He's sold mucho records, been called the 'Iggy Pop of techno' while his appearance at 1995's Greenbelt Festival raised eyebrows from conservative evangelicalism. Liz Liew spoke at length to MOBY, before his gig opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Brixton, about his music and beliefs.

"Yeah. I've never really felt that comfortable with strict dance audiences. We like the same music but beyond that we don't really relate. But [at Greenbelt] I felt sort of like a sense of family."

Really? What did you perceive your audience response to be like compared to mainstream audiences? Were they more enthusiastic or less so?

"I think enthusiastic - not more or less, just nice and enthusiastic! Maybe a little bit more enthusiastic because there seems to be this feeling of. . . a lot of Christian music that's pretty bad. and very, very tame."

For example?

"Well, I can't even name names 'cos I don't know that much about it. But I'd imagine that if I was 16 years old and a Christian, I'd be excited about me! If I went to see a Moby show I'd be like 'Wow! He's actually interesting - it's not like he's imitating popular culture.' And a lot of Christian music does seem sort of imitative. That's not what we're called to do. We're called to be dynamic. The idea of Christian culture playing it safe doesn't make sense to me because Christ certainly didn't. Christ was not timid, Christ was not conservative."

A few years ago you released a track on a Christian dance compilation album 'Motion Factory'. How did you get involved with that?

"They called up my record label and said, 'We'd like to license a track' and my record label said, 'Okay'."

So that was it?

"Yeah. But when the album came out they sent me a copy and I wrote to them saying, 'Why is Christian music so timid?' It's that imitative thing where a lot of contemporary Christian music seems five years behind."

I think the main reason is lack of funds. . .

"I'm tempted to disagree with that. I know of lots of [bands] working on shoe-string budgets who are still more dynamic."

Going back to dance music, do you think it can be used in worship and if so, do you use it in your own personal worship?

"Hmm-hmm. I think celebration is a really powerful thing. I mean God created life and at its core, a lot of life is about celebrating. Just being alive is miraculous! And so is going out, dancing, getting covered in sweat and having a sort of transcendent experience is life-affirming. It has to do with worshipping God, even if it comes down to ambiguous worship. I think that going out dancing is a form of worship, just like a newborn horse running around in a field. Like if you painted a beautiful painting for me and I was standing there and loving it, it's a form of worship and respect for you and what you've done, even if at that moment I'm not thinking about you."

Finally, what's your greatest struggle in life and how do you deal with it?

"I think the greatest struggle is living according to my beliefs. There are so many things that I know are right and a lot of times I just don't do them. I mean the vegan thing is pretty simple. I haven't eaten animal products in eight years, so that's not a struggle. But other things like understanding Christ's teaching and incorporating them in my life and being able to give other stuff up, that's very, very hard. There are so many different elements to be, in my opinion, a truly devoted follower of Christ. You have to be so selfless and so un-materialistic - so unphysical in some way. It's really hard for me to give those things up. I've become very worldly against my better judgment. I'm really attached to the world..."

Postscript
Contrary to my expectations, I found Moby to be extremely friendly, intelligent and sincere about his beliefs. However, suffice it to say that there was a sharp contrast between Moby the interviewee, Moby the performer and Moby off-the-record. He is clearly on a spiritual journey. Where exactly he is on that journey is not up to us to decide. Although we may not agree with his unorthodox beliefs, I am sure he would appreciate our support and prayers.