Moby

Moby, 2009

Moby (born September 11, 1965 in Harlem , New York ; real name Richard Melville Hall ) is an American singer , guitarist , DJ , record producer and animal rights activist .

Private life

Richard Melville Hall grew up in Darien , Connecticut . His father died in a car accident when Melville was two years old, and his mother died of cancer in her twenties. Derived from the novel Moby Dick by his great-great-great-uncle Herman Melville , he was nicknamed Moby as a child. He later chose this as his stage name . In a video interview via the Internet with the TV culture program ttt - titel, thesen, temperamente von Das Erste , Moby explained in the May 10, 2020 issue: “My mother was a hippie . We were poor and lived on food stamps . She got involved with guys from motorcycle gangs. There were a lot of drugs. I didn't even feel for a second that I belonged in this conservative, rich suburban America. "

Musical career

During his school days he founded a hardcore punk band called Vatican Commandos in 1982 and was a transitional singer for the punk band Flipper . After dropping out of college in religion and philosophy, he went to New York , where he made his first steps as a DJ .

In 1990 Moby's first single Time's Up was released , which he produced together with Jared Hofmann , the founder of the New York label INSTINCT Records , under the name The Brotherhood . The title was the first release of the newly founded label , on which musicians such as DJ Cam, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Marianne Faithfull later published. The single also appeared in a small edition on the German record label Low Spirit .

Breakthrough with Go (Woodtick Mix)

His track Go (Woodtick Mix) (mostly known only as Go , although this is a completely different version that was released on the EP Mobility in 1990 ) became a top ten hit in the UK charts in the summer of 1991 . In the USA, the title moved into the top 20 of the dance charts in spring 1992. The re-enacted melody is based on Angelo Badalamenti's Laura Palmer's Theme from the TV series Twin Peaks by director David Lynch . Then the debut album Moby was released , which brought two more dance hits with Drop a Beat and Next Is the E , which made it into the top 10. The UK version of the album contained the title Thousand instead of Drop a Beat . Because of its up to 1000 bpm it found its way into the Guinness Book of Records in 1993 as the fastest piece of music to date . With Move (You Make Me Feel So Good) he made it to the top of the US dance charts for the first time in October 1993.

After his early successes, Moby was hired as a remixer for Michael Jackson , the Pet Shop Boys , Brian Eno , Depeche Mode , Erasure , Orbital and the B-52s . He also rapped on the Recoil track Curse . In 1995 he founded his own record label Trophy Records, where he only released his own material under various pseudonyms (Lopez, Voodoo Child, DJ Cake). The music style of the five publications released between 1995 and 1997 is in the hard house genre.

Moby released his third album Everything Is Wrong in 1995. With the song Hymn he made the Swiss charts for the first time, Feeling so Real was also in the top 20 in Austria and Germany. The LP was in the album charts in Germany and Great Britain.

The following years were less successful, the 1996 album Animal Rights , which was influenced by alternative rock , and the compilation I Like to Score with film tracks a year later lagged behind its predecessors. Only a "re-version" of the James Bond theme, which was also used for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , became an international hit, reaching number 1 in the US dance charts and the top ten for the second time UK charts.

The bestseller album Play

Due to continued unsuccessfulness, Moby considered turning its back on the music business and just releasing one more album. But it was precisely this album that developed into the most successful record of his career: With the album Play in 1999, Moby returned to the electronic direction and thus hit the mainstream taste. In the beginning he still struggled to get the attention of music buyers back, but with the long succession of successful releases, interest in the album increased, which reached number one in the UK ten months after its release and chart entry and was certified six times platinum there. In an online interview with the TV culture program ttt - titel, thesen, temperamente von Das Erste , Moby described in May 2020: “ It was the age of the Backstreet Boys , Britney Spears and * NSYNC . From big commercial pop albums by young handsome people, not from weird discs that were put together in some guy's bedroom ”. With double platinum in the USA and over 10 million copies sold worldwide, it is his best-selling album. The fourth single Why Does My Heart Feel so Bad was the most successful release, especially in German-speaking countries, and reached the top 4 everywhere. Porcelain was his only top 5 hit in Great Britain and South Side , which was sung by Gwen Stefani only Moby song to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 (# 14). It was the eighth of nine releases from a total of 18 album titles.

In 2002 Moby performed at the closing event of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and played a special live version of his hit We Are All Made of Stars . The original version was released as a pre-release for the next album 18 . Although it achieved top positions worldwide, including many number one placements, including in German-speaking countries and Great Britain, it was unable to match Play's high standards in terms of sales figures and the number of hits .

The album song Extreme Ways was produced as the title track for the agent thriller The Bourne Identity with Matt Damon and expanded into signature music in the sequel The Bourne Conspiracy (2004). In the third part of the series ( The Bourne Ultimatum ) forms Extreme Ways also the theme tune in a slightly modified version. In the fourth part, The Bourne Legacy , it can be found before the end credits. The song can also be heard in the fifth part ( Jason Bourne ) before the credits. The song is part of a long line of Moby songs that were produced or used in films. Among other things, they used the song Porcelain in The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio in 2000 and the song Everloving in Seabiscuit in 2003 . Also in 2003, Basic was released , in which the song Natural Blues was used. In Heat from 1995 Moby can be heard with the single New Dawn Fades (a cover of the band Joy Division ). At the end of the film, God Moving on the Face of Waters is played by Moby. In the movie Just 60 Seconds Left , the single flower is the starting melody . In the film adaptation of the US television series Miami Vice (2006) the song One of these Mornings can be heard. In 2010 he also contributed the four songs Sweet Dreams , Division , Mistake and Be the One to the soundtrack of the thriller 72 hours - The Next Three Days .

Career from 2005

Moby is also socially critical. Here at All in for the 99 percent in Los Angeles

With a gap of three years, Moby released the next album Hotel in 2005 , which ranked behind its predecessor in terms of success. The biggest hit was the pre-released first single, Lift Me Up . Last Night followed three years later . The album remained below the million mark in worldwide sales. With Disco Lies and I Love to Move in Here it brought number one hits three and four in the US dance charts. In 2008 Moby played at the closing event of the Love Parade in Dortmund.

In 2008, after drug addiction and depression, Moby attempted suicide by tying a plastic bag over his head while lying on the bed at home, but broke off the suicide attempt because of the smell of the plastic bag. In the course of time, the musician felt an inner existential emptiness. The fame Moby enjoyed in the beginning could not counter this.

The next studio album Wait for Me was released on June 26, 2009. In an interview with director David Lynch , Moby referred to his influence. Lynch produced an animated film for the song Shot in the Back of the Head .

The following year Moby founded the heavy metal band Diamondsnake with Phil Costello, Dave Hill and Tomato as a studio and live project.

Destroyed , his tenth studio album, was released on May 16, 2011. Moby also published an illustrated book under the same name in May. It shows self-made photographs, which had been taken in different places around the world in the years before.

engagement

Moby has been vegan since he was 22 years old so as not to harm animals. He calls animal rights activism the meaning of his life and what gets him out of bed in the morning. Moby also said that given the choice, he would rather be an animal rights activist than a successful musician. He has a large tattoo on both of his forearms that says ANIMAL RIGHTS . The words VEGAN FOR LIFE (vegan for life) on the front and THOU SHALL NOT KILL (you shouldn't kill) are tattooed on the back of his neck .

Moby helps some organizations that work for animals. He supports the marine protection organization Sea Shepherd with money, free music and "everything you ask for". Other organizations he supports are the Jane Goodall Institute , PETA , the Humane Society , Farm Sanctuary , Mercy for Animals and Animal Defenders International .

In addition to his career as a musician, Moby has been running the vegetarian restaurant TeaNY in New York and the vegan restaurant Little Pine in Los Angeles since 2002 .

Moby offers over 200 tracks of his music free of charge on a website for use in non-commercial and independent films.

In 2020 he was involved in the film Endgame 2050 , which is about the "ecological endgame" of humanity. The full length of the documentation is made available on YouTube for free.

Discography

→ Main article : Moby / discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1992	Moby	-	-	-	-	-	First published: July 27, 1992
1993	Ambient	-	-	-	-	-	First published: August 17, 1993
1995	Everything is wrong	DE69 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	UK21st silver (7 weeks)UK	-	First published: March 14, 1995
1996	Animal Rights	-	-	-	UK38 (1 week) UK	-	First published: September 23, 1996
1999	Play	DE21st gold (67 weeks)DE	AT7th gold (13 weeks)AT	CH12 (76 weeks) CH	UK1 × 6 Six-fold platinum (83 weeks)UK	US38 × 2 Double platinum (94 weeks)US	First published: May 17, 1999
2002	18th	DE1 gold (30 weeks)DE	AT1 (16 weeks) AT	CH1 platinum (45 weeks)CH	UK1 platinum (34 weeks)UK	US4th gold (18 weeks)US	First published: May 14, 2002
2005	hotel	DE3 gold (25 weeks)DE	AT2 gold (16 weeks)AT	CH1 (18 weeks) CH	UK8th gold (6 weeks)UK	US28 (8 weeks) US	First published: March 14, 2005
2008	Last night	DE10 (8 weeks) DE	AT4 (8 weeks) AT	CH6th gold (9 weeks)CH	UK28 (2 weeks) UK	US27 (5 weeks) US	First published: March 29, 2008
2009	Wait for me	DE18 (6 weeks) DE	AT15 (10 weeks) AT	CH4 (14 weeks) CH	UK44 (2 weeks) UK	US22 (4 weeks) US	First published: June 29, 2009
2011	Destroyed.	DE10 (4 weeks) DE	AT27 (2 weeks) AT	CH7 (8 weeks) CH	UK35 (2 weeks) UK	US69 (1 week) US	First published: May 13, 2011
2013	Innocents	DE22 (4 weeks) DE	AT16 (3 weeks) AT	CH11 (6 weeks) CH	UK35 (2 weeks) UK	US66 (2 weeks) US	First published: September 29, 2013
2016	These Systems Are Failing	-	-	CH75 (1 week) CH	-	-	First published: October 20, 2016 with The Void Pacific Choir
2017	More Fast Songs About the Apocalypse	-	-	-	-	-	First published: June 12, 2017 with The Void Pacific Choir
2018	Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt	DE38 (1 week) DE	AT36 (1 week) AT	CH23 (3 weeks) CH	UK30 (1 week) UK	-	First published: March 2nd, 2018
2020	All Visible Objects	DE28 (1 week) DE	AT59 (1 week) AT	CH14 (2 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: May 15, 2020

literature

• Moby's autobiography, Porcelain , was published in May 2016 .
  • German by Jürgen Neubauer : Porcelain . Piper, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-492-05713-4
• Moby's second autobiography, And Then It Fell Apart , was published in 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Moby  - collection of images

• Official English website
• Moby at laut.de
• Moby at Discogs (English)
• Moby on MusicBrainz (English)
• Moby in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Literature by and about Moby in the catalog of the German National Library
• Further links on the subject of Moby in the Open Music Project - MusicMoz (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Miranda Sawyer: Moby: 'There were bags of drugs, I was having sex with a stranger'. In: theguardian.com. May 21, 2016, accessed May 30, 2016 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} rollingstone.com
3. ↑ ttt - title, theses, temperaments . TV cultural program, May 10, 2020, 30 min. - Moderation: Max Moor , author: Marcus Fitsch, Das Erste
4. ↑ ^{a b} allmusic.com
5. ↑ ttt - title, theses, temperaments . TV cultural program, May 10, 2020, 30 min. - Moderation: Max Moor , author: Marcus Fitsch, Das Erste
6. ↑ ttt - title, theses, temperaments . TV cultural program, May 10, 2020, 30 min. - Moderation: Max Moor , author: Marcus Fitsch, Das Erste
7. ^ David Lynch and Moby: Music & Abandoned Factories. Moby in an interview with David Lynch, April 15, 2009
8. ↑ Laut.de: Moby founds heavy metal band
9. ↑ Moby: ok, ta-da, official next album announcement update. my next album is called 'destroyed' and it comes out in the middle of may sometime. February 15, 2011, accessed February 16, 2011 . 
10. ↑ Destroyed. Moby, accessed February 16, 2011 . 
11. ↑ COMMITMENT: Moby's love for animals gets under your skin. September 18, 2019, accessed on September 19, 2019 (German). 
12. ↑ ^{a b} Breezeway Productions: Moby attends Sea Shepherd Gala. In: Youtube video. June 11, 2017, accessed June 29, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Singer Moby Makes Huge 'Animal Rights' Tattoos Even Bolder. Retrieved June 29, 2020 . 
14. ^ Moby: Charity Work & Causes. Retrieved June 29, 2020 . 
15. ↑ teany.com - Our Story ( Memento from May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
16. ↑ usatoday.com
17. ↑ Brooke Porter Katz: Musician Moby on His Latest Project: a Vegan Restaurant in LA In: travelandleisure.com. July 23, 2015, accessed May 30, 2016 . 
18. ↑ mobygratis.com. Retrieved August 24, 2019 (English): "This site is a resource for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short." 
19. ↑ Endgame 2050. Accessed August 16, 2020 . 
20. ↑ Endgame 2050: Endgame 2050 / Full Documentary [Official]. In: Youtube. May 22, 2020, accessed on August 16, 2020 .