Thomas Dolby

Thomas Dolby

Thomas Dolby is an English musician, producer and songwriter from London, born Thomas Morgan Robertson in 1958. His work is associated with electronic music, new wave, synth-pop, art pop, pop, pop rock, punk and rock. He is known for combining synthesizers and samplers with catchy pop and electro-funk, and for presenting himself as a “mad scientist” figure in his solo career.

Early career

Before his solo work, Dolby works as a studio musician, technician and songwriter. As a teenager he also works as a live sound engineer, mixing acts including The Fall and The Members with a PA system he builds himself. He then forms Camera Club, also known as Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club, with Bruce Woolley, Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Matthew Seligman. He leaves the group within a year and joins Lene Lovich’s backing band, later giving her the song “New Toy”, which becomes a British hit in 1981.

Solo recordings and major songs

Dolby releases his first solo single, “Urges”, on the independent label Armageddon in 1981, then signs to Parlophone and issues “Europa and the Pirate Twins” later that year. He begins playing synthesizer on other artists’ sessions in 1982, including Def Leppard’s Pyromania, Joan Armatrading’s Walk Under Ladders, and Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, where he plays the recognisable keyboard line after the chorus. In the same period, he also works with New York rappers Whodini on “Magic’s Wand”, an early hip hop track that sells over a million copies.

His first album, The Golden Age of Wireless, appears in 1982 and reaches number 13. It includes “Windpower”, his first UK Top 40 hit, along with “The Airwaves” and “One of Our Submarines”. In 1983 he releases the EP Blinded by Science, which includes “She Blinded Me with Science”, his best-known song, with a cameo vocal by Magnus Pike and a video appearance by Pike as well. The song becomes a major US hit through heavy MTV airplay and reaches number five in the United States. A resequenced version of The Golden Age of Wireless is later reissued in the US and also reaches number 13 there.

His second album, The Flat Earth, follows in 1984 and includes “Dissidents”, the title track, “Screen Kiss”, a cover of Dan Hicks’ “I Scare Myself”, and “Hyperactive”, which becomes his biggest UK hit, peaking at number 17. Guest vocalist Adele Bertei appears on “Hyperactive”.

Production, film work and collaborations

During 1985 Dolby works with Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield and Herbie Hancock. He also produces George Clinton’s Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen and Joni Mitchell’s Dog Eat Dog, and serves as musical director for David Bowie at Live Aid. He begins composing film scores in 1985 with Fever Pitch, then scores Gothic and Howard the Duck in 1986. For the latter two he uses the credit Dolby’s Cube, a name that leads to legal action from Dolby Labs.

His third album, Aliens Ate My Buick, appears in 1988 and includes the minor UK hit “Airhead”. In 1992 he releases Astronauts and Heretics, which features guest appearances by Eddie Van Halen, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ofra Haza. The album includes “Cruel”, a duet with Fairground Attraction’s Eddie Reader, as well as “I Love You Goodbye”, “I Live in a Suitcase”, “Close But No Cigar” and “Beauty of a Dream”.

Later work, technology and live performance

In 1993 Dolby founds the Silicon Valley software company Headspace, which releases The Virtual String Quartet as its first program. He also pioneers technology for music on mobile phones. In 1994 he releases The Gate to the Mind’s Eye, a soundtrack to the animated short film Mind’s Eye, and Capitol issues the compilation Retrospectacle.

After a long gap in live work, he returns to touring in 2006 with the Sole Inhabitant solo tour across North America and the UK. The performances recreate earlier material from scratch and use a camera mounted on his head to project his viewpoint on a screen. Invisible Hands Music releases a CD and DVD box set from the tour. He later releases A Map of the Floating City, a studio album built around three thematic sections: Urbanoia, Amerikana and Oceanea. The music is first presented as download EPs through his online community and is previewed by an interactive transmedia game called FloatingCity.com.

Dolby continues to tour as a solo artist and with changing band line-ups. He is married to actress Kathleen Beller.