Moby’s remix footprint spans all four corners of popular music. Since the ’80s, he’s remixed songs by icons like The Prodigy, Blur, and David Bowie. On the flipside, his music has been remixed by fellow legends such as Carl Cox, Armin Van Buuren, and Tiësto. Beyond all the big names, Moby has also lent his work to exciting newer acts like Anfisa Letyago, KILIMANJARO, and Airrica. But after all the years and releases, he remains infinitely curious about the process of artists reimagining sounds. On the eve of the Silver Panda remix of his track “Lift Me Up,” Moby discusses his philosophies on sharing music, collaboration, and much more.
Musical Geometry
“There’s a geometric progression that’s almost nonlinear,” Moby says, speaking from his Los Angeles home. “Traditionally, if you add one plus one, you get two. But when you do a remix or a collaboration, or someone reinterprets your work, one plus one equals bananas. Or one plus one equals a bowling alley.” It can be a surprise-filled process, even with decades of experience. “You never know what you’re going to get, but it’s almost invariably more than the sum of the parts.”
Beyond his innate curiosity, the fact that acts still want to remix his music this far into his career fills Moby with immense gratitude and humility. It doesn’t matter if the reinterpretation is a classic like “Lift Me Up,” which the burgeoning melodic techno act Silver Panda reinterpreted, or an obscure cut from the deep corners of his vast catalog.
“Self-involvedly, I appreciate anyone who makes the effort to listen to something I’ve done. I don’t know approximately how many songs are on Spotify, but I’m guessing it’s in the tens, if not hundreds of billions,” Moby posits. “So, if one of the nine billion people on the planet is listening to one of the 100 billion songs on Spotify, and it happens to be mine, that’s such an honor. They could be listening to anything.”
Moby’s thankfulness extends to listeners and music-makers alike. “It’s the same thing with a remixer or a collaborator,” he says. “The fact that they’ve chosen one of my songs to remix. It’s just such an honor.”
"If one of the nine billion people on the planet is listening to one of the 100 billion songs on Spotify, and it happens to be mine, that's such an honor."
Free Moby
Moby is so grateful that his music remains in demand for remixes, he’s now made it as simple as possible for artists to interpret his work via mobygratis.com. On this website, artists can find a massive library of music (all produced by Moby over the last 18 years) to download for free and use royalty-free for any creative outlet.
Users can filter hundreds of tracks by genre, BPM, and mood. One commonality is that they are all instrumental. Moby designed these tracks for collaboration, so he wanted to leave space for other artists to input their ideas.
Users won’t find every piece of the official Moby catalog at mobygratis.com, because the artist doesn’t control the rights to all of his music. To maintain the freedom of use at the core of his musical philosophy, most of these tracks haven’t seen commercial release.
Enthusiasm and Experience
“The culture of creative control we live in is antithetical to why we all got involved in music in the first place,” Moby explains. “I’m not opposed to people making a living from music. I’m not opposed to rational control of intellectual property, but at the same time, if it impedes creative freedom, then I think we should always err on the side of creative freedom.”
That same impulse guides his entire ethos. “Music can be transcendent and beautiful. We shouldn’t be punishing people who use it for their own choreography. It’s that spirit of, ‘Hey, take the music, do what you want with it.'”
Moby carries this easygoing philosophy with him into remixes, whether someone is putting their spin on his work or he’s remixing another act. Considering his history in music production, he often steps into the role of polishing rather than leading the creative work.
“I step back and see what they come up with. Given my enthusiasm and experience, I try to help troubleshoot it,” Moby says. “I never want to add comments or feedback arbitrarily. It’s stepping back and saying, ‘Oh, the kick drum sounds a little soft here. The vocals are a little bit quiet. Let’s get to the verse sooner.'”
"Music can be transcendent and beautiful. We shouldn't be punishing people who use it for their own choreography."
Creative, Poetic, Idiosyncratic
Overarchingly, his most common feedback is encouraging artists to fully express their creativity. When putting together his 2024 album, always centered at night, Moby worked with a different singer on every song, and found that many of the collaborators, including serpentwithfeet, José James, and Lady Blackbird, instinctually limited themselves by writing pop-ready material.
“They’ve all been infected by the commercial gene,” Moby says of his young collaborators. “These amazing, poetic, creative singers feel like they have to write pop songs. So, part of my job was telling them, ‘No, be creative. Be poetic, be idiosyncratic.’ Don’t worry about the commercial aspect because we’re not competing with Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo. We’re just trying to make something we love.”
Silver Panda x Moby
San Francisco-based duo Silver Panda had loved “Lift Me Up” for many years, so when it came time to get their remix cleared for release, it was a straightforward process. “Once we had the vision mapped out, we reached out to his team to see if there was any possibility of clearing it,” the group explains via email. “To our surprise, they came back saying they’d love for us to do it—and that’s how this journey began.”
For this project, Moby didn’t take a troubleshooting role. He gave Silver Panda complete creative freedom and then delivered a green light for the final version when he heard it. Moby was honored that the group chose his work, and Silver Panda was equally touched to receive the icon’s stamp of approval.
“For us, officially remixing a legend like Moby is a dream come true,” Silver Panda says. “He’s an artist who has shaped the sound of electronic music for decades, and to have the opportunity to reimagine one of his songs in our own way is a huge honor.”
"For us, officially remixing a legend like Moby is a dream come true. He's an artist who has shaped the sound of electronic music for decades."
Moby says that about a third of the remixes of his music come from artists who reach out once they’ve already started working on it, and he commends AI products like the stem separator AudioShake for making that process even easier.
“In the olden days of two years ago, if you loved a song, you couldn’t extract the vocals. They would have to approach me. We’d have to find the multitrack,” Moby says. “In some cases, we’d have to convert the multitrack from tape or who knows what into remixable stereo waves. Now you just spend two seconds on AudioShake, and you have a multitrack.”
A Charitable Alternative
Moby certainly couldn’t have fashioned remixes that easily using vintage gear. Even if he wanted to try, he sold it all in his official Reverb shop a few years back. The artist then donated the proceeds to a charity called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, through which certified doctors engage in alternative treatments to chronic diseases.
The shop included such Roland classics as the JUNO-106, JUPITER-6, and TR-909. The latter two were some of the hardest for him to part with. Moby owned his JUPITER-6 for decades and fondly recalls tinkering with the knobs to create what he called “fascinating usable strangeness.” In the end, he ended up selling his collection for one simple reason.
"Roland was the sound of house music and techno. The 303, the 909, the 808, the 106, even the SH-101. This was dance music."
“The Roland gear I had was some of my most expensive,” Moby reveals. “I knew that if I sold it, I could raise thousands of dollars. The fact that I didn’t keep any Roland gear was a testament to the fact that Roland gear is so good it commanded a higher price.” His words elucidate that the Roland name doesn’t just carry quality—it carries history. “Roland was the sound of house music and techno. The 303, the 909, the 808, the 106, even the SH-101. This was dance music.”
Moby himself isn’t making music with those tools anymore. (Although he would appreciate it if Brian Transeau, a.k.a. BT, returned the 303 he borrowed.) Still, Moby fully encourages any artist, no matter where they are in their journey, to take the sounds he made and rework them into something new.
In fact, it would be his honor.
