They've called me 'The Dark Prince' and a madman. But that isn't me. I'm not the devil. I called this album Vulnerable because it's my most honest and open record. On this album I've stopped hiding and I'm allowing people to see different sides of the real me."

Not that Vulnerable is exactly an album of light-headed, sunny pop songs. You will findwithin its memorable grooves all the complex moods and intricate textures that we have come to expect from Tricky since he made 1995's Maxinquaye, one of the defining records of the last decade. But this is Tricky as you've never heard him before. Vulnerable and exposed.

Older and wiser, he's learned from his mistakes and there's a new-found maturity to his music-making. Yet he's also rediscovered the freshness and audacity that made Maxinquaye such a landmark in contemporary music.

"I've got my energy back," he says. "There was a time when I wondered if I should be making music at all. I'd watch MTV and couldn't identify with anything on there. I thought maybe I'm in the wrong time. But I've found a way of making my music without being part of the mainstream. I've found a label and a business set-up that allows me to make the music I want to make without worrying about any of that other stuff."

Vulnerable was recorded in Los Angeles, where Tricky now lives, five minutes from the beach. Stranded in the city when American airspace closed down in the days following September 11, he found he enjoyed the vibe of LA so much that he simply never went home.

"I came for two weeks and 18 months later I'm still here," he says. "I've found out that I need to be in the sun. If the weather is dark and gloomy I can stay in my house for months and not even go out. I can't function. I get depressed. Now I'm having fun again and you can hear that in the music. I'm fed up with being called 'the dark prince'. Vulnerable is me breaking free and being myself again."

Born in Bristol in 1968, Tricky came to prominence as a guest vocalist on Massive Attack's groundbreaking albums, Blue Lines and Protection. His debut solo album, Maxinquaye, followed in 1995 and it's unique fusion of rap, rock and r&b helped to change the face music; breaking down all barriers. Yet there ensued a string of albums in which his music - while still challenging and inventive - grew increasingly dark and inaccessible. Nearly God followed in 1996 and his third album, Pre-Millennium Tension, came in the same year.

Angels with Dirty Faces in 1998 was darker still and the songs reflected his deep unhappiness with the music business. After Juxtapose in 1999, Tricky decided to turn his life around and find a new way of working. "I never wanted to be a pop star and I didn't start out making music to be on magazine covers. But I'd lost sight of that. I'd got sucked in by the music industry. When I realised what was going on, that's when my life and music began to get back on track."