Moby kicks ass and he does great things for the world and he speaks the truth and he makes great music....

Oh, Moby. You always do manage to set the mood, eh?

I’ve been listening to Moby since I was a teenager and, I must admit, I stopped following his music for a while. I’m not quite sure why because I’ve never met a Moby song I didn‘t like. Perhaps I felt as though he’d entered into the realm of that which is, for lack of a better word, ‘mainstream,’ and being the rebel-without-a-cause that I am, I tend to resist a lot of popular music. Well, I’ve been missing out, and I do happen to dabble in the industry of mainstream media so shame on me for being a hypocrite. I’m listening to his “Wait For Me” album as I sit here and type this, and I’m being whisked away to a magical place just as I always have whilst listening to his magnificent sound creations. Thank you, Moby, for being consistently perfect.

I had the privilege of meeting Richard Hall, aka Moby, for the first time ever at an event in Beverly Hills, Ca., on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in mid-March. We shared a brief chat and he was absolutely delightful. His attitude is far from mainstream, and his music is popular because, well, it’s just really good. We dished on music and his new book, “Gristle.” Proceeds for the book go to animal organizations.

Musicwire TV: Tell me about the book that you‘ve got coming out.

Moby: I’m putting out a book in a week that I just edited, and it’s not a fun book. It’s called “Gristle” and it’s about the consequences of animal production. There are fifteen different contributors - scientists for the most part - writing about the affect of animal production on communities, on health, on children’s health, on the environment, on global warming, so it’s more factual than fun, but I’m here just trying to draw attention to that.

MWTV: How long did the project take?

M: One of the things about editing a book is that it’s not that much work. It’s for a small non-profit book publishing company and whatever money is generated by the book goes to animal charities. All together, it took about three years of sort of slow steady work, but there’s actual contributors who did all of the writing.

MWTV: Oh, ok. So you just put the ideas together.

M: Yeah, and then we compiled the different people who contributed.

MWTV: I’m looking forward to reading it.

M: Like I said, it’s informative but it’s not fun.

MWTV: Sometimes I prefer that. And what can we expect musically from you right now?

M: Well there’s my album that I put out last summer and I’ve just been on tour for the last fourteen months, but at this point even though I live in the states, ninety-five percent of my touring is outside of America because I think the music scene in America is awful, so I spend most of my time in either, like, Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and I almost spend more time touring Canada than I do in the states.

MWTV: What are some other artists that you’ve been listening to recently?

M: I listen to a lot of old punk-rock and old blues.

MWTV: You've collaborated with so many amazing artists over the years. Is there anybody in the music industry at this point that you’ve never worked with that you’d like to work with?

M: I mean, I really just like working with people that can sing well and so it doesn’t matter to me whether they’re famous or unknown. In fact, the truth is I’d rather work with unknown artists because they’re not pains in the asses yet. You know, you don’t have to go through the layers of management, etcetera, etcetera.

MWTV: Or ego.

M: Yeah! It’s just generally easier and more fun to make records with your friends than to work with celebrities because celebrities are annoying by definition.