Monday 19 January 2009

Moby and Mann again

Following up on a recent post, here is another interviewer asking Moby about his music in Heat:
Click here for the full article (no more mention of Mann though).

RS: Very cool. Do you enjoy hearing your music in films?
Moby: Yes, I do. I like hearing my music in films because when they're mixing it to the film, they usually do a good job. I'm always very flattered that someone would choose to use my music in a movie. There's so much music that could be used, the fact that they've chosen mine, its very exciting and flattering.

RS: There was a scene in the movie Heat when there's that change at the end of God Moving Over the Face of the Waters… That was just a magical moment for the person who wrote the question. Do you remember seeing that on screen for the first time?
Moby: Yes, I saw Heat in a movie theatre on 19th and Broadway with my friend Damien. It was interesting because Heat was an example of a movie that, when it was released, the critics just didn't get it. When Heat was released it got really bad reviews and it didn't do very well, but in the ten years that it's been out it's come to be this almost revered iconic movie. So it once again proves to me that I shouldn't always take critics' reviews too seriously. But I do remember seeing it at 19th and Broadway with my friend Damien and just thinking that Michael Mann had done a really wonderful job putting the music in there.

Variety ran an interview with Moby too, and here is that Michael Mann connection again with God Moving Over the Face of the Waters:

Then came "Play."
"When that was released, I was a has-been," he notes,"even though it was the first release of mine to really sell. I was surprised as time went on, that the story about how every track was licensed became 'every track was licensed to a commercial.' Eighty percent of the licenses were to indie films. Most of play went to movies with only a small percentage to TV shows and advertising."
His favorite usage out of placements in nearly 70 released films?
One of the first: Michael Mann's "Heat." His "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," a track from "Everything is Wrong," plays over the climax of the movie and the credits. "Of all of them, that's what I'm most proud of," says the former film student.

In another interview Moby is quoted as saying God Moving Over the Face of the Waters is one of two of his all time favourite pieces of music he has written. I have to say, it is mine too! It is the one track I play when the world crowds in - it takes me to a place of solice and acceptance of whatever happens next. Wierd isn't it, what music can do? Here is that relevant extract from Surfline:

SZ: Do you have a favorite song that you have ever written?

Moby: I have two. In 1996 I put out an album called Animal Rights, it is a really dark, punk rock record. It alternates between really aggressive punk-rock-metal songs and very quiet instrumentals. There is one song called "Face It" and it's about 11 minutes and I don't think anyone has ever listened to the whole thing 'cause it is very long and very dark. That's probably my favorite song I've ever written. And then on an album called, Everything Is Wrong in 1995 I wrote a classical piece of music called "God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters," that was used as the closing music for a Michael Mann film with Al Pacino and Robert Di Niro. So those two would be my favorites.

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