Brian was born in Antwerp, Belgium on March 22nd, 1962, carrying the name Dirk Thyssens. He was later adopted by Stan Pilaet, a once 4 time heavy-weight boxing champion who boxed under the name of Stan "Clifton". Stan and Brian became very close friends. The name "Clifton" was fist used by Stan's parents who in the 1920’s were members of the famous 'The Five Cliftons'. They shared playbills with legendary names such as Charlie Chaplin, Sophie Tucker and The Mills Brothers. In the early days of his carreer as an ambitious composer, Brian, like many onther sons, sought his first pat on the back from his father. He thought that picking up the name Clifton would be a good way to start. Considering his first name he had always considered the English sound of "Dirk" quite annoying ("sounds too much like jerk"). As a drummer he was a big fan of the drum solo 'Little B' by Brian Bennett of The Shadows. And so the name Brian Clifton was born.

Brian made his first professional moves not towards the Belgian Radio & Television in Brussels, but towards London. There his contact with legendary oscar-winning film producer David Puttnam (Midnight Express, Chariots Of Fire, The Killing Fields) would eventually lead him to the next important step in his career: Los Angeles. But first, Puttnam gave Brian (and his then partner/arranger Steve Willaert) the unique opportunity to write the music for 'The Mission'. He was to collaborate with Beatles producer/arranger George Martin as conductor. As fate would have it, an unstable financial situation over at the production company Goldcrest necessitated The Mission's scoring to be done by a well-known and much more experienced film composer. And so they went for Brian's mentor: maestro Ennio Morricone. Nevertheless, the whole Mission experience together with Puttnam’s encouragement (as Columbia Pictures' CEO) gave Brian the self-confidence he needed to defenitely pursue a career as a film score composer. After the premiere of his first feature film soundtrack, 'The Colleagues: A Three-Day Weekend', Brian moved his family and studio to Los Angeles.

These were still pre-internet days during which the physical presence of a film composer was required. Hence the move to Hollywood as well as the declining offers from his native Belgium. Luck, however, was on his side when he read an article on a flight from Brussels to New York which would lead him to what he calles "my most unique score to date". It was an article on controversial filmmaker Frans Buyens and the green light he got to start filming his autobiographical book "Less Dead Than The Others". After Buyens told Clifton the core of the story and explained that he was not looking for a conventional movie score but rather for "a climate", Brian presented Buyens with a demo which impressed the director to such a degree, he decided to make Brian an unusual proposition: he'd fly him over to the editing room in Brussels to spot the movie with him, just once! Subsequently, he would not give Brian a copy of the movie for him to score the music to, as it is usually done, but would offer him the freedom to write "a symphony" based on his impressions. In return Buyens wanted from Brian the freedom to work the symphony into his film, anyway he'd see fit. The result is a unique and powerful movie with Senne Rouffaer, Dora van der Groen and Koen De Bouw in the leading roles. The soundtrack Brian released himself on his cd-debut 'La Chapelle De Bois'.

Nevertheless, starting out in Los Angeles wasn't easy: first David Puttnam's tenure as CEO over at Columbia Pictures was the shortest in Hollywood studios' history. Secondly, the time of Brian's arrival in Hollywood was the one where soundtrackdepartments split off from the talent agencies they were part of. Instead of just 4 composer's agencies, now there were many, which made finding the right agent a difficult task. Fortunately, there were still successful productions such as 'Alfa Papa Tango' and a long-distance trust from its director Vincent Rouffaer or Jan Keymeulen with 'Sarah! Sarah?', that kept Brian composing for Flemish productions.

A few agents and some obscure assignments later (like erotic art dance videos for Playboy, or composing as a ghost-writer), and finally with a green-card in his pocket, Brian together with his agent Linda Kordek secured the job to score his first Hollywood movie: 'Bird Of Prey' featuring Jennifer Tilly, Richard Chamberlain and Lesley Ann Warren, produced by Steven J. Wolfe.
By focussing on nothing else but writing music to picture, Brian learned how to "write music for a movie" instead of "composing film music", a mistake often made by inexperienced film composers, he says. Eleven years of working in Los Angeles taught him that.

Brian was put in touch with successful children's author Marc de Bel by his friend and 'Blinker''s producer Rudi van den Bossche. Marc and Brian immediately hit it off as collaborators on how to make Marc's stories, rich with fantasy, work with Brian's dramatic and evocative style of composing. The musical fairy-tale 'Malus', performed by the world famous Flanders Recorder Quartet, directed by Lulu Aertgeerts, was the first successful result of their partnership. Through Lulu Aertgeerts -as author and director- Brian was introduced to world of theater and musicals.  Here, too, his talent and experience in writing drama music served its purpose.

Meanwhile, Brian kept composing music for film: Rudi van den Bossche's ‘Suske and Wiske: The Dark Diamond' as well as 'Ellektra', nominated in New York for Best Film Music, in collaboration with actress/ singer/songwriter Axelle Red and pianiste Claire Chevallier.

At the moment, Brian's music can be "seen" in BOBBY EN DE GEESTENJAGERS, a Dutch movie by Martin Lagestee, as well as in BINGO, an hilarious comedy by Rudi Van den Bossche.  But in the meantime, Brian's most popular theme may very well be the Football Hymn, which can be heard at the start of every Jupiler ProLeague game...