Like so many Maltese before them, wide-eyed Paul and Rita Cachia left all they knew behind them in September 1971 to begin a new life in Australia. Now it's the turn of their only son Brian to take the leap of faith.

Although a frequent visitor to these shores and despite having no family in Australia since his parents returned to set up home in Selmun in 2000, Brian Cachia, 36, has lived his entire life Down Under.

Not anymore. Tomorrow he is moving to Hollywood with his new wife, Leah, to further his dream of composing soundtracks for film blockbusters.

With his familiar 'no worries' manner, endearing sense of optimism and bohemian attire, Mr Cachia appears to be your typical laid-back Aussie. He once toured Australia almost continuously for six years as a drummer in two bands, and reminisces about "the crazy times... we'd set up hammocks in the trees at night and move from gig to gig".

But he is not some naive dreamer leaping blindly into the Hollywood maelstrom - he has already composed soundtracks for three successful feature-length Australian films and has landed a full-time job in LA as the right-hand man of Tyler Bates, the composer behind the soundtracks to 300 and the forthcoming Watchmen.

"If anybody had asked me when I landed in LA who I wanted to work with, I would have said Tyler Bates," he says, almost pinching himself.

Mr Cachia met Bates on a trip to Hollywood last November before he came to Malta. By this time, he had already sold virtually everything he owned and made the decision to move to Hollywood.

His decision came on the back of his success in composing the soundtrack to Australian film Gabriel, a low-budget action film set in purgatory, written and directed by his best friend Shane Abbess.

It was through his friendship with Mr Abbess that Mr Cachia originally began composing film music, and the pair made approximately 10 short films together in four years well before Gabriel was developed.

Gabriel caught the attention of Sony while it was being made, and they agreed to distribute the film. It was released in Australian cinemas in November 2007 and despite being made for the price of "a bag of peanuts" (AUD250,000) it was a success at the box-office and earned praise for its visual style and technical achievements on such a low budget.

Gabriel is intended to be a trilogy, and Mr Cachia sees the project as "being my life work". He and Mr Abbess will work together again in Hollywood where the director is living already after being signed on a three-picture deal by Universal Pictures.

Following the success of Gabriel, which was released on DVD worldwide, Mr Cachia wrote the soundtracks for two more Australian feature-length films in quick succession, namely Fragment and Bitter and Twisted.

The latter was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April last year and Mr Cachia went along on a self-funded promotional tour. "I followed the film around and stood at the front of the theatre taking questions from New York film critics after screenings, all the while living at backpackers' hostels eating two-minute noodles," he said.

It was after this visit that he made up his mind to move Stateside, and he returned to Australia, "worked on a couple of documentaries, packed up my bags completely, went Ebay crazy for months selling nearly everything I owned, and left Australia".

Mr Cachia will be accompanied in Hollywood by his wife, who he married in January at a small ceremony at Selmun Castle. They will live for one month in a Tildon House residence, which is a housing organisation for international composers, and are likely to live in hotels for a few months after that until they build up a credit rating.

There can be no doubting that Mr Cachia is ready for his new challenge.

"I'm so excited, no fear, I'm ready to go. I got married, I had Christmas and New Year with my parents, they're happy, and the time is now. I can't wait to get there and get into it... In five years' time I see myself having completed a couple of films in Hollywood on my own."

The soundtrack to Gabriel and more of Mr Cachia's work is available on itunes, amazon.com and his own website www.bcmuse.com.