Windy City Times: Hello, Thomas. Where are you currently?

Thomas Dolby: I'm in England looking out across the North Sea.

WCT: Nice. So that is where you are living now?

TD: Yes, but we are tipping into the ocean.

WCT: No, don't say that!

TD: Well, it may take a millennium but it is going to happen in the end. I have a lifeboat ready.

WCT: Oh, that's good. What inspired making an album after 20 years?

TD: I felt like I still have some good music in me. When I left the music business in the early '90s it was only supposed to be a two-year sabbatical but the company I started became quite successful so I stuck with it. I finally had enough and wanted to get back to music, which is my first love.

WCT: I saw you are working with some great people on this album, too.

TD: Yes, I have been fortunate with guests Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits plays guitar on one of the songs. Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap sing on different tracks. I work mostly on my own in my studio so it is really nice to get out collaborate with some awesome people.

WCT: So the album is in three parts?

TD: Yes, they from ideas I have collected in the last 20 years. There are also some brand-new songs that I sat and wrote straight out, pretty much. They just seemed to form into three categories.

I am very affected by the environment where I am. I lived in the USA for 22 years. During that time I learned a couple of things. I have a great deal of respect for American rooted music. I also learned that I am not a city person. [Laughs]

I like being in a cool city for a couple of days then I just long for the tranquility of my country retreat. I am a bit of a hermit. As a consequence Urbanioa is a dark cityscape type of feeling. "Amerikana" is a nod toward roots American music but with a twist. "Oceanea" is really about my homecoming to the country where I grew up.

WCT: It sounded like a very personal song.

TD: Yes, it is a very personal song. As I have gotten older I put more emphasis on songs versus sounds and production. In the early days of my career there were only a few of us sort of pioneering the use of electronic music and pop. It was quite easy to get your work to stand out. These days the great thing is that most people have on their laptop more power than I had in my studio back then. People get obsessive about it like playing video games so there are some amazing sounds coming out but a lot of them can't write songs. That is what I am focused on.

WCT: The album ties in with a video game too, right?

TD: Yeah, there has been a certain audience that has stuck with me over the decades and still listening to my stuff. They come to hear the new stuff but I wanted to expand it for a younger audience as well. It occurred to me that people aren't really buying records these days but they spend a lot of time in social networks and playing video games. I thought I would try a new method. I got to express myself artistically through the creation of the game.

WCT: I was realized you wrote the Howard the Duck soundtrack that I jammed to all the time.

TD: Oh, yeah. That is a great soundtrack.

WCT: So you have had some longtime fans…

TD: It is nice to be able to get back in touch with them. This is a great era we are experiencing here. It is the first time that artists and fans have this sort of tight loop. In the old days you read royalty statements, radio playlists, and chart positions. You never really got face to face with your fans plus every time you sat down to write a song you had to get it past the A&R guy, the marketing department and the radio person. If any of them vetoed it then the public never got to judge for themselves. These days I can finish a song tonight, hit a button and millions of people can hear it instantaneously. I think it is a very healthy time for musicians and music fans.

WCT: Are you on Twitter?

TD: I am, but I don't tell people what I crumble on my salad. I do Twitter and Facebook. It is amazing to watch.

WCT: You are coming back to Martyrs in Chicago, where you did a live CD of in 2006.

TD: I did a CD and DVD five years ago with a solo show. I am coming back with a hybrid, a cross between a talk and a performance. I am going to play some songs from the new album and explain my transmedia game and tell some stories from it. If you missed the game you can get the digest version of it as I tell you the story.

WCT: We have great festivals in Chicago in the summer. You have lots of '80s gay fans who could come out to see you.

TD: That is good to hear. Say hi to them from me. I have a gay son and a gay daughter so we are a rainbow household over here. My oldest is transgender female to male so we are quite the family.

WCT: How old are they?

TD: Harper is 20 and studying at a university was biologically a female, and now is living much more happily as a guy living with another guy. Natalia is 18 and is about to go to Cambridge and is gay; then, Graham is 15 and he is straight—he's a drummer and a great kid. I have a lovely family.

Check out www.thomasdolby.com . For tickets to his solo performance and lecture Friday, Oct. 7, at 6:15 p.m., visit www.martyrslive.com .