From NY to Prague: Music, Freedom, and a Decade Away from Home with Piqi Miqi

I want to quit this modeling job and just focus on music full-time. I made like a contract with myself that I would pursue music or die. I really have some mental issues. Prague way. I was like, Prague way? What the fuck is Prague way? Yo, this is freedom. I said, America is not free. Yeah. I'm not from a free country. I had the time of my life there. It was crazy. I had like 2 girlfriends, bro. The girls was like so hot and so horny. I haven't been back in the States in 12 years.

This is probably one of the most like Epic leadway into the studio. Yeah, man, this is the real spot, bro. This video is about the many reincarnations of a male gigolo.

Bro, so it's been, what, 7 years? Yeah, last time I saw you was 2016. 2016. Yeah, that was the last time I saw you. Time goes by fast. How have you been, man? What's been happening in your life in general? It's crazy because things go so quickly. It's hard to give you like a recap of all those years. Of course, of course. I mean, since then, man, I released some more singles, a lot of music since then, done a lot of concerts, traveled. COVID happened. So that actually like COVID fucked up time a lot. 'Cause it was like 2020 to 2022 was like a blur of, it's like the time that I'll never get back. So I've been hustling, bro. I've just been like, it's been a nonstop just grind. I feel like I haven't had a vacation. I've had a lot of fun. Yeah. But all my fun is related to creativity. So I haven't been able to just like sit back and just be like, 'cause I feel like I'm not at the point where I wanna be. So I'm constantly fucking grinding.

Yeah.

And yeah, man. So what's driving that vision? Because you're talking about like you're not where you want to be. Like, where do you want to go? Yeah, before COVID I kind of had a lot of momentum built up as far as music goes. Like, as far as my fan base, I had tours, everything was kind of built up. Yeah. And that like 2-year kind of like, I don't want to say it broke me, but it separated me from my fan base, separated me from my local fan base. Yeah. And after the dust, you know, cleared out, I had to like rebuild everything from from zero. Yeah, yeah. So I had to like build new fans, figure out touring, this stuff, all that stuff. I had to like start over again. Damn. Yeah, yeah. So that was actually really challenging, quite frustrating. Now I'm back to the point where like, okay, I'm back in action, I have that momentum, and it's just like moving forward from there. Yeah. It feels like, whoa, that was a big pitfall, and it almost broke me, man. It almost broke me. I can't say that I wanted to quit like that, I seriously wanted to. Yeah. But parts of me were just like, do motivated, that energy that's just like propelling you. I had to like relook at everything and just everything was changing. Oh shit. Questioning. And during that time, a lot of things changed. Social media changed, the way we communicate changed.

Yep.

The way we travel changed. Accelerated. Yeah. So it's just like the same formula doesn't work anymore. My creativity improved, my skills improved, my talent improved, my confidence and my musicality, all those things improved. Yeah. Because I had lots of time just to like work on things. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Doing all this not in the US where you're originally from, but doing all this in Prague, Czech Republic, I mean, this is like a— yeah, a whole new thing, right? What is it like building your, your music career in this market? I'll give you the pros. Like, yeah, the pros in Prague is the scenery, the atmosphere, yep, the location. It's really inspiring. It's not like you go outside and you just have some immediate inspiration, but it is that frequency, that atmosphere just gives you the right environment to feel comfortable, to create, to experiment, to try new things. Like, for example, I got a studio right now that I just started renting for half a year. Yeah. And it's in an old monastery for nuns. Like, it looks like a Harry Potter building. It's very cheap to rent the studio. And in that building are hundreds of rooms, and each of the rooms is different architecture because first it was a monastery, and then the Nazis owned it, then the Communists had it, and then now some developers bought it. They're gonna gut it out and turn it into a hotel, but until then they just like let a bunch of artists rent rooms there. So you got painters there, sculptors, musicians, you got all types of different artists and disciplines and just random people. Throwing parties there, events, everything. So you're kind of in this space where people are creating and you feel like, hey, I'm going here and this is where I'm going to make something. But your studio is in here. You're lying to me, bro. The inside is going to be a hotel, which I'm also not happy about because it's going to be a luxury hotel and it's not going to be accessible to people who live here. Okay. For now, For the next— they said for the next 3 years, still going to be here.

So there's a lot of people rent this space for—

yeah, we could do House Manifest over here. Yeah, this is probably one of the most like, like epic leadway into the studio.

Yeah, but here it's like, you know, some different hallways and stuff. Yeah, different rooms and shit. This was a big place.

You can get lost here. Yeah, it looks like if you're not sober, you know.

So a lot of these, most of these rooms are for rent, you know. Really? Like, for example, if you want to set up shop or whatever, not shops, but like more like, sorry, more like stuff where you're sculpting or whatever, you can just rent the space for pretty cheap.

Looks like there's a lot of vacant rooms, actually.

There's a lot.

There's a lot.

I'd say there's not that much people here.

I guess like most people don't know about it, maybe.

Yeah, most people don't know about it. And also like they get most of their money from renting to Hollywood. Yeah. And other big corporate events. Yeah. They pay to film in some rooms and they pay a lot of money, so they don't really need us. Our stuff is pretty cheap. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing to see.

My studio might be a little messy. All good, let's get the authentic vibe here. Amazing.

Got this block in itself. I don't have my instruments up right now because I've been editing film lately.

Yeah, yeah, man, this is a little spot, bro.

Amazing.

Also, man, the people— like, I find it really easy to meet people here. Yeah, despite the stereotypes that Czech people are cold old or not so friendly and social. Like, the people I meet here, they're really cool. Like, I got a really great group of friends and people around that are just genuinely awesome. I make events here. I coordinate and organize like a community here. So we have— we make parties every month or every 2 months. And man, the vibe at the parties is just amazing. We just know a lot of friendly, creative people. The— it's just warm. Like, you just feel like you're in a different place, a different time. I don't think I can find that in the States, dude. So you've been here for 13 years, so you came out here 2010. Like, how did you end up like moving? I applied to the College of Arts and Sciences, CAS. I chose economics as my major. Yeah, I thought this is the safe way to go, I'll get in like this. I got accepted and They told me like, unfortunately, there's no space on campus for the fall semester for you. Because I was like, yeah, I was like, what the hell is this? So they said I could either be a commuter for that first semester and then they'll have space in the next one, or I could study at one of their schools abroad. In retrospect, I think this is just a way for them to get students to go to their school abroad. Okay. I don't believe that there's no fucking space. Space on a campus for $55,000. Yeah, yeah. But it was a blessing in disguise. Like, there's no, there's no way they, they would literally like find you some off-campus apartment or something. Come on. So they gave me the choice between Florence, Buenos Aires, Prague, London, Barcelona. I was like, okay, that sounds cool, because I had already studied in Spain for a semester while I was at Choate, and I had the travel bug. I wanted to, I wanted to go to Europe. Yeah. So I was looking at all the countries and I was like, ah, that's— they speak English, they speak Spanish. Yeah, yeah. So look at Prague. I said, what the fuck is Prague? Wait, what the fuck is— I thought it was Prague. I was like, Prague? What the fuck is Prague? Yo, America has failed us in geography. Yeah, dude. Yo, you guys need to teach us geography because I went to a boarding school and I still sucked at geography. Shows you how ignorant we are. So, uh, I didn't know what the hell Czech Republic was. I still call it Czechoslovakia. Yeah, imagine the stupidity. So I said, yeah, that looks dope, I'm gonna go there. You know, I went to Prague, the shit was lit, bro. I was able to drink beer, I was smoking weed outside. Like, during this time you couldn't smoke weed in the state, it wasn't legalized yet. This is 2007. You could smoke outside in New York unless you were like white. Like, you couldn't do that shit back in 2007. 2007. Yeah, this is before— by the lies, man. Yo, this is like before Trump. Yeah, this is before Trump. So when I came to Prague, it was like, yo, this is, this is freedom. I said, America is not free. Yeah, I'm not from a free country. I'm in Prague, Czech Republic, and I'm like, wow, this is free. So man, I had the time of my life here. It was crazy. I had like 2 girlfriends, bro. The girls was like so hot and so horny, it was crazy, bro. Like, it was crazy. You're talking about like 2007, that was even before you actually moved here. That was like, you came here initially just to experience the vibe as a study abroad. Yeah, spring semester came, I went back to NYU, finished my studies there. When I was graduating NYU, I didn't know what the fuck I wanted to do. I was like, had some finance internships. I wanted to work on Wall Street. I wanted to be an investment banker. I didn't know what the fuck I wanted to do. I had these opportunities, but I was like, yo, this is not really my shit. I did some internships and I was like, Bro, so when it came time to graduate, I was like, fuck, I didn't apply anywhere. Then I was like, fuck it, I'm gonna go to Prague for a year. Yeah, figure my shit out. Study Czech for a year. I went for a year, a year became 2, became 3, became 4, and here I am. I haven't been back in the States in 12 years. No way. Last time I was back was 2012. So yeah, 11, 12 years. Dude, I missed the whole generation of— I missed a whole decade. Wow. You ain't American anymore. Yeah, I'm not. I'm really not, bro. So Your initial thought was like, okay, let me figure my shit out and then we'll see what happens, right? So like over those years, like obviously like you had this vision for building your music career and all that stuff. But other than that, like how did you end up like making your ends meet? When I first was here, I was studying and then I found a job as a model agent. I was working in the office as an agent and as well as that, I was going on castings and doing some modeling jobs. Okay. I couldn't do too many jobs during the time because I was also working in the office. So during that time, I started getting into music locally here, meeting other musicians and collaborating. And I met my former music partner Issa, and we created a duo called the G.A.T. I think in 2013, I was like, I want to quit this modeling job, like this model agent job, and just focus on music full-time. Then I thought, okay, I can like keep myself afloat by doing the modeling jobs, commercials and stuff like this. I did that. That was fucking hard. Like, it was hard. I made like a contract with myself that I would pursue music or die. It was a weird contract. Think about it in hindsight, I really have some mental issues because I literally sound like I signed like a death contract with myself. Yeah, dude. Uh, yeah. So, and that— please don't do that. Yeah, yeah, I signed a death contract with myself. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do this shit like full time, and I wrote that I'm never gonna work in an office for somebody. I'm never going to be an employee. Yeah, that's my goal. I have never been an employee. Um, so since then I've always done stuff as a freelancer. So it was either modeling, acting, commercials. Of course I do concerts and this stuff. I make money from that. And, uh, yeah, most recently I started getting into film and TV series. Like it was 2020. 2019, I did like my first film. I did A Boy Called Christmas. I had a small role in that. And then from there I started to do some— I did a few Czech TV series. I did some small roles in some American, like Amazon series, and I still do commercials. Yeah. So I kind of get in where I fit in, man. I'm just like, you know, money here, money there. I'm also have a home studio, like a project studio. I record other artists, I mix and master their stuff. Stuff, produce some things as well. Yeah, I do my concerts, I make events, I make parties where I put other artists, DJs, do my own concerts there, do parties as well. So I just got like many streams of income, and sometimes I'm making nothing from some of them, sometimes I'm making a lot from a few of them. Yeah, it's just been like up and down, but I've had a lot of challenges. I'd say up until my late 20s, I was completely completely financially unstable. And then I got to be really stable from like 29 to COVID. Yeah, by COVID I was like really, really doing well. Yeah. And then that, that like slowed me down. And then now I'm just starting to like get back up, get back up. Yeah, yeah. I'd say like, yeah, looking back, Hollywood, when I was younger, I definitely wouldn't see myself in this position. When I was younger, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna be like rich and famous And life, yeah, life threw a lot of curveballs. Yeah. But the great thing is that I'm having fun. Yeah. And I'm doing what I love to do. But it's fucking hard. Yeah. I wouldn't recommend it to most people. Yeah. I would not. I don't think most people are fucking built for that shit because you go crazy. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've been depressed or felt really fucking down. You got that. You need to have that mental fortitude. Yeah, man. That resilience. Yeah, it's not easy. Man, just like you do everything yourself, huh? Yeah, pretty much, huh?

Oh yeah, man.

Like, wait, so you don't have an editor helping you out?

I don't have an editor, man.

You're a wild child.

So I'm just like, yeah, I'm doing the color grading on this video, and yeah, this is like the cave scene and Yeah, is that you? Yeah, that's me playing a caveman here. Yeah, so this is where we started. This one's pretty simple. This was like really simple.

So how did you come up with this cave concept, by the way?

So this is— this, this video is about the many reincarnations of a male gigolo. Start off with the documentary, and this guy is like this kind of documentary guy, and he's talking about the history of prostitution, and he's like, basically the first prostitute was not a girl, but it was a guy. And then he starts off and we go to like this prehistoric time period. Okay. We kind of dive into this TV. Yeah. And then it goes into like this prehistoric period. This is some wild stuff. Yeah. And then it goes into the Baroque period, right? We go into the Baroque period. Yeah.

So that's you?

Yeah, that's me. That's me, man.

You can pull up like a fucking Baroque white dude look.

Yeah, I play a white dude. So basically In each, um, period I play the husband of the girl who's called the prostitute. Okay. And I play the prostitute. Uh, yeah, man, so that's what I've been color grading. And basically, like, for my next video I'm gonna have somebody else grade, but for this one I already started grading. And I graded videos before, but this one I wanted to, like, get better at it. And we have—

man, you're a true creator.

Like, how'd you learn all this stuff? I learned the first time I edited a video was with my old music partner with scene, uh, nicknamed Isa, and we were editing our music videos for our band, and he kind of like taught me how to edit. And I just looked at it like music because, I mean, it's linear. Like, look, it's just linear. So it's just like when you're composing MIDI. So you got your tracks and you got your stuff here. So this, I look at this as like music. Yeah. And these are the different tracks, and I'm trying to just piece together the right composition. So it's the same like music, man. And then the coloring, I look at like it's like mixing and mastering.

Are you literally writing all the songs yourself?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's insane. Just want to do like dope shit. I always want to tell a story. I don't want to just look cool and look pretty. I don't give a fuck about that.

Yeah. I had these two opposing forces there. There was like this logic and then there was like raw creativity. They're constantly like— Creatives are really just wild people. We're very spontaneous. We're not so organized. And it's like you're taking a fucking animal from the fucking zoo. To produce a music video like this, like, how much would it cost?

This one cost me $2,000.

Damn.