Michal Menert

After high school Menert attended college for one year with Smith and Brandt.[4] In the early 2000s, under the name AES, Michal began producing hip hop music both on his own as well as with friends in the music groups Gone, Listen (stylized Listen.), and Makeshift Gods. Menert's first solo album, May to December was released on April 27, 2003[6] In repayment of back rent for studio time, Menert worked part-time with Derek Vincent Smith as an engineer at Morningwood Studios in Fort Collins.[7][8]

Derek Vincent Smith and Michal Menert began working on Pretty Lights as a side project in the summer of 2004,[9][10] producing the first album, Taking Up Your Precious Time in 2005 while on a trip to Europe. The album was released the following October.[11] Believing it did not make sense to charge for a product that individuals would simply rip off the internet, Menert and Smith mimicked the business model of Steely Dan by releasing the album for free. They hoped that the music would catch on and they could make money playing shows.[10] As a side project the pair did not feel any pressure to make money on the music. Menert and Smith initially promoted the album by reverse searching people's music interests on Myspace and sending messages to them about the free album.[12]

On December 7, 2006, twenty-four-year-old Michal Menert was robbed at gunpoint and severely injured by three Loveland, Colorado gang members during a drug deal. Menert fled the scene and was found by police on a sidewalk in downtown Loveland. He was admitted to McKee Medical Center in Loveland with a stab wound in the chest just missing his heart and a tip to wrist laceration with tendon damage on his dominant hand. While Menert was in the hospital, Pretty Lights was becoming more well known and after discussion Derek Vincent Smith proceeded with the project on his own.[10][11][13][14][15]

After Menert left the hospital in 2007 he learned his father, who had previously been diagnosed with cancer, had become more sick and needed a caregiver.[11] While caring for his father, Michal collaborated with friend Benjamin O'Neill on a never released project called The Years in 2007 and 2008[16] and worked with Paul Brandt on their collaboration Half Color in 2008.[17] A few years later (c.a. 2009) on his way to his first show after his injury, Menert was pulled over for swerving and arrested for distributing narcotics to an undercover officer two years prior. Pleading guilty to a lesser charge, Menert was sentenced to three years of probation, six months in prison, and 200 hours of community service. Due to his father's declining health Menert served his six months under house arrest rather than in prison.[11]

While taking care of his father and under house arrest, Menert worked at Walmart and produced his album Dreaming of a Bigger Life.[11] By spring 2010, Derek Vincent Smith had produced two solo albums under the name Pretty Lights and the project had undergone a shift in sound. Rather than rejoin Pretty Lights, Menert chose to create a solo project under his own name. On June 8, 2010, one week after his father's death due to cancer, Menert released Dreaming of a Bigger Life for free as the first album of the newly formed Pretty Lights Music label.[18][19] Menert's debut live performance was at the 2010 Sonic Bloom music festival in Bellevue, Colorado.[20]

Menert released his 27-track album Even If It Isn't Right on April 24, 2012. Collaborating artists on the album include SuperVision, Paul Basic, and Derek VanScoten.

From November 2012 to April 2013, Michal Menert released a four-part series of singles called Elements.[21] A vinyl release followed in 2014.

In April 2014, Elements was released as an EP on Super Best Records. Menert, described Elements as a tribute to alchemy. Elements became a name-your-price digital release followed by vinyl shortly after. Menert produced the album with Mux Mool.

Menert released Space Jazz on April 21, 2015. His first full-length album since "Even If It Isn't Right" in 2012.

Starting in 2016, Menert established a working relationship with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. Since then, he has worked at Hart's Studio X in California, co-produced his 2017 release 'Ramu,' and went on the road with Dead & Co as an Ableton engineer from 2017 to 2018.

In January 2016, Menert played Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater as Half Color along with Big Grams and Adventure Club, and later year in October 2016, he was back at Red Rocks with The Floozies.

Space Jazz was released on vinyl February 19, 2016.[22]

In August 2017, Menert reunited with Derek Vincent Smith and joined Pretty Lights at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington.

In 2018, Menert released his solo record Slow Coast 2 & in 2019, Slow Coast 3, which both consisted of downtempo soundscapes inspired by living on Northern California coast.

Michal Menert & the Pretty Fantastics delivered '1' in Fall 2016 and with an updated lineup, released 'From the Sea in November 2018.