It really is a hard field to break into and I feel very fortunate because Doug Lyman approached me to score his second film, Go. He wanted a legitimate artist from the electronic community to write the music for this film. He loved my record, ESCM, and thought I’d be perfect for it, so I really lucked out.

The hardest part was actually picking my second, third, and fourth jobs. I went into meetings and people would say, "Okay we want another score like Go,” while I was looking to spread my wings and write the orchestral music I had wanted to since I was a kid. The harder part was actually convincing people that I was a composer capable of things from the electronic side of the spectrum all the way through orchestral music.

How is writing for film different from your other work?

I think your job as a film composer is to serve the film. When you’re writing music for an album, your job is to convey emotions that are unrelated to something else. In that way alone, it’s a pretty dissimilar job.

How has your opinion changed regarding hardware vs. software over the last couple years? Which do you find yourself using more of in your studio?

I’ve been collecting gear since I was a kid. I have literally hundreds of synthesizers, most of which are collecting dust in storage now.

But over the last seven years I’ve used software pretty much exclusively. I was one of the first people using Sound Tools, the audio in Logic, plug-ins, and things like HyperPrism (which was one of the first commercially available pieces of audio-mangling software).

I’m a huge software fan and I think its potential is limitless.

Have you found iZotope’s Spectron and Trash plug-ins useful?

I use both all the time! Trash is the most contemporary sounding distortion I’ve had or have ever heard. The only thing I can remotely compare it to is some of the esoteric pedals I get from some of these guys in New York that make five pedals a year. Those are the kind of unexpected sounds you get out of Trash, like on the tip of Nine Inch Nails. I love both of these plug-ins.

Do you have any advice to an aspiring electronic musician?

Don’t study and solidify programming chops but actually study music. At the end of the day, a good melody and a good song are what matter, and they always will be.

Do you have any favorite video games?

I don’t really play video games. It’s weird because I’ve worked on so many of them. Video games stopped for me with Mario, honestly! I’m a huge fan of old-school video games.

I think a lot of the modern video games are really bad for people’s heads and psyches. Some of the driving games are fun, but some of these first person shooters I just look at and go, "God if they had that when I was a kid I probably would have capped some people in my high school too!”

How about favorite albums?

My favorite album of the last year would be a toss-up between the last Prefuse 73 record and Secret Machines.

For more information on BT’s current projects visit www.btmusic.com.