Having positioned his songs to promote everything from automobiles to American Express, Moby is turning into a tycoon of sorts as well as an artist.  He's currently headlining the second edition of his touring festival, Area2, and has recently opened a new café in New York’s Lower East Side. VH1 popped into the appropriately-named Teany to grab one of the few seats and ask the techno-popster about his fascination with far-flung herbal blends, his touring mates Busta Rhymes and David Bowie, and his war of words with Eminem.

VH1: Why did you open a vegetarian cafe?

Moby: Kelly [Tisdale], my partner in the restaurant, and I wanted to open up a bar. And the more we thought about it, we realized that as much as we like patronizing bars, we didn't like the idea of opening a bar because it seemed kind of unhealthy. I mean, I am grateful for the facts that bars exist, and I've bartended and I've DJ'ed and I've spent my fair share of time at bars. But opening a bar and knowing that I am responsible for creating an environment where people indulge their vices makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Whereas a place like Teany, it's bright, it's clean and a nice healthy environment. I mean, we are not health fascists. If people want to come in and smoke, they're welcome to smoke. We serve wine and beer. It's a very unconventional vegetarian restaurant in that sense.

VH1: You serve 93 teas?

Moby: At present we have 93 teas. I personally think we should have more. What I'd really like to get are some really bizarre, obscure teas. You know, like some tea that grows underneath mushrooms on the slopes of the Andes that can only be cultivated two days a year. Like, really really obscure stuff. 'Cause one of the things I love most about all our different teas is that they all have a story behind them. Like green teas that are picked on the first day of June, black teas that are grown in one part of India and flavored in another part. There's so much anecdotal stuff attached to every tea that we sell. ... I think I have become a little bit obsessed with the whole idea of tea.

VH1: How do you decide what food to serve?

Moby: The food here is phenomenal and the reason I can let myself be that arrogant or immodest is because Kelly designed the menu and I had nothing to do with it. I had one contribution. We have a Middle Eastern plate that has quinoa tabouli. Quinoa is this grain that's grown traditionally in South America. Normally, tabouli is made with couscous, but we tried doing it with quinoa; that's my one suggestion. Everything else is a product of Kelly's wit and imagination.

VH1: Where did you get the idea to run your own summer festival?

Moby: The idea for Area:One and for Area2 basically came from my experience playing other people's festivals. In 1995, I did Lollapalooza with Sonic Youth and Beck and Hole and Cypress Hill. And I had done a lot of European festivals that had been extremely eclectic. And a few years ago, I realized that we had a lot of good festivals in the U.S., but not a lot of eclectic festivals, so the impetus behind Area:One was to create something that would serve as a counterpart to those slightly more one-dimensional festivals. And when I say one-dimensional, I don't mean that in a pejorative sense. I'm not insulting them. Ozzfest is a great heavy metal festival. The Warped tour is a great punk-rock tour. I just wanted to do something that's kind of twisted and eclectic.

VH1: Even though it's eclectic, it also seems kind of hit-driven. Last year, Play had a lot of life in it, and you also had Outkast, Nelly Furtado and Incubus - they all had hits at the time, too. How important is that?

Moby: The thing is, I would love to have a traveling festival tour that had bands like Mercury Rev or Clinic or this band from San Francisco called Freescha - bands who I really love who only sell a few thousand records. But unfortunately we are talking about going out and competing with the Rolling Stones, or competing with Ozzfest or competing with the Warped Tour, so we have to have artists who are really interesting and great performers, but who are also well-known, so people will actually be willing to go out and see them.

VH1: Is it hard to get hip-hop artists on the bill, because of all the hip-hop-centric tours going on? Does it take some convincing to get somebody who's really credible like a Busta Rhymes or an Outkast?

Moby: I find that a lot of the hip-hop artists are really open to playing shows in front of people who might not otherwise come out to their concerts. Last year Outkast and the Roots seemed genuinely enthusiastic about playing in front of a different crowd of people; the same thing as Busta Rhymes [this summer]. They are very open-minded and they want to play in  front of as many different people as possible. Strangely enough, the hardest thing about doing these tours is actually getting the rock bands. Luckily, last year we had Incubus, who I love, and this year we have Ash, who a lot of people aren't familiar with, but they are a really wonderful band from Northern Ireland.

VH1: And of course David Bowie.

Moby: It's funny, I don't think - David Bowie, to me, he's just in his own genre. He's been making remarkable records for such a long time that you can't say he exists in any one genre. His genre is David Bowie.

VH1: Are you going to make any requests of him?

Moby: Because I have such respect and reverence for Bowie, it would be really hard for me to make suggestions or make requests. I kind of feel like he's the master and you let him do what he wants to do. ... I mean, if on Area 2 David Bowie were to do "Sound and Vision" or "Always Crashing in the Same Car," I would be thrilled.

VH1: What's the meaning behind your video for "Extreme Ways"?

Moby: Wayne Isham shot it. The song is sort of about degeneracy and debauchery and the perils that can attend degeneracy and debauchery. The trick to the video is that it's a five-piece band and I'm each of the band members, with the help of contemporary computer technology. So there's this big, crazy concert going on with me playing all the instruments and then underneath this stage is this insanely degenerate underworld filled with debauchery and strippers and contortionists. So it's this juxtaposition between these two worlds.

VH1: Are you already thinking of a third single from 18?

Moby: My presumptuous hope is that we are going to have four or five or six singles. The next single might be "Jam for the Ladies" or it might be "Sunday" or it might be "In This World." It's so hard to say, 'cause there's so many different types of songs [on 18]. The question is, OK, do we go with a hip-hop single or do we go with a quiet soul ballad, or do we go with a rock song? It's a fun process, but it can get kind of confusing.

VH1: I thought you had a really good sense of humor on your Web site about the Eminem dissing you [on his song "Without Me," Eminem accuses Moby of being old and out of touch, and adds, "nobody listens to techno"]. Some people would have got upset.

Moby: Well, honestly I think it's funny. I think it's genuinely funny. I mean, I do take issue with him for his lyrics that are sort of misogynistic and homophobic, but apart from that, I think he is a very interesting artist. He's a talented MC and he's right, the world of popular music is interesting because he's involved in it. So, the fact that he singled me out to dis me, more than anything else, I'm just flattered and amused.