Michael was introduced to country music as child on long family road trips; where it wasn't unusual to hear tapes of Slim Dusty, Lucky Starr and The Beach Boys frequenting the car stereo.---- He began playing guitar at age 15, inspired by the classic Springsteen rock albums Born To Run and The River. A love of the guitar quickly developed into a passion for songwriting. Michael says, "I would be practising scales trying to be the next Eddie Van Halen and I would end up working on some new song, needless to say my lead guitar days were numbered!"---- After stints singing and playing guitar in hard-rock bands he settled on a more story driven style of songwriting, better suited to country-rock music. A trip around Australia in 2003 produced a host of new song ideas and inspiration.