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[EP 37] Interview with David Mukka
Jun 17, 2025
David Mukka represents a talented artist who combines acting with adventurous pursuits while sharing an inspiring life story that matches his unpredictable nature. The Denim and Leather podcast explores David's entire journey, which includes his guitar-playing debut, his decision to act, and his work with NASA. The podcast explores how musicians transition to work with rocket scientists. What does it feel like to pursue your dreams until you reach California? David shares everything about his experiences, including his peak achievements, his lowest points, and his unbelievable experiences. He shares upcoming plans that you should definitely follow because they will be exciting. The episode delivers exciting stories and genuine laughter together with unexpected surprises that will surprise listeners. Press play to experience David Mukka's exciting life story. It was our pleasure having David Mukka in an episode of the Denim and Leather Podcast. --- 🔔 Give us some love; Subscribe, like, and hit the bell icon to stay updated with our latest episodes! If you like the Denim and Leather Podcast, give us fuel and buy Us a beer. ❤️ Support Us: https://buymeacoffee.com/denim.and.leather.podcast 🌐 Denim and Leather Podcast home page: https://musicnonstop.today/2024/03/03/denim-and-leather-podcast/ Hosted by Uros Veljkovic and powered by Music Nonstop Today (https://musicnonstop.today)
View Video Transcript
0:00
Okay guys, in the newest episode of Denim and Leather podcast, we have a special guest because I've known him for
0:07
now we were talking about it 18 years. 18 years, man. Thank you for having me. David Muka, thank you for for coming.
0:14
Jeez. I mean, first of all, I got to say I love the name of this podcast. It's denim and leather. It says all about the
0:22
culture, all about the niche. When I saw the first that first episode you aired,
0:27
I still remember that one because I was giving you props for that. You remember I wrote to you about that first episode.
0:33
It's so niche. It's I feel like it's right there somewhere the end of the '9s
0:39
at the beginning of the 2000s, which is definitely a culture that's coming back right now. It was more mind over matter,
0:46
but also substance over that whole plasticity of just marketing and uh just
0:55
a whole lot of hallelu about nothing. So, I feel like mumble raps out in this
1:00
podcast and all the, you know, I mean, of course, I got nothing against rap, but but I feel like that whole culture
1:08
of grunge and then alternative music and
1:13
and the I I believe there was a shift actually when when I think about it right now in the maybe around 2010 is
1:22
where caring for your art stopped being cool. It's like, you know what I mean?
1:28
It's like the artist started not giving a [ __ ] about what they do. And then that
1:34
became how cool you are. It's like the less you care about your work, the cooler you are. And it wasn't like that
1:40
before. Before that, it was like the more you give yourself to your work and to your craft. That's what was cool. And
1:47
so I feel like you're kind of getting back to those, you know, to those values
1:54
and that's what makes me care a lot about this podcast and about all your guests and about what you're doing here.
2:00
Thank you so much. It it means a lot to me and I never stopped. I since the '90s
2:06
when I was a teenager, I I'm the same, you know. I I I've did this like uh you
2:12
know you know my band and everything but uh I do but we we we did everything like this and I'm doing this uh like uh I
2:19
don't know for for years man for decades. One can tell you you care about it a lot and you can't fake that and
2:26
this stuff really matters to you and that's why this podcast has been honest
2:31
and that's why people are going to relate to it. It's because you don't [ __ ] people. It's like you can see you're actually a genuine nerd for music
2:39
and you care and you're invested in it and uh all of that shows. Yeah. And the reason you're here is because of your
2:46
music and other projects as well. So I I wanted to start to start uh asking you about when I when I met you when you
2:53
were like a teenager. I think uh you were 15 16 you had long dreads, right?
2:59
Uh and you you you played guitar acoustic I think back then. I still do. Yeah. So, uh, so how did you start with
3:06
music? Oh, man. Uh, I always knew I was going to be in like an an artist of some
3:12
sort when I was a, you know, when I was really young, uh, and I had a problem like, I guess I would, if I was crying
3:19
or something like that, my mom would come up to me and she would go, "Where here's a blank piece of paper, just draw
3:25
me whatever you're feeling. Just, you know, doodle something on this piece of paper." And that's I guess that was a
3:33
big part of why I came to be an artist is because when when I'm not able to say something or explain myself to myself, I
3:41
will express myself through either music or writing or or acting nowadays and uh
3:46
you know I will I will write music and and stories and film and so that's an
3:52
essential part to who I am. So, you've been doing it G since you were a little kid. But when was when was the time when
4:00
you learned the first instrument, first band and stuff like that? Uh, I picked up the guitar when I was like,
4:07
I don't know, like maybe 12, 13. I was really bad at it. I had an old guitar,
4:12
which I think is the right way to start playing any instrument by the way. Get a get a very bad instrument. If you can
4:18
play that, you learn yourself, you you teach yourself how to play that, then you're absolutely good to play a very
4:25
expensive, very, you know, nice instrument. But I had a very, very, very shitty guitar. And uh I learned how to
4:32
play that. And I just learned chords and stuff. I just learned I I remember I would learn I would I would teach myself
4:40
just how to play by heart. I didn't really understand harmony or musical
4:46
theory or I didn't read and write notes, none of that back back then. But uh and
4:52
then I just I guess I I started so I came here to I came to Macedonia from
4:57
from Finland. Uh I came to Macedonia and uh what happened was I I got myself
5:05
into that uh high school, the international one, Nova. So at Nova, I
5:10
immediately formed a band. I started going to drama drama class a lot and um
5:16
so we formed a band and then we sucked. I mean we played in front of
5:22
like presidents and prime ministers of Macedonia at the time. I remember cuz nova is a prestigious school,
5:30
international school. Yeah. So they put up they they they put us in front of like these politicians and you know
5:35
crowds of people but then important key members were in those crowds like political people or whatever and we
5:42
played in front of all that as the best that the school has to offer in terms of like music. We sucked. We were just a
5:48
cover band. We played a lot of Billy Idol. I I I remember back in the day that was our guy. And uh he's making a
5:54
comeback now by the way. He's got a new single with a Lev saw a couple days ago. really glad to see him work again. But
6:01
uh yeah, we played a lot of that and uh we we we were really bad. I remember I I
6:07
must have bumped my head on the neck of the guitarist's guitar a couple times on
6:13
every show cuz I'd be leaning over to get some cables and we we were all around the place. We didn't know what we
6:18
were doing. But then uh I I I ditched Nova. I I I I went to music high school
6:26
and then I met my band who you know was gadget and all those guys and uh and so
6:32
we started playing we we figured out that we knew exactly the same songs we knew by heart we knew Deep Purple songs,
6:39
Led Zeppelin songs, all those 70s rock and roll. Absolutely. Sabbath was a big
6:45
one as well. And I remember we I knew how to sing all those songs and they knew how to play all those songs and so
6:51
we were like this is a match made in heaven. Like it's all basically we know each other's music. That was the first time when I thought there's more like me
6:59
and if I could just be a part of this scene then I will feel like I'm cool and
7:06
I'm I'm I'm doing something in terms of expressing myself. So that's where it
7:11
all kind of clicked. We started playing with those guys for for a long time. and played with them I think in three
7:16
different setups over the course of Was was that the birth of project touse for
7:22
you or was it before that? No, it was after that actually. Our first band was
7:28
called Hideout. It was a post metal band. Back then we we would listen to a lot of Avenged Sevenfold and those kinds
7:36
of bands. That was like what was happening at the time Long Beach metal
7:41
and metal core and stuff like that. Absolutely. all that and hardcore as well. A lot of hardcore music and that
7:48
was back in the day. So, we started kind of doing our own version of that even though I'm a goofball. So, I always
7:53
would do the lyrics and the and the vocal melodies will always be a little bit more sentimental than, you know,
8:00
those rough rough lyrics that those guys had. They were all about the army and like, you know, defeating uh, you know,
8:06
the enemy or whatever. And so, our lyrics weren't anything like that. It was about me being a softy getting my
8:14
heart broken or whatever. And then we blended that really well with that powerful post metal sound and that was
8:21
rather original and we did an awesome album. That album I remember that was called Paradoxia. Um and the band was
8:29
called Hideout. That's really old. That's like 20 I don't know 13ish old.
8:34
And we played a lot of gigs with that band back in that was high school days. So like so many high school kids would
8:41
show up if the if the capacity of like you remember the club Castro super I
8:47
played there. Yeah. There you go. Well we when we played Castro Castro you can maybe get 600 people in Castro and no
8:54
more. And I remember kids when they came to Castro and we did these uh the kind
8:59
of gigs we did is like two three bands um playing back to back to back in a
9:05
night and the the venue would be packed man. there would be 800 people in a 600
9:10
people capacity venue. So, it was like this. It was crazy. And I can't I can't
9:15
forget I can't shake off these memories of like, you know, how when you're a vocalist, so I was the front man of all
9:21
the bands and like I was the lead singer, meaning I I would often not have
9:26
an instrument to play. So, all my band mates, they're they're tuning their guitars, man. and they're to you know
9:32
[ __ ] will be toggling with the with the drums and everybody's got their own thing prior to a gig and you as the
9:40
vocalist you got your vocal check it's like check one two and there's nothing more you can do to that so I would be
9:45
backstage always I used to read books and cuz I always read like I've always
9:51
read books and the band started getting after me it's like who do you think you
9:56
are you're getting like you know literate on us and that's you know that was kind of a they thought it was a
10:02
flex. I was actually reading. But then a couple of times and then before those
10:08
gigs, I would read a bit like a passage off of some book that I'll be reading.
10:15
And then the next day after the gig, some girls in the schools would come up
10:21
and they would bring me that book that I had been promoting the other night and they would go, "Can you sign this,
10:27
please? We bought the book you were reading from. you know, we we got into it and all that. So, I was like, my
10:33
band, I was like, there you go. You know, I'm actually playing my part in like spreading literature and making it
10:40
kind of cool. And that was for me, that was the win cuz Scopier wasn't exactly
10:46
it wasn't you're not cool if you read books in Scopia. You're cool if you don't care if you drink a beer, if you
10:53
get, you know, messed up Friday night, right? That's kind of the culture. And
10:58
so when I read books and people thought it was good, it was, you know, fascinating maybe, um, it was cool, I I
11:06
felt like I'd done something for that. Well, that probably helped you to write lyrics afterwards and to do screenplays
11:14
now. [ __ ] yeah. Yeah. When I think about it now, it's it definitely makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I've been a Yeah. I've been
11:21
a literature geek all my life. So, how do you connect the arts of music and
11:28
when did you start with the with the other stuff afterwards with the NASA thing and with the and and with the
11:34
artistic thing like uh acting like uh screenwriting and stuff like that? When when did you connect all those dots?
11:42
Um it happened very organically for me,
11:48
very naturally. Um and the way it happened is that
11:53
At some point down the line, I realized I'm not falling in love with the role of
12:00
being a vocalist. I'm not falling in love with the role of being the front man. I was the front man
12:07
and I I've always been nothing but the front man.
12:12
But as most of the other musicians I would argue is that I started my musical
12:20
journey and my artistic journey for all the wrong reasons. So when I was a kid, I was like 14, 15, you put me up on
12:26
stage, I get that applause at the end of a show and I thought, man, I'm I mean,
12:32
I'm the dude, you know, I've done my job here. And as soon as you get your applause, I I thought that was what it
12:39
was all about. And due to circumstances, we had awesome
12:46
success that first one or two years we were playing. We had inc sold out shows, a lot of people showing up to those
12:53
concerts. Good following. Yeah. And the culture was different. A lot more people showed up to bands back then than what
12:59
they do right now. And so that gave me a sense of well, I guess I realized at
13:06
some point that that's not what I'm really about. It felt like it felt
13:11
empty. It felt like I would get the applause and it wasn't enough anymore. If I knew I could have done a better
13:18
job, you know, at a show or a concert, it wasn't the applause wasn't, you know, the praise, the the whole thing wasn't
13:25
enough anymore. It was like, it felt like I was hungry all the time. I was like eating ashes. That's how it felt to
13:32
me. It's like it wasn't sustenance food. So then I realized I really got to do my homework. I got to work on my craft so
13:39
that when I play to my cat, it will be the equivalent of playing to 3,000
13:44
people sometimes with the same kind of approach of like playing to the cat
13:49
because I'm my most rigorous kind of critic. At one point I realized that I
13:56
will be judging myself, you know, way more roughly than other people would be
14:01
judging me. and and if I'm real like I can pinpoint, oh, I didn't really do a
14:06
job at that fourth song at the set list tonight, you know? And so, so that's how I got my journey of like really getting
14:13
in deep instead of like staying at the surface of just wanting to be, you know,
14:18
wanting the fame and wanting the, you know, the praise, the applause or whatever. That wasn't enough. That was
14:25
never enough. So, I started working on myself. I started improving my musicianship skills. my I started really
14:32
I mean learning about music and that harmony you know all that stuff theory I
14:37
I got to understand the language and it is a language of of you know and um when
14:43
I started doing that all the opportunities kind of came to me instead of me chasing them. So I was like this
14:50
guy doing my own thing and then NASA knocked on the door. I mean, maybe
14:57
not necessarily on in that order cuz I started doing films first and then it was the NASA thing, but for that first
15:04
film, man, they they they uh directors came up to me and they were like, "We want you to play a lead in this film.
15:10
You're not probably not going to be interested in it, but because you're not in film, but here's an offer. Think
15:16
about it." Blah blah blah. I rejected that offer on the spot. I was like, I'm I'm a full-time musician, guys. I don't
15:22
identify with being an actor or whatever. Um, but then they kept coming back and they kept coming back for about
15:30
six months and the offers got better and the role got better because they would be rewriting that role for me to play
15:37
that role. So, and that was the elephant. That was the first short film we did and it got into two festivals. It
15:44
got a screening in London. It got a screening in Los Angeles uh through some festival that was that still is, you
15:53
know, globally kind of uh well known. And um that was my first film project.
15:59
So from then on out, I I realized that I've been doing lyrics that aren't about me anyway. I was like inventing these
16:06
fictional characters about this guy goes there, does this all kind of like
16:11
uh abstract settings and scenarios. So, I was like, maybe I can use my body as well to get
16:18
into the visual side of things. And lo and behold, that just helped me tell my
16:23
stories better and or tell other people's stories better. Yeah. So, organically, you said you went from that
16:29
to acting. How many projects have you have you uh done uh since uh since you
16:38
started acting until now? Maybe. I don't know. If you count short films, movies,
16:44
if you count writing, co-producing and acting all together, then it must be a
16:50
number that's above 15 projects for sure. Different different titles,
16:56
different Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all on IMDb. It's It's uh It's public. So,
17:02
you've been in in it for five, six years, maybe? About Yeah. Just about. I think five and a half. But Yeah, you're
17:08
right. Yeah. I I I think I met you at a at a bar here 5 years ago and you said,
17:15
"You know what? I'm going into into acting, man. They offered me something." Did I? Did you? Yeah. Yeah. That's when
17:22
that that's when we met. Yeah. Oh my god. And you were like, you know, I'm getting into this. And you were like
17:27
psyched, you know. Interesting. Was that before? Do you think that was at the at
17:33
the chair bar, you know? So you were like, "Oh, you know, I'm going into acting." It was like 5 years ago. beats
17:38
me if I remember it now. But but but that the math works out. The the math works. So it might have been right there
17:45
when I was considering either playing or rejecting that role for good. Yeah. But that was an insane time for me. Yeah. So
17:53
uh it's uh uh what what is what is the most the most
18:00
uh uh dear stuff for you that you that you do? You you do a series or you do a
18:07
movie? uh long uh long movie or or screenwriting. What What's the What's
18:12
the best for you? Um I'm not going to give you the [ __ ]
18:18
answer when people go, "Well, everything has its own." You know what I mean? So, I'm going to give you an actual honest
18:25
to god answer. Um, I'm in love with the limited series
18:32
format because that is a rather that's kind of like that allows us to tell a
18:40
story of a a structure of a featurelength film that's just longer
18:46
because in my heart of hearts, I'm in love with long feature films, but you
18:51
can't do that for the past decades. like and I'm I'm talking long like like
18:57
Lawrence of Arabia long like epic epic journey three hours absolutely three
19:03
plus I I believe it's around three and a half anyway uh I'm I'm in love with that
19:08
format because for example Stranger Things which I'm not a massive fan of Stranger Things but I'm a massive fan of
19:15
that format where it's formatted as a featurelength film uh but chopped up
19:21
into like 6 to 8 to 10 bits Yeah. And I feel like that today in this day and age
19:27
is absolutely we we need more of that and that's my favorite thing to do. And
19:34
right now I've been working on a massive project of such of such u grandeur.
19:41
Yeah. And format. And I've been on it for about 3 4 years now. were in late
19:47
development and it takes about I'm working on that almost every day. So
19:53
that's like my that's like my second most important thing after getting roles
20:00
in other people's films. So I'm an actor first and foremost, but we do have our own baby that we're working on. Wanted
20:06
to ask you about the about the series trailer that you've done, Black Ops. uh did did it happen to to become uh
20:12
something out of it or or uh because everybody was expecting to be a series
20:18
or to be a movie. Well, for that one, see people what what I don't think
20:23
people understand across Eastern Europe in general is that that is a very common thing to do in the
20:30
United States is that you do a concept trailer, right? That's how you pitch a project. And when I asked around in
20:37
Macedonia, I was like asking directors who are working directors here. I was like, "How do you guys do a mood board
20:42
for a project?" And for movies, they said to me, they said, "Well, we do pictures. We do photographs." And I'm
20:49
like, "I don't really, you know, I don't really understand how a photograph
20:54
can really describe a video format." And I wasn't a fan of that. So I said,
21:02
"Let's do our own concept trailer as a proof of concept and shoot that and then
21:09
people can make up their own minds and more importantly companies can make up their own minds whether they like the vibe or it was amazing man. It was like
21:15
a Thank you. We put a lot of work into that and I got to say that's still being
21:22
worked on. So that's I mean that cannot fly if you just and we got uh a number
21:29
of offers to do it in Macedonia under the capacity of of Macedonia and the Balkans in Eastern Europe, but that was
21:37
only ever going to make it so far if we did it for uh in Macedonian in for
21:43
national television for it was only going to make it so far maybe as far as like the adjacent countries or the
21:50
region. It would never have been a global global project. Yeah. But it probably opened a lot of doors for you.
21:57
And not only did it Absolutely. And then we got a few offers here from Macedonia to do it, but it needed to be done in
22:05
the native language. It needed to be done under certain co con coins of like TV networks and, you know, certain stuff
22:12
that would would have made it very local as opposed to global. And I was the one that pulled the plug. And people still
22:19
hate me for that. People that were working with and for the project at the time. Basically, it was everybody else.
22:26
Well, I want to say everybody else, but a lot of people attached to the project wanted to just get whatever they could
22:33
and uh wanted to start shooting and they were, you know, the hype was up anyway.
22:38
And I I pulled the plug on that. I said, "We've put too much work into this in
22:44
order for it to become a two week thing that just kind of happens and everybody forgets uh you know by the time the two
22:50
weeks are passed." So you you you make uh make it big or go home, right?
22:56
Absolutely, brother. Yeah, that was always my philosophy with music with So
23:01
and and then let's define big. Big not in terms of it has to be it has to hit
23:07
the numbers or anything like that. It has to be I'm defining a project that's big especially the movie industry I say
23:15
we got to make films the at least the films that we produce we got to make them rewatchable so it's not my goal to
23:22
make a watchable film cuz that you watch it once so popcorn or something and then you move on to the next thing in order
23:29
for it to have a niche following such as we we were talking about your podcast
23:34
and that you want to branch out but also you want a niche uh because those people end up being the
23:42
absolute nerding out hardcore fan base of whatever you do. And so without that
23:48
and I grew up on video games that had that music that had cult following films
23:54
and so without that I don't feel like it would be a successful project. Same man. I'm still re-watching films from the
24:00
80s9s. Absolutely. You know and games I mean I still play Vice City you know. Absolutely. And Zelda is still better
24:07
than a lot of games that are being produced today. And so by those standards, I would say, and that's, by
24:13
the way, that's one of the projects that I've never stopped working on. So we're still working on the Black Ops franchise
24:19
thing. Uh it's going to be a working title. Chances are it's not we're not going to end up calling it Black Ops due
24:24
to copyrighting, video game related issues, cuz there's the Call of Duty one, that's a big franchise. We don't
24:31
want to get in the way of anything. But that thing really opened doors in terms
24:37
of like when I pull the plug here, I thought, well, I'm going to go to California, I'm going to reach out to
24:44
the right people, the right studios and see how far we could take that. And that's one of the projects we're
24:49
working. Now that you mentioned California, you're uh like half a year you're you're living there. Yeah. I I
24:56
tend to be there a lot, but we for years now. Yeah. So uh how does it happen? You
25:02
work there. you you filmed something. You I initially went there for NASA and
25:09
now I got got to touch on the NASA thing. I guess at one point NASA reached out as you know we have a representative
25:16
uh that's I don't know the official term or thing and I hope nobody minds that I
25:21
say that we have a Macedonian um analog astronaut who's Martha who you
25:28
know and Martha I call yeah I call her Martha because she wants to be smart all
25:35
the time and she is but um so we have
25:41
the closest we have to NASA on a regional level is that girl because she
25:48
worked her butt off to get into the right circles and promote the space
25:54
sector both locally and globally and she's doing wonderful things. She's going on these analog missions in like
26:01
uh terrariums. Yeah. that simulate like being on another planet and she but more
26:07
importantly than that she's done a lot of networking with NASA executives NASA
26:13
officials a lot of people and so I guess I don't know which came first but so at
26:18
one point NASA was doing outreach for this one of the most well not one of the most rather I should say the biggest
26:24
hackathon in the world which is space apps it's called NASA space apps and uh
26:30
they reached out and basically they said we're doing outreach reach because I feel like in NASA's philosophy at one
26:36
point they figured out that by working with solely the scientific sector, they
26:43
were only going to get so far. So they reached out to me. They were like, "We want to include artists and people who
26:49
have a clout outside of science so that we can branch out, reach out to other
26:55
people, new people, and we want to get new people interested in, you know, the the um outreach programs that we got
27:01
going on." So they recruited me as their host. So I started hosting in uh no I believe I started hosting in Cleveland,
27:07
Ohio in NASA Glenn, one of their I think one of their two biggest research
27:13
centers. And then the next year we did such a good job that first year that they said basically you could pick your
27:19
next venue. And I just I I knew I was going to go to California after that cuz they have a wonderful research center in
27:26
Silicon Valley that's called NASA as I ended up hosting that. And so I
27:31
transferred to Ames and and I'm still doing that. So you're doing it annually? Yeah. Yeah. For every few years now.
27:37
Yeah. Yeah. It's in October. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So So because of that you connected with a lot of people in the
27:42
industry and now besides that you're doing the from there I just it was a it
27:48
was a 5h hour drive or a half an hour flight to Los Angeles and I started
27:53
going to Los Angeles. That first time I went to Los to Los Angeles it was I had nobody. I didn't know anyone. I I I
27:59
slept in a very very shitty Airbnb and I'm just meeting new people. But then
28:05
Oh, like like Excel rules. Welcome to the jungle. Absolutely. So, right there in the jungles crack. I was right there.
28:13
And uh and Los Angeles is funny because you go down Beverly Hills uh and then
28:19
Hollywood Boulevard and right on the other side of Hollywood Boulevard is
28:24
West Hollywood where it's the kind of like a like the I don't want to say the
28:29
ghetto cuz it's not a ghetto, but it's a it's a very cheap part of town. And I
28:35
was there that first time I went there. I was there. It was And you're so close. You're close to Beverly. can smell all
28:41
the perfume of the dogs walking around the street and you're sleeping on the floor, you know, with cockroaches and
28:47
stuff, but it is Los Angeles and anything could happen. Yeah. Someone some some rockstar once said, uh,
28:53
there's a there's a the ozone, you know, the ozen layer, the the hole in the ozone layer. You bet. It's the biggest
28:59
under over Los Angeles because of the hairspray. Absolutely. Absolutely it is.
29:05
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even dogs would use hairspray. Yep. Yeah, for sure. And now u I guess it's very difficult to get
29:12
outside of the [ __ ] circles of Los Angeles because I would say in the Hollywood industry is like 70% of people
29:19
are talking the talk and not a lot of them will walk the walk and so people live there in between like putting you
29:27
and me together. They would get some percentage off of that and like they're not really producing anything. They're
29:33
not making anything. They're making people meat and that's where they live. And so that's why you get a lot of
29:39
hustlers, a lot of people who will promise you things that actually and if you go wideeyed in Los Angeles, if you
29:46
go like I'm going to get discovered, I think you're not going to chances are you're going to be played a fool and
29:53
you're going to, you know, you're really going to be on the receiving side of that,
29:59
receiving end of that. But so then then luckily we come from Europe. We come from you know this part of the world
30:05
where you know we're used to we know the tr we know the drill. You know the tricks. You know some tricks. Yeah. And
30:11
uh that puts you in a better position to like really understand industries and people and really understand what people
30:18
are talking about behind the words if you will. Yeah. You know and so it took me about a while. It took me about two
30:24
years, I guess, two and a half years to get outside of those circles that would just talk. Yeah. And u luckily now we
30:33
we're working with already we're already under contract with multiple production companies in LA and in Hollywood and uh
30:40
we've got casting directors, wonderful casting directors and uh and I'm um so
30:46
and we're doing so or in some agency probably not yet because it's very very
30:53
tricky. I have gotten offers, but it's very tricky to get that right agent because what they do is they they will
30:59
shelf you. I'm getting projects through my casting director. I'm getting projects, but that's technically an
31:05
abnormal way of getting work, which I am getting work, but I'm not getting it the regular way cuz I don't want to just
31:12
sign with any agent and um have them shelf you is that they will sign you be
31:18
free for other stuff. Absolutely. So, I I take my time and and you know, choosing the right agency and the right
31:24
people to represent me. Luckily, I've got some people in Europe that already kind of cut into that work. But, I got a
31:30
wonderful casting director that gets me projects and stuff. And we're working with a wonderful screenwriting uh agency
31:37
in Hollywood as well, The Professional Pen. Uh I'm such a fan of them. And then I got an opportunity to work with them,
31:43
which is incredible. more and more I'm starting to work with people that I've admired in in terms of like even
31:48
idolizing to a certain extent. Got a brilliant guy in in the UK who's a film
31:54
critic and then a wonderful writer in Hollywood and a casting director. I'm basically fan a fan of all those people
32:02
and on top of it all we're working together. So I I feel blessed. I'm in my lane and I don't really post all that
32:08
much. If you've seen like I don't feel the need to talk about myself anymore
32:13
that like I used to talk about myself and I feel like a lot of people do that to fill in the gaps of like putting in
32:20
actual work. Yeah. I got nothing to say lately. I'm doing my work. I'm in my lane. I'm getting the results that I've
32:27
always wanted to get. And yeah, sure. I'm as a public person. It's a public type of job that I'm doing. So, I will
32:33
promote stuff but not But you but you did uh promote the Oscars. You you were at the Oscars there. Sure. Yeah. I will
32:40
post last year or something. Uh 2024. So yeah, last year. It was uh amazing when
32:46
I saw your stories and stuff. Wow. But it was uh you you got an invitation. You were there. So through Berlin Ali. Yeah.
32:52
We were at the film festival Berlin Berlin Ali and some producer then gave me gave me an invite to that. Yeah. That
32:59
was that was a surreal experience all together. Yeah. Yeah. And I met so many
33:04
people. Okay man. at the end of this uh episode uh of this interview. What are
33:11
your short-term plans and and and future uh long-term plans? Um my most important thing right now is
33:19
to um the next step I guess would be to really end the development phase of that
33:26
limited series that I mentioned and uh start getting into pre-production with that cuz that's our baby you know that's
33:34
that's the thing that really makes me passionate about film making and then of course I can't wait I got a few roles
33:40
upcoming roles uh uh in so both in in Europe and in in these parts of the
33:46
world and uh and in the states and I'm looking forward to that and I really want what I really want to do is I
33:53
really want to stay in my lane to be as productive as possible and to provide
34:00
entertainment for people and that could also maybe kind of get him to think
34:06
critically or maybe emotionally, spiritually get them to places that they've never been before narratively by
34:11
telling stories that will take people to new spots, new emotional journeys, new
34:18
intellectual journeys. I want to encourage people to explore and I want
34:25
us all to be part of that um genuine sense of discovery through fictional
34:32
narrative. U music-wise in in in I'm making an EP.
34:38
We're making a new EP with Valentino Tinscan. uh Valentino Enterprise Studios. We're we're making that new EP.
34:45
I can't help it. I can't How many albums do you have? I think so. It's the Monsters one uh under my name. Then we
34:53
have the Project Orpheus album and then before that was the Hideout album. So, I've gotten three albums out. This will
35:00
be my fourth, well, not album, but EP. Okay. Yeah. That's amazing. And you
35:05
you're probably going to mix uh those arts together uh in the in the future.
35:10
music with with film and everything. Absolutely, brother. We're producing uh original soundtracks for films and
35:16
scores. It's just because we can't help doing music. We love music so much. It's got to come out somewhere. Yeah. Yeah.
35:22
And films are a perfect platform. Film for me has really encompassed everything that I love. Even video games. I draw so
35:30
much from video games. Playing characters. I will base them on video game characters cuz that's the culture
35:36
we grew up in. It's music, books, you know, films, and video games. And that's
35:41
what I'm all about. And luckily, I get to do that for a living. And I feel so lucky. And like, it's like, don't tell
35:47
anyone, but like I'm getting paid for this [ __ ] And I would do it for zero money. Honestly, I would do in my free
35:53
time. It's insane. You're enjoying. I am. I am. And I think we all should be, too. It's like never work for other
36:01
people. Like, try everybody out there who's listening to this podcast. I'm guessing it's creative people. try and
36:06
work for yourselves. That way you can really provide to work as much as you
36:12
want to, but you can really put a price from a business thing. You can also pay yourself to keep on doing and paying the
36:18
bills and put some food on the table by doing what you genuinely love. Cuz guess what? Nobody else can offer that. Only
36:25
you have the thing you're working on. Never sell out to like these evil
36:30
companies and, you know, corporations where they make you like work for 8 hours and then you're tired. you got to
36:36
watch some, you know, mind-numbing Netflix show that you never really watch otherwise. And so that's my, if there's
36:43
any takeaway from this, I would encourage fellow artists to keep working in your art, man. That's what really
36:48
matters. That's what really kind of discovers new frontiers and pushes the boundary of human exploration, such as
36:55
with NASA. It's the same thing. We get to invent new stories every day. That's
37:00
what's really important. Well, man, that that's like a great uh greatest talk at
37:07
the end of a show, man. Thank you. There's your sound bite. Greatest speech, man. Thank you. Thank you so much, man. I love this podcast. Y'all
37:14
keep watching Denim and Leather. Thanks. Goodbye.
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