Moby is fastly becoming one of the recognized names in Techno; In 1991 he had number ones throughout Europe with "Go." Strangely enough, it went nowhere in America, and Moby has been remixing big name artists and doing track shows. His live "performance" is manic. Bashing his keyboard, ragging on the sound man, jumping off amplifiers, only the vocals are live. In fact, in an oft-documented event, Moby got to sing with Flipper back in the day. While trying to get out of an abusive contract with Instinct, Moby kept his show on the road. While he was away, Instinct released a single and then an album of primarily outakes and unfinished tracks. This would usually ruin a career, especially since most of the tracks were tacky. Add to this David Lynch's lawsuit and you'd think he'd be down for the count. No way. He had Jam + Spoon and The Mover remix "Go" making the track totally contemporary again and hooked up a tour with The Prodigy and Cybersonik (Dan Bell Richie "Rich" Hawtin). Being a true mystic master of time and space, I caught up with him last February.

BMG: With major label interest in Techno, where do you see the underground and Techno scene going?

MOBY: In order for it to succeed, what I think needs to happen is for it to become a little more artist based, where you have specific artists making records as opposed to individuals making records under lo different names, which is what I've done in the past. One day not so long ago I was looking through a friend's record collection, and I didn't recognize any of the records. but the only one out of like 30 records that I pulled out was one with a picture on it, and it was a C. J. Boland record. And didn't know the record, but because it was a C. J. Boland record it caught my interest. There need to be artists and faces behind the music. It doesn't mean the music has to be compromised or effected in any way. BMG: Who are some of your favorite artists? MOBY: The t8 stuff, I like a lot of the more atmospheric Chicago things, like Ron Trent, some obscure Chicago House artists. I really like a lot of the English sound right now, with the really fast breakbeat, just insane mental stuff like The Prodigy and Kickin' Records.

BMG: I catch a lot of flak at my radio station, because it's a free-form station, basically rooted in the great American black musics, like Jazz and Blues. A lot of people say that Techno has no soul, just because it's programmed. Do you believe that, or do you see any connections with Jazz?

MOBY: Actually, I see a lot of connections with Jazz. It's strange because a few years ago Hip Hop was being proclaimed as the new Jazz, and I just don't see it, because there's no musical freedom in Hip Hop. Because you're locked into a real strict beat and it's very repetitive and there isn't very much musical changing. Whereas, Techno is all about subtlety. Traditionally Jazz is an instrumental music, and Techno is an instrumental music. It's more about subtle expression as opposed to didactic expression, which is what Hip Hop is all about. Also, on the musical side, as far as there being no soul or no musicality, for myself, I started studying music when I was 9 or 10 years old, and I had a very sort of offbeat but Classical education. Studying Jazz and Classical guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, so l know my music theory, but a lot of times I choose not to use it because I prefer instead of having virtuoso musicianship, I'd rather just have a good atmosphere.

BMG: I heard that you would join a major label if you didn't have to compromise your political beliefs. What are those beliefs?

MOBY: I can't really peg myself as Democrat or Republican or Conservative or Liberal. If I have to peg myself as anything, I would describe myself as, and I used these terms for another interview I did, a Christian Vegetarian Surrealist Raver. Those four things are what am. Here's another pop musician philosophizing about the problems of the world, but I think one of the biggest things people can do to affect change is to assume responsibility for their actions. Instead of saying "oh look at what a mess things are in" say "what is it in my life that I 'm responsible for in a very small I way that I can change" maybe driving a car, maybe eating packaged food, wasting paper, maybe being nicer to the people around you. Small things that people can do to make the world a better place. Because if everyone did that, the world would be fine.