Diagnosed with ADHD as a kid, learning the guitar was the first real thing that fully concentrated Michael’s mind. He states that growing up, a high percentage of his lyrics were penned whilst stood outside of a classroom that had rejected him for his class clown antics, and for a good year or so after that many were made up whilst fitting carpets on a building site on a cold winter morning. Michael grew up listening to classic British bands such as The Beatles, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys and took it upon himself to move to Bristol to Study songwriting at The British Institute of Modern Music (BIMM). As an unashamed lover of all things retro, it was here that his music taste broadened and he began to pay more attention to artists such as Elliot Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, Rage against The Machine and Nirvana. Whilst being fascinated by the emotion and vocal delivery from classic Motown vocalists, he took a lot of influence in his lyric writing from rap music and the poetry that lies within it. “I am always writing songs, I’d be completely lost if I didn’t have that in my life, not that I can say I’ve necessarily found myself, but I think that’s what makes it interesting. I’m writing about things that are real to me, and I think it becomes real to other people. I’ve got a lot of new material that I can’t wait to share with the people who want to hear it.”
