jessica parker there in washington, we will follow that story pretty closely on the programme. how many of us know where our careers will end up when we start out in the world of work? let s take the case of thomas dolby. you might be more familiar with him as a star of 19805 synth pop. these days, though, he is professor of music for new media atjohns hopkins university, and his credentials in the tech industry go back a long way. david harper caught up with him. up next, we have thomas dolby. or to put it another way, here comes thomas dolby. take it away, tom. in the 1980s onwards, i was a songwriter, synthesist, singer. later in my career, i moved into technology and had a hi tech company in silicon valley called beatnik for a while. i was always a tinkerer. i was the first guy in my school that had a portable cassette player, and that was when i got the nickname dolby, and it sort of stuck with me and became my professional name when i went into music. we re talking about people b
is something i was trying to fix. i am just a dabbler and a tinkerer so when things break i wonder what it could do now, something different. at the end of the show there is a table where you listen to through bone conduction so music comes through your bones. my motivations for doing work on many, sometimes it isjust to make something so heartbreakingly beautiful and not translatable. and other times i have other motives which is my own idea ofjustice is political, of course, but i do not claim to be a political artist. it is very difficult to change people s minds. you have to be much sneaky other than that if you are going to work with political ideas. each track of the record is a
mostly they come from stories, sometimes paintings, sometimes they look like films, sometimes they are books. and sometimes they are electronic experiments. you can create these songs out of the raw materials of sounds and words. some of those things in the show are little and some are very big. you have to be there to see that. the show begins with a dance about a drum machine, becoming a drum machine, hitting the body and making sounds of a drum which is something i was trying to fix. i am just a dabbler and a tinkerer so when things break i wonder what it could do now, something different. at the end of the show there is a tableaux which you listen to through bone conduction so music comes through your bones.
i make a lot of different kinds of things. mostly they come from stories, but sometimes they look like paintings, sometimes they look like films, sometimes they are books. and sometimes they are electronic experiments. and you can create all of these kind of songs out of the raw materials, the sounds of words. some of the things in the show are little and some are very big. you have to be there to see that. the show begins with a dance about a drum machine, becoming a drum machine, hitting the body and making sounds of a drum which is something i made because i was trying to fix something. which is i am just a dabbler and a tinkerer so when things break, i m like, what does this do and what could it do now? something different. at the end of the show, there is a table that you listen to through bone conduction so music comes up through your bones.
what were the perceptions of clive when he was at the height of his fame? what did people think about him or talk about two that time? he was talked about as a tinkerer, there is a great british tradition of the inventor or a tinkerer, slightly eccentric. he fit well into that. if you look through his career, there are a lot of values, as well as the massive successes. you mentioned that digital watch in the 19705. he had massive success with the spectrum computers, then he goes into the c5 which is a massive failure. he remained, i think, slightly obsessed by this idea of personal mobility and electronics, so he did the bike in the 905. i think the last time he had something was the 2011 electronic scooter