Moby thinks classical music was “ingrained” in him from an early age.
The 55-year-old star has revealed he was surrounded by lots of classical musical influences during his childhood and even though he’s made his name in a different genre, his music has always featured “classical elements”.
He shared: “I grew up surrounded by classical music. My mother was a pianist. My great-grandmother actually taught classical composition to Arthur Fiedler, the legendary conductor. My uncle was a classical flautist.
“So even though I grew up playing in punk rock bands, classical music was sort of ingrained in me from an early age.”
Despite this, Moby acknowledges that his new album, ‘Reprise’, is markedly different to his earlier releases.
The chart-topping star’s upcoming album will feature orchestral and acoustic arrangements of songs from earlier in his career.
Speaking to Classic Pop magazine, he added: “A lot of the music I’ve made over the years has had very strong orchestral, classical elements. I guess it was such a part of my musical DNA that the idea to do an album like this had never really occurred to me.”
Moby has reimagined his biggest hits from the past three decades for the new album.
The collection includes classics such as ‘Go’, ‘Extreme Ways’, ‘Natural Blues’ and ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’, and the acclaimed musician recently admitted he felt compelled to create the classical and acoustic renditions with an orchestra to emphasise the raw emotion of the songs.
He said: “Sorry if this seems self-evident, but for me, the main purpose of music is to communicate emotion.
“To share some aspect of the human condition with whoever might be listening.”
On why he wanted to work with an orchestra, he added: “I long for the simplicity and vulnerability you can get with acoustic or classical music.”