Bryan Black has been making techno for 20 years, but he's only focussed on it fully for a few of them. Before forming Black Asteroid in 2011 he'd spent his career in bands, and it shows. The buzz of guitar pedals is the signature of every Black Asteroid recording. He DJs like he's on stage: fists pumping, dropping the occasional headbang, certainly the most energetic person in the room. Rarely seen without sunglasses on, and often clad in a designer piece or two (darkwave fashion legend Rick Owens is one of his closest friends), he looks as distinct as his music sounds. "I guess I do really stick out in the whole techno world," he says. "And I have no problem with that."

It all started for Black with Haloblack in the '90s, an industrial troupe he fronted while still living in Minneapolis. It was through the band that he got noticed by Prince, who invited him to work at Paisley Park Studios as a sound engineer and keyboard technician. "It was a 24/7 job, always on call or in the studio," he says. "I learned so much, but the biggest impression I took away from the experience was the appreciation of Prince's work ethic. He is the real deal." When not touring with the pop music icon, Black spent much of his time resampling Prince's records and transferring them onto keyboard samplers—"really tedious and painful" work, he says. But it was a foundational experience in Black's production career.

The job lasted for about a year and helped to finance Haloblack's second album, Funkyhell, the mechanical, Autechre-influenced follow up to Tension Filter. At the turn of the millennium, Black moved to London to study film and graphic design. "When I left the US I was going to give up music," he recalls. "But then I realised I was frustrated because I wasn't making music, and went back." The time after his return was one of the most fertile periods of his career so far.

Bryan Black

On meeting Olivier Grasser, a drummer formerly touring the Camden Britpop scene, they formed the electroclash project XLOVER, and signed to City Rockers and International Deejay Gigolo Records. But it was as noisy electro-techno outfit Motor where the pair found fame. "We did three songs and Mute signed it," says Black. "Straight away we were catapulted into doing festivals. And then everyone else came out—Justice, Boys Noize. Everyone started doing this industrial techno-electro, and then we kind of lost our way."

Motor began with punky intent, responding to the "incredibly dull and boring" repetitiveness of clubland at the time. Signed to NovaMute, they produced two albums, Klunk in 2006 and Unhuman a year later. By their third album, Metal Machine on Shitkatapult, they had strayed from the group's raw techno origins. At the same time they were on a world tour supporting Depeche Mode, playing sold-out stadiums and riding the cusp of mainstream success.

"We had that 'next big thing' tag over our heads for a while after the first album, and it's really hard to maintain that," says Black. "We went through a few directions and everything was fine." But then the cracks started to appear. "It was sometime during the last album," Black continues. "It was ironic because it was our most successful one. We had the first single with Martin Gore and it went into the top 40 in six different countries. And I thought, 'Wow, that's amazing.' But that didn't assure happiness in the band." Arguments and "band politics" ensued. With frustration mounting, Black sought solace in a new side project, striking out solo for the first time.

"I was quite attracted to doing something without any interference, on my own. Something just pure and raw," Black says. "I always do side projects and they always end up becoming more popular than my main projects. I think that's because they come from a better place."

Left to his own devises, Black returned to his roots and set about sculpting a bold techno formula that would be "so distinctive it almost jumps out of the speakers." The militant The Engine was the result, a four-track EP released on CLR as Bryan Black Presents Black Asteroid. It dropped just ahead of Man Made Machine, what would be Motor's final album. The duo disbanded soon after. Black signed to Speedy J's Electric Deluxe label, and has been focused on Black Asteroid ever since.

Now it looks like Black has finally settled. The musical deviations have ceased, and he seems content with putting all his efforts into Black Asteroid. He says he prefers the solo set up, claiming to have never really gotten used to working in a big studio with lots of people. Now he doesn't have to answer to anyone, and that suits him just fine. But even though the "politics" are far behind him, the band is still very much a part of Black's makeup. "I went from playing in front of 60,000 people supporting Depeche Mode to suddenly DJing in a nightclub and I wasn't quite comfortable throwing away everything I had learned in bands. I thought there could be some rock & roll element in DJing and performing in clubs."

The same rules apply to his productions—even though he's making techno, "it is still about making a song with a chorus." Pop arrangements aside, it's the way Black Asteroid tracks sound that make them instantly recognisable. Modular synth basslines, collected from old DAT tapes from over the years, combined with big rock & roll kick drums have been the blueprint. It's uncompromising music. Thundering from a set of Funktion Ones, it's seriously abrasive stuff. It's music made to be memorable, and in this context a Black Asteroid track certainly leaves a lasting impression. His current record, the Metal EP, for Electric Deluxe is possibly his most blistering yet—an unabashed homage to Black's band heritage. It's techno made with guitar pedals, or "heavy-metal techno," as Black says, "but in a very restrained and controlled way."

As if to complement the audio assault of Metal, Black is also finalising his debut solo album, which will take the Black Asteroid sound into ambient and pop terrain. A "challenge," he admits, but a necessary one to add "another dynamic" to the album with "these non-techno elements," as he calls them. Collaborations with Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb and gothy synthpop outfit Cold Cave are also confirmed. Black himself may contribute vocals, something he's always done in the past. There will be some dance floor moments, too: Chris Liebing helped produce and mix about half of the songs.

Mentors like Liebing and Speedy J have been vital in developing the Black Asteroid project. "Chris signed my first EP, and helped launch Black Asteroid, so I will always have time for him," says Black. He admits to taking cues from him with The Engine, even getting Leibing to mix the A-side of his first Electric Deluxe release, Black Acid. Speedy J, meanwhile, has encouraged Black's "avant-garde" side. The products they've produced together tap into Black's art and design background and his ethos about packaging music—for instance, high design vinyl resembling collectable art pieces, and an upcoming limited edition Metal package inspired by Andy Warhol's "Piss Paintings." Music without a product or visual context is an "injustice," he says.

This explains the clear visual aesthetic that has accompanied Black Asteroid releases, particularly the slick music videos for "Black Acid" and "Grind," which both feature models, high-end fashion pieces (Rick Owens contributed to the latter) and an obvious black and white theme. It all seems to be part of a bigger picture: a Black Asteroid brand that classifies his music and extends to his physical appearance. Outside of EDM spheres, it's not often you see a DJ in sunglasses. Black says he wears them to protect himself against bad Facebook photography—a remnant of his Motor rock star days perhaps.

Black has just finished his first headline tour of Europe, which included a stop in Rome, where he played to a crowd of 12,000 people. "After only three EPs I'm playing the same festivals and clubs I was playing with Motor, only now bigger audiences, better gigs and tours," he says. Does he miss the band life? "It was always a question in the early days if I could do it on my own—produce a live show or DJ set which I can pull off on my own. It took me a few gigs to find my feet, and I can't imagine doing it any other way now."