Early 2000s: May to December After high school Menert attended college for one year with Smith and Brandt. 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.
2004–2006: Taking Up Your Precious Time Derek Vincent Smith and Michal Menert began working on Pretty Lights as a side project in the summer of 2004, producing the first album,
Taking Up Your Precious Time in 2005 while on a trip to Europe. The album was released the following October. 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. 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.
2007–2011: Dreaming of a Bigger Life 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. and worked with Paul Brandt on their collaboration Half Color in 2008. 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. Menert's debut live performance was at the 2010 Sonic Bloom music festival in Bellevue, Colorado.
2012–2014: ''Even If It Isn't Right'' 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. A vinyl release followed in 2014.
2015–present: Dream Season, Elements and Space Jazz 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. 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. ==Super Best Records==