Moby

Biography

Moby was born Richard Melville Hall in 1965. He was nicknamed Moby because his great-great grand uncle is Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. In his teens he played in a hardcore punk band, the Vatican Commandos. He also briefly filled in for the incarcerated singer of hardcore band Flipper. Moby released a number of dance singles on the New York based Instinct label. In 1991 he produced a house remix of the Twin Peaks theme, "Go," and it reached the UK Top 10. Moby then became an in demand re-mixer and did work for Michael Jackson, Pet Shop Boys, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Erasure, the 52's, and Orbital.

His self titled debut album was released in 1992. 1993's "I Feel It"/"Thousand," reached the UK Top 40 and The Guinness Book Of Records listed "Thousand" as the fastest single ever, peaking at 1,015 bpm. Moby signed with Mute in the UK and released Ambient, which contained unreleased material from 1988-91. In 1994 Moby signed with Elektra Records in the US. Everything Is Wrong received good reviews and reached #21 in the UK. He followed it up with the rock album Animal Rights. 1997's I Like to Score was a return to electronica and "James Bond Theme" debuted at #8 in the UK. His next album, 1999's Play, featured a mix of electronica and pop. It topped the UK charts and eventually went platinum. From it, "South Side" featuring No Doubt's Gwen Stafani was a US Top 20 hit. In the UK, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad" and "Natural Blues" reached the Top 20 and "Porcelain" was a #5 hit. 2002's 18 continued Moby's success. It topped the UK Charts and reached the US Top 5. "We Are All Made of Stars" reached #11 in the UK.