User:Trap The Drum Wonder/About Me

Michael Sean Barrie (January 27 1994) is an English musician. He is known for his 'natural talent' in drumming and can skillfully adapt to different genres. Alternatively, he sings whilst playing guitar; he is also to be said as an intuitive guitarist. As he is not involved in a band, he still instrumentally plays on-and-off with nearby rock groups - he is an exhibition drummer at the moment.

Currently, he attends Chancellor's School and is opting for his GCSEs soon. He prioritises success on his exams in order to maintain his optimistic future.

Music

Mike has loved music ever since a young age; being brought up with a 60s-adoring father, he has been inevitably listening to The Beatles whilst drawn to his modernised cultural music such as Rap and Pop Punk. Still listening to the music he grew upon, Mike expanded his music taste when meeting new people and new genres such as Reggae, Jazz and even the Blues.

Drums

At the young age of six, he was known to place pots and pans in the kitchen of his first home in Charlton Kings and bang them with a wooden spoon. Ironically, it was set out in a traditional drum layout.

He took his first lesson at secondary school in the first term, then disliked his timetable for his lessons so switched to a nearby organisation. It included electric drum kits that he was not used to but he eventually adapted to the electric at his lessons and the acoustic kit at his home. He says he has to put up with the kit at home for the 'forced-upon' silencer pads that he had to put on. "It's an utter annoyance, but I just hit them twice as hard!" He finds that drumming is an easy access to take out his aggression from his stereotypical rebelling adolescent life.

Although being a rock drummer is his favoritism, he also likes to play a range of genres and rudiments. He still continues to drum to this day with his modest yet complimentary style.

Influences

Whilst starting (properly) at ten years of age, he has been inspired many: Buddy Rich, Neil Peart, John Bonham, Dave Weckl just to name a few. At the age of eleven he received his first and only current drum kit - Stagg 5-Piece in Wine Red. Since then he has played amongst fellow friends that soon became drummers, some involved in bands.

Along with the admired drummers he was also inspired by his step uncle, who had once played in the Royal Albert Hall in front of the Queen. Mike felt destined to establish drumming as a hobby at least; which soon fell into inevitable passion.

Drumming technique

Mike's drumming style consists of a mixture of Buddy Rich technique and Keith Moon. He variously plays as fluent and as technical as a Rich-inspired style but then sometimes goes for power and the crazy technique of a Moon-inspired style.

He holds his sticks in the middle at times for increased ricochet, then at the end of the sticks for more power; he has that type of variety. Also he can kick a bass drum like a speedy, powerful Heavy Metal drummer and like an off-beating, experimental Jazz drummer.

Drum sticks

Mike owns a pair of Vic Firth sticks and he comments that they are the best make of sticks he has ever drummed with. "They bounce well, they maneuver well and they are thick; emphasizing controlled force".

He dislikes drum brushes or rutes and feels they are inappropriate, although he admires their effectiveness in some genres or styles.

Guitar

When his brother starting self-learning the guitar, Mike took notice and watched and learned, so to speak. Mostly watching his brother play and later, watching other people teach whilst on his Youtube account. He is able to play a lot of riffs to some songs.

He fluently plays most main-stream Nirvana songs as Kurt Cobain is his most influential guitarist. Along with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Carlos Santana that he has gained charismatic confidence from. But from time to time he strums various choruses from various rock bands and even creates a song of his own through improvisation.

Unavoidably, Mike loves to improvise riffs and sometimes jokingly rapidly strums power chords whilst singing awful Death Metal vocals. This relates to his Experimental genre as he absolutely adored Frank Zappa's outrageous rock and roll music.

The guitar picks he likes are a basic 'thick and light'. He dislikes country style fingerpicks as they "break too easily" from my strumming style.

Personality

Humour

Mike has been known for his improvised comical spirit. Some say he has the stereotypical joke-telling of a Scotsman (theoretically on account of his Scottish background; the name Barrie is also Scottish.) - he shows aggression of an 'angry Scotsman'.

It had been thought he would pursue his comedy one day, but that dream faded away imminently, even though friends felt he should. Because of his profound egotism, he challenged a joke that provoked amusement and made any atmosphere hysterical at his youth.

Mostly influenced by Jim Carrey and his comical work such as Ace Ventura and the legendary Liar Liar. Lee Evans was also an inspiration on his jokes as he used a lot of observational comedy. He also was influenced by Billy Connolly and black comedians such as Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock.

Aggression

He may appear an up-beat, funny person on the outside, but he has been known to be very aggressive. Several times he has punched a monitor with his rage-filled fist. Also he kicked a door in, causing a hole in the frame of the wood - all because of anxiety. Either a game doesn't load successfully enough or it's just his parents winding him up.

• "I hate this fucking game."
• "Why do you not load? Don't you like me?!"

One time he viciously banged a television so hard it broke, attaining a minor electric shock. He began to get paranoid post-tantrum, and sympathetic towards himself.

Intimidation

A profound intimidation of people was found in Mike as when at a young age, he was commonly bullied. In latter life became 'class clown' later and 'every pupil in the year liked him'; "I used to be a legend!"

When the call to move house unveiled, the previously sustained euphoria was lost; he became 'half of what he was in Year 6 than Year 5'. Mike feared the renewing of a loner, but then initiated his popularity back in recent years.

Depression

He gathers depression and then mild pessimism from family life. Mike has had apathetic spells before and when doing so, he eats a lot, watches sitcoms (Scrubs) and uses his stress ball to remove negativity. As he eats numerous cakes per day because he believes in 'good mood food'.

"I eat happily, not healthily."

Though it does not work, he still cannot help but eat for happiness; he adores food. Luckily, he found that he had a high metabolism, so he is still going through melancholy and the eating theory.

At Home

Reviewing

Apart from being on online-networking sites, he fluently writes reviews on Play.com. He recently has been rewarded the 'Top 100 Reviewer' by the the website for the large percentage fellow play.com reviewers voting his reviews were helpful.

Gaming

He first recieved a Sega Mega Drive in 1997, later a PlayStation console in 2000 and since then he has had a PlayStation 2 and a Nintendo DS - he vaguely admired portable gaming.

He humorously vowed to himself never to buy an Xbox console and surprisingly, he has always been loyal to PlayStation ever since.

As time passed, he grew interested in gaming magazines, especially the ones with the free demos. (Official Playstation Magazine, GamesMaster etc.)

Whenever he was 'addicted' to a game he was known to be playing on it for endless hours "attempting to complete a mission".

Education

Firstly, Mike was based in Charlton Kings for his learning. But later had to move from Gloucestershire to Hertfordshire because of a deportation of his father's work company: Magnox. Subsequently, the move to Hertfordshire was for the easy access to relatives.

Schools educated in

Year	School	School Year	Number of Years
1998 - 2001	Charlton Kings Infants' School	Reception - 2	3
2001 - 2004	Charlton Kings Junior School	3 - 5	3
2004 - 2005	Cuffley School	6	1
2005 - 2010	Chancellor's School	7 - 11	20

Politics

Mike has been a forbearer in the involvement of politics, but as he has grown to respect the means of the parties and democracies. He is a fan of the Conservative party at the moment - for it's views and expectations (especially during the recent economic recession.)

Irreligion

He does not practice a certain religion and has decided as on being an Agnostic - one of which is supporting Einstein's beliefs; as he despised believers in a personal god, and supported Spinoza's God.

Although Mike has been Christened and his mother was born Roman Catholic he does not believe in the contents of Christianity. Mike used to be a henotheistic but among new influences, he became irreligious.

Furthermore, most of his friends are Atheists and some Christian; so he feels that, to be neutral with his friends he must be Agnostic. Nevertheless, because of that, he has begun to agree with Agnostic views.

Sports

Football

At six years old, he became a member of a football club, Charlton Rovers F.C. It was first an organisation for bonding with friends but it soon turned into an actual in-league team - going to away games aswell as home games within the county of Gloucestershire.

People from his nearby school Charlton Kings Junior School joined into the club. The club was based in there local playing field, sometimes known as 'Beaches'. He played for 3 years, so therefore was rewarded with a '2 Years Award' during his loyal time at the establishment.

He will maintain endorsement in Cheltenham Town F.C. although only having been to Waddon Road less than five times, he wishes upon increasing his visits.

Rugby

He has also established a sporting hobby in rugby; he plays for Cheshunt Rugby Club with sustaining one of the winger positions for the team. He has played two seasons with the club, positioning 6th out of 8 in their division and evading relegation.

He supports his team Gloucester R.F.C. and will continue to do so, though having only been to Kingsholm venue once.

External links

• Charlton Rovers A.F.C.
• Cheshunt R.F.C.
• Cheltenham Town F.C.
• Gloucester R.F.C.