Bannister had a stint as a teenager in the late 1970s playing rhythm guitar in working men's clubs and other unlicensed venues with Gavin Keen (lead guitar), Graeme Dooley (drums) and Spike Quinn (bass) in the 1960s covers band Feedback.

In 1980, while he was a student at the University of Otago in Dunedin, he co-founded the band Sneaky Feelings, for which he was a vocalist, lead guitarist, and songwriter.

After the band dissolved in 1989, Bannister formed Dribbling Darts and worked as a journalist and reviewer.

His thesis was titled White Man's Soul: Pakeha masculinities in the popular music of New Zealand / Aotearoa.

He now works at the Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC) as a Theory/Post Graduate advisor in the School of Media Arts.