Host: Now I know you were born in New York but you grew up in Connecticut and that's where you started doing music. So since then you've been in New York, how is the music scene impacted your musical development?
Moby: Well, even though I grew up in Connecticut, where I live in Connecticut it was only about 45 minutes away from Manhattan and Connecticut where I grew up is very conservative and very coccasion and very sub-urban. So when I was growing up, every chance I had to go to New York, I did and what I found really inspiring about the New York music scene when I was growing up and even now, is it's sort of like it's a eclecticism and it's multi-culturism, you know, it's like you would go to night clubs in New York and you hear all these different types of music played right next to each other and I found that to be really inspiring.
Host: Is it true that Alice Became started as a mistake?
Moby: Yea, there is a song on the record called Alice. Well, actually there are two version. There is an English version and a French version and the French version, unfortunately, my French is really bad. I apologize. It's called the La Même Nuit and originally, the song is sort of based around a baseline that started with a broken piece of equipment and one of the things I love about electronic music is you can make mistakes that actually sound better than what you are trying to do, you know. You can use electronic equipment to make something very precise and crafted or you can just sort of enjoy the chaos of it. So the song Alice started out with this broken piece of equipment that ended up creating this baseline.
Host: Alice is probably the top hit single from that album. I mean, it seems like unmistakably it. Why is it an obvious choice?
Moby: It's weird. I know nothing about picking singles. Some of the most successful singles that I've ever had are songs that I didn't think anyone would ever like. Like on the album Play, one of the more successful songs was the song Porcelain and originally, I thought this was this weird obscure song that I didn't even want to put on the record and my managers and my friends said, no, it's actually nice song. You should put it on there. And so the song Alice, I just picked it as a single because I liked it and I am amazed that I heard that some people at radio are actually playing it and that completely surprises me because it's such a weird song but I guess I am grateful that people seem to like it.
Host: Yeah, I heard it and I liked it.
Moby: Thanks.
Host: The cover of the album, these glamorous girls, why not include yourself?
Moby: Well, in making this dance music record, I wanted to make a record, that to me, felt like a night out in New York and so a lot of dance music in New York was inspired by the disco era and I have this weird fascination with the disco era because it was sort of, it was hedonism without consequences, you know, I mean it was pre-AIDS and pre-HIV and pre-crack and you know, like it seemed like the late 70s, it was like people fault, they could be completely debauched and degenerate and hedonistic without any sense of consequence and especially New York that created a very sort of like, glamorous libertine environment and so I kind of wanted to reflect that in the record and also I mean, I am a 42 year old bald guy and I would much rather look at like glamorous people on a record than me and I have been on lot of my record covers. So I thought like why not put some other people on there and I was also sort of inspired by the really Roxy music album covers, like there's Roxy music up until I guess like their sixth record had never actually appeared on one of their record covers. They always put you know, glamorous people on the cover. I love the cover for Last night and I am happy with what I came out. My only regret is that there is not a boy on the record, on the cover. I mean there is, if you go on the album art, there is you know, a shirtless boy inside but on the album cover, I kind of wished that there been like sexy ladies and sexy boys on the cover as well.
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