The other thing about your David Lynch interview is you describe the building where you recorded the record. Is that where you live in New York?
I’ve been in the same block for about 20 years. It’s an old, old factory from about 1840, it has such a strange history. It was a prison for a while, and it was a meat processing plant for a while. Tons of different musicians have worked here, Sonic Youth used to have a studio here, and the Beastie Boys, Iggy Pop, the Butthole Surfers, and Blast First Records was here as well. So it’s been a long weird history.
But that’s your home?
It’s been where I sleep now. I had a sort of Jay Gatsby moment where I bought this apartment on Central Park West and 90th. It was this beautiful apartment looking out over the Park, and I thought I’d live there forever, and when I finally moved in there, I realized I hated living Uptown. So I sold that and now I’m in the process of figuring out where I should live.
You did record the record at your building though?
Yeah. It’s basically a one and half bedroom, where the studio is set up in the bedroom and then there’s an alcove/closet that has my bed in it. And that’s where I sleep.
So you’re making a personal record in an ex-jail, ex-slaughterhouse, ex-studio space where you live?
It is one of the things that I love about New York is the repurposing of things. When I grew up in the suburbs, in Connecticut, the house that we lived in had pretty much always been a suburban house. If you went back a hundred years, maybe it was a plot with a different house, but it was basically white people living in the suburbs. Which is not to malign the suburbs in any way. But New York, it’s the strangest thing, where in this case, this weird old factory that had so many different purposes is now filled with yuppies like me.
My apartment here, my studio has been renovated, and it’s spacious, it’s got skylights, but the architectural elements, the fact that it’s an old factory, you can never escape from that. (laughs) One of the best architectural elements of the building is all the floors have a pretty pronounced slope to them because when it was a meat processing plant, they would hose down the floors and the walls and all the blood and guts would get sluiced down to a central drain. The drains have been sealed but the floors still slope. I’m always reminded of the fact that I might be a yuppie making records in my bedroom, but it wasn’t so long ago that this was a meat processing plant.
Do you actually think you’re going to find somewhere else that you like that much?
Possibly. One of the reasons I’ve been here so long is because this is where my studio has been. I’ve always envied people who can work anywhere. And now I realize that with computers I can write just about anywhere. There’s a lot of old equipment that doesn’t exist in software form so when it comes to actually making a record and recording, I’d much rather use old equipment than new plugins and new synthesizers. But I’ve had this sort of epiphany where I’ve realized that I can load up a bunch of software on my computer and go sit on the top of a mountain in New Zealand and work on music there. It seems like other people are doing that so I might give that a try.
Moby performs at the TLA in Philly Sept. 20, Irving Plaza Sept. 21, and the Music Hall Of Williamsburg Sept. 23. Wait For Me is available now through Mute/Little Idiot. moby.com.
