moby was born in new york city, but grew up in connecticut, where he started making music when he was 9 years old. he started out playing classical guitar and studied music theory, and then went on to play with seminal connecticut hardcore punk group 'the vatican commandoes' when he was 14. he then played with post-punk band 'awol' while studying philosophy at the university of connecticut and suny purchase. he started dj'ing while attending college, and was a fixture in the late 80's new york house and hip-hop scenes, dj'ing at clubs such as mars, red zone, mk, and the palladium.
he released his first single, 'go' in 1991(listed as one of rolling stones best records of all time), and has been making albums ever since. his own records have sold over 20,000,000 copies worldwide, and he's also produced and remixed scores of other artists, including david bowie, metallica, the beastie boys, public enemy, among others.
moby has toured extensively, playing well over 3,000 concerts in his career. he has also had his music used in hundreds of different films, including 'heat', 'any given sunday', 'tomorrow never dies', and 'the beach', among others.
currently he's touring in support of his most recent album, 'wait for me', as well as working closely with a variety of different charities, including the humane society and the institute for music and neurologic function.
timeline:
moby was born september 11th, 1965 in harlem, nyc:
1967 – moves to danbury, connecticut where mother, elizabeth, finishes
her university education
1969 – moves to san francisco
1970 – moves to darien, connecticut
1970-1974 – attends royle school in darien, connecticut
1974-1976 – lives in stratford, connecticut where he attends birdseye elementary school
1977 – moves back to darien, connecticut and begins taking guitar lessons
1978 – attends middlesex junior high school, darien, connecticut
1979 – attends mather junior high school, darien, connecticut
1980-1983 – attends darien high school. during this time moby played in a variety
of bands, including the vatican commandoes and awol. releases 'hit squad for god'
ep with vatican commandoes.
1984 – attends university of connecticut in storrs, connecticut, majoring in philosophy.
1985 – drops out of university of connecticut. begins working at johnny's records
in darien, connecticut, and dj'ing at the beat in port chester, new york. releases
eponymous 'awol' ep.
1986 – plays in 2 bands, caeli seoul, and gin train. continues dj'ing at the beat
and begins dj'ing at the cafe in greenwich, connecticut.
1986 – moves to greenwich, connecticut. lives next door to the bush family compound.
1987 – moves to an abandoned factory in stamford, connecticut.
1988 – dj's at the beat, 7 willow street, and the cafe. works on music. tries desperately
to get a record contract in new york city.
1989 – moves to new york city(14th street and 3rd avenue) with roommates damian loeb and stretch armstrong. signs recording contract with instinct records. releases single with jimmy mack entitled 'time's up'.
1990 – releases first single, 'mobility b/w go'
1991 – releases second single, 'go(woodtick mix)'. 3rd single, 'voodoo child', and 4th single 'mindstorm/brainstorm'
1991 – in autumn of 1991 'go' becomes a top 10 record in the uk. moby performs on top of the pops for the first time.
1992 – releases 'uhf'. 'next is the e'. 'thousand'. goes on tour with the shamen in north america. begins contract dispute with instinct records.
1993 – goes on tour with the prodigy and richie hawtin and john acquaviva in north america. later in the year goes on tour with orbital, aphex twin, and vapourspace. leaves instinct records and releases 'move' on mute records. 2nd performance on 'top of the pops' for 'move'.
1994 – spends the entire year working on 'everything is wrong'.
1995 – releases 'everything is wrong' and tours from march until december. headlines the 2nd stage at lollapalooza and tours europe with the red hot chili peppers.
'everything is wrong' is named spin magazines 'album of the year'.
1996 – releases 'animal rights' and tours europe with soundgarden. 'animal rights' receives very bad reviews and sells terribly. 3rd performance on 'top of the pops' for 'come on baby'. also releases 'voodoo child: the end of everything'.
1997 – releases 'james bond theme' as part of 'tomorrow never dies'. it gets to #8 in the uk charts. also releases 'i like to score', a collection of music that has appeared in different films.
1998 – ends contract with elektra records. spends entire year working on 'play' and trying to find a record contract in north america.
1999 – signs with v2 records(run by dan beck and richard sanders) and releases 'play' in may of 1999. 'play' sells poorly at first and gets mediocre reviews but eventually goes on to sell over 9,000,000 records worldwide.
'play' tour started in march of 1999 and continued until august of 2001.
2000 – touring. 4th and 5th 'top of the pops' performances for 'natural blues' and 'porcelain'.
2001 – more touring. some tour highlights: the area1 festival with outkast and new order.
last show of the 'play' tour is with u2 at slane castle in ireland.
during this time moby is also working on '18'.
2002 – releases '18' in may of 2002. tours from february of 2002 until autumn of 2003.
during this time he also opens 'teany', with ex-girlfriend kelly tisdale. 6th 'top of the pops' performance for 'we are all made of stars'.
2003 – begins work on 'hotel'. also begins work with moveon.org and vigorous campaigning for john kerry.
2004 – continues work on 'hotel' and 'teany'.
2005 – releases 'hotel' in march of 2005. tours from january 2005 until december of 2005.
also releases 'voodoo child, baby monkey'. 7th top of the pops performance for 'lift me up'.
also releases 'teany book'.
2006 – begins work on unnamed next record. composes music for 'southland tales'.
begins preparing for autumn release of 'go: the very best of moby'.
2007-works on music for 'last night'.
2008-releases 'last night', which receives 4 stars in rolling stone and the sunday times. tours extensively with 'live:remixed', and dj's throughout europe and north america.
2009-releases 'wait for me' on his own 'little idiot' record label. tours extensively in europe and north america.
