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Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson; 14 October 1958)(Top tracks) is an Englishmusician and producer. Best known for his 1982 hit "She Blinded Me with Science", and 1984 single "Hyperactive!" he has also worked extensively in production and as a session musician.
Dolby is associated with "New Pop" or "New Wave" of the early 1980s, a form of pop music incorporating electronic instruments, but Dolby's work covers a wide range of musical styles and moods distinct from the high-energy pop sound of his few, better-known commercial successes.
Personal life
Robertson was born in London, England, contrary to information in early 1980s press releases that reported his birthplace as Cairo, Egypt. His father, Martin Robertson, was an internationally distinguished professor of classical Greek art and archaeology at the University of London and Oxford University, and in his youth Thomas lived or worked in France, Italy and Greece. He attended Abingdon School in 1975-76, completing his A Levels whilst there. Thomas Dolby spoke of his early musical experiences in a 2012 interview:
"I sang in a choir when I was 10 or 11, and learned to sightread single lines, but other than that I don't have a formal education. I picked up the guitar initially, playing folk tunes – Dylan – then I graduated to piano when I got interested in jazz, listening to people like Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, and so on. The first electronic instruments started to become accessible in the mid-70s and I got my hands on a kit built synthesizer and never looked back."
He married actress Kathleen Beller in 1988; the couple have three children together.
Dolby is member No. 00001 of the current incarnation of the Flat Earth Society, a pseudoscientific group.
Stage name
The Thomas Dolby stage name originated from a nickname that Thomas picked up around the age of 13. Thomas was always messing around with keyboards and tapes and the like, so his friends nicknamed him Dolby, which came from the name Dolby Laboratories. Later, when Thomas was 18 or 19 years old, British singer Tom Robinson was popular, so the then-Thomas Robertson chose to adopt the stage name "Thomas Dolby" to avoid confusion. Early publicity implied that "Dolby" was a middle name, and that the artist's full name was Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson; this is not true, but he does sometimes informally go by the initials TMDR.
After the release of "She Blinded Me With Science", Dolby Laboratories expressed concern regarding the musician's stage name. Dolby's record label refused to make him change his name, and Dolby Labs didn't raise the issue again until later. After a lengthy legal battle, the court decided that Dolby Labs had no right to restrict the musician from using the name. It was agreed that the musician wouldn't release any electronic equipment using the name. (Coincidentally, inventor/founder Dr. Ray Dolby has a son named Thomas).
Solo music career
The Golden Age of Wireless
Originally released in the UK and US including the songs "Europa and the Pirate Twins", "Airwaves", and "Radio Silence", the first releases of Dolby's first solo album, The Golden Age of Wireless (Harvest, 1982) did not include the album's signature hit, "She Blinded Me With Science". After the five-song EP "Blinded By Science" introduced the catchy single, "The Golden Age Of Wireless", was subsequently re-released with the single that, combined with its accompanying video, became Dolby's most commercially successful single, reaching No. 5 on The Billboard Hot 100. The album was released a total of five times, each with changes in song order and included songs, or even including a different version of "Radio Silence" or extended remix of "She Blinded Me With Science".
Dolby's debut album, Wireless peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Album Chart. It juxtaposed themes of radio technology, aircraft, and naval submarines with those of relationships and nostalgia. While much of the album's instrumentation is synthesizers and samplers, the album credits a long list of guest musicians as well, with instruments ranging from harmonica and violin to guitar and percussion.
"She Blinded Me with Science" included sound samples from Dr. Magnus Pyke. The song reached No. 5 on the U.S.Hot 100. A short sample was included in the "Treehouse of Horror XIV" episode of The Simpsons, where Professor Frink was winning an award at a science convention. It was also sampled at a lower speed by the group Mobb Deep in the 2006 song "Got it Twisted".[10] "She Blinded Me With Science" was also used as the theme song for the pilot episode of broadcast television sitcom The Big Bang Theory though it wasn't used for later episodes (it was, however, later used in that show as Howard's cell phone ringtone in the season 2 episode "The Vegas Renormalization" and season 3 episode "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary".)
Dolby's Cube
Beginning in 1983, Dolby collaborated with a number of artists in an occasional studio-bound project called Dolby's Cube. The project had no set line-up, and was essentially a forum for Dolby to release material that was more dance-oriented. Dolby's Cube released a single in 1983 ("Get Out Of My Mix"), another in 1985 ("May The Cube Be With You"), and did soundtrack work for the film "Howard The Duck" in 1986. Collaborators in Dolby's Cube at various junctures included Lene Lovich, George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic, Francois Kevorkian, and Lea Thompson.
The Flat Earth
In 1984, Dolby released his second LP, The Flat Earth (Capitol), which peaked at No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart and at No. 35 on the Billboard Album Chart in the US. Utilizing a wide range of influences ranging from nostalgic Jazz, funk-tinged Motown R&B, and World Music, along with a strong electronic element and featuring a slew of guest musicians, including longtime Dolby collaborator Matthew Seligman on bass, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, and Cliff Brigden on percussion, and guest vocals from Robyn Hitchcock, Bruce Woolley and others, The Flat Earth further established Dolby's wide range of talents as musician, songwriter, and producer. The album also included a cover of the Dan Hicks song "I Scare Myself".
"Hyperactive!", originally written for Michael Jackson, was the first and most successful single from the album, peaking at No. 17 on the UK Singles Chart, making it Dolby's highest-charting single in his home country.
Aliens Ate My Buick
In contrast to the overall introverted nature of The Flat Earth, Dolby's described his next release, Aliens Ate My Buick (1988) in the following quote: "I think it's very bold. Some people who've known my stuff from the beginning find it a bit hard to stomach. They think it's a bit brash. It's certainly unsubtle in a lot of ways. It goes for the jugular. There was always a side to the stuff that I did that was very extroverted and wacky. The flip side of the coin was the more atmospheric, moody stuff. There was always room for both of them. But this album, with the exception of maybe one song ["Budapest by Blimp"], is all on the extrovert side."
Aliens Ate My Buick was strongly funk and dance influenced. The first single was "Airhead", a satirical song about a stereotypical young-and-rich Californian woman, which peaked at No. 53. The second single, "Hot Sauce", a cover of a George Clinton song, peaked at No. 60. There was one more single, "My Brain Is Like A Sieve", which peaked at No. 80 on the Billboard Album Chart. The album was co-produced by Bill Bottrell, and featured Terry Jackson on bass guitar.
Astronauts And Heretics
For Astronauts & Heretics (Virgin U.K.), Dolby expanded even further stylistically, starting the songwriting process at the piano, then again collaborating with a variety of guest musicians. Both Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia played guitar on "The Beauty Of A Dream". Eddie Van Halen plays on "Eastern Bloc" and "Close But No Cigar". Other collaborators included Jimmy Z on sax, Budgie on drums and Leland Sklar on bass guitar. Terry Jackson also contributed bass guitar on four songs before his untimely 1991 death in a plane accident with seven other members of Reba McEntire's support band for her "For My Broken Heart" tour. The Funk/Guaracha rhythm guitar on "That's Why People Fall In Love" was delivered by Acid Latin creator Thomas Guzman-Sanchez of Rhythm Tribe (VRL MUZIC)
The highest-charting song off this album was "Close But No Cigar", which reached No. 22 on the UK charts.
Two other songs on the album, "I Love You Goodbye", and "Silk Pyjamas" employed Zydeco-influences, courtesy of Crowley, Louisiana and guest musicians Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil on violin, Wayne Toups on accordion, and even banjo. Even though some recording for the album was done in remote locations, the bulk of Astronauts And Heretics was recorded at NRG Recording Studios with input from trusted Dolby co-producer Bill Bottrell, and mixed down at Smoke Tree Studios in Chatsworth, California.
The Sole Inhabitant
Following his involvement in Beatnik Inc, Dolby returned to his musical career in 2006. He performed his first solo public show in 15 years at the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco, California on January 21, 2006, surprising the crowd who were there to see local band Notorious. He then launched an American tour, the Sole Inhabitant Tour, on April 12, comprising a string of small dates in California, a mall opening in Boulder, Colorado, and gigs across America before receptive crowds.
The United States leg of the "Sole Inhabitant Tour 2006" was captured on a "live" CD and DVD. The CD represents a recording of two gigs played by Dolby at Martyrs in Chicago, while the DVD was filmed at the Berklee Performance Center at Berklee College of Music. The DVD also includes a 30-minute interview, and a lecture by Dolby at the Berklee College Of Music. Both the CD and DVD were released in November 2006, and are distributed through CD Baby and iTunes. Dolby autographed and numbered the first 1,000 copies of the CD and DVD.
A show at the 800 capacity Scala club in London was booked for July 3, 2006 as a warm-up for Dolby's Hyde Park set opening for Depeche Mode. The show sold out in a matter of days and prompted Dolby to reprioritise the UK, resulting in him moving with his family from California back to England, and a nine-date Sole Inhabitant tour of the UK in October 2007, coinciding with the release of a lavish box set of the Sole Inhabitant CD and DVD by UK independent label Invisible Hands Music.
Thomas toured throughout the months of November and December 2006 with electronic musician BT. This tour included a version of "Airwaves" that BT added his own technique to, which was the opening song on the UK leg of the Sole Inhabitant tour (sans BT).
Thomas Dolby's March 15, 2007 performance at the SxSW festival was released as the live EP "Thomas Dolby & The Jazz Mafia Horns, Live at SxSW" (with musicians from San Francisco's Jazz Mafia collective, through iTunes and on CD Baby.)
The 2007 UK Sole Inhabitant tour included three new songs previously played on the US tour, one called "Your Karma Hit My Dogma" another called "Jealous Thing" and a cover version of The Special AKA's "What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend". "Your Karma Hit My Dogma" was inspired by Kevin Federline's unauthorised use of a sample from Mobb Deep's "Got It Twisted" which in turn had used an authorised sample of "She Blinded Me with Science". The tag-line from that story became the title of the song. The wording was lifted by Thomas from a bumper sticker on a car that he saw whilst living in the San Francisco Bay area. In a move close to performance art, Dolby tried to post a 'cease and desist' legal letter on Kevin Federline's MySpace page when other attempts to contact him proved fruitless.[17][18] The song is on the Live at SxSW EP.
The second new song, "Jealous Thing" was performed at least at The Graduate in Cambridge and London's Islington Academy on the UK tour in Summer 2007 and features a Bossa-Nova type rhythm.
2009 re-Issues
A CD + DVD set entitled The Singular Thomas Dolby has been released by EMI on May 18, 2009. As the name suggests it is a digitally remastered compilation of previously released singles. The DVD contains all the video singles which were available on the original VHS/BETA/LASERDISC release of The Golden Age Of Video, as well as the videos for the songs "Silk Pyjamas", "I Love You Goodbye", and "Close But No Cigar". These three missing videos are for the singles taken from the 1992 album Astronauts & Heretics, which received critical acclaim but garnered unimpressive sales.
The Golden Age Of Wireless and The Flat Earth were reissued and remastered later that year with numerous previously unreleased bonus tracks. The former was a two disc set including a DVD of the complete "Live Wireless" video.
A Map Of The Floating City
In 2010 Dolby began work on a new studio album entitled A Map of the Floating City. The album is divided into three parts, with the first two parts initially made available to members of The Flat Earth Society, Dolby's online community.Each of the three digital EPs takes its name from one of the three sections of the full-length album that later followed. The first EP, Amerikana, was released digitally on June 16, 2010. The second EP is entitled Oceanea, and was released on November 29, 2010. Due to favorable reviews and radio airplay, Oceanea was released commercially on March 28, 2011. The third section of the album, entitled Urbanoia,was not released as a download or physical CD, but the songs were premiered online as part of the Floating City game (see below).
Contributors to the album include Kevin Armstrong, Matthew Seligman (both had played together with him on The Flat Earth and as part of David Bowie's Live Aid appearance), Bruce Woolley, drummer Liam Genockey, guitarist Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Regina Spektor, Natalie MacMaster, Eddi Reader, and Imogen Heap.
In a 2010 press release he was quoted as saying:
"I marvel at the new landscape of the music business — distribution via the Internet and recording technologies I barely dreamed of when I started out," he continues. "But this album does not sound electronic at all. I have zero desire to add to the myriad of machine-based, synth-driven grooves out there. The Net has made a music career approachable for thousands of bands — but I hear too few single-minded voices among them. What I do best is write songs, tell stories." "The new songs are organic and very personal," says Dolby. "This album is a travelogue across three imaginary continents. In Amerikana I'm reflecting with affection on the years I spent living in the USA, and my fascination with its roots music. Urbanoia is a dark place, a little unsettling ... I'm not a city person. And in Oceanea I return to my natural home on the windswept coastline.[19]
A Map Of The Floating City was recorded in the "Nutmeg Of Consolation", Dolby's recording studio built within a 1930s lifeboat and powered entirely by renewable energy, which is located in the garden of Dolby's beach house on England's North Sea coast.[19]
Map Of The Floating City game
In June 2011 Dolby announced the Map Of The Floating City game, a multiplayer online game that shares a title with the full-length album release planned to follow after the game's conclusion. In Dolby's own words, "The Floating City is set against a dystopian vision of the 1940s that might have existed had WWII turned out a lot differently." Survivors explore a fictional Google map, forming tribes and trading relics amidst a bizarre sea-going barter society. As they struggle to unravel the enigma that is The Floating City, players can haggle over merchandise and music downloads — including brand new songs from A Map of the Floating City, Dolby’s first album in 20 years, scheduled to be released following the climax of the game." The game was played from June through August 2011, and included elements of trading, mystery, competition, and cooperation. Players earned free song downloads, and the winning team or "tribe" was awarded a private performance from Dolby.
Design West
英音乐家Thomas Dolby畅谈科技乐海浮沉
技术不仅为音乐产业开启了惊人的无限机会，也相对地制造了一些问题，Thomas Dolby说。Thomas Dolby最有名的单曲就是1980年代的《She Blinded Me with Science》排行金曲，他也在此次Design West 2012专题演说上现场演奏这首曲子。
“你曾经必须花费数百万美元，只为了有机会在歌迷面前表演，”Thomas Dolby回忆道：“当我在17岁开始出道时...必须先送录制的音乐卡带给唱片公司的艺人经纪部门(A&R)，然后争取到广播电台播放的机会，还有其他更多相关的细节都必须先行到位，”他说。
而今，通过网络就可以造就一夕成名的明星以及目标观众。“音乐产业将会变成与幕后音乐经纪人进行一场当日交易一样”，并透过社交网络工具来打造粉丝群。”Thomas Dolby在答覆与会者问时表示。
Thomas Dolby还为他最近的新专辑开发了一个以Web为基础的神秘游戏The Floating City──这里已经成为他11,000位粉丝试图解开谜团的讨论空间。
电子音乐时代从1980年代初一开始就困难重重，Thomas Dolby就在此时展开他在新时代的音乐生涯。“电子乐器相当庞大，很难调音准，也相当昂贵，”他强调自己最早的一台电子合成键盘大小就像冰箱一样。
Thomas Dolby在Design West 2012上展示他的第一台电子合成键盘
大约在商用互联网诞生之际，Thomas Dolby从Paul Allen创办的Interval Research公司获得了一年的赞助，致力于探索一些音乐与科技交互关系的概念。1993年，Thomas Dolby的Headspace公司即在此基础下成立，致力于开发Beatnik音频引擎──Thomas Dolby形容它是软件的声霸卡(soundblaster)。
Thomas Dolby在1994年拜访了Netscape创始人Jim Clark与Marc Andreessen，试着说服他们在其网页浏览器中加入对于音效的支持。“但这些公司说如果在载入页面时还得多花时间载入音乐，那么等待的时间就太长了，”Thomas Dolby说。
尽管面对这样的阻力，Thomas Dolby的Headspace公司后来仍取得了诺基亚公司的支持，为其手机的和弦铃声进行编码。这家手机巨头当时想与日本手机业者竞争──日本厂商采用了一种可提供和弦铃声的音效芯片。忽然之间，这为Headspace公司开启了一个充满机会的新市场。
“在2005年以前，大多数的手机制造商均授权Beatnik和弦铃声，大约为我们创造了10亿美元的业务规模”，这还不包括大型唱片公司，Thomas Dolby说。
Headspace后来又在和弦铃声中加入音乐样本，开发出Rich Media Format的新规格。
“我们也在无意间将大型录音公司带入战局，”Thomas Dolby说。他们并曾与电信业者共同合作，致力于崭断所有的山寨版手机铃声；然而也就在那几年内，由于无线网络传输性能不足，无法处理完整的歌曲传输，使他们为和弦铃声擘划的远景也划下了句点。
就在2008年，Thomas Dolby已从高科技产业退休，并且搬回到英国了，现在他正重新出发，期望再次展开新的音乐旅程。
《电子工程专辑》
