Picking up the guitar at age ten, Mike Barrett played his first rock'n'roll show in grade seven. With his two best buds on drums and bass, they played to a gymnasium full of eager students and teachers at the French primary school which he attended on most days. It was later decided that he had in fact pissed-off the teachers with the selection of Nirvana covers they played that had not been sung en Francais. This singular event did however score huge amongst the school's student populous -- earning them major street credibility. What started out as a "fun thing to do" quickly became somewhat of an obsessive compulsive disorder, falling second only to the beloved sport of skateboarding. Barrett, who was naturally drawn to a more experimental side of music, listened to lots of psychedelic rock from cream, pink floyd & led zeppelin as well as jazz, soul, reggae and hip hop. Barrett joined Guelph-based reggae band Well Charged at age sixteen and gigged with the band for three years, playing on notable stages like Guelph's Hillside Festival and Toronto's Bambu By The Lake nightclub. It became a pretty good excuse to be in bars underage. WC released three studio albums that received airplay on university campus radio stations like CFRU 93.3FM and Nicky Dread's Crooked Beat radio. They played with fine acts from the area including Noah 23, House Of Velvet, OUT, The Remnants, Samsara, The Jolly Llamas, Jenny Omnichord, The Barmitzvah Brothers, Evan & Geordie Gordon, The Constantines, Sarah Harmer, Stephen Fearing (Blackie & the Rodeo Kings), Jeff Bird (Cowboy Junkies) and many more.

In the spring of 2006, Barrett headed west aimlessly searching and stumbled into a place on Vancouver Island called Tofino. He lived in Tofino for the summer then traveled to California with Tofino friends, surfing at some of the finest beaches along the way and wandering the dirt road deserts through Baha, Mexico. He returned to Guelph in the fall for a family wedding, but not for long, as he jumped on a plane to Halifax, NS. Mike found a steady paycheck working at a hostel in downtown Halifax which doubled as a place to stay. By night, he would attend the open mics and jams that are abundant throughout Halifax, one of those being at the blues bar situated right next door to the hostel. It would not take long before Mike found a gig as the opening act touring withAndrew Hunter & The Gatherers. What began as an opening slot soon became an invitation to join the band on bass guitar. They toured across Canada and released the self-titled EP with a charting song that ended up in the top 50 in Canada. It also went on to be nominated for East Coast Music Awards 2010 and Nova Scotia Music Awards 2009.

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