Larry Weir began his music career in the San Diego area in 1967, when he was a freshman in high school. As a singer/guitarist inspired by the Beatles and composers Burt Bacharach & Jimmy Webb, he formed “The Royal Enterprise,” a pop band whose other members were his brother Tom Weir (now a renowned recording engineer) on the drums, sister Maria (now a teacher and session bass player) on the keyboard, and two neighbors on the bass and rhythm guitar.  Within a year, the band had a local radio hit with one of Larry’s first compositions, “Boy It’s All In Your Head”.

In 1970, Larry’s family –  his mother, a classical pianist, his architect/builder father, Larry, and eight brothers and sisters -- moved to Oxnard, California.  While in his senior year at Oxnard High, he recruited many of his siblings and formed a new band, The Family. Soon after, Larry wrote, produced, and starred in three original musicals: “Island” in 1971, while he was attending Ventura College, “Hobos’s Jungle” in 1972, and “House On Crossroad Alley” in 1973, all part of the Ventura County Youth Experimental Theatre, which he co-founded with Maria and Tom. The shows were critical successes and were performed for thousands in the Ventura County area.

“I can’t believe that at such a young age we pulled those productions off,” said Larry from his home in the West Hollywood, CA area that he shares with his wife of eighteen years, Masika Swain. “These musicals were huge productions that involved massive set designs (many constructed by my father), choreography, costumes, actors, singers, dancers, along with a full orchestra,”
In 1974, the family moved back to the San Diego area, and Larry left the musical era behind to concentrate on the new family band, The Weirz, which now included Larry and all eight of his brothers and sisters. A year later, The Weirz found their first radio success by winning a spot of KGB radio’s “Homegrown #3” with an autobiographical song, “Gypsies From Bonsall.” The album sold over 50,000 copies in Southern California and inspired the band to record a solo album, “The Weirz” (1976), which led them to Los Angeles and to the record industry.

In 1979 The Weirz released another self-titled album, headlined the top clubs in Los Angeles, including the legendary Troubadour, Starwood, and The Whisky. During one of the Troubadour shows, little brother Michael (now known as Michael Damian) caught media attention and ended up with a contract on the CBS daytime drama “The Young and The Restless.”  Larry soon found himself writing many of the songs that Michael performed as the struggling waiter/singer character in the show.  He also moved into personal management, representing Michael as his first client.

In 1983, The Weirz signed a deal with Curb Records, releasing singles in Europe and eventually having a US release in “Imagination,” which included a video that led to appearances on American Bandstand and Dance Fever, as well as on television specials, fueling The Weirz rise to more headlining events.

1984 brought even greater success for Larry as he helped engineer a deal for brother Michael with CBS records in Canada. “Love Is A Mystery” (Columbia) was a huge success, and Larry’s composition “She’s In A Different World” gave Michael a Canadian hit that was also featured on NBC’s “The Facts Of Life” and numerous other television shows, creating a demand for a major Canadian tour.  A follow-up album, “Michael Damian” (CBS), released in 1987, brought more tours along with another original hit, composed by Larry, “What Are You Looking For”.

During this time, The Weirz performed their last tour as a band while opening for the Michael Damian shows. Larry began  composing songs and scores for movie soundtracks, including  “Return to Horror High,” “Something Special” and the film musical “Teen Witch,” which has become a cult hit, airing on cable and the Disney channel hundreds of times. “This was a unique experience in that they actually built some of the story line and dialogue around songs that I brought the producers after reading the original draft of the script”, said Weir.

The success of “Teen Witch” led to the film “Dream A Little Dream, ” which, in 1989, gave Larry a #1 record on the Billboard charts with his co-production of Michael Damian’s “Rock On” (A&M/Cypress). “It was a surreal experience watching the song climb week after week, and by week #12 we beat all the rest and had a #1”, Larry recalled. Subsequent radio hits included “Cover Of Love” and the AC/CHR Hit, “Was It Nothing At All,” which garnered a BMI Publishing Award for one of the “most played songs in 1990.”. Another album, “Dreams Of Summer,” followed for A&M. There were several more radio hits, including “What A Price To Pay” and the Larry Weir-penned “There’ll Never Be Another You,” which was featured on television shows from “The Young and The Restless” to the “Oprah Winfrey Show.”

The mid-1990s found Larry, brother Tom, and close friend Michael Parnell scoring the CBS primetime series “Dangerous Curves”. The show gave him and his fellow composers worldwide recognition. Soon after the series ended its run, Larry and brothers Tom and Michael produced several albums including the 1994 “Reach Out To Me” (Scotti Brothers) and a charted single by the same name that made its national debut on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. 1996 saw another album, “Time Of The Season” (Wildcat), with another Larry Weir-penned hit, “Never Walk Away,” which charted top ten on the AC40 charts. After leaving A&M, Larry started working with independent labels and became heavily involved in record promotion, an expertise he had begun to develop with his experience overseeing the climb of “Rock On.”.

“I realized I knew more people in radio than all of those independent record promoters we were spending large sums of money on,” he recalls.. He began calling radio stations on a weekly basis in 1995 just to check up on the other promoters he had hired, and he has continued doing so on behalf of clients ever since, under the auspices of his promotion division. National Record Promotion.. Larry has worked on records for some of the greatest artists in the music industry, including, early on in his company’s promotion work, Crystal Waters, Marshall Tucker, Janis Ian, Peabo Bryson, and Billy Vera (see Clients for a full list). In 1998, he teamed up with fellow independent promoter Paul Loggins to form New Music Weekly, a trade publication that has become one of the most important trades in the music industry in breaking new artists.

“The last thing I wanted was to have to start a trade publication, but we needed a voice in the music industry, and I’m so glad we made the move,”  Larry said. “All the work on record promotion and publishing a weekly trade magazine has made me a better writer/producer, and it’s made me better at serving my clients.  I get all the CDs that every label in America puts out each week, and I’m able to get a real solid education as to what is working on the radio.”
In 2008, the “Brothers Weir” – Larry, Michael and Tom -- formed Caption Records. The first releases garnered critical, sales and chart success.  These included “Teen Witch/The Musical,” country recording artist Buck McCoy’s Top Dog album, and the soundtrack for the motion picture “Moondance Alexander,” which was written and directed by Larry’s brother Michael Damian. Larry composed and produced six out of the twelve tracks on the album.

Over the past five years, Larry’s National Record Promotion has continued to become one of the top radio promotion companies in the nation. Some of his accomplishments include being the first to promote American Idol-winner Lee DeWyze at radio and adding Mick Jagger, Heartland, Romeo, Flo Rida, Akon, Matt Backer and Julian Lennon, among many others, to his long list of clients. His music compositions have found homes in the films “Flicka Country Pride,” “Marley & Me the Puppy Years,” and “Sweeter Side Of Life,” and in the multi-Emmy-Award-winning “30 Rock” (NBC), which featured his “Top That” composition. Larry, Tom, and Michael recently formed Weir Brothers Records for their roster of recording artists. Their first official single release, Michael Damian’s “Rock My Heart,” recently hit the Top 40 on the AC Mediabase charts where it also ranked #5 on the Indie label chart. As New Music Weekly continues to be a powerhouse in the music industry, Larry also helped develop the popular Independent Music Network and the Artist Management Firm.  He is in the process of announcing a new large-scale project that is expected to change the music industry in a very profound way. You may email Larry Weir at: [email protected]

Heartland/Artists Management Firm.
Tel: 323-658-7449 www.artistsmanagementfirm.com

National Record Promotion, 137 N Larchmont Blvd S-500 Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tel: 323-658-7449 email: [email protected]