Electronic music whiz BT has written and recorded the score for Monster, the big-screen tale of convicted and executed serial killer Aileen Wuornos that will see limited release next month.

According to BT, the music reflects the somber themes of the film, which casts Charlize Theron as Wuornos, a prostitute who was physically and sexually abused from childhood through her adult life and in 1991 confessed to the murder of six men, though she maintained that each case was self-defense. "As you can imagine, the music is particularly dark in places," BT says. "I tried to make things that had the sense of roots Americana -- dobro, guitars, stuff like that -- but with a twisted ambient sensibility. So it's sort of like pentatonic major-scale stuff, but with demented shit in the background. Lots of John Cage-y treated pianos."

The score also gave BT his first opportunity to work in 5.1 surround sound. "It's an insane change," he says. "Writing for stereo is such a limited feel, you have left . . . and right. This is the thing I've waited for. With five speakers, you're put in a physical space where the music really does surround you. It's similar to listening in a recording studio."

BT is gearing up for a tour in early 2004 behind his latest studio album, the ambitious Emotional Technology. The set, released last month, features straightforward electronica paired with some of BT's most rock-oriented material, featuring guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer Brian "Brain" Mantia on loan from Guns n' Roses.

"I wanted to take an eclectic approach that flows as a journey," he says of the album. "There's a plethora of different emotional things expressed on this record -- it's sort of representative of what I've been trying to do for the bulk of my career. That's part of why I enjoy so much writing my own software and making my own effects. I feel more directly into the performance and music instead of letting it impart its will on me. That's where the title came from. Using the technology as a means to achieve expression."

BT hints that his next album might revert to the trance-ier territory of his 1995 debut, Ima. "One of the real goals of this album was to explore songwriting in a way I haven't prior to this," he says. "But there's a part of me that misses making some powerful tracks that are instrumental. I'm definitely thinking about a return to that . . . at some point."

ANDREW DANSBY
(November 17, 2003)