Before composing, his musical upbringing allowed Michael to thrive on both horn and guitar. During high school, he was a member of the Texas All-State Orchestra on horn and was also an award winning guitarist for his school jazz band. During his youth, Michael became passionate about film scores because the horn is often a prominent instrument in films.

Michael received a scholarship to Baylor University, where he earned his degree in Music Performance in 2000. During his junior and senior years, he auditioned for and won positions with both the Waco and Richardson Symphonies in Texas. Michael has performed in many concerts, including performances with Bruce Hornsby and the late Ray Charles.

With a quickly growing resume, he has worked as Technical Score Assistant and Score Editor on several projects for the composer John Frizzell and has also worked in TV as a Music Editor on a major reality TV show. Dobbins has composed music for nearly twenty projects and placed music in several feature films through music libraries. Dobbins was recently featured in the August 2009 issues of Electronic Musician magazine and Millimeter Magazine and is currently nominated for the 2009 Hollywood Music in Media Awards for his score for the film "Tremens".

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Sachiyo, and is a member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists and ASCAP.