Album Reviews Q&A: Moby

Artist:Moby

Album:Destroyed

Recommended by:Dermot O'Leary

Who'd have thought it? Almost 20 years on from his self-titled debut album, Richard Melville Hall - aka Moby - is not only still producing music, but is perhaps realising some of his finest productions yet. Destroyed, the man's 10th studio album (discounting various remix packages and the like), sees him meld delightful ambience with shoegaze echoes, elegant religious motifs with ethereal splendour. It touches upon the album that broke him in the mainstream in the most dramatic of fashions, 1999's multi-million-selling Play, while presenting new directions that sound more akin to the relaxed end of the Aphex Twin spectrum. And there's more to Destroyed than 15 tracks, too - the release is complemented by a book of photography. Moby kindly found time in his hectic international promo schedule to answer a few of our questions...

You've said on your website that the title, Destroyed, makes sense when the album is listened to. I have my interpretation - I think of someone exhausted, slumped, and these are the post-revelry songs floating around their damaged mind. But what makes you say that the title fits the songs?

Well, the idea behind Destroyed is, for me, the idea of removing everything familiar and normal from someone's life. Removing their home, their family, their friends, their bed, their language, their culture, and then seeing what's left. That's sort of what extensive touring and travelling can be like. And then the questions: Who are you, separate from all of the things you use to define yourself? And what brings you comfort and happiness when you're separated from everything that normally surrounds and defines you?

Were the songs completely in place before the encounter with the airport sign, which inspired the title? Presumably something just clicked?

Yes, something definitely clicked. I knew that I wanted to make an album and book influenced by the alien and anonymous aspects of touring, but I didn't know what they would be, nor how they would relate to each other.

You've also mentioned your insomnia, and how these songs were produced during times when you could not sleep. Do you hear a woozy quality to them, as a result? A gauzy mistiness to proceedings that very much makes it fine late-night listening? Given that most art is the product of environment, can you relate these songs directly to a particular time of day, and is that when they are best heard?

The songs, for me, make the most sense when listened to late at night, in an empty city. Downtown Los Angeles is particularly futuristic and dystopian, and makes a really nice backdrop for the music.

This is your 10th album - what relationship, if any, do you think it has with your debut of 1992? Can you trace a line back that far? Its ambient passages, to my ears, do recall your early 90s work; likewise, the more soulful moments (Rockets, The Right Thing) are reminiscent of Play. Perhaps fair to say that Destroyed will appeal to fans who've followed your work for the long-term?

I think it's my 10th, or 15th album, maybe. I don't actually know, as I've had pseudonymous releases and compilations. (Wikipedia thinks it's his 10th album - Ed) I do hear similarities between some of the music on Destroyed and some of my older albums, but I have no idea if that means it will appeal to people who've liked what I've done in the past. But it's always nice when people respond positively to the records I make - although I never assume that anyone will.

Picking on particular songs... Stella Maris seems appropriately named to me, but did its sound precede its title? It sounds perfect for echoing around some grand cathedral.

The lyrics on Stella Maris were written in the 12th century, I believe. So I just loosely borrowed the original title; my version is sort of colloquial Latin. I do love the idea of Mary Star of the Sea: there's something ghostly and beautiful about beneficent Mary floating and glowing over the ocean. I wasn't raised catholic; I just really like the image of a neutral and benign Mary floating around somewhere, being nice to people.

Blue Moon seems to me something of a light-side (vs dark-side) rebooting of Joy Division's Dead Souls - something you hear in it? It's the vocal structure I think... perhaps something working away in your subconscious?

Blue moon probably sounds like Joy Division because I spent most of my formative years listening to them, and trying to write Joy Division-inspired songs...

And then the final few tracks seem geared to the 'comedown' process, akin to the suite that closed the Prodigy's ...Jilted Generation album. Clearly sequencing plays a vital part in your albums - that being the case, does listeners cherry-picking from them annoy you at all?

I try very hard to make cohesive and coherent albums, as I really love the idea of an album as a very intentional body of work. In a perfect world people would listen to the album from start to finish, but I accept that 98% of the people who hear the music will hear a random mp3 here or there.

Three of these tracks - Victoria Lucas, Be the One, Sevastopol - have been given away for free. As someone who's been working since before download culture became what it is, do you see it as vital to give listeners something for nothing, as enticement or reward?

Simply, I just like the idea of people listening to music that I've made. I guess that's selfish of me. I need an audience way more than an audience needs me.

Does the need to give an audience more have anything to do with the forthcoming photography book, too? It's something that provides a physical presence for the album, where so many might just download the tracks. Do you feel that solid artefacts are still important to the consummation and appreciation of music? Can you foresee a day when everything exists in a virtual space?

I try not to think too much about the future of media, especially as it pertains to my own music and photography. It might sound simple, but I love making music and I love putting out books, and I hope to do so for as long as people are willing to pay attention. It seems like we have the best of all worlds now, where we can download some books and records and buy physical copies of others as circumstances warrant.

Finally, any favourite albums of 2011 so far, or ones to come?

I downloaded a collection of John Lee Hooker out-takes and rarities that I really like. The 18-minute version of I Hate the Day I Was Born is my current favourite song.

Read the BBC review of Destroyed

Moby - official site (external link)

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