Interview with Thomas Dolby talking about Foreigner and more!!!

January 6, 2017 6:16 AM

I remember specifically, when I created the intro to “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” I’d done it with a technique that I’d long been hoping to try out, which was basically just to sort of build yourself a Mellotron by recording a sustained note on each track of the multi-track and manipulating them in a wave to create combinations of harmonies. I’d been longing to do that for years, and I actually got to do that one night at Electric Lady and put it on the intro of “Waiting for a Girl Like You.” The band came in in the morning and I played it for them, and there was sort of a silence and then the bass player said, “It’s a bit like massage music, isn’t it?”
posted by josher71 (30 comments total)

As a side note, there's a new-ish documentary available for streaming on Hulu called, "Soundbreaking," which covers the role of the producer in popular music and growth of technology in the studio from Sam Phillips to Dr. Dre. I've watched two of the three episodes (posted so far - more to come, apparently) and have enjoyed it so far. I haven't seen anything about Thomas Dolby - yet - in the documentary, but you get a lot of George Martin, which is good enough for me.
posted by GamblingBlues at 6:50 AM on January 6, 2017 [4 favorites]

I've never managed to express my love for Dolby's music without sounding vaguely incoherent. Somebody once described his songs as being like landscapes that invite exploration, and I think that's pretty close to the experience of listening to them closely.

I imagine that every musician or band that gets tagged with the "one-hit wonder" label probably has at least one fan that feels this way, but I think Dolby's career really was poorly served by the success of "She Blinded Me With Science". I won't say it's entirely unrepresentative of his aesthetic, because he's done a few other songs that approach its level of goofy humor, but none of that material shows his craftsmanship to its best effect.

Every one of his albums has multiple songs that suggest entire narratives...you could do a killer anthology style TV series with each episode incorporating one of his songs. Doing it right would require a ridiculous budget, and the different episodes would be all over the map in terms of genre and style, and continuity between them would be suggestive and oblique rather than spelled out, and probably no one would watch the damn thing. But if I had a few spare hundred million sitting around, that's a project I would fund.
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:03 AM on January 6, 2017 [12 favorites]

I think Dolby's career really was poorly served by the success of "She Blinded Me With Science"

I totally agree. "The Flat Earth" is a gorgeous piece of work that more people should discover.
posted by davebush at 7:14 AM on January 6, 2017 [7 favorites]

tagged with the "one-hit wonder" label

He had a couple of more songs that were at least in heavy rotation at MTV: "One Of Our Submarines Is Missing", and then "Dissidents", and, I guess "Hyperactive", from his second album, "The Flat Earth". I still adore "Screen Kiss" from that record.
posted by thelonius at 7:16 AM on January 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

My favorite Dolby song is still his collaboration with the great Ryuichi Sakamoto, "Field Work." But much of his work is great, particularly "Flat Earth." He is indeed underappreciated.
posted by koeselitz at 7:20 AM on January 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

As a side note, there's a new-ish documentary available for streaming on Hulu called, "Soundbreaking," which covers the role of the producer in popular music...

I was also surprised not to see Thomas Dolby featured in the producers episode of Soundbreaking, the best episode of the series imho. Here's a clip that gives a taste of the show.
posted by fairmettle at 7:28 AM on January 6, 2017

'Europa And The Pirate Twins' remains utter brilliance.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 7:29 AM on January 6, 2017 [12 favorites]

And his cat is kind of awesome in his own way.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:03 AM on January 6, 2017

The original version of The Golden Age Of Wireless didn't have She Blinded Me With Science or One Of Our Submarines on it at all, and is a very different, cohesive, nearly concept-album sort of listen in its original configuration.

I find Thomas Dolby to be quite fascinating, and his overall catalog is nothing like what his biggest hits would suggest.
posted by hippybear at 8:55 AM on January 6, 2017 [4 favorites]

And his cat is kind of awesome in his own way.

"When he was a kitten we tried to teach him to use the toilet, using a DVD."

Some cats prefer to read.
posted by pracowity at 9:13 AM on January 6, 2017

The original version of The Golden Age Of Wireless didn't have She Blinded Me With Science or One Of Our Submarines

The version I remember fondly is the first American release. It was mixed differently, I think, maybe more ethereal and less slap you in the face, though I could be misremembering it. I haven't heard it in about 30 years.
posted by pracowity at 9:25 AM on January 6, 2017

So thanks to this I've listened to Screen Kiss a few times. It was thanks to Dolby's cover of Jungle Line that I got into Joni Mitchell, and it struck me a long time ago that it's an almost perfect Mitchell/Hissing of Summer Lawns song (I mean, imagine her singing it). I'm not sure of his production Dog Eat Dog (perhaps because I love the progression of her 70s albums so much, her synthy 80s period is a bit of a shock for me), but I'll give it another try in a minute. His Prefab Sprout production is some of the finest-sounding 80s recording that still sounds completely of its time, though.
posted by Grangousier at 9:46 AM on January 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I am not going to read this article, as I refuse to believe Thomas Dolby has or will age.

'Nuf said.
posted by Samizdata at 10:05 AM on January 6, 2017

I'm reminded of this great "video" where Godley and Cream explain recording the "synth" tracks on 10cc's "I'm Not in Love".
posted by humboldt32 at 10:19 AM on January 6, 2017 [4 favorites]

The article refers to a story in the book: "He has no shortage of entertaining stories (for example, the guy who yelled “science!” in Dolby’s 1982 hit “She Blinded Me With Science” learned that being famous isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be)".

I don't quite get it since the "guy" in question was already famous in the UK before that record and video. It was actual scientist Dr Magnus Pyke, and before the 80s even started, he was a reality TV star, OBE holder, and had been on "This is Your Life".
I do know that he got fed up of people seeing him in the street and shouting "Science!" though.
posted by w0mbat at 10:30 AM on January 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I mostly admire him for his production work, especially Prefab Sprout, but this is a good reminder to go a bit deeper.
posted by dubwisened at 11:56 AM on January 6, 2017

I love Dolby's work with a passion and really dug this article and love that there is a biography that I can pick up. In no particular order, here are my ten favorite Dolby tracks:

Airwaves
Dissidents
Pulp Culture
Europa and the Pirate Twins
Radio Silence
One of Our Submarines
I Scare Myself
Screen Kiss
The Key To Her Ferrari
Eastern Bloc

And Science is a perfectly good song, too.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:58 AM on January 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dolby's book The Speed of Sound is even more entertaining than I thought it would be, and finally explained the sad and tawdry fact about why The Flat Earth wasn't the success it should have been: it got caught in an ugly turf war between record labels and promoters. After Dolby's label fired a famous/infamous promoter, all the promoters refused to work with the label, and this was just at the time TFE came out.
posted by scruss at 12:21 PM on January 6, 2017

"And for me, that's why my sales are flat..."

I got into Dolby by accident, wandering into Virgin on Royal Parade in Plymouth and seeing an album cover done up like an old copy of Practical Wireless, and that was me sold. That I'd lucked into the one of best pop records I'd ever heard (and consider it so to this day) was quite the surprise. I got a bunch of friends into GAOW, which cuminated somehow with us singing Europa And The Pirate Twins at full voice on top of a Dartmoor tor. The Live Wireless concert video from those days is worth a look, too (Lene Lovich!).

TFE came as I was in my own synth band (a long story) and while I still listen to it today and think it has some fine songs, it just didn't have the drive and inventiveness of that wonderful first album. And it might be retrospective nostalgia, but Wireless had the best sequencing of any album of its type, at least on the original Venice In Peril UK release - the second side in particular just pulls you in deeper with every song and the Aurwaves-Radio Silence - Cloudburst on Shingle Street trio is probably my favourite fifteen minutes of pop music ever.
posted by Devonian at 1:01 PM on January 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

Even some dedicated Dolby-heads I've met aren't aware of his soundtrack to The Gate To The Mind's Eye [55m] from back in 1994. State Of The Art (for then) CGI coupled with Dolby tunes! What could be better?
posted by hippybear at 1:53 PM on January 6, 2017

The Key to Her Ferrari is one of the few songs I will unabashedly sing at the top of my lungs without fear. In public.

Much to my wife's chagrin.

For me, "Astronauts and Heretics" was a life-changing record. "I Love You, Goodbye" still grabs me in those tiny, tight muscles in the chest that make it a little harder to breathe. Just a little.
posted by Thistledown at 2:24 PM on January 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, and amazing line from the interview!

Dolby, talking about working with Bowie:

"He’d never grab a guitar from you and show you a chord or plunk out a melody on the keyboard. He would just stand in the middle of the room exuding light, and we all wanted to shine for him. It’s a very inspiring experience."
posted by Thistledown at 2:42 PM on January 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't know about "life changing" but I'll agree with Thistledown that "Astronauts and Heretics" deserves more attention than it generally gets.

As far as "The Flat Earth" goes, I only learned relatively recently that Dolby wrote "Hyperactive" hoping to sell it to Michael Jackson, which makes total sense when you listen to it. I love Dolby's version but am somewhat disappointed that Jackson didn't take him up on the offer, because I believe it would have been awesome.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:50 PM on January 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I got into Thomas Dolby when album rock FM stations were the big thing. His music had more of a "deep cut" vibe than a Top 40 one.

It was surprising to me recently to read him described as a "one-hit wonder" since I have four of his albums.
posted by fuse theorem at 5:37 PM on January 6, 2017

think Dolby's career really was poorly served by the success of "She Blinded Me With Science". I won't say it's entirely unrepresentative of his aesthetic,

"Aliens ate my Buick" is amazing.
posted by mikelieman at 3:09 AM on January 7, 2017

Aliens Ate My Buick was produced by Bill Bottrell, since production is kind of a theme to this post - one of the best of his generation. Also responsible for Toy Matinee, & the Tuesday Night Music Club cohered around him.

I recently spent a couple of weeks untangling Budapest By Blimp & man, what a song. You really have to spend some time getting familiar with the arrangement to appreciate what is going on there. Very dense & dark, but it progresses sonically through each verse & chorus in a subtle way that catches you off guard. Headphones on, eyes closed material.

Needless to say I've been a huge Dolby fan since day one - I already had the American release of Golden Age of Wireless when they re-released it with Science, & I had to pull my car over to the side of the road the first time I heard One Of Our Submarines. Brilliant song.

Everyone has their own favorites, but the high point of The Flat Earth for me is his spellbinding cover of I Scare Myself. Hypnotic.

His "new" album is worth owning too - it's a grower, but it's still growing on me in a good way.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:31 AM on January 7, 2017

I will just say, though, that The Speed Of Sound is not yet available on Kindle, which is the only way I can read books these days, so bah humbug to the silly sausage Dolby.
posted by Devonian at 10:47 AM on January 8, 2017

Every now and then I fire up the Fairlight app, now called Peter Vogel CMI on my iPhone and think, "make Thomas Dolby music!" but it doesn't work. (Oh, the app works fine, though.)
posted by lagomorphius at 12:28 PM on January 8, 2017

I especially enjoy Dolby's May The Cube Be With You, with the good Dr Funkenstein.
posted by On the Corner at 1:35 AM on January 10, 2017

Nobody mentioned the Mirror Song from the Toys soundtrack, so I feel obligated: YouTube Link
posted by hoborg at 11:55 AM on January 11, 2017