04-03-2024, 10:57 PM
Thomas Dolby's autobiography about his stint in the music biz and his second career in tech.
My neighbor recommended it and loaned it to me. I really like a bunch of tracks of his first album, Golden Age of Wireless, but not much else (although Hyperactive is an earworm).
He begins with his pre and early career seeing a lot of bands in London. So much name dropping. I did not know his connections to Lena Lovich... Then he talks about rescuing a synth from the dumpster behind a music equipment company near the Thames and cobbling together bits of songs. He records some demos and some manager type screws him so he has to start again...but his unreleased demos get around and Foreigner, who are recording in New York, want him to play, so he crosses the pond. I knew he played keyboard on the song "Urgent", but I didn't know he actually plays quite a lot on the rest of that album too. He describes one interesting idea they tried where they played individual notes of a chord, one on each track, then using the mixing board, they could change the voicing of the chord. It made me think of how Steely Dan layered Michael McDonald's vocals for the background in "Peg".
He comes back, figures out his issues w/his manager, then records GAoW to minor success. It goes from there, but he never gets into too much depth. It's not a very insightful reflection. More of a recounting of events.
That said, there was another interesting tidbit: early on, he got some console/device that Tangerine Dream had used to control their stage lights. He reworked it to drive his drum and bass parts.
He gets much more success w/She Blinded Me with Science and videos, but his next album tanks because of some record company battles.
Lots of money in the hole, and tired and on the hook for the next 10 albums, he moves to LA and tries to do other things, like soundtracks. He worked a lot on Howard the Duck, so he's not having a lot of successes. But working with Lucasfilm, he gets more connected with Silicon Valley just at the time that the internet is invented by Al Gore.
He switches careers and tries to get in on the first floor of internet audio. Having lived thru that era and been pretty closely tied to it, I sort of expected he would name drop people I knew or business I worked adjacent to...but no.
Again, he seems more like a cheerleader/visioneer, rather than a nerdy engineer. (He kinda comes off irritating and impulsive IMHO). That career has twists and turns, and in the end, they pivot into custom ringtones for Nokia phones. Boop beep boop!
Not recommended...
--tg
My neighbor recommended it and loaned it to me. I really like a bunch of tracks of his first album, Golden Age of Wireless, but not much else (although Hyperactive is an earworm).
He begins with his pre and early career seeing a lot of bands in London. So much name dropping. I did not know his connections to Lena Lovich... Then he talks about rescuing a synth from the dumpster behind a music equipment company near the Thames and cobbling together bits of songs. He records some demos and some manager type screws him so he has to start again...but his unreleased demos get around and Foreigner, who are recording in New York, want him to play, so he crosses the pond. I knew he played keyboard on the song "Urgent", but I didn't know he actually plays quite a lot on the rest of that album too. He describes one interesting idea they tried where they played individual notes of a chord, one on each track, then using the mixing board, they could change the voicing of the chord. It made me think of how Steely Dan layered Michael McDonald's vocals for the background in "Peg".
He comes back, figures out his issues w/his manager, then records GAoW to minor success. It goes from there, but he never gets into too much depth. It's not a very insightful reflection. More of a recounting of events.
That said, there was another interesting tidbit: early on, he got some console/device that Tangerine Dream had used to control their stage lights. He reworked it to drive his drum and bass parts.
He gets much more success w/She Blinded Me with Science and videos, but his next album tanks because of some record company battles.
Lots of money in the hole, and tired and on the hook for the next 10 albums, he moves to LA and tries to do other things, like soundtracks. He worked a lot on Howard the Duck, so he's not having a lot of successes. But working with Lucasfilm, he gets more connected with Silicon Valley just at the time that the internet is invented by Al Gore.
He switches careers and tries to get in on the first floor of internet audio. Having lived thru that era and been pretty closely tied to it, I sort of expected he would name drop people I knew or business I worked adjacent to...but no.
Again, he seems more like a cheerleader/visioneer, rather than a nerdy engineer. (He kinda comes off irritating and impulsive IMHO). That career has twists and turns, and in the end, they pivot into custom ringtones for Nokia phones. Boop beep boop!
Not recommended...
--tg
