BRINGING BIG, BOMBASTIC MUSIC TO TORONTO’S BRRRRR FESTIVAL
It’s a few degrees below zero, and Moguai is putting the fi nishing touches on a stellar set that takes the Toronto crowd across the spectrum of bouncy warm house music, to hugely epic electro bombs, leading up to the fi nal support act of the night, Mord Fus- tang. In the warmth of the media building behind the main stage, critically acclaimed electronic legend Moby sips tea while preparing for his headlining slot - and decides it’s time for a bit of press. We hustle into his cozy green room and set up our cameras for a quick interview with the 30+ year veteran of dance music, and after a quick chat with our cameraman about his well documented photography passion, its go time.
With Moby at ease and the cameras rolling, we start by talking about being back in Canada, and playing Toronto’s fi rst ever outdoor winter dance music festival.
The fi rst time I played in Canada was actually about 20 years ago, it was at a rave in about 91 or 92. I remember it very very distinctly because at one point, some guy dressed as a tree walked across the stage while I was playing and he and I wrestled, so I remember it was the only time in my life I wrestled a guy in a tree costume (laughing). I’ve played in Toronto so many different times, either doing acoustic sets, playing live, DJing … but this is defi nitely the fi rst time I’ve ever DJ’d at an outdoor winter festival. That’s one of the things that appealed to me about this one was;(A) I love Canada and I love Toronto, but also I had never DJ’d an outdoor winter festival, and it seemed like such a fantastically perverse idea that I just had to say yes.
We ask him to expand a bit on why he loves being in Canada, and his answer is candid.
I always think of Canada as being the smarter, more responsible, friendlier older broth- er of the United States … it’s just a better country. The people are nicer, the culture is great, the women are prettier, healthcare is better, the education system is better, so I would happily live in Canada, if it wasn’t so cold in the winter time. I live in LA, and I love Los Angeles because it’s such a big, messy, dysfunctional city… but I’m just a big sissy … so if it wasn’t so cold in Canada in the winter time I would do everything in my power to emigrate here.
From here we move toward Moby’s evolution as an artist, and wearing multiple hats as a producer, live performer and a DJ, which for him is all about fun.
When I was around 18 or 19 I started DJing, for a while I was a hip hop DJ, then I played house music and dancehall reggae, and then I was really involved in the techno and rave scene when it fi rst started. Most of the time when I tour it’s playing live, but I still do 10 or 20 DJ sets a year, and the main reason I DJ is just because I love it. I love the music, I love the culture, I love the production … even after all this time it’s just still really nice being a part of this.
Moby then digs a little deeper into the evolution of dance music and the cyclical na- ture in which the scene tends to go from underground to a more commercial focus.
My fi rst exposure to electronic dance music was in the late 70’s. The end of disco and the beginning of New Order, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, and then when the dance scene really took off in the late 80s and early 90s, especially in the UK, Germany, and Austra- lia, it was phenomenal, because we had all come from this underground dance scene. So for decades now there’s been this sort of back and forth between the scene going underground, and then more commercial, underground, and then more commercial again. So what’s happening right now, it just seems like its part of that process. It’s an interesting scene because you can have commercial events for 50,000 people, and underground events for 200 people with the same music and the same DJs, for the most part.
Next we touch on the increased focus on the visual and aesthetic production at today’s large-scale events and festivals, noting the extravagant main stage that awaited his presence.
A huge part of the EDM movement is these events, and of course the music is an integral part of it, but the production is a huge part of it as well. And the production is amazing … when you have this many people in a huge setting amazed by the production, clearly they’re doing something right.