Dolby promoted himself as a kind of mad scientist, an egghead that had successfully harnessed the power of synthesizers and samplers, using them to make catchy pop and electro-funk. Before he launched his solo career, Dolby had already worked as a studio musician, technician, and songwriter. After starting out as a teenaged live sound man, mixing The Fall, The Members and others using a PA he built himself, he formed the arty post-punk band Camera Club (also known as Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club) with Bruce Woolley, Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Matthew Seligman. Within a year, he had left the group and joined Lene Lovich’s backing band and gave her his song "New Toy", which became a British hit in 1981. That same year, he released his first solo single, "Urges", on the English independent label Armageddon. By the autumn, he had signed with Parlophone and released "Europa and the Pirate Twins", which nearly cracked the UK Top 40.
Dolby started playing synthesizer on sessions for other artists in 1982. That year, he played keyboards on Def Leppard’s Pyromania and Joan Armatrading’s Walk Under Ladders. His most distinctive session credit is that keyboard line after the chorus on Foreigner’s "Waiting for a Girl Like You". In that eventful summer, Dolby also collaborating with New York rappers Whodini to create "Magic’s Wand" – a pivotal early hip hop track (the first rap single to shift 1 million copies), and it also single-handedly started the new jack swing movement.
Even with all of these achievements, 1982 was most noteworthy for the release of Dolby’s first solo album, The Golden Age of Wireless, in the summer of 1982, the landmark album reaching number 13. "Windpower", the first single from the record, became his first Top 40 UK hit in the late summer. Other cuts from the album include "The Airwaves", and "One of Our Submarines", a meditation on the futility of empire.
In January of 1983, Dolby released an EP, Blinded by Science, which includes what would become his most well-known track, "She Blinded Me with Science" featuring a cameo vocal appearance by the notorious British eccentric Magnus Pike, who also appeared in the song’s video. "She Blinded Me with Science" was a minor hit in England, but the EP and the single became a major American hit in 1983, thanks to MTV’s heavy airplay of the video. Eventually, the song reached number five on the US charts and it was included on a resequenced and reissued version of The Golden Age of Wireless, which peaked at number 13 in America.
The Flat Earth, Dolby's second album, appeared in early 1984, and harkens back to a time when songs mattered more than the video, even as MTV was discovering its strength. Opening with "Dissidents", conjuring up images of blacklisted authors and ugly snow, gray from oppression, with Matthew Seligman’s bass at the fore, lavish, growling, popping through octaves, funk-a-fied and twinkling with harmonics throughout the album. The title track is an R&B daydream of piano and Motown stabs of rhythm guitar. "Screen Kiss" has a similarly ethereal quality, and the lyrics are lush with imagery. The cover of Dan Hicks’ 1967 "I Scare Myself" is a balmy jazz club cocktail – faithfully nostalgic, right down to a bittersweet trombone solo from Peter Thomas. "Hyperactive" is one part bizarre to two parts infectious; guest vocalist Adele Bertei fuels the fire to what was already destined to be a memorable diversion beyond the reach of Top 40. The single became Thomas’ biggest UK hit, peaking at number 17.
During 1985, Dolby collaborated with artists including Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield and Herbie Hancock; and notched up some more high-concept production credits. George Clinton's Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen, and Joni Mitchell’s Dog Eat Dog were all midwifed by Dolby, who also was musical director for David Bowie at Live Aid. Also in 1985, he began composing film scores, starting with Fever Pitch. In 1986, he composed the scores for Gothic and Howard the Duck, for which he credited himself as Dolby's Cube. (That credit led to a lawsuit from the Dolby Labs, who eventually prohibited the musician from using the name "Dolby" in conjunction with any other name than "Thomas.")
Aliens Ate My Buick, Dolby's long-delayed third album, appeared in 1988 to a mixed reaction, although "Airhead" became a minor British hit. That same year, Dolby married actress Kathleen Beller. For the rest of the late 80s and early 90s, Dolby continued to score films, producing and building his own computer equipment.
1992’s Astronauts and Heretics, features guest stars such as Eddie Van Halen, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ofra Haza. The album opens with "I Love You Goodbye", one of Thomas’ most evocative songs, and ends with "Beauty of a Dream" which is also a contender for that honour. Highlights found inbetween include "Cruel" (a duet with Fairground Attraction’s Eddie Reader), "I Live in a Suitcase" and "Close But No Cigar".
The following year, Dolby founded the computer software company Headspace in Silicon Valley, releasing The Virtual String Quartet as its first program, and also pioneered technology for music on mobile phones. For the rest of the 90s, Headspace occupied most of Dolby's time and energy. In 1994, he released The Gate to the Mind’s Eye, a soundtrack to the animated short film Mind’s Eye. Also that year, Capitol released the greatest-hits collection, Retrospectacle.
Thirteen years after Astronauts and Heretics, Dolby returned to live performance in 2006 with his solo Sole Inhabitant tour, which covered North America and the UK, with Thomas recreating the highlights of his earlier work from scratch, with a camera mounted like a miner’s lamp on his head, and a big screen showing the view from the artist, turning what would be a fairly dull one-man-and-a-rack-of-synths into a fascinating audio visual experience and an unintended masterclass for music technology students.
UK indie label Invisible Hands Music released a CD and DVD box set recorded on the Sole Inhabitant tour. These fresh and modern reinterpretations of Thomas’ work to date precedes a new studio album due in 2008, which is as-yet untitled, but does include a song about Britney’s ex Kevin Federline (“K-Fed”) who used an uncleared sample from "She Blinded Me with Science" and did not respond to legal approaches until a ‘cease-and-desist’ was posted in the comments field of his MySpace page. That song is called "My Karma Hit Your Dogma", and bodes well for a mighty return to form, combining Thomas’ humour and intelligence with a unique musical vision.
2011 saw Dolby get busy by returning with a new studio album A Map of the Floating City on 29 October. The album is broken down into three genres of Urbanoia's tales of city experiences; Amerikana as Dolby's take on his years living in America and it's roots music; and Oceanea: songs of life by the sea in his home country of England. The music was debuted first as download EPs to Dolby's online community and then previewed by a transmedia interactive game also called the FloatingCity.com.
Thomas Dolby is taking the music back on tour as a solo artist and with varying line-ups of bands, doing two tours of the UK in 2011, and has his first trip to Australia in February 2012 followed by dates in Japan. In March Dolby kicks off the Time-Capsule.tv tour at the SxSW Festival in Austin playing dates in USA and Canada through April. He will have a trailer parked at venues on his tour where you can produce a 30 second video offering words of wisdom to whoever will be walking the earth in the future. Dolby wants to give people a chance to “explain to an alien visitor what went wrong with our civilization. Our species may not be around on this planet much longer, so you might as well leave a welcome message for the next guys.”
Oceanea
Thomas Dolby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ricochet around the room
I hurry home to lick my wounds
I stumble home to Oceanear
A nightingale
Sat above my mother's tomb
Twilight in the afternoon
Not far from here
On some other Eco zone
The crocuses are still in bloom
I stumble home to Oceanear
Yeah
And I am free
I'm soaring on a thermal wind
I'm learning how to shed my skin
I made it home to Oceanear
The lyrics of Thomas Dolby's song "Oceanea" tell a narrative of a protagonist who finds solace in the sea, or Oceanear, after being struck by cannonballs in his home. The sound of the ricocheting cannonballs around the room creates chaos, and the singer's wounds are physical and metaphorical. He seeks comfort in the sea and heads home to Oceanear. The nightingale on his mother's tomb adds to the melancholy sentiments, evoking imagery of twilight in the afternoon. Yet, the crocuses in bloom in some other Eco zone give hope for renewal and new beginnings. The singer finds freedom and a sense of rebirth in the sea. He is soaring on a thermal wind, and he feels empowered to shed his skin and start anew.
The lyrical interpretation of "Oceanea" is open to many meanings, and it resonates with its listeners in different ways. However, it is possible to think of it as an analogy of humans' vulnerability in the face of political and social turmoil. The cannonballs could represent the violence and chaos that individuals experience in their homes or society. Seeking refuge in the sea, which symbolizes renewal and strength, can provide a reprieve from the hardships of life.
Line by Line Meaning
Cannonballs
Unexpected and damaging situations arise
Ricochet around the room
These situations are causing chaos and destruction
I hurry home to lick my wounds
I seek comfort and solace after facing these challenges
I stumble home to Oceanear
My home, Oceanear, is a place of safety where I can heal
A nightingale
Symbolizes the beauty and fragility of life
Sat above my mother's tomb
A reminder of loss and mortality
Twilight in the afternoon
A moment of transition and change
I stumble home to Oceanear
I seek refuge and comfort in my home, Oceanear
Not far from here
Despite the challenges I face, I am surrounded by beauty and hope
On some other Eco zone
There are other places in the world with their own unique beauty and wonder
The crocuses are still in bloom
Nature continues to thrive and renew itself
I stumble home to Oceanear
Despite everything, I find my way back to my peaceful home, Oceanear
Yeah
Expresses a sense of triumph and determination
And I am free
I have found a sense of liberation and inner peace
I'm soaring on a thermal wind
I am experiencing a sense of exhilaration and freedom
I'm learning how to shed my skin
I am evolving and growing, shedding old fears and limitations
I made it home to Oceanear
I have arrived at a place of safety and peace
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Thomas Morgan Robertson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Utopianx8x
I feel so many emotions listening to this beautiful composition. Dear God thank you Thomas Dolby for bringing something lovely into this world.
@jwccornock
Dolby is one of the most talented song writers alive. Vastly underrated.
@berndtbridges
I’m a fool for ever doubting you’d ever write a song to rival ‘Screen Kiss’, Thomas. This is sublime.
@davidalbanez590
Anyone who can write on song like Oceanea is a genius.
@mmklassen
The remixes of this piece are just as fantastic as this. I regularly play this on repeat rotation and oh how it transports me to a wonderful place.
@elevenstar
The song and the sound makes me cry... - amazing and so touching! Thank you Thomas Dolby for your wonderful songs during the 80's, 90's... - till yet!
@dylanmorgan7027
The most beautiful song that I have ever heard. I sincerely mean that.
@lonedrone
This is just beautiful... Could be the best thing he's ever written. Very unexpected and incredibly inspiring.
@Markknott29
Mr. D.
I’ve been an admirer of your talent for a long time but I’ve only just heard this song for the first time today.
You have an astounding ability to create a world of tranquility in just the length of a song. I can’t believe it, you’ve done it again. You’ve written a song and I can’t stop singing it…..🎶
@195Bucks
This is without doubt one of the most beautiful songs i've ever heard!...it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!....he's one very talented songwriter!.