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Q&A With Moby |
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Moby:
Swimming Against the Tide
You know him from his mega-success Play, but Moby has been in the swim for a lot longer than that, riding the acid house boom of the late '80s and releasing his first singles at the end of the decade. The music connoisseur reflected on the new wave that made him a man.
VH1: Which bands do you think classify as new wave?
Moby: It's hard to say because back then there was a strict dichotomy between new wave and punk. Black Flag, Bad Brains, and Dead Kennedys were punk bands. New Order, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls were new wave bands. Now when I think of new wave, I think of bands like Flock of Seagulls or Missing Persons or the Go-Go's. New wave meant music made by people with short hair that didn't sound like classic rock and involved synthesizers. Now it's lighthearted fun.
VH1: How were these artists able to reach a wider audience?
Moby: It comes down to the old questions of accessibility and melody. The Dead Kennedys had great songs, but with punk it was more about attitude and energy and aggression. New wave was always about being catchy. You take a great melody, put a drum machine and a synthesizer on it and it makes it sound new. But at the core is an accessible hook that people really liked.
VH1: Were kids actually opting for synthesizers more than guitars at the time?
Moby: There was this musical war going on in the early to mid-'80s between guitar players and people playing synthesizers and between drummers and people using drum machines. You'd go to music stores and there would be heated arguments about the virtues of a drum machine versus the virtues of a drummer. They were benign wars. I don't think anyone had ever died from them. But people took it seriously.
VH1: What fashions made up the archetypal new waver?
Moby: You couldn't be a new waver without hair gel or hair spray, thin glasses, Doc Maartens, pointy boots, Converses, tight black pants or black jeans. There was a period in New York where everything was pink and black. I remember going to see the Specials in 1981, and 50 percent of the people waiting to get in were wearing some combination of pink and black. I was 14 or 15 years old, thinking, "Wow. This is so cool."
VH1: In what way was alternative rock different from what was going on in the pop charts?
Moby: The pop charts in the '80s seemed dominated by stuff like Prince, Michael Jackson, and the hair bands. Alternative rock was stuff like Mission of Burma, R.E.M., the Pixies, and later on, Jane's Addiction. When you listened to heavy metal from the '80s, it was so produced. Drums sounded like explosions. Synthesizers made everything glossy. Then you'd listen to an R.E.M. record. It was very subdued and much more organic. Guitars sounded like guitars. Drums sounded like drums. It all seemed so stripped down. You look at a band like Husker Du or R.E.M. in 1985, and they were wearing flannel shirts and jeans. Then you look at the Time, and they are wearing suits and have hair all over the place. They're equally viable, but they were a study in contrast.
VH1: At the end of the decade, did you think you had lived through an exciting time?
Moby: I felt like I'd lived through these different eras. I'd gone from being a 14-year-old punk rocker in Connecticut to a 25-year-old house music enthusiast living in New York. So much had changed. To quote good old Charles Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
VH1: Did the '80s leave any legacy?
Moby: A lot of genres were defined to an extent. But they also fell by the wayside. Look at a band like New Order. On one hand they're a new wave group. On another hand they were a disco group. On another hand they were a pop group. It was a time when people would go out to discos and listen to music that was on the charts but was still experimental. Hopefully, that legacy will stay with us - the idea of people listening to music and not being concerned about what genre it is, but rather asking themselves do they like it or do they not like it.
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