Michael Barker
Barker at the Cambridge Folk Festival.
Background information
Born	1966 (age 57–58)
Origin	Rotorua, New Zealand
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Drums
Years active	1996–present

Michael Barker (born 1966) is a New Zealand percussion musician best known for performing with many Australasian acts, including The John Butler Trio and Split Enz. In more recent years Barker formed the power duo Swamp Thing with Grant Haua. [1]

Early musical education

Inspired by his older brother Douglas, Michael began playing the drums around age 10. As a teen, he played with various bands in Rotorua, New Zealand until 1985 when he moved to Melbourne, Australia to learn orchestral percussion. His studies began at Box Hill College of TAFE, where he completed two years of drum and percussion tuition under Bruce Barber. 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.

Musical career

Barker's unique drum and percussion style has seen him record and tour with prominent contemporary recording artists such as The John Butler Trio, Neil and Tim Finn respectively, Split Enz, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Kasey Chambers, Missy Higgins, Alex Lloyd, Nathan Haines, Vika and Linda Bull, The Black Sorrows, Deborah Conway, Christine Anu, David Bridie, and My Friend the Chocolate Cake.

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 Bull 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 NZ 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.

Personal life

In 2007 he made headlines as he unsuccessfully tried to save the life of a drowning man in Townsville, Queensland.^[1]

He is the father of controversial internet troll, Tristan Barker [2] who has gained over 235,000 Facebook "likes" as of March 2013. In early March, Tristan published a song to YouTube in which Michael played the drums. [3] In recent months, his son has been the centre of several media outlets from shows such as Today Tonight and A Current Affair to having his name published in several newspapers such as The Age and the Herald Sun.^[2] This is not the first time Barker's son has gained media attention; however, he continues to support his son and the controversial material he posts, which has resulted in criticism and questioning from the media. Several sponsors of one of Barker's gigs, including Coles, had called up to voice their concerns after footage of him agreeing with his son's words was uploaded to the internet.^[3] Tristan was charged with assault^[4] after attacking reporter David Eccleston on Today Tonight.^[5]

In April 2013 he pleaded guilty to assault, and was remanded on bail.^[6]

Preferred percussion instruments

• Pearl Reference Series Drums & Zildjian Cymbals:
• Drums – Purple Craze w/Nickel Hardware^{[citation needed]}
  • 12x10" 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

References

External links

• Barker bio on Split Enz fan site

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