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NIGHT BEAT: Moby hasn't allowed success to go to his head

You might think Moby enjoys the sound of his own voice. After all, his regular-guy vocals have been heard on MTV, pop radio and TV ads, in his romantic "Porcelain" and his David Bowie-esque "We Are All Made of Stars." But he's not enamored with his down-to-earth delivery.

"I don't think I have a particularly good voice. I think it's moderately unique, and sort of distinctive," he says. "Originally, I envisioned those songs being sung by other people. I just couldn't find other people to sing them."

That's a strange bit of demur coming from America's most prominent electronic musician. (He performs Wednesday at the Hard Rock Hotel.) But he's got the hunger of perfectionism in him.

"It's not so much a technical perfectionism. It's more of an almost emotional perfectionism. I just wait until a song delivers the emotional impact I feel it's capable of delivering," he says.

For instance, Moby signed up No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani to sing with him on the duet, "South Side," which became Moby's biggest hit in 2001. And he snagged Sinead O'Connor to sing a song on his new album, "18." But neither Stefani nor O'Connor was his first choice.

"I must have tried 20 different singers before I found" O'Connor, he says.

Moby's perfectionism helped make him a star, but he it took him a long time to break through to the masses.

Moby, aka Richard Hall, started out as a singer in a new wave band during his high school days in 1983. Later, he was drawn to mixing electronic music.

In the early and mid-1990s, his CDs were packed with hard, fast house music. When he finally broke through to the mainstream, in 1999, it was with softer, ambient and pop songs, and the album "Play."

"Play" unfolded slowly as a commercial hit. "Porcelain" was used in a jewelry ad on TV. "South Side" didn't become a hit until two years after the album's release, thanks in part to a music video, which showed a playful Stefani and a stiffer Moby, with his standout bald scalp.

Other TV advertisers picked up "Play" songs, and "Play" songs were spun often by dance club DJs. Eventually, the disc became a phenomenon.

Looking back, Moby doesn't see his successful change from hard techno to soothing star as an evolution.

"I don't see it as a progression. I see it as having lots of different musical interests and being foolish enough to pursue all these different music interests."

By changing his sound, he ran the risk of alienating long-time fans who bought his harder stuff in the early '90s, Moby says.

"It's career stupidity on my part."

Well, if it was stupid, it was stupidly successful, right?

"Ironically," he says.

Moby's follow-up album to "Play," "18," is an even calmer outing. Reviews have been kind, although a Village Voice reviewer and some critics didn't enjoy how much "18" sounded like "Play," which perplexes Moby.

"Rather than looking at this album as a cohesive body of work, comprised of interesting, emotional songs, people were comparing it to the last record," Moby says.

Moby thinks this is a silly way to approach a record review.

"I mean, go back and listen to every Roxy Music record. They evolved, but they never really did anything radically different."

Moby also may have become the subject of a media backlash, which he calls "the tall poppy syndrome."

"It's this Australian expression meaning the flower that grows taller than the others is bound to get its head chopped off. So the fact that 'Play' was a very successful record just naturally inclined a lot of journalists to dislike me."

I asked Moby if some journalists viewed him as a sell-out for selling so many "Play" songs to TV advertisers. He doesn't think so. But there was one run-in with a French journalist on the subject. Moby went on the offensive and pointed out that the journalist's magazine sold ads.

"When art is created purely in the interest of serving commerce, obviously it's terrible. But if you make good art and then employ the mechanisms of commerce to actually get people to expose your art to people, that's what's been going on for the last 800 years."

Moby says he wouldn't have sold a single song to advertisers if he had gotten more radio play. Much of his exposure did happen through TV ads and MTV.

"If I sounded like Creed and I had the support of every radio station in the United States, then yeah, I wouldn't license my music to advertisements," he says. "The fact that I haven't had much traditional media support meant that I had to look to alternative ways to get people to hear my music."

Moby's opening act on tour, Dirty Vegas, also has won exposure through a TV ad. The British trio's cool, ambient song, "Days Go By," became so popular through a Mitsubishi ad that radio stations began playing it.

Then, Dirty Vegas' self-titled album debuted at No. 7 on Billboard magazine's album chart and has since sold a half-million copies.

Dirty Vegas' Paul Harris says his group and the whole electronic movement are dependent on TV ads.

"People hear the advert. They go, 'We like that record, and it's dance music?' And they go to the store and go, 'Look, do you have anything more like that?' They get turned onto more dance music, which is good. It gives it more to the mainstream."

Moby says TV ads have boosted sales of other deserving artists, like the late folk singer Nick Drake, whose reflective "Pink Moon" graced a Volkswagen ad.

"Nick Drake sold more records after that Volkswagen commercial than he had sold in his entire career," Moby says.

Moby realizes that his popularity continues to prosper through TV ads. But he's not taking recognition for granted.

"The interesting thing about popular culture is," he says, "you'll have these musicians who seem like these huge institutions. But a little bit of time passes and suddenly everybody's asking, 'Who are they?' Michael Jackson is the perfect example. There's never really been a more successful musician than Michael Jackson. And now?"

Fame always fades, Moby says.

"I certainly don't expect people will be interested in me five years from now or 10 years from now. If they are, great. But I'm not counting on it."

Azure Ray and Dirty Vegas open for Moby at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road. Tickets, $45.50, are on sale at the box office and through Ticketmaster. To charge by phone, call 693-5066.

DOUG ELFMAN
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Moby performs Wednesday at the Hard Rock Hotel.