BIO

MICHAEL HARRIS, the son of two master-degreed musicians, was born into a musical world in the Midwest U.S. town of Dayton, Ohio in the ‘60s. After favoring sports as a child, he soon discovered music and started playing the trumpet at age 11 in the school band. Then at age 14, Michael picked up guitar and never looked back. He soon formed his first band, Tyrant, playing the Ohio club circuit for a number of years until the mid 80s, when he formed Arch Rival, which became a powerful global hard rock act that released 4 albums.

In 1991, Michael completed his first solo instrumental album, “Defense Mechanizms”, which was released with much critical acclaim. After a tour and live CD with the Chastain / Harris band, entitled “Live! Wild & Truly Diminished”, Michael relocated to Dallas, Texas in 1994. Shortly following his move, MH released his second instrumental disc, “Ego Decimation Profile”, and also around this same time formed a metal band, Surgeon, which gained yet more fans worldwide with their 1996 brutal debut, “Encyclopedia of the Insane”.

Michael, the multi-instrumentalist / composer has continued to maintain a very successful solo career. He released “Distorted Views” in 1999, followed by “Sketches From the Thought Chamber” in 2001, and in 2003, his first solo vocal release (featuring his brother Brian Harris on drums), “Words Collide” on Lion Music. In November of 2006, Lion released yet another instrumental album from Michael, a neo-classical opus entitled “Orchestrate”, which received some of MH’s highest accolades to date from fans and media.

In 2007, Michael started to focus on non-solo projects, releasing the debut album from his prog rock/metal vocal supergroup, THOUGHT CHAMBER, entitled “Angular Perceptions” on the world renowned Inside Out Music label, and in ’09, “Altered Reflections”, a heavier prog metal release from DARKOLOGY, formed by Michael featuring his brother, Brian Harris on drums; high school friend Mike Neal on bass, and world renowned vocalist, Kelly Sundown Carpenter. Michael composed all the music for these projects. After releasing another solo album in 2010, “Tranz-Fused” (a fusion of rock, jazz & funk), Michael then returned to his prog bands, composing and releasing “Psykerion” (2013) from THOUGHT CHAMBER, and “Fated to Burn” (2015) from DARKOLOGY, both garnering yet more critical acclaim (with a 2014 European tour for the latter.) During this time, Michael also played all the guitars on several records from world renowned keyboard virtuoso, Vitalij Kuprij (“Forward and Beyond”, “Revenge” and “Glacial Inferno”.)

Starting in 2019, Michael returned with 2 solo albums, his follow-up to “Orchestrate”, entitled “Orchestrate II: Rage & Restraint”, pushing his compositional skills to a new level, and in 2022, “Chemical Compositions”, which Michael defines as “tri-fusion” (a melodic melange of rock, jazz, and blues). Both of these again featured Michael’s brother Brian, on drums, and the latter was mixed by Davide Sgualdini, who also re-mixed THOUGHT CHAMBER’s “Psykerion” (for vinyl) in 2023, and mixed TC’s follow-up to that album in 2025, “Myst of Lyriad”, again with music & lyrics composed by Michael.

In the meantime, Michael is working on yet another solo album for a 2027 release, again featuring his brother Brian on drums.

In the early ‘90s live arena, Michael began to stun audiences with his own band under the moniker, The Michael Harris Project, which eventually morphed into The Michael Harris Tranz-Fusion in 2001. These bands have performed with the likes of Joe Satriani, Rick Derringer, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Black Label Society, and more, and now also features Michael’s younger brother Brian Harris, on drums.

Michael continues to compose, record, and release cutting edge music, while performing live with several of his bands. As Michael states, “I’m forever grateful to be able to express myself through the magic of music and guitar”.