Today we’d like to introduce you to Weird City
Weird, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hi, I’m Weird City, also known as Mike D (Michael Duran). I’m a performing artist and owner of a local music production and event company called Weird City Entertainment LLC. I was born and raised in Austin Texas which has been my only home since 1994. I come from a family of music lovers and have loved music since I can remember. My parents put me in piano lessons and band as a kid which helped develop my technical and performance skills, though I never thought of myself as a performer until life events put me in a place to take my music seriously. When I was 17 I moved away from my parents house. At the time I was going through a lot in life and music (hip hop specifically) became a form of expression that helped me cope and feel power within myself. I began freestyling with my cousin Q (Young Northeast) and my good friend Dalton (Rook Deeds) until we eventually decided to form the rap group Weird City Kids. At the time my performance name was Mic D, an abbreviation of my whole name. We started performing at the Spider House open mics and quickly became a popular act as we brought in our school friends and went on to open Austin’s first ever Weird City Hip Hop Festival. As we began to release more content and gain traction in the local scene, I began to see music as a long term opportunity and started to record and engineer my own music as a way to save money. Once Rook Deeds started college at Texas Tech we performed a series of shows opening up for artists like Russ, Yung Nation and Dorrough at Sig Ep fraternity parties in Lubbock and Oklahoma. I was also performing with Young Northeast in Austin (our biggest show was Mike Jones at Elysium) however it became clear that the Weird City Kids could no longer easily perform together. Around this time I changed my performance name from “Mic D” to “Weird City Kid” to carry on the brand name. Seeing as to how much talent there was (is) in Austin and everything music was doing for me, I became curious how I could scale this idea to provide opportunities for other local artists to record and perform as well. I made a post on Facebook encouraging hip hop leaders in the city to come together to represent the scene, to which my old friend David responded encouraging me to incorporate an LLC with him. Thus Weird City Entertainment LLC was born as a group of my close creative friends with the intention of exposing and scaling the local Austin art scene, as well as creating a safe space for us to express our own art forms. We went on to host several parties and events focused around showcasing local musicians and accompanying artists. Between our house parties, annual boat parties, and partnering with Brodie’s Fault and Scratchouse to host multiple 1 day festivals and our weekly Scratch Tuesday open mic, we brought over a hundred artists onstage (including Houston legends Paul Wall, Bushwick Bill, DJ Big Redd, DJ Frank White). Weird City Entertainment began to stand out for being a genuinely positive source of energy for the local community, a quality that still sets us apart today. I also continued to release music as Weird City Kid during this time. Once Covid hit Scratchouse unfortunately closed down and our business had to cease operation. David also left the business around this time to make me 100% owner of Weird City Entertainment. I spent the downtime practicing and investing in my recording studio that I would eventually open up to clients once quarantine lifted. I started working with dozens of local artists to bring their ideas to life and engineered full albums and custom productions for artists like Randy James, Tay No Tee, Daya Dai, Blck Svvn and Bianca B-Lo. After quarantine I also started another open mic under Weird City Entertainment called “The Come Up” at Oskar Blues brewery in which we ran a similar program to Scratch Tuesday until Oskar Blues also unfortunately closed. I also developed a passion for DJing that has taken me from practicing in my studio in 2021 to DJing at venues all over Austin in 2024. I also started working large scale music festivals year round like Electric Forest, Lost Lands, Illfest, ACL and others which really helped bring my attention to more of the EDM scene. I also became a promoter at The Concourse Project in 2024 which opened me up to Austin’s EDM scene even more. Due to this and my love for electronic music I started to diversify my music production and events. In 2024 I announced a new direction for my personal music brand in which I produce and engineer my music in my own studio while I experiment with a wider range of unique and original sound. I decided to change my performance name for the last time to Weird City, the ultimate representation of me as an independent artist. I also started to reflect this in WCE events, with my latest Weird City Entertainment project being a popular silent disco at Reina Rooftop called Sunset Disco. where we showcase local DJs. My goal is to continue creating positive and diverse ways to showcase and support local talent through live events and studio production. As an entrepreneur I hope to create Austin’s premier platform for quality local music experiences, and as a creator I want to travel the world as a performer and produce quality music that will move people around the world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Growing up as a teenager without a relationship with my siblings or parents was extremely spiritually challenging and it was only through faith in God and focus in my music that I was able to heal, forgive and move on from some of the negative coping habits I’d developed like drugs and bad company
I didn’t have my own licensed vehicle until 2024 so I was ubering to the studio, ubering to my own events, catching the megabus to perform in Lubbock, ubering alone to the grocery store to get groceries for the boat party, getting it done by any means
My ex business partner turned sour after I expressed to him that I felt like I was pulling too much weight to be splitting the business 50/50 and took to the internet to express his feelings about me rather than handle it professionally. I paid him out by his terms and had basically given him his audience and all the love I could so it hurt me deeply when he turned on me and took so many of our followers with him. I never responded because I was too angry to form a public response and I carried that anger and mistrust of myself and others for years, blocking me from being the loving person I am at heart. Then COVID hit and I broke up with my first love of 5 years which just added to the pain and mistrust and feeling of undeserving. It was music and God that got me out of this hole again, this was a dark time for me though.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Weird City Entertainment LLC?
Weird City Entertainment LLC is an Austin-based production company focused on creating quality experiences through our studio services and live events. We’ve been around since 2016 and we specialize in building platforms to create and celebrate local art and community. As a passionate artist born and raised in Austin myself, I bring a level of understanding and genuine love to the business and the people we serve that extends from my core. As someone who’s also managed large scale music festival and hospitality operations on a national and international scale (I was an international corporate trainer for venue openings at Topgolf where I worked for 9 years), I bring a level of professional experience that is profound in my position. What I take pride in most is that there is a distinct positive and immersive energy at all of our events that makes people feel welcome and included. Outside of hosting our own events we mainly focus on audio recording and production services for local musicians. However we also provide talent and basic A/V services for private and corporate events, People can follow us on instagram @weirdcityent to stay up to date with our upcoming events and studio production options
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a happy kid who got along with everyone, enjoyed connecting with anyone I got the chance to meet, was literally always whistling or singing music, I was super competitive and loved to play basketball, I always tried my hardest and I was a huge nerd for digital technology. I always had a need to understand things so I always asked a lot of questions and tried to figure things out. My Mom would call me hardheaded a lot, I definitely had a big personality and grew to rebel against things I didn’t find fair.
Pricing:
- $50/hr studio time
- Music Videos starting from $300
- Performance Recaps starting from $75
- Private event services starting at $75/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/weirdcityent
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weirdcitykid/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weirdcityent
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@weirdcityent
Image Credits
Curtis Wiimz
Dairro Reeves
Juan C Garcia
Izzy Pitchford
Isaac Deal
