{"id":194788,"date":"2015-03-22T12:41:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T16:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/master.beta.dancingastronaut.com\/?p=194788"},"modified":"2015-03-22T15:39:02","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T19:39:02","slug":"moby-talks-hotelambient-creative-freedom-collaborations-making-living-edm-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dancingastronaut.com\/2015\/03\/moby-talks-hotelambient-creative-freedom-collaborations-making-living-edm-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Moby talks Hotel:Ambient, creative freedom, and making a living in the EDM age"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It\u2019s just music that I\u2019ve always loved and I wanted it to be out in the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The hold music clicks off and a soft-spoken “Hello” rings through the receiver. On the other end of the line is Richard Melville, the artist better known as Moby. It’s December and the holidays loom on the horizon, but his mind is elsewhere; he’s just wrapped up\u00a0Hotel:Ambient<\/em>, a revival of his 2005 album and accompanying performance experience held at the Masonic Temple in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

For years the record had remained under wraps, collateral damage from his often publicized distaste for major labels. A far cry from his festival and radio presence, Moby’s motivation to bring the album to life was decidedly one-dimensional. \u201cI understood that releasing an album of very quiet, instrumental, ambient music \u2014 something with neither drums, nor vocals, nor songs \u2014 wasn\u2019t going to be a big seller. It\u2019s just music that I\u2019ve always loved and I wanted it to be out in the world. I\u2019d be surprised if it sells 100 copies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art for the sake of art, music for the sake of music – it’s a concept far removed from today’s EDM stars. For four nights in Los Angeles, strange ambient soundscapes bled from the Masonic Temple, set to a visual backdrop from long-time collaborator and friend David Lynch. The show will likely never be reproduced; \u201cIt\u2019s very quiet and it requires an audience who is familiar with ambient and electronic music because it is not a conventional show. We may try to do it in maybe one or two more cities but its not the sort of thing we could do as an actual tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Moby<\/p>\n

When I start hearing credible DJs playing Katy Perry remixes, I think it\u2019s definitely time for a change.<\/div>\n

Beyond his music, Richard is a pragmatic and highly-analytic artist, musician, and thinker.\u00a0His free music project Mobi Gratis<\/em> seeks to alleviate the cost of independent film making; but the platform\u00a0makes\u00a0a grander statement about the freemium movement and shrinking label profits. \u201cOwning an MP3 five years from now is going to feel old and out dated,” he scoffs, “the landscape has changed, but a savvy artists will always be able to make a living. The thing that has changed is that now musicians need to know how to do everything. In the past you could do one thing, you could just be a bass player, just a drummer. And now you need to be a composer, DJ, remixer, songwriter.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his lifetime he’s seen two waves of electronic music dominate global airwaves, but his thoughts on the latest wave of EDM stars is\u00a0met\u00a0with pessimism for the genre’s future; \u201cWhen I start hearing credible DJs playing Katy Perry remixes, I think it\u2019s definitely time for a change.\u201d The pattern is obvious and he has no problem turning the scene\u2019s mirror on itself. The main stream commercialization of the genre is it\u2019s greatest enemy. \u201cAll genres have a similar trajectory; The music always comes from the underground, it gets embraced by the mainstream, it gets corrupted and watered down by the mainstream and then it goes back underground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moby’s\u00a0also never been an ally of record labels, so when Soundcloud and the major’s squelching of creative freedom enter our conversation, little is off limits. While hate<\/em> may be a strong word, perhaps\u00a0vehement distaste <\/em>reflects his thoughts on their recent tactics more suitably.\u00a0\u201cRemoving content is not the way to protect a label. The labels tried to do it with Napster, they tried to do it with Limewire. A lot of the smarter indies have learned that the way to stay in business to to work with good artists and make good records.\u201d Restricting fans access to content, he attests, has never been successful.<\/p>\n

\"Moby<\/p>\n

I just accepted a long time ago that if I was going to experiment with music I was going to confuse people.<\/div>\n

But what about plans for his own music? His most recent collaborations with Lucky Date and ACTi shocked some of his long time fans, but the term\u00a0\u201cselling out\u201d is not\u00a0in his vocabulary. When the topic is broached he remains even-keeled, almost dismissive, towards his critics. To Richard it’s\u00a0absurd\u00a0that someone could\u00a0get angry with an artist for trying something new. \u201cWhen I was young I played classical, then I played in punk rock bands, then I was a hip hop DJ, then a house DJ. I just accepted a long time ago that if I was going to experiment with music I was going to confuse people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admittedly, he came to work with Lucky Date and ACTi for purely selfish reasons, “I just like making music with people,\u201d he says frankly,\u00a0\u201cI emailed them because I liked some of their tracks. It\u2019s just a fun and interesting collaborative process. I don\u2019t think about sales or chart success or career development.”<\/p>\n

His last official album was 2013’s Innocents<\/i>,\u00a0his 11th full length work and a stunning example of his career\u00a0as an electronic artist — the word producer does not do him justice. The term DJ? A harsh misnomer.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t worry about what types of music I\u2019m making, I\u2019m just making music because it is interesting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard and I wrap up our conversation debating the finer points of the access versus creativity debate. In today’s climate anyone with an internet connection and Bit Torrent can start on their career as a producer. \u00a0\u201cThe laptop revolution did great things for the industry. With so many people making music on their laptops it just makes the chance that much greater that someone is going to make an amazing dance record.” Many of his peers criticize the new wave of electronic musicians, citing that with the barriers to entry so low the music itself has suffered. Moby staunchly disagrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost older electronic musicians are critical of how easy it is to make dance records today, but I think it is amazing. Sure, making dance records 20 years ago was definitely much more challenging, but that doesn\u2019t make the music better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Katy Baugh<\/p>\n

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