Continuing this week's theme of posts about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home
When I started working at V2 Records in New York City back in the fall of 1999, we had a roster of talented artists but no clear superstars. One of those artists was this electro guy named Moby, who supposedly had shopped his last record around and gotten rejected by almost every big label before Kate Hyman signed him to V2.
His album Play had been released the summer before I started working there, and by the end of the year it had started garnering some momentum with film and TV placements and critical acclaim. He was definitely one of our priority artists, but the explosion of Play wouldn't happen until some time in 2000. Moby was smart, funny and personable, and never threw around any attitude or ego when he came by the office.
In December of '99, as a thank you/holiday gift to the record label staff, Moby drew a version of his character "the little idiot" for each one of us. Most of the drawings looked pretty similar to each other, but he personalized mine and signed it with a heart. I'd like to think he did that because I had a little extra bond with him, but who knows.
Each staffer treated their drawing differently. I saw one assistant in the radio department had hers tacked by a corner onto her corkboard, half obscured by a magazine photo of Derek Jeter. I won't venture to guess what the execs did with theirs. I had mine framed, partly because I knew it would be a nice reminder of that time of my life and I wanted to protect it from getting lost or destroyed. And partly because it's always great to have someone I like and respect draw something just for me!
In the following months, someone at the label had the grand idea to remix the version of the song "South Side" that Moby had recorded with Gwen Stefani that hadn't made it onto the original record. A pricey video was made and people loved it. Play was re-released with that single, and almost 10 million copies of the record have sold worldwide to this date.
For a holiday gift the following year, after the explosion of his success in 2000, Moby gave us each a very nice bottle of champagne. The champagne was great, but it's the drawing that will always stay with me.
