Thomas Dolby

Thomas has no real formal music education . He did, however, learn to sight-sing single lines of music when he sang in a choir as a boy.

He had entered college initially intent on becoming a meteorologist, but when his love for music and electronics converged, meteorology was out, and the synthesizer was in

He initially learned guitar, but switched to keyboards after being influenced by piano jazz greats Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, and Thelonious Monk.

Dolby says of obtaining his first synth “The first electronic instruments started to become accessible in the mid-70s, and I got my hands on a kit built synthesizer and never looked back.”

Before his own success in the music business, a young and largely unknown Dolby did session work for such mainstream bands as Foreigner and Def Leppard

Thomas’ real last name is Robertson, but because of his avid interest in synthesizers and recording, Thomas’ schoolmates nicknamed him “Dolby” after the audiotape noise suppression system that was popular in the recording industry at the time

In the video of “She Blinded Me With Science”, the old man that shouts “SCIENCE!” between verses (and also appears in the video) was Magnus Pike, a notoriously well-known British eccentric