Here's a clip of Thomas Dolby performing "She Blinded Me With Science" for Yahoo!:
Showing posts with label Thomas Dolby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Dolby. Show all posts
The Science Of The Floating City: Our Interview With Thomas Dolby
There are certain songs that immediately take you back to a certain period of time. Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" has that effect on me. When I hear the opening strains of the snake charmerish synth, I'm transported back to my childhood home, watching Thomas Dolby on the psychiatrist's chair. Today, Thomas Dolby is running a successful online game and is readying the release of a new album (A Map Of The Floating City, due October 25th). Despite his busy schedule, he was nice enough to sit down with us and discuss the new album, his online game, his past collaborations, the early days of MTV, how MTV gave his career a boost and nearly killed it, and Jessie J.
You're working on your first album in over fifteen years. How's it coming?
It's coming very well. It's more or less done and about to go off to manufacturing.
How would you describe it?
It's got a lot going on. I've been making it for nearly fifteen years. [laughs]
Actually, it hasn't been fifteen years in the making but it's been a couple. It really started when I moved back to the UK from California. There are three sections to the album, and they're quite distinct flavors. The first is called Urbanoia and has a city backdrop. I'm not really a city person. I get quite uncomfortable in cities and I can only take them for a couple of days at a time.
Amerikana is a fond recollection of the twenty-two years that I lived in the States. I became very enamored with Roots American culture, which in the UK tends to get a bit of a bad rap. But it has an authenticity to it, an indigenous quality to it which I really admire. I think the songs in Amerikana, although they nod in the direction of folk and country and even bluegrass in the case of "Toad Lickers," are clearly narrated by an Englishman on his travels. I think a lot of American folk music is passed from one person to another around the campfire, so they're all travelers, so I'm just one of those people passing through.
The last section, Oceaneer, is about returning to England to where my heart is. I have three kids and they were born while I was living in the States. To bring them back to my homeland and watch them take it all in was a very important milestone in my life, so I've been very happy and inspired since I've been back here. I have a wonderful environment here, I live right on the North Sea and I work in a converted lifeboat which is where I am this moment. [spins camera around and shows the view out of a porthole] It's right in the garden of my house, so it's a very cool place to work. It's powered by a wind turbine and solar panels, so I feel good about that as well.
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| Photo courtesy Thomas Dolby and Conqueroo |
It's coming very well. It's more or less done and about to go off to manufacturing.
How would you describe it?
It's got a lot going on. I've been making it for nearly fifteen years. [laughs]
Actually, it hasn't been fifteen years in the making but it's been a couple. It really started when I moved back to the UK from California. There are three sections to the album, and they're quite distinct flavors. The first is called Urbanoia and has a city backdrop. I'm not really a city person. I get quite uncomfortable in cities and I can only take them for a couple of days at a time.
Amerikana is a fond recollection of the twenty-two years that I lived in the States. I became very enamored with Roots American culture, which in the UK tends to get a bit of a bad rap. But it has an authenticity to it, an indigenous quality to it which I really admire. I think the songs in Amerikana, although they nod in the direction of folk and country and even bluegrass in the case of "Toad Lickers," are clearly narrated by an Englishman on his travels. I think a lot of American folk music is passed from one person to another around the campfire, so they're all travelers, so I'm just one of those people passing through.
The last section, Oceaneer, is about returning to England to where my heart is. I have three kids and they were born while I was living in the States. To bring them back to my homeland and watch them take it all in was a very important milestone in my life, so I've been very happy and inspired since I've been back here. I have a wonderful environment here, I live right on the North Sea and I work in a converted lifeboat which is where I am this moment. [spins camera around and shows the view out of a porthole] It's right in the garden of my house, so it's a very cool place to work. It's powered by a wind turbine and solar panels, so I feel good about that as well.
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