During the 1980’s synth-pop and new wave music dominated the British and American air and video waves. The new highly technological advent of keyboards and sampling changed how musicians created their sound as well as how they produced records. Bands like New Order, Devo, Asia, A Flock of Seagulls, and The Thompson Twins gave music fans a run for their money as the youth of this generation craved the edginess of video driven exposure when FM radio was about to become corporate and a MTV was an infant that helped pioneer the visual opposed to recorded talent.

After 30 years after musician and producer Thomas Dolby released his colossal hit “She Blinded Me With Science” off his debut album “The Golden Age of Wireless,” he proved and stated musically that he was intelligent and wasn’t going to let the visual medium direct his career like so many artists of the early 1980’s like Michael Jackson, Prince, The Cure, and Aerosmith that rose in the ranks to become the mega-superstars that they became. Thomas’s music was a hybrid of rock, new wave, funk, soul, and electronica. His latest recording “A Map of the Floating City,” his first in twenty years, is music based off a online game Dolby created with game designer Andrea Phillips. The game allows music fans and gamers to interact with nine different tribes and dig through cities that have been named after Dolby’s past songs. The tribe that wins will get to see a private concert of Thomas performing his new record. Dolby’s new record features guest performances by Mark Knopfler, Imogen Heap, Bruce Wooley, and Regina Spektor.

Born Thomas Morgan Robertson on October 14th, 1958, Dolby has been one of the most requested session keyboard players and producers during the late 1970‘s into the early 1980‘s. He’s backed and recorded with Foreigner, Def Leppard, David Bowie, George Clinton, Whodini, and Prefab Sprout. Over the last 30 years he’s released some of the most innovative records which include: “The Flat Earth,” “The Aliens Ate My Buick,” and “Astronauts and Heretics.”

But the musician decided to take some time off from recording and move the Silicon Valley in the early 1990’s where formed Beatnik, where his company created the polyphonic ringtone to the tune to well over 3 billion cellphone users all over the world. Dolby was also the music director for the TED Lecture series and has produced and scored endless music for television and film including “Howard the Duck,” “Toys,” “Gothic,” and “We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story.”

Thomas’s latest disc is now available and is going to begin touring with his band in early winter here in the states. To order his new disc or to play his online game, please visit him on the web at thomasdolby.com.