![]() ![]() And I'm even including Exile on Main St and Physical Graffiti - when rock bands worked with non rock instruments. “Oh yes, the inspiration was 'orchestral rock'. There's a '60s funk vibe going on with some tracks that we didn't expect… But with certain instruments, like the horn players, it's a breeze: throw a mic up and put a pad on because the horns are so loud, and you have a great sound.” They understand who is being close mic'd, the ambient mics, which mics to use - AKGs, Neumanns or Telefunkens. ![]() “In some instances, like recording an orchestra when you have 120 people in a room, that's when the professionals step in. So was the overall recording experience easier than you thought? You throw a microphone in front of it and, lo and behold, it sounds great!” I wrote the parts and then the horn players came in, and I learned that recording horn players was the easiest thing because they are so loud and so directional. Some of the brass sections are particularly powerful - how did those come together? He identified where I might be asking an instrument to do what it can't do.” But before we started recording, I ran everything through my friend Jonathan who understands orchestration and he gave it the 'last look'. With Reprise I did rudimentary arrangements but gave them to an orchestrator/conductor. You have to rewrite everything, but that's what makes it fun. “It's not as simple as, 'let's take the MIDI parts from 1999 and have an orchestra play them'. Was the orchestration of the original tracks difficult? There isn't anyone who has that vocal control, vulnerability and power.” Or I was revisiting a song specifically for a vocalist, like Walk With Me the only reason I did that was because Lady Blackbird agreed to do it. But the other half is songs people might not have heard that I wanted to revisit because I loved them or there was some unrealised potential. I want to hear the hits, so half of the record is that. ![]() “If I go to see Echo & the Bunnymen I kind of want to hear them play Do It Clean, The Killing Moon and Never Stop. I should probably work on a deeper answer to that question.” But revisiting songs, finding singers, writing arrangements and recording orchestras is - and I say this with some guilt - just a really fun way to approach making music. “I'd like to have a really clever answer about nostalgia and revisiting the past to gain perspective on the present, but if I'm being honest it's just fun! I know that's selfish, especially at a time when the world is collapsing, and 'fun' might not be the most reputable criteria to apply to things. ![]() Why did you decide to do another orchestra-based project after Rewind? “Well, this was my second orchestral album, and the first, Reprise, was the one where it was like 'oh my god I'm working with the LA Philharmonic orchestra!' That was intimidating, but my A&R person at Deutsche Grammophon encouraged me to have a broader approach: an orchestra can be anything, and should serve the music rather than the music serving the orchestra, so making this record was a lot less intimidating.” It must be pretty intimidating working with a full orchestra… We caught up with the music maestro - and in this case we can truly call him that - to talk about what could well be the dance/ambient/classical/techno/jazz/punk composer's most joyous work. Moby has managed to make it Moby, make it sound like a band, make it classical, make it funk, make it hard and make it atmospheric - pretty much like he's thrown all three plus decades of those different genres at some kind of space orchestra, asked them to play it and pressed record. ![]()
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