So what exactly does it take to become a musician? It seems that in today's karaoke times, it's become far too easy to fall under this category. Buy yourself a crate of records and turntables and call yourself a musician. Sing someone else's song and earn a few votes and you can assume the title. In terms of musical integrity, not much is advancing forward. However there are still a few out there who push the musical boundaries; artists who mould the craft into their very own and sway it a little left of centre through creativity and individualism. Brian Transeau otherwise known as BT is one of these artists.

A drop out from the prestigious Berklee College of music, Brian pursued his dreams in the unyielding city of Los Angeles. Consequently, here he was often laughed at for his radical ideas on music and his experimental nature in the studio. Nowadays, no one would dare laugh at BT. Some might say he pioneered the modern trance sound; others will remember him from his plethora of film scores. Whatever the case, Brian is a true musician - an artist who's equally influenced by Cabaret Voltaire as well as Debussy. With the release of his new artist album 'Emotional Technology' Brian evidently deviates away from his signature sounds and explores new musical territory.

Hey Brian, what have you been up to lately? How was 2003 for you?

Really, really good actually. A lot of really rewarding work this year so it was a really exciting year for me. I got to finish my fifth album and I got to work on the most significant movie I've ever got to work on, Monster so it's been a really good year.

What was it like working on your new album Emotional Technology? What was the main idea behind it? Was there even an idea you were trying to get across?

Definitely. More so then anything, this record was about writing certain songs that stood out on their own. I wanted compositions with strengths both lyrically and melodically independent of the production. Me trying to personally up the ante on the production stuff on this record really was secondary to writing thirteen songs which I felt extraordinarily passionate about. The songs were accurate reflections of my inner personal relationships, my everyday life you know.

It definitely has a more pop/rock sensibility to it. Are you really conscious of this?

There's no instrumental music on the record, there's a lot of vocals so I tend to agree with you. But it was never the goal to make a pop record or a rock record. The goal was to make 14 important journal entries. But in doing that, I had to write songs. Also I had a lot of fun honouring my influences. And a lot of my influences do have more rock leaning. There are bits in there that reference everything from New Order and The Cure through to My Bloody Valentines. I've been influenced by an extraordinary number of things and I think more so anything, the eclecticism on this record allowed me to honour more these influences.

You've progressed from so many different styles over the years, from progressive trance, nu skool breaks, electro to even world music. Where do you see your sounds evolving in the future?

Well I'll tell you this without giving away too much because I'm already working on another album. I can tell you this for certain, that my next album will have hardly any vocals on it. But the direction I see my sound evolving in is very experimental. The thing that excites me and interests me in electronic music are all Stanford university music department type experimental you know. I want to experiment with more stuff. And who knows, it might be musical theatre, it might be writing for a symphony independent of a film. It might be anything, you know, I just want to continue experimenting with things.

You've obviously deviated away from your trance roots on this album. Do you think you'll return to it?

Well if the question is, will I ever go back to instrumental dance music geared for dance floor again, then yes. I certainly won't be doing anything close to 140 bpm again. But I mean, I love dance music and I love dance music culture. It's something I've been a part of my whole life and it's something I plan to continue on being a part of. The chance for this record was just a unique one. There's a time for every challenge, but yes I will go back to making dance music for the dance floor.

What was it like working on the film score for Monster? What was the main idea behind that?

The Monster film score, really comes from, more so than anything actually trying to interpret complicated human emotions that occur in this film. And what this film is about is so dark and so disturbing in so many ways. It was a really difficult thing to write because of that. And really random things ended up sticking in terms of instrumentation which was really strange because one of the cross elements of the score was a 15th century French instrument called the Villaru. And that instrument I would have thought would never work against this movie about serial murderers set in the 80s. But it did. Me playing a Baritone acoustic Guitar with a boe - these became harmonics themes that occur throughout the whole film. And after that point it was really just about honouring these character's life stories. It was such a rewarding process and Charlize Theron got nominated for a fucking Oscar! I think that's so cool!

And on a similar tangent, what's one of the most important things to remember when producing music for film scores? How is it different to just producing music in general?

It's extraordinarily different. The things that you can do in a record will often not work at all in a film score or will be way over the top. So It's just a real challenge. It's a challenge because your job is to interpret and honour sonically what's happening visually in a film. And to do that, you have to assume the role of another actor and you have to go through the emotional paces with a lot of these characters to write ultraistic music. Unless of course you're doing a paint by number sort of thing, and I've never done a project like that. But there are composers who do that, sort of like the Oakenfolds of film scoring. (laughs). But I tend to gravitate towards projects that resonate with me personally. It's really hard man. You have to put yourself in the place of these characters. And it can be a very difficult place to go as this film happens to be about very dark things.

OK, Going back to the album what was the process in the studio? What sort of equipment in terms of software and hardware are you using these days?

I'm using primarily software based synths right now. The only hardware synths I'm using are the JP8000 and the Hartmann Neuron which is a brand new synth. It's the coolest damn thing I think I've ever seen. It's the first synth I've bough in five years but in terms of software, I pretty much use it all. Everything from Logic audio, Reason, Reaktor, Acid, Soundtrack live, all the way down the list man. And then I use such a plethora of VSP instruments. In fact my friend and I have been coding a lot of our own applications and plug in's ourselves as well.

Carl Craig motions that listeners should work out tracks for themselves and he doesn't like sharing secrets. As someone who willingly shares their knowledge about production and music in general, how do you feel about this? Do you think this attitude is too prevalent in today's music scene and can it be possibly damaging?

I do honestly. And Carl happens to be a friend of mine, so I'm not going to slag Carl. He's a great man and I respect his work. But I think that attitude is totally counter productive. I mean music is based on improvisation. It's based on free thinking and experimenting. I would like to see everybody experimenting and talking about their experimentations because I think this forces people to push themselves further forward. I understand not wanting to talk about your process because your creative process is really unique and intimate and it's a ritual made for one person. So I understand not talking about your process but I think not talking about your equipment or your technique is totally counter productive to continuing your own creative growth.

You collaborated with a lot of interesting artists for this album. What are some of the highlights?

I worked with some great artists on this record. I remember sending Guru (from Gangstarr) a track and he's like ""Yeah dude, I dig your shit, I liked the track you did with The Roots and Rahzel was telling me all about you"" so I sent him another track and he was like ""Yeah dude, this track it bopping, I could shake my ass to it on the dance floor. But this is double time to what I normally flow over."" So I sent him another track way slowed down and then I took his vocal, I cut it up, put it together and that ended up coming up out great. I mean there are so many unique experiences from making this record. I remember we were in rural inland with my friend who's a vocalist. And we recorded in such a torrential wind storm that I had to go through the vocals and there were takes I couldn't use because the floorboards were creaking you know. The whole album was a very special experience come to think of it.

Are you looking forward to coming to Australia? Have you been here before?

Oh dude, I can't wait! It's been way too long hey.

And what can we expect from a BT live performance?

It's going to be mental man. I'm doing a laptop symphony and it's basically me using two lap tops to do live visuals and audio. And the audio can range from anything between me playing a loop of a Meat Katie track, maybe classic guitar loop, one of my tracks in loop and an accapella all mashed together. Then with me writing my own basslines, acid lines, drum parts. It's pretty fucking mental man.

Finally, what advice would you give to all the aspiring artists out there who look up to you?

The advice I would give would be to study. More so then anything would be to learn something other then what it is you think it is you want to learn. It might seem counter intuitive. Say you're studying to become a DJ, go study jazz. Understand your craft in a way that your peers don't and I think it will help you immensely. I'm a huge avid fan of studying so I would say study all you can.