“Well-adjusted, totally balanced people tend to not feel compelled to make music.” -Moby
With a total of 12 albums and multiple international music awards on top of a Billboard Music Award for Electronic Artist of the Year, Moby didn’t limit himself to music [x].
Written by Nancy Yeang
Moby has been a continued activist in environmentalism, animal rights, and veganism while adopting a straight-edge lifestyle – abstinence from alcohol and drugs. “I feel compelled to advocate for the causes that I care about,” Moby said. “I’m offended by the things that we do as a culture that is just stupid. I find it unnecessary and offensive, so one of my goals in life is to make things better.”
Another path that opened up to Moby was the opportunity to be involved in music therapy at The Institute for Music and Neurological Function (IMNF) where they treat patients who experienced a stroke, trauma, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, using music as a venue to heal [x]. Prior to being introduced to the scientific benefits of music, Moby instinctively knew the generative power that music had on people.
“Most of us, we grew up in an environment where we’ve been indoctrinated to think that healing can only come from professionals,” Moby said. “What other things in our lives are also profound healing modalities that we ignore [x]?”
At IMNF, stroke victims are able to write and produce their own music [x]. Bedridden individuals sing and dance when music therapists play songs. Patients regain function, hope, and meaning in their lives through music therapy sessions [x]. “It really is that powerful and that simple,” Moby said. “What enhances the healing is allowing yourself to accept that what you’re doing is really good for you.”
Though IMNF focuses on the clinical aspect of music therapy for those who are already suffering from neurological diseases, Moby also emphasized the state of one’s being from a 360-degree perspective: “If you’re in a physically and emotionally good place and you experience loss, the loss won’t be as traumatic and you’ll get over it faster,” Moby said. “It’s not just responding to the loss when it happened or responding to the injury when it happened, it’s maintaining your health beforehand.”
Moby also mentioned types of loss that occur, such as romantic, trans-species, parental and family loss, and said that family members and friends have died regularly throughout his life. In fact, all of the albums that Moby has produced were based on some sort of loss.
Healing Through Love and Loss
“The thing that has surprised me most is that we’re surprised that people die or we’re surprised that things end because everything ends,” Moby said. “There’s not a single thing that you can think, experience or have where it doesn’t end.”
In reaching his own strength in physical and emotional health, he views events that occur in his life as something that can be observed and learned from, rather than to suffer from. When experiencing trauma, people can either ask themselves if they are facilitating the solution, or if they are facilitating the problem.
Along with listening to a favorite track or album, Moby offered advice to those who are facing trauma and loss: “Part of it is just simply time and persistence,” Moby said. “When things are dark, and when the darkness seems unrelenting, just remember that things change and also understand that within the darkness, there’s so much choice.”
"The Pursuit of God."