Two decades ago, the world’s most famous electronic musician met a doctor who changed his life. Moby – named after literature’s most famous whale, which was created by his great-great-great uncle – met Oliver Sacks, who helped open the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function in 1995. “I’d been a musician since I was very young,” Moby says, “but until meeting Dr Sacks, I hadn’t thought that what I did was anything more than light-hearted entertainment.”
That the formerly wild music star had an epiphany after meeting the neurologist famous for writing The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, may seem like an odd clash of cultures. But Moby is a complex creature, a man whose past debauchery stands in contrast to his smart, meticulously calculated music. In conversation too, he’s intellectually precise; if it weren’t for the tattoos on his arms and neck, it’s easy to picture him in a lab coat.
