The Scene featuring Moby in New York

Here is an interesting Questin and Answer article with Moby. Some people love him and some people hate him with a passion, but you can't deny his artistic abilities with his music. He has achieved more than most people can even dream of with his surreal sounds. Hey, he isn't afraid of Eminem either.

Q&A – Moby

TS: Tell us about your relationship with New York.
M: I was born here in the Bronx, 148th street and I lived in New York City until I was about 3 years old when I moved to Connecticut. I moved back in 1989. So I guess that makes me a native.

TS: What do you love most about the city?
M: There are so many things. I love the fact that every country on the planet is represented here and that for the most part everybody gets along. I love the fact that no one drives. I don’t even have a drivers’ licence. It’s one of the few places in the world where you can live, work and go out roughly in the same neighbourhood.

Architecturally it’s amazing – it has amazing 19th century buildings and amazing 20th century buildings and you can have a 90 storey high-rise right by a 19th century townhouse – it’s a weird architectural juxtaposition. I love the fact that in some ways it was a planned city – as it grew they made an effort to make it liveable so it has great transportation. The parks are really beautiful - New York without Central Park would be like some big terrifying Asian city that doesn’t breathe. It’s one of those things that no city planner would ever think of building now – a park that’s five miles by one mile of the most expensive real estate in the world.

I also love the fact that it’s so close to everything else. It’s close to the UK, to Europe, to South America, to the west coast, it’s relatively close to Asia. In many ways it’s very much the geographic center of the world – it’s pretty easy to get from here to anywhere else.

TS: Do you find that New York gets to be too hectic at times?
M: If you’re visiting New York and you’re staying in Times Square then it’s going to seem very hectic, but I live in Little Italy and the street I live on is very quiet. It’s never quiet in the way that a small country town is, but it’s not as hectic for residents as it might be for someone who’s just visiting.

TS: Where would you suggest people should go on their first visit to New York?
M: You can’t really go wrong in Central Park. You can go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney – there are so many things around Central Park.

TS: What part has New York played in your work?
M: Musically, New York is a big influence on me. Walk down the street for five minutes and you’ll hear homeless punk rockers, people playing Caribbean music and reggae, sacred Islamic music and Latino music, so many different types of music. That eclecticism is a big influence.

TS: How have New York’s musicians influenced you?
M: As a New Yorker you can’t help but be proud of the fact that so much music and culture started here. Punk rock, jazz, hip-hop and house music started here, George Gershwin debuted “Rhapsody in Blue” here, the Velvet Underground are from New York. It might seem petty to take pride in that but it’s amazing that so many musical genres came from New York City. So many great writers and so many great filmmakers came from here, too – so much came from essentially one small island.

TS: New York has been the backdrop for many TV shows, including Friends. What do you think of their portrayals of the city?
M: I’ve never seen Friends; I’ve never seen Seinfeld. I’ve heard people reference these things but I’ve never seen them.

How do you feel New York has changed since you’ve been living here?
M: New York was always known for being a very dangerous place, very crime-ridden, and what’s happened especially in the last 10 years is that it’s become really clean, safe and affluent. New York has the lowest rate of crime of any city in the western world, I think, especially in the United States. For the longest time anyone could afford to live here; now New York is becoming a city just for affluent people.

But really, the only defining characteristic of New York over the last hundred years is that it’s always in a state of change. At times you like the change, at times you don’t, but nonetheless the change always keeps it really exciting.

Source: CNN

Posted by emomixtape at November 16, 2006 3:22 PM
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