Moby as Gatsby.

Moby: Well my name is Moby.

Question: Where are you from and how has that shaped you?

Moby: I was born here in New York on September 11, 1965.

Well I moved to Connecticut when I was two, actually not two or three. And how Connecticut shaped me? It’s an interesting question.

Well cause I grew up primarily in Connecticut I grew up in Darien, Connecticut, which is a very affluent, suburban bedroom community. And I grew up dirt poor. My mother and I were on welfare until I was 18, which was very strange because every single person I knew in Darien came from, they had very affluent families and came from a lot of money. And so it was strange. Up until I was 18, I was basically the only poor person I’d ever met.

Well I think it’s given me a lifelong feeling of inadequacy. Almost a sort of J. Gatsby almost sort of need to kind of prove myself sometimes. And on a positive side, luckily the public schools were really good. And all my teachers when I was growing up were very idealistic children of the 60s and 70s who saw public education as a way of really, sort of like, establishing this almost like progressive, utopian world. So I had great teachers and great public schools.

Moby: Do I have a single defining characteristic? I’m bald.

Well somehow, I’ve had a reputation for being very serious. And I’m not saying that I’m funny, but I think that I have more of a sense of humor than a lot of people would give me credit for. Like I think people think of me of being very strident and very didactic and earnest. And hopefully none of those things are the case.

May 29, 2007