Richard Melville Hall, better known as Moby, was born on September 11th, 1965 in New York City. He took the name Moby because it is possible to trace his ancestry back to the author of the famous Moby Dick tale.
Moby was raised in Darien, Connecticut where he began playing guitar at the age of ten. He later mastered bass, drums and keyboard while playing as a member of a couple of hardcore punk bands. His interest shifted to dance music in the mid 1980's. He began collecting cheap, used recording equipment and set himself up in an old factory in New York's Little Italy district.
Moby originally worked for a New York dance label called Instinct. His early work is comprised of mostly un-issued cuts produced between 1988 and 1991. In 1993 Moby signed to a major independent label and released 'Hymn' on Mute Records the following year. He made his major label debut later with the album, 'Everything Is Wrong', and continued building his remix collection, which at this point included the B-52's, LFO, the PetShop Boys, Depeche Mode, David Bowie and even Michael Jackson.
In 1991 Moby released in the U.K. the theme from Twin Peaks remixed and named 'Go.' It reached the Top 10 and became an instant club hit. In 1993 he set a Guinness World Record when he released 'I Feel It/Thousand'. 'Thousand' was classified as the fastest single ever, reaching at one point, a speed of 1,015 beats per minute. In 1995 Moby went back to his hard-core punk roots and made an appearance at Lollapallooza. Around the same time, Moby released The End Of Everything, under the monicker Voodoo Child. It was a mesh of synthetic orchestration and underground dance that was hailed as one of the best dance albums ever made. Then, in 1997, Moby released I Like to Score, a compilation of songs he produced that had been used in movies. Among these was the breakbeat-driven version of the James Bond Theme, which debuted at number eight on the U.K. charts.
Moby parted ways with Elektra records in early 1999 and signed to V2 Music, which was owned by Richard Branson. That spring Moby released 'Play', a fusion of hip-hop, dance and 1940's folk music. The label was hoping for worldwide sales of 250,000. To this date the album has sold over ten million copies and reached the number one spot in more than 15 countries. Due to the success of 'Play', he spent the next two years on tour and after a number of awards and sold-out concert venues throughout the U.S and London he returned home in February of 2001.
Once back from tour Moby was at it again. In may of 2002 he released '18', which was comprised of 18 tracks that resembled the combination of hip-hop and dance on 'Play' but were nothing like them at all. With guest appearances by Sinead O'Connor, MC Lyte and Angie Stone the album was another huge success for the artist. It reached the number one spot in 12 different countries it's first week and within two months had reached platinum status in seven different countries. Moby is planning another U.S. tour and, as in the past, tickets wont be easy to come by.
