Education
His studies began at Box Hill College of Technical and Further Education, where he completed two years of drum and percussion tuition under Bruce Barber.
His studies began at Box Hill College of Technical and Further Education, where he completed two years of drum and percussion tuition under Bruce Barber.
In more recent years Barker formed the power blues duo Swamp Thing with Grant Haua. As a teen, he played with various bands in Rotorua, New Zealand until 1985 when he moved to Melbourne to learn orchestral percussion. From here Barker went on to study orchestral and solo percussion at the Victorian College of the Arts under Barry Quinn.
In Barker"s final year at the VCA he performed Psappha by Iannis Xenakis, I Ching by Per Norgard and "The Black Page" by Frank Zappa.
Michael has also performed music in theatre productions of Shakespeare"s A Midsummer Night"s Dream, Cats, Rent, Tap Dogs, Poor Boy and Jerry"s Girls. In addition to performing and recording, Michael has written songs and music with Tim Finn, David Bridie, John Butler, Shane Nicholson, Eddie Rayner, Brian Ritchie, Vika and Linda Bulletin and Christine Anu.
Michael wrote, recorded, mixed and released his first solo album, Wonderland in November 2006. This album saw Barker collaborate with Bob Moore, Jeff Raglus, Bill MacDonald, Steve Hadley, Ray Pareira, Peter Neville and the VCA percussion ensemble.
In 2008, Michael played with Split Enz on their New Zealand Reunion tour.
He was introduced by Tim Finn at the Wellington concert as "the newest Split Enz member". In June 2008, Michael performed at the Australia"s Ultimate Drummers Weekend Festival held in Melbourne. In 2007, Michael Barker made headlines as he unsuccessfully tried to save the life of a drowning man in Townsville, Queensland.
Pearl Reference Series Drums & Zildjian Cymbals:
Drums – Purple Craze w/Nickel Hardware12x10" Tom
16x16" Floor Tom
18x16" Floor Tom
14x6.5" Brass Reference Snare
22x20" Bass Drum
10" Soprano Snare
13" Timbale
11.5" Pearl Conga
" monkeys
Cymbals – Zildjian
15" K Custom Hi-Hats
22" K Custom Ride
19" Armand Beautiful Baby Ride (w/Rivets)
19" K Custom Crash
17" K Custom Crash
15" K Custom Crash
10" K Custom Splash
8" K Custom Splash
6" K Custom Splash
8" Zil-Bell
20 K China.