few things about his career to get you oriented before hearing our chat. Moby is a musician songwriter, singer producer, and animal rights activist who has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. [00:01:15] He is considered to be among the most important dance music figures of the early 1990s, helping bring dance music to a mainstream audience throughout the world. He has also collaborated with some of the most iconic musicians and performers in music history, including Lou Reed, Kris Kristofferson, David Bowie, Bono, Michael Stipe, Mark Lanigan. [00:01:37] Gwen Stefani Public Enemy and Slash among others. And although Moby had an amazing career, he's also experienced some dark, dark moments in his life and some failures as well. And I found these dark moments in failures to be just as if not more fascinating than the many high points in his life, all of which are laid out with remarkable insight and vulnerability in the documentary Moby doc, which we talk about during the dinner. [00:02:03] We also of course talk about his most recent album reprise, where he continues to create unique and compelling synergy by collaborating with artists like Gregory Porter and Amethyst Kia on the song. Natural blues. [00:02:32] He also worked with Mark Lanigan and Kris Kristofferson on my personal favorite song on the record, The Lonely Night [00:02:59] I think this one really hits. Because of how raw Mark and Kris's voices are deep gravelly and uniquely theirs. Although my chat with Moby is shorter than most. In my humble opinion. This interview is pound for pound, one of the most thoughtful, meaningful, and impactful discussions I've had with a guest. [00:03:17] And I hope you agree. So, without further ado, let's jump into my chat with Moby. Well, Moby, welcome to dream path podcast. Thanks for being on the show. [00:03:27] Moby: I'm happy to be here. Thank you. [00:03:29] Bryan: Yeah, well, I wanted to start off by pointing out that this documentary, the Moby Doc, I've watched it twice now, and I'm very impressed with how vulnerable you made yourself. [00:03:41] I was a little skeptical going in. I have to admit with a documentary made by the subject of the documentary, but you tackled that question right out of the gate. Why am I doing a documentary on myself? And I was like, that's perfect because that's the exact question I came into the film with. But maybe you could just explain for my listeners who may have not seen the film yet. [00:04:04] Why you went into this project, the Moby doc, the way you did. [00:04:08] Moby: Well, I guess it started about six years ago. I got approached to write a memoir and my immediate response after being asked to write a memoir was why in the world would I write a memoir? Like I I've lived with myself my entire life. And as a result, I both am lacking an objectivity as regards me and my life. [00:04:30] And also, I tend to think that the circumstances of my life are pretty normal and the book publisher made it clear to me that the circumstances of my life are not in fact normal. That I've had a very odd life. And that just made me start to think like, how can I presumptuously share, you know, maybe any, I dunno, insights that sounds overly grand, but like, you know, to, to share the life that I've had in the hope that somehow someone watching it might get something. [00:05:05] Or if it's a memoir that someone reading it might get something from it. And then saying that I do understand how presumptuous that does sound, you know, the assumption that somehow, you know, what I've lived through the circumstances of my life, whatever insights I've had would be relevant. Or insightful, you know, or have resonance for other people. [00:05:26] But my feeling with telling your story is I'm so grateful for other people who are willing to tell their story in an honest way that I just thought if I'm grateful for other people being willing to tell their story, why shouldn't I be willing to tell my own story and like worst case scenario. No one pays attention, and as a result, there's no audience, which is, you know, as far as worst case scenarios go, that's not all that bad. [00:05:57] Bryan: Well, you've had a lot of worst-case scenarios in your life, starting with when you were very young, very young child at age of two, losing your dad. In that horrific accident and the, I mean, I'm not going to give it the audience, any spoilers about the film, but you have had a lot of low points in your life and a lot of high points. [00:06:16] And I think that's what makes the film so intense emotionally is you see very openly and in a vulnerable way, all of the ups and downs. And I think it is objective because you're bringing in folks who are like in the therapy session. Very unique way of approaching storytelling by having these kind of pho therapy sessions, these psychodramas that you did with your friends, I assume that would re-enact childhood scenes. [00:06:44] And then, you know, the multimedia approach of having an animator professional illustrator illustrate scenes from your life. It's just a very engaging. [00:06:56] Moby: Hmm. Well, thanks. I mean, when we started out Rob the director and I, we gave ourselves very broadly speaking, two remit or two goals, one was to try and be honest. [00:07:08] And the other was to try and make a documentary unlike anything we had seen before. I used to be a Tribeca film festival doc judge, and also an international documentary association documentary judge. So, I have watched possibly more music documentaries than any person on the planet. And as a result, I have gotten to a place where I kind of, I think I don't know what to do and making a music documentary, but I sort of know what not to do, like what tropes to avoid cliches and pitfalls to try and stay away from. So, that that's sort of what guided us and trying to make this. [00:07:49] Bryan: Yeah, it has so many different storytelling devices packed into an hour and a half. [00:07:55] One of them is where you're just looking at the camera and you're saying, "alright, so we've had some conventional storytelling up until now and now we're going to get weird again." So, I like how you're leading the audience through it that way. And it's also a concert film, and it's not just one concert, but you have all of these moments of concerts in your life, whether it's the Vegas show toward the end or the performance with David Bowie, which just blew my mind. I mean, I had no idea about the connection with David Bowie until watching this. You have all of these storytelling devices just packed into this very tight film. And I'm wondering what kind of feedback you're getting from your colleagues and your friends about your story and whether they knew your story before watching this film, the way that they thought they did, or did they learn something new about you by watching this. [00:08:49] Moby: Well, it's funny because I don't really have much in the way of feedback. I mean, I've been doing quite a lot of interviews and so I get some feedback from the people I speak to and I'm doing interviews, but I categorically, I don't read reviews and I don't read my own press. So, I know nothing. I think I released the album Reprise, I released this movie, Moby doc. I haven't read any articles or any reviews because I'm almost not psychologically sturdy enough or strong enough to expose my fragile psyche to the ravages of people like journalists and people I've never met.