By Taylor Linzinmeir, Staff Writer 

The minute Michael Wells walks into the ACRN station, everyone knows they are in for a treat. The first-year music production major radiates energy—never failing to make the people around him feel a little more silly by the end of their interaction. 

Read more: Meet the DJ: KT

The dream to study music production came from two sparks of inspiration for Michael. The first spark was very close to home. His cousin was the drummer for the band Powerspace, then later for the band Bad City. He got to open for bands including Fall Out Boy, Kiss and Smashing Pumpkins. Michael decided to learn how to play the drums himself after being inspired by his cousin. 

The second spark of inspiration behind Michael’s career path came later from a high school friend who happened to own a lot of recording equipment. Seeing him make music motivated Michael to buy his own audio interface and microphone. He then started to work on creating his own music, working with his background skill in percussion that he had already been cultivating. 

“The first thing I made was a bad cover of ‘When I Come Around’ by Green Day,” Michael says. “I hope my production skills have evolved since then. I’m pretty much self-taught through the internet and through time.”

Michael is continuing to improve his production skills as a member of the production department at ACRN, where he is motivated by the fact that the student-lead media hub is a nice place to get a taste of what the music industry has to offer him.

“I was more anxious in high school. I always feared that people didn’t like me. I’m trying to be more outgoing and hope that will change things,” Michael says.

In the spirit of this, he is not only a member of the production department, but has joined the public relations, promotions, music and, of course, programming departments as well. 

His specialty show is called “A Very Normal Emo Playlist, I Promise.” As you may be able to tell, the title is a little misleading.

Every week, Michael plays mostly emo songs with one wild-card song thrown into the mix. For example: the Kidz Bop version of “All the Small Things” by Blink-182. 

His DJ name, Micycle Wheels, is equally as goofy as the specialty show concept. 

“There was a meme going around in high school that questioned ‘If bike is short for bicycle, is Mike short for Micycle?’ Micycle became my nickname after that,” Michael says. 

When Michael isn’t at ACRN improving his production skills, hosting his specialty show, or generally goofing around, he’s busy recording and editing his own podcast.

The podcast is called “The Fishbowl” and airs on Spotify every Friday at 6 p.m. It features him and a couple of friends pulling multiple random topics out of a fishbowl to discuss. 

Click here to listen live to “A Very Normal Emo Playlist, I Promise,” hosted by Micycle Wheels every Wednesday at 10 p.m.