18 & Life

05/06/2002 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Lily Moayeri

"...around this time was when I believe that most people had pretty much completely written me off, which thankfully, I wasn't aware of at the time."

That is a line from Moby's self-penned biography, referring to the period right before he began recording his 10 million-selling album, Play. Involved in electronic music since 1984, Richard Melville Hall (a descendant of Moby Dick author Herman Melville, hence his nickname) has always been the poster boy for "techno." But it wasn't until almost 15 years after his start that he enjoyed any significant success.

Due in part to the 900 licenses from Play for films, advertisements, and the like, Moby has garnered the kind of attention that has made him a question on both Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and Jeopardy. But he hasn't changed much. Still a Christian and a vegan, he lives in the same place, has the same friends, eats in the same restaurants. Then again, these also days he flies business class, stays in fancier hotels than he used to, dallies with the likes of Christina Ricci, exchanges five-pages faxes with Natalie Portman, and duets with Gwen Stefani. Guess some things have changed, then.

"...did you know that when I went to the U.K. to do press for Animal Rights [Moby's second full-length], they could only find two journalists who wanted to talk to me? Yup. That's why I refuse to complain when I find myself doing a lot of interviews. The alternative to doing a lot of interviews, doing none because no one is interested, is grim."

That's another excerpt from Moby's biography. Of course, after touring for nearly three years in support of Play, including a stint on his own summer festival tour Area:One, Moby finds that there are plenty people eager to talk to him about his follow-up album, 18. At 9 p.m. British time, after a hectic day of promotion which began the minute his flight from San Francisco touched down in London, a very tired, very quiet Moby makes an extremely expensive long-distance phone call to talk to the writer conducting this interview, about whom he says, "I'm grateful for the fact that you were very supportive even before [Play] came out, but you're in a minority of about six."

Things are obviously different this time around; with his music much more widely known, the release of 18 comes with both greater security and raised expectations. The new album, which features vocal collaborations with Sinead O'Connor, MC Lyte, Angie Stone, and Azure Ray, wisely doesn't stray from Play's winning formula, with its short and sweet numbers tailor-made for the next slew of advertisements. Boasting the same cleverly produced, grainy, lo-fi quality that made Play so unique, 18 could almost be considered adult-contemporary electronica; there is the odd rave-friendly tune harkening back to Moby's early days, but for the most part, it contains downplayed orchestral instrumentals much like Play's "Porcelain."

"It wasn't really a conscious choice," Moby says of 18's similarity to Play. "When I did Everything Is Wrong, my agenda was to do as many different things as I could, make this wildly eclectic record, try and challenge people. Animal Rights was this dark, self-indulgent record. After I got that out of my system, I realized all I wanted to do was make nice records that hopefully people can fall in love with. Play, and especially 18, is the first time it's about the music. I was just trying to make a record I thought was beautiful. I've heard a lot of people tell me my music is important to them. That makes me feel a sense of responsibility, to make another record that will also be important to them. I envision someone in their home, listening to one of my records. I want to make something that will reach them, that they can care about, that they can get emotionally involved in. Everything else is secondary to that."