Perhaps the world's most famous DJ, Moby has redefined the canon of dance culture in New York City. The Harlem-born, Lower East Side native helms the new era of globally-recognized DJs who now occupy the upper echelons of nightlife culture. When Moby released Last Night in the spring of this year, critics commended the album's ambitious scope: the endeavor was, as the DJ put it on his website, "to take 25 years of going out in NYC and condensing it into a 65-minute record. It's also trying to condense an eight-hour night into just over an hour of music."
A bold move to task any talented musician, but Moby didn't rest long on his laurels. On the recent release of Last Night: Remixed, the dance club titan calls forth burgeoning talents to remix the original tracks. Moby recently sat down with CP to discuss the rigors of re-remixing a quarter-century's worth of music.
CP: What was your most surprising remix?
Moby: There’s a lot of them. The first one, the Holy Ghost! Remix. Half of the Holy Ghost! is a guy named Alex Frankel. That was sort of surprising, because he was my assistant at the time. And now Holy Ghost! gets a lot of other remixes—from the MGMT and what not. I knew he was a musician, but I’ve never heard anything that he has done. So I guess it surprised me that my assistant, at the time, was so talented.
CP: How much influence do you have in the studio? Are you a mentor or an overseer?
Moby: Whenever I get people to do remixes for me I give them complete creative freedom. I just hand them the master text, and they’ll do whatever they want. I don’t interfere with the process at all. The beauty of a remix is seeing how another musician is able to interpret what I’ve done. So there’s no directions or no constraints put on them at all.
CP: Did you approach the artists with specific songs in mind that they would each deconstruct, or do they call dibs?
Moby: 98% of the time we approach them. Sometimes we ask them which song of the album they want to do. More often than not we’ll go to them with a specific song. And it’s usually me sitting down with the record, and thinking of which song is right for which remix. Like, when we were talking about the Holy Ghost!, we figured that since they were disco producers, they’d do well with a disco-inspired song.
CP: Can we view Last Night and Last Night: Remixed as your triumphant return to in-house DJing?
Moby: I think so. I took some time off from DJing, and for 8 or 9 years I was just touring and playing live. And in the last years I sort of fell in love with DJing again. Mostly people were chosen because they have made records which I’ve played while I was DJing.
CP: Where have you been DJing recently?
Moby: I just played a huge rave in Seattle, with Paul van Dyk; then doing a small thing in New York. My favorite place to DJ is actually this tiny little bar in New York called New Blue, on Avenue C and 4th Street. It holds maybe 75 people. I like DJing in large places, but there’s something really fun about DJing in a tiny little bar, where there’s no wall between the DJ and the audience.
CP: It seems that both Go and Last Night’s remixes are at least partially intent on bring new talent to the forefront of dance culture.
Moby: Yeah. When I hire someone to do a remix, I’m happy if I can draw attention to an up-and-coming producer or remixer. But, selfishly, I’m really just trying to get something that I can play as a DJ.
CP: You’ve spoken positively about software like Ableton that allows non-professionals to produce a remix. Do you sympathize with music critics who complain that now “just anyone” can be a DJ, or do you see them as detractors or purists? Moby: At the end of the day, all that matters to me is that someone is talented. If I go out and listen to a DJ, I don’t really care how they are DJing, as long as they are doing a good job. And there’s the same thing with making records. I don’t really care how somebody mixes a record, as long as I like listening to it. So whether it’s someone who has this really high-tech old analogue fantastic studio, or whether it’s some kid with a laptop with Ableton; at the end of the day, my only criterion is how their music affects me emotionally.
CP: How do you appreciate the clubbing atmosphere as it’s evolved over the 25 years?
Moby: The mid- to late-80s New York was pretty remarkable because it was so open and egalitarian. You go to a club—whether it was Avalon or Mars—it was just a true underground scene. You had huge records in New York, that no one outside of New York has ever heard of. It was really exciting. And you had straight people and gay people, and black and white and Asian and Latino. And everybody was just there, dancing. And the rave scene happened, which was really exciting and amazing. But I feel that the club culture kind of lost it a little bit around 2000, 2001. But now, I think, it’s getting exciting again. It’s so diverse. I mean— from great house producers to great techno producers. I also like the way that the electronic music has influenced every other genre-- whether it’s techno, or hip hop or reggae. It’s hard to find an indie rock band that doesn’t have some sort of programming and electronics going on.
CP: You’re definitely right on about how New York dance has become compartmentalized into cottage house scenes—now there are special gay clubs, Latin clubs, and so forth. There’s more diversity but less intermingling.
Moby: There are always those people who are only into this one specific scene. I have friends who are into the minimal scene and they go to Bunker every weekend—and that’s pretty much all they make and all they listen to. But most people I know will put on a Metallica record one minute, and then next they’ll put on a dance compilation from Europe. If you’re an average listener, you’re very open-minded and eclectic.
CP: That’s true. Maybe it’s that the sectioning off of New York dance scene is more geographic, by venue, than psychological. Listeners are diverse, but their dance clubs aren’t.
Moby: And it seems that part of what caused that division—one venue having only old-school house music, another only indie dance—is, unfortunately, the consequence of rising real estate costs. Because, in the old days, you could have a club like Mars, which was 20,000 square feet and 6 different levels, and every level with different music. And now, no one can afford to rent a place that big. People who operate clubs are barely able to run a place that’s a 2,000 sqaure feet. And a small space is just not meant to have a lot of stuff going on.
CP: So is there any hope for a future of more diverse dance clubs?
Moby: I think so. Look at a venue like Studio B. They have enough space, so they could probably pull it off.
