About

Michael Larkings has a special talent for creating and combining words and music into something meaningful, relatable and memorable.

As the founder and songwriter of various bands, including ‘The Aspros’ and ‘The Bombora Brothers’, in the heady days of Wollongong University during the late 1970’s, he went on to form ‘Lipservice’ and ‘Duval’ in the early 1980’s, performing his original works across the Wollongong and Sydney pub circuits. 

After travelling and living in Europe during the mid 1980’s, Michael returned to Australia and continued his prolific creation of original music under the pseudonym ‘The Friendly Weapons’ (the name being a ‘wink and a nod’ to a song he had written for Lipservice and performed with Lipservice and Duval years earlier, entitled ‘My Weapon Is Friendly’) through to the late 1980’s.  

During this particularly creative period he also wrote and recorded (under the pseudonym ‘Firing Line’) the soundtrack for a TV documentary about the origins and evolution of snow skiing in Australia called ‘Cold Fever’, in addition to another snow skiing documentary called ‘Active Andes’, which was filmed in Chile. 

In 2014, after a long hiatus from music, a chain of events began after a chance meeting with an old friend he hadn’t seen in many years (Les Herstik, the film maker of ‘Cold Fever’ and 'Active Andes') to whom Michael had sold the prized vintage guitar which had featured prominently on the 'Cold Fever' soundtrack. Michael bought his guitar back and this was the catalyst for him setting up a studio in his home, returning to writing and recording new songs, re-recording old ones and revisiting a wealth of unfinished ideas and projects from years earlier. 

During recovery from a serious injury in 2019 (he broke his back), Michael decided it was time for a more serious commitment to take his music to the next level as an art form. In August 2020, he met and began working with producer Michael Carpenter at Love Hz Studios (Leichhardt, Sydney). After recording ‘Heart Says So’ (a song he’d written for Samantha, his wife, as an anniversary gift), the genie was now out of the bottle. During the following months, Michael’s first ‘official’ solo studio album, a fourteen-song collection called ‘LIFE & LOVE,’ was recorded and ultimately released in 2021. With the support of respected Australian music industry figure and author Stuart Coupe as publicist, the record was put to a good cause, with all sale proceeds being donated to the NSW Cancer Council.

With each year, Michael's colourful body of original work continues to grow, evolve and impress.