Moby, Before 'Porcelain' Broke

"Porcelain" is the name of one of Moby's most recognizable songs. It's also the name of the musician's new autobiography which, in suitably idiosyncratic fashion, chronicles the years before his ascent to global fame. So it begins with Moby returning in 1989 to the New York City of his birth as an aspiring DJ, and ends with the process of writing Play, the 1999 record that launched him to stardom. To mark the book's release, the bald-headed beats master sat down with Soundcheck's John Schaefer at the Union Square Barnes and Noble to talk about how a "distrust of joy" impacted the development of dance music, the virtues of Bob Seger, and to reveal how much he paid for his first NYC apartment.