We’re moving to the land of sunshine and palm trees at the end of the month! That’s right. My family and I are re-locating to Los Angeles. More news to come as we unfold a new life adventure in Cali.

David Stark in Seattle, October 2011

Green Velvet at the Showbox Market for the Decibel Festival, Seattle 2011

Last weekend was Decibel Festival in Seattle. I covered the event with Dubspot and helped the editor, Mike Walsh, interview Moby: collaborating on creating the questions, running the video and capturing a few stills. Moby was super smart, down-to-earth, and sweet. He had some great insight into the creative process. The interview will be up on Dubspot’s blog fairly soon.

UPDATE:  The full Moby interview is now up on Dubspot!

My favorite part of the interview was Moby’s insightful answer to getting past “writer’s block,” which happens to all artists.  Quoted below:
Mike Walsh: As a prolific producer you’ve completed many projects. Many people face a resistance in completing artistic projects.. a writers block.. when they want to be more productive. What advice would you give to people who are facing the problem of finishing a project?

Moby: Pretty simply.. the variables involved in any sort of creative production – whether it’s making a painting or writing a book or whatever – the trajectories are pretty simple and pretty similar. So when you’re working on a piece of music there is the musician, the equipment and there’s the audience. The question I think where a lot of resistance comes is: when do you involve the audience? There’s the literal audience and then there’s the figurative audience that exists in our heads. What inhibits a lot of people is involving that figurative audience way too soon. You must give yourself the complete creative freedom to do whatever you want.. and only start thinking about how people might respond to it when you’re ready to play it for them. Aside from that – nobody needs to hear it. So experiment and make mistakes and be imperfect.. don’t judge what you are doing. Sometimes the best ideas come from mistakes. And also.. just keep working. If I spend 100 days in a row making music there’s a chance nothing will come of it. But if I spend 100 days not making music it’s guaranteed that nothing will come of it. So keep working.