He graduated with flying colours, gaining a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree before taking up a prime position with the Polaroid Corporation as a product design engineer. In many ways it was a dream job for anyone who loved tinkering with electronics, a place where you could have an idea and spend your time figuring out how to make it work. But that wasn’t all that he was interested in. As a young man he’d learnt to play the piano and developed a healthy interest in pop and rock music. Writing songs and playing in a handful of local Boston bands, his thoughts turned to a professional career in music… a dream that would dominate his life for the next six years.

It wasn’t long before Tom sensed a schism between playing live and recording songs. The traditional method of gaining recognition and, in turn, a record contract, was to perform live, playing seven nights a week anywhere and everywhere. Sporting names such as Middle Earth, Freehold and Mother’s Milk, his early bands featured musicians who would later play an important role in the launch of Boston – especially Mother’s Milk, with a line-up that consisted, at various points, of Scholz (playing keyboards), Brad Delp, Barry Goudreau and drummer Jim Masdea. True to tradition, Tom’s early bands initially played the Boston circuit. But, quickly sensing that it was all going nowhere fast, he focused on making a string of demos that would do justice to the sounds he was hearing in his head. Recording in a number of local studios, his efforts to impress initially fell on deaf ears. Spending an inordinate amount of his income on these sessions, it wasn’t long before he had the idea to convert basement space in his Watertown home into a studio.