Moby cites a piece he calls “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters” as his very best.
Question: What's the best material you've ever written?
Moby: Well there’s a piece of music that I wrote about 12 years ago called “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters”. And it’s a quiet, classical piece. And then it was used in the movie Heat – the sort of … – the very end of the movie. And I’d say out of all the pieces of music I’ve made, that’s still the one that’s closest to my heart. So …
Question: Why?
Moby: Mmm … It has a … I don’t know. There’s just something about it that seems … Like it’s very … It’s very emotional, at least for me. And it’s quite powerful, but it’s also very delicate. And it’s one of those pieces of music where, when I’d finished writing it, I had no idea where it came from. Like I don’t know where the inspiration came from. You know, I mean I know it’s a tried cliché, but I really just felt sort of like a conduit. Like I wasn’t actually the one writing the music. You know, I was just the weird puppet/conduit through which the music came.
Question: Has that happened since?
Moby: Yeah. Luckily … Well, I mean, my criteria for evaluating my music is a lot different than the criteria that other people would use to evaluate my music. And from my perspective, I’ve had a lot of instances where I’ve, you know, ended up making music that’s affected me very … on a deep emotional level. That doesn’t mean that it always affects other people emotionally.
Recorded on: 5/29/07