The Hangout Podcast - Episode 6 - Derrick & Hailee Miller

EP 6 — DERRICK & HAILEE MILLER

🎙️ Episode Six is live. They Build the Boom.

Dad works in the pyrotechnics shop until midnight. Daughter choreographs the sky. Together they produce North Dakota’s largest fireworks display, and it all happens in a shop in Sawyer.

Derrick Miller started Mum Pyrotechnics in 2008 with two friends. The first year they expected 200 people. Around 2,000 showed up. Sixteen years later they’re lighting up Minot’s Fourth of July with 1,200 individual firing points and effects nobody in North Dakota has ever seen before.

Hailee Miller, 21, is the primary choreographer. She selects the music, designs every single shot, builds the shells herself, and then watches her vision light up the sky. This is what it looks like when a family decides to make something beautiful and dangerous and entirely their own.

Christine Staley & Corey Long sat down with Derrick and Hailee and what came out of that conversation is pure passion, pure craft, and pure North Dakota grit.

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and everywhere you listen. Link in bio.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2618716/episodes/19413333

Made possible by a Shop Small business grant from Main Street America and American Express.

#magicdistrictpodcast #DerrrickHaileeMiller #MinotND #downtownminot #storiesbuildbridges #mumpyrotechnics #fireworks #fourthofjuly #familybusiness #northdakotastories #Entrepreneurship #mainstreetamerica #shopsmallbusiness #americanexpress #podcast #America250

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:21

Hey guys, welcome again. Hey Mine. Uh let it be good afternoon, good night, good evening, whatever. Uh I hope you're uh tuning in here. And uh we have some really awesome explosive guests today. That's some that's a nice way of putting it. Exactly. We do we do. We have uh Derek and Haley Miller, um, a father and daughter, dynamic duo that have um that have a love and a passion for making fireworks from scratch. Yeah. I'm talking about from the charcoal, all on, from willow trees that they have a special location. They don't let just anybody find out where that location's at. And um, you know, I guess you know, I'll uh hand it over to Derek, but before I do, Derek has uh done a lot um for this community on the fireworks show for the fourth of July for you know you let it be the city of Minot for the citizens of Mine It. And uh, you know, he's been doing this for over 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Yeah, uh our first show that we did for the city of Minot was during the flood of 2011. 2011.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

Fantastic. Yeah, yeah. And uh, you know, um, you know, like I guess basically Wait one second.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Was that the concert show too?

SPEAKER_05 1:24

The no, this would have been the Mouse River. Yeah, we should have surf.

SPEAKER_04 1:28

Okay, okay, because I know at 2011 there was a big concert too for like aid after. I didn't know if it was in that time. Yeah, was that during around that time or no? Okay. See, I wasn't here then. I'm just educating myself and other viewers, sorry, or listeners.

SPEAKER_05 1:41

So um, you know, Derek's been building this stuff for how many years?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Uh we started building our first shelves uh from scratch in 2008, 2009. Sorry, we also have his daughter here, Haley Miller.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Yes, yeah, and and uh welcome. We're so happy to have her, by the way, which is awesome because this is a cool setup, the two of you guys like working together.

SPEAKER_05 1:59

Yeah, amazing. It is, and uh so basically, Derek, you want to just explain how you got into it and then when when Haley came along and started building right next to you.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

So uh we got started uh back in 2007, 2008. Um, you know, I I've always put on small fireworks shows out in the country. Yeah. And we started doing some research and got on the internet, met some people that build themselves, right? Uh, and got onto uh a website where some of the top builders in the country go uh and got some basic instructions. And that would have been the were what the the big show.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Oh, the the big show I've been there one time, but it was the um the what's it? The the power technic skills international.

SPEAKER_04 2:35

And this is just because you had an interest.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, I just have an interest and interesting.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

See, this comes up often. People have an interest, they they do some research. Yeah, it is fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

I've loved fireworks all my life, and you know, our shows we're doing at home are getting bigger and bigger, and I started doing some research, figuring out how to mix the powders and make the make the stuff that's you know goes bang, and started talking to the experts around the country, the other amateurs, you know, that's going to compete at the PGI convention.

SPEAKER_04 3:01

Okay, and how old were you at this time then?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Um, 2007, you would have been six.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

You were little, six, seven years old. Oh my god. So, what did you think of him like doing all this stuff? Did you were you just following him around?

unknown 3:12

Um I was kind of doing my own thing.

SPEAKER_05 3:14

I was like, I saw your six years old, you just really think, Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

But did you hear big boom sometimes? You're like, what is that, Dad?

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Occasionally.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yeah, the the first years it was pretty basic stuff. Okay. Um back then our biggest shell that we were building was you know three-inch shells like that.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Really look at that, guys. By the way, I saw this not too long ago. That is actually made out of cardboard.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yes, this is I was super impressed with that. Just a cardboard hemisphere, two halves. Um, we take all of our chemicals and stars and everything else, or we process, fill these. So our first year, I I think the show we did, we might have had like 15 or 20 of these. And that's the next size off as a four-inch, and we had like you know, three or four of those, and like that was that was amazing for us.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Oh my gosh, yeah, I bet. I mean your first show, did you guys film it?

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Um I don't know that we had cameras. Oh that was that would have been so cool to watch. That was pre like smartphones and stuff like that. Oh, I'm just talking in digital. I don't know, old yeah, somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, yeah. We don't have anything to go back to on that. So back to PGI, you go down there, you meet some people, and you just basically uh you get, if you will, um the the knowledge to bring back to build more.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Correct. Um, so 2009 was our first convention. Uh it was in Iowa, and we went to that convention, stayed with my mom at the time. She was 30 miles away. So that's nice and spent a week there and you know, met these people.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Like family and uh online.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Got some basic instructions and you know, this is how you do this, and this is that. Um, came back and we started building more and learning how to compete and built better tools and machines.

SPEAKER_05 4:49

So competing. Uh now there's a totally different element because you we you put these these basically you roll what they call rolling stars, and that's like when you have a a big two-piece hemisphere like this, you actually stack them and put the colors. You got your reds, you can have your blues, you could have your silvers, your whites, yeah, and you stack them. So when that way when they go up and this thing explodes, it explodes at a you want to explain that a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

That's like your art, right? Yeah, so the the way it works when we're rolling stars, all of our majority of our stars, uh, they start off as canola seeds. Oh, what? Yeah, literally they they can't.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Like the ones out in the pastures?

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah, like yeah, we've got a farmer friend that's uh when he goes Mind blown, okay, if pop right now.

SPEAKER_04 5:29

That I who knew that?

SPEAKER_02 5:30

We we get panola seeds from him. So all our stars start off as those. So we mix our powders up in the right formulas, then we start rolling the uh the canola seeds. We spray them down with a little bit of water, sprinkle some powder on there, uh, and then they just kind of grow like a uh jawbreaker would grow. Or anything else that you roll. That is so cool. So we roll them to a certain size, then we take them out, we dry them for a couple of days, put them back in, roll them to a bigger size. Uh, we repeat that over and over.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

So process take like how like just just that. Well, you want to tell how so is it one? Oh gosh, look at she's like working out right now. Guy, she's like exhausted already because it must have been a little bit more than a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

One minute one. One second takes you wanna explain it how yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

So if we're if we're building the show, if we build a lot of the show from scratch, the amount of time we put into it is about a sec or about an hour per second.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

An hour work time per second of you. Okay, do you guys hear that? That's insanity. Like, who does that?

SPEAKER_05 6:29

Like that I don't know of any other profession that cool thing does that have this in mind its own backyard. So not every and like a lot of places have the that they would pay, you know, uh a hundred thousand dollars. Sure. And we we we have that right here.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

So so okay, let me let me let me just reframe this. So you're telling me that in our bio backyard, we have people here who had curiosity about an idea because they love things that go boom.

SPEAKER_06 6:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

And they researched their own research. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

He did it.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

And then he also went and sought after the people that are considered maybe mentors in your world.

SPEAKER_06 7:00

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

And then you also went to conferences, conventions, and all that stuff that it takes to figure out your pathway to where you are now.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

Step it up even higher. Uh-huh. How many first places, rough estimate-wise, on building shells do you guys have? Uh you guys.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Okay, so it's a team.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

It is. This is the team effort now.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Yeah, it's it individual competition.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

Okay, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Anything he's won, it's been all on his own. Anything I've won, sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

But you guys have a multitude of first place prizes. Yeah, we appreciate us 20 or 30 first place prizes.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

And this is this is this is city ranked, state ranked, national ranked, international. Yeah, now oh my gosh. Okay, are you guys hearing this?

SPEAKER_05 7:38

The Pyrotechnics Guild International. And what they do is they, like you said, they get together and they basically uh for one week, they get together and they talk about fireworks and they they they they they build it. And actually, Derek, for the last couple of years now, Derek and Haley or Mom, the Mum team.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Mum. Okay, okay. Wait, wait, wait. Before we go for it, Mum. Mom. Mum is the name of Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Originally it was the three of us that started as back in 2007, 2008. Uh, it was Mailer, Euskavage, and Meyer.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

Okay. Oh, that's what Mum stands for. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

And the Youth Scavige and Meyer have uh retired.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

But you kept the name Mum. Yeah. So that's the name of the company that you guys own and operate. It's like fine. It's a club. Oh, a club. Okay. I just want to establish that so we know what we're listening to. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Or we're just a small group.

SPEAKER_05 8:19

Enough. If you're interested, you know, go to their Facebook page, which is still active, right? Yeah. And you know, message them. If you're interested about building fireworks, you know, not just anybody can come out and do this. Um, you know, the you're gonna kind of be vetted. Um, you have to because the the the knowledge they have is is uh very extensive and they just nobody can come out there.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

So what kind of persons are you looking for then? Um what would be a good fit for your needs? Not so that's vague, but that's more specific. What do you want? Not what they don't want. What do you guys want?

SPEAKER_02 8:50

That really wants to learn the you know somebody that's um they don't want to come out and just make explosives. Okay. They don't want to hear just the bang.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

They they want to see the artistry that's like, so what kind of skills would they need that you think that would benefit like your club and helping you? Like what do they need to be more like strategic and thinking? Okay, that's important.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

And work ethic. Okay, work ethic, okay. Because we're that goes back to the hour per second.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

There you go. And that's what I was gonna say. You I'm so glad you brought that up because I was saying I don't know of any other business that or whatever profession, you're working an hour for one second.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yeah, and you gotta remember of joy. Like, you know, you're done with that hour per second, everything you've done is destroyed. Nobody sees it again. 2030.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

That's why you needed to videotape it every single time, bad.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Right. Fireworks is one of those just like just like coaching, you know what?

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Oh no, no, I get you, but hey, if you want to look at your next year's play and what you do better. No, no, we are kind of like a looked at one of our you guys don't even like really look at that. You kind of create everything fresh from scratch every single year. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Pretty much, right?

SPEAKER_04 9:57

How long does it take for you guys to create an a show that goes on for how long traditionally, guys?

SPEAKER_03 10:01

Usually 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 10:02

Yeah, 20 minutes. Is it fourth July, 20 minutes, 20, 20 minutes? How long does it take you to craft that? Because you say minutes, and you said it takes an hour for every minute, and there's 60 minutes and an hour.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Sorry, and it's yeah, so it's about twelve hundred hours is what it takes to Oh my gosh. Um, so for short, I'm in Austin now, guys.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

I don't think I I don't know if I can have that work ethic. I know I'm I'm joking. No, I think I think that right there alone just says something about just even the North Dakota spirit. I'm serious. To be that well achieved and to have that kind of craft. And I didn't even know do do many people know this about you guys that you do this?

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Within like our friend group, yes.

SPEAKER_05 10:41

Usually about a week before the fourth of July, they do know. Okay. Yeah, they'll know week before. Okay, so we're trying to get a little bit earlier. Yeah, full. Luckily, fortunately, this is you know gonna be probably aired the week before the fourth. Yeah, and yeah, and you know, um, you know, Derek and Haley, you know, and the rest of the whole mum team, I believe you mentioned that some people are coming in from out of state to help out, too.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Yeah, we've got uh just this week in the loan, we had uh two of our friends from Fargo came in. Yeah, and you've got friends uh that'll be Yeah, they're coming in from Chicago.

SPEAKER_06 11:09

Nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

They'll be coming in to help with the convention.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, that's for the convention.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

And then I believe Jeremiah's gonna come back up. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

How big is this convention you guys put together?

SPEAKER_05 11:20

Well, the the convention's travels amongst the whole Midwest, if you will.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Oh, it does. So it goes to different locations every year. Yeah, how does it choose a location?

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Um, a lot of the requirements are like it's kind of a logistical requirement of how much space you have around you, population density. Okay, you want to give like per inch per shell how many feet? Yeah. Um so when we're one of the big requirements for where PJ can go, it's how much safe distance is around it. So um your your minimum industry standard is 70 feet per inch. Okay. So like this is a three-inch shell, it would need 70 feet all the way around.

SPEAKER_05 11:57

Okay. Oh, wow. And that's uh and this is a six.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Look at the size of that guy. So look at the comparison. And that's what you shoot off as guys. What he's holding right now looks like a little small, like what is that, like a space ball versus like a canceloupe? And a and a co- it looks like coconut, but it looks like a canceloupe size almost cocoa. Oh yeah, or coconut. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

So this is a six-inch shell for for this, we would need at least 420 feet all the way around. Uh at convention, it's normal to shoot 16s.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

Okay. So I've looked into this already. Like, yeah. Did we get PGI here and mine it? Probably not.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Not in the sit the proper, but somewhere with that surround.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

We've I've we've I've looked around and I don't think.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

Have you talked to anybody like Stephanie?

SPEAKER_05 12:37

That's a whole nother rabbit hole. I don't want to open it. I feel you. No. Sorry for the message. No, no, no. Because I opened up to it. It does. But it's uh but Derek and I have looked into it. A bunch of us have looked into it and it's not gonna probably happen here.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah, logistical nightmare because like the the fairgrounds would be perfect for us if it was a mile outside of town. Right. But it's right.

SPEAKER_04 12:59

I see, I see.

SPEAKER_05 13:00

And there's exposes going off every 20.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

So this is like a this is like a like a like a working kind of contest.

SPEAKER_05 13:06

So you're not just sitting in rooms you guys are doing what they're doing. They have called salutes. That's the big boom you're here. Okay. And um, I mean, you have it, what every 20 minutes one going off during the loud hours. Yeah, when it's depending on how active it is. Five o'clock. And it's the day of the lease. Yeah, could you imagine the complaints that you know? Oh my, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

Well, it's bad enough we have the trains. Okay, you got this.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah, the the trains are quiet compared to a loud salute. Yeah, goodness. Loud they're they're loud enough that uh the salute line might be a quarter mile away. They'll set off car alarms around.

SPEAKER_05 13:36

I can remember that. Yeah, there was a guy that drove a Tesla, and all of a sudden you'd hear a salute go off and his Tesla would go beep, beep, beep. Yeah, scary. Yeah, it would get scary. Right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So we have the July 4th coming up. Um, and yeah, we, you know, if you want to uh, you know, be part of this, by all means get a hold of the Minet Fireworks. Message us on there, message Mompyro. Um, you know, uh you know, it's something unique, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

And Derek, you want to basically break down how you build um, let's say, uh, you know, a salute, you know, from from scratch to to Yeah, in fact, uh, we literally just finished uh our our batch of salutes for the years. Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Congrats. Like 250?

unknown 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

Oh my god, so how many how many hours is that?

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Um we had four four or five of us working on that.

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Oh my gosh. Talk about manpower, guys.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Yeah, we take a lot. For the the first half of it, the actual mixing the chemicals and fill in the shells uh and get him closed and ready for finishing. Yeah. Uh we had probably four of us for two hours last night. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

And then it was closer to three.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Three, three hours. Uh and then another three of us were working on it for another uh hour and a half, two hours today. And that's just the pour the powder in and close this. And then once once we get to that point, it's got to go into a machine that wraps it with paper. Wow. Uh paper. And like a gear It's like a seal, maybe, but also an engineer, in a way, because you created your own.

SPEAKER_05 15:04

Yeah. So I've designed a lot of the tools and where it would have been hand back in the day. Here, can I see that? He would they would have been rolling this by hand putting the tape on there. Let me see. Right. So this isn't actually what it looks like. Uh-huh. Like that's that's the start of it. It's okay. Start of it.

SPEAKER_04 15:19

Is that is that hollow too?

SPEAKER_05 15:20

Yes, this is what there's nothing like this. What they would do is they they tape this, Christine, uh-huh, and then you know, make sure it's nice and tight, so therefore it gives you a better bang. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

So Yeah, so it's uh a water activated tape like envelopes.

SPEAKER_05 15:35

You like Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

But to save on time, but to save on time, Derek actually created a rolling machine that like we we put it in there and then it wraps it around and it's fantastic. It'll put like uh a three-inch shell get about 70 feet of tape on it. Oh my gosh. A five will get 250 feet of tape on it.

SPEAKER_04 15:51

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Um, so the the machine can wrap a three-inch shell in about a minute. Oh my gosh. You mean about five minutes? It'll do a six in three minutes. That'd be a 20 minutes wrap.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Oh my god, you guys are saving time, but it also takes time. So it's interesting how you have both things going for you and you're working your it's like you're working smarter, not harder anymore. Yeah, which I love that. There's still a lot of hard work.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

There's so much hard work.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_05 16:17

Yeah. July 4th at roughly what time are we going to roll in again? Uh, about 10 is what we're about 10 a.m. If you're looking to help out, get a hold of Mine At Fireworks on their Facebook page or even go to my fireworks.com and uh, you know, uh you could donate there uh money-wise, monetarily. I'll take you through, you know, a page. Um, but if you want to donate your time, which is even more precious, it'd be great because uh last year was just a the handful of us and there until about eight o'clock at night setting up for just setting up yeah, and I think we're gonna have more people, but more the merrier.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

Well, this year's a special year though.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Yes, to us.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

This you guys probably are doing something really cool. And mine outsuring 140. Mm-hmm. Did you know that? I didn't know that. Yes, it's 140 years this year in July. Not the same day of the fourth, but in July. I don't remember the date specifically. I could look it up. Let's go to Wikipedia or something. But I'm gonna ask you, how long does it take to set up?

SPEAKER_02 17:07

So set up uh really depends on how many people we have out there.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

Oh, it's not like shifts or anything that you guys were looking for? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Um, because right now we uh the main crew we shoot a show at Lake Minagoshi on um the third. Okay. So we get back from that late.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

Oh gosh, you guys go from one hardcore show to the next. You're like yeah, we'll be like a they're like a band traveling, guys. You know, it's their season.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Uh and then we get up in the morning, the trailers are prepped and ready to go. Uh we roll out to the the fairgrounds, uh-huh. And we get out there and we start setting up racks. And by all means, don't just don't show up there because we're gonna we don't know you.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

Yeah, if we turned away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I have a question, guys. I had a question actually on my mind. Sorry to interrupt, but when you're building these as well as setting up, are you guys wearing like hazmat suits? No.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

No, okay, literally came from the shop. Yeah. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 17:56

He's so the stuff you get on you.

SPEAKER_05 17:58

If you yeah, he's he's you television, it's it's fireworks season, so Oh, I see. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

He's got like a little bit of a charcoal tinge, guys. That's all I'm seeing here. My hands will be black until August. Okay, but but but I was just wondering, because you know, anytime you say chemicals and explosives, I'm thinking like, yeah, put a whole suit on. So people, if they did come to volunteer, they wouldn't have to be worried about safety or anything. They should be okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Yeah, they just regular day-handed clothes. Oh, super. Okay. A lot of the stuff we have, but yeah, anything we have volunteers help with is pretty safe. Like it's yeah, yeah, it's the the manual labor of the extra setting.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

So we're looking at people at least over 18, at least minimum. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 18:37

Super. So exactly what they're gonna be doing is they have these uh you you could well actually, Jarek, do you want to walk us through what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 18:43

He's got you guys, let me tell you for the guys listening. Uh he's got some really cool props. He's got the coconut and he's got the softball, but now he's got this crazy contraction with a wire and he's got a key and he's got an antenna. So let me tell you something. It looks like a horror movie in my mind. I don't know. No, I'm joking. I'm sorry. I'm trying to trying to make some drama here. So it's fun. Yes, it's a theater, it's it's a live theater, really, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Um, this is one of our firing modules. So we've got uh three different versions of this. Uh this one's an 18 Q. Okay. So we can fire 18 individual devices. So this would be for one show.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

They have to be for one show, like 18. So that's like one setup for no.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

Just checking.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Um we've we've got an e-match here. Yep. Uh and this e-match would get uh unwrapped, and then there's uh on a full shell, there's uh another fused statch to this.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

So pre-show will go through and we have to label every shell.

SPEAKER_04 19:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

And put the e-matches in. So this is a salute would say salute.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

And e-match means electronic match. Okay, guys, so he has a wire in his hand, just letting you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

So the shell would have an address on it. Okay. And the e-match would be in already, it would have the same address on it. Okay. So we have to look at the shell and see what address it is. Everything's pre-sorted for 30 different firing locations. Yeah. Yeah, at least 30 positions.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Uh we have it's around 35, I think, this year.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah, so we have 35 different locations that these boxes are set up on. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

And so you have 35 people manning this too? No.

SPEAKER_05 20:20

Oh, oh, okay, okay. No. So they have another control above this that that controls. Oh, so the box. Okay. Uh the shell. That's how I read it. We don't put it, they talk to each other.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, yeah. They're communicating. The shell has the address on it and its location, its uh queue number, uh, what angle it's supposed to be. Sure. It has all that information. So we plug this in, and then this will get dropped into one of the mortars.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Okay. Which I saw then before when I met you first time. There was like these big pipes. Yeah, like PVC tubes or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Similarly, similar to that.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Um, so they get dropped in, and then the other end gets handed off to this this side. Okay. So, oh, and you put it in one of those little like hold in, okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Depending on whatever number is on here, uh match up with the number.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Oh my goodness. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

And then you just plug it in and it's like plug and play, basically.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

What does it do? Oh yeah. So each one of these gets an address within the system. Oh my gosh. Each one of these has a number within that addressing system.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Oh my gosh. So you guys are telling me you have to first set up where you want this location to be. You already have it planned out. So Haley does all that. Oh, you do that. Design that.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 21:30

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

That's all computer based, so we have full simulation of one big huge thing.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

Yes, we haven't explained here, is that it's to the beat of the show. Yes. Okay. So that's what I'm saying. Pyro musical.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

So one of them, my favorite, and I just I have to say this, is watching the PBS one when they play it for Fourth of July before that night with the 1812 overture. Are you kidding me? Like, I just I'm serious. I get goosebumps every time I see that. And after we watch that part, just have the heart. And then I wait till you guys because you know, we live up in North Dakota, the sun doesn't go down until later. So I have to wait. Up for you guys uh but you know you start hearing other people pop stuff off that's not good, guys, but wave it down. But yes, so you design that and you set that up?

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Yeah, so I design the entire layout of what it's gonna be, and then I design the show to the music, so I like drag and drop every little um like the faggots that we're gonna see in the sky to different beats and so do you guys have themes then?

SPEAKER_04 22:26

Do you work every year on like a theme?

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah, sometimes we do, sometimes it's just whatever we feel like for good music. Yeah, okay. Um so as she's going to give us one song, please. Just one song.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

What for this year you mean? No, uh no giveaway, guys. No, she's shaking her head. Nope. She's tight-lipped, man.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

So when she goes through and programs it's uh the computer already knows that uh this size shell has a 2.3 second delay to it. So she wants to go off with the beats, the computer already knows it has to fire this or it has delights to go up just for the timing to move until it decides to explode.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

It has delayed that emach two and a half seconds early so that it's where it needs to be.

SPEAKER_05 23:06

So we'll probably put this up too, guys. I I know we will. Um, we'll have the uh the the the the pyrocast is actually actually, you know, if you want to listen to it in your car, Bluetooth it, whatever. Oh, that's right. The music, you'd have to say it. Yeah. We'll we'll we'll have the all the the content, all the contact information that week on on you know the the the the fifth our Facebook.

SPEAKER_04 23:24

Yeah, yeah, our social media site, guys. Yep, we'll have that posted.

SPEAKER_05 23:27

Or or even go to Mum Pyro or um go to um minor fireworks to have all that information for you. But also we'll be planted on 90.1 90.1 90.1 FM.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

And this is always at the fairgrounds, right, guys? Yes. So would you say like there's certain places we should park or where would be the best place to go? How does that work when we get up there? If someone's never been there before, yeah, what's the set east and west?

SPEAKER_02 23:47

It's almost like we're we're firing, we're we're laid out on essentially north to south. Okay, and they're very directional.

SPEAKER_05 23:54

Okay. So the best seats really are at Nodak Speedway. Check out, check out Nodak, get you know, get there. They usually open the diverse doctorate at 10, 10 PM. Um, come in there, or if you want to wash the races, partake in the races. You know, they'll they'll pipe it through their system. Uh but you know, um, for if you want to help set up, we have the best spot, period. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Where it's the the show is laid out for us to see absolutely perfect. Yeah. We've got our own sound system.

SPEAKER_05 24:19

Yeah. Oh wow. That's you know, we don't cater to us, but we we cater to everybody. But I mean, if you want that that that personal, I mean, it's like you're sitting there in your lawn chair and it's going off right in front of you.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

You're in the show. Well, think about it. I mean, you guys work a whole year and you want to enjoy what you work hard for. Since we're getting fed by you, by all means.

SPEAKER_05 24:35

Wait, wait, I'm not beating you me. Magic City is if you're if you're coming to Magic Volunteer, we have Magic City hoogies coming in to cater for us. Yeah, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

I uh I think I've I think I've donated food to you guys before in the past, too. I I will say this is definitely I mean, dude, to hear about the volunteer and the time, right? I mean, why not donate to you guys? And if you guys want to donate any money, I mean tell me about that. How do you guys get paid for this? How does that work? So can people do anything to help you if they can't volunteer?

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Uh we get very little out of it like uh just to cover our costs. Okay. That's where the minor fireworks association comes in.

SPEAKER_05 25:07

Okay, so they help you out. That's speaking of that side. Adam, can you come off mute?

SPEAKER_04 25:14

We have someone we're passing it live, guys. Adam Dias.

SPEAKER_05 25:18

A little right now in the scenes action. Adam Dias helps us on this on this podcast. And uh, Adam, you want to just give us a brief history, um, you know, essentially um how MFA started. So Which is MFA, it stands for Minecraft Fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Yes, yeah. So back in 2016, I started working for the Nodex Speedway as the marketing director. And uh getting close to the season, they were like, uh, oh yeah, by the way, you gotta raise a bunch of money for the fireworks. And uh that was all tied directly to the Nodex Speedway at the time. Uh so there was a year in there, I don't remember exactly what year. Was it that 2016 year, Derek, that we didn't have the fireworks? It was a year we didn't have fireworks.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

I think it might have been 17 that we didn't get the fireworks.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah, it might have been 17. I think so. That was the first full year that I was there, I think. So after that happened, we decided that uh we should just start an organization, a nonprofit organization that sole purpose would be to raise funds for the fireworks show on the fourth of July for Maya.

SPEAKER_05 26:28

And that's when it became separate from Nodak Speedway, if you will.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

Yes. It became its own functioning entity. Okay. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yeah, I ran that for what, five, six years as president. And then Corey came in and and kind of took over that position for me. And he's been doing a fantastic job ever since. Sure, we have funds for the for the fireworks.

SPEAKER_05 26:50

Yeah, it's just uh, you know, if you want to don't right now we have the funds for this show, uh, but the biggest thing that we need right now is donating people's time. So, you know, we're asking if you want to like again, again, show up on July 4th, um, by all means get a hold of us beforehand. Let it be Mumpiro or Mind of Fireworks Association, and uh, you know, message us through there. And uh, we would love to have you there. Um, you know, if we can make sure that you make notifications.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

I mean, it sounds like a good time. It sounds like a really fun filled day. If you guys like a really fun summer camp, this is like a one-hit one day. Exactly. Yeah, like that's what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, um, yeah. And for the logistics of like why we need so many people out. Yeah, tell us. Um, we were talking about uh, you know, hooking up the the one cue and address. Yep. We have to do that 2300 times. Wait, wait, I'm sorry, wait, but wait, you said twenty three?

SPEAKER_03 27:38

No, it's closer to like three thousand times.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Uh that's for PGI, not for that many Q.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

Oh, she's got some special stuff up her sleeve, I think. She's giving you a look. Oh she's giving you a hint. So roughly we're gonna have over 2,300. Somewhere in the thousands, guys. Okay, let's just let's just be fair. It's gonna be a big show.

SPEAKER_05 27:56

Lower thousands. It's gonna be a big show and we need the help.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

So it's also important because if you don't hook it up right, we don't want that to happen because then things don't go off, and then all that work you don't get to see until the next year, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:06

They go off or they go off out of order. So a lot of times, if you've seen our shows, um, you'll see effects where the comments cross. They do that. If you don't hook them upright, you might have two that go this way at one, or it could be you know, you're expecting things to go this way and something explodes off when it wasn't supposed to.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

That's so crazy. So there's so many logistics within logistics with the logistics of what you guys do that are very so. I'm thinking the kind of person, if you ever want to help out making them, needs to be more like tech savvy mentally, like to understand big picture ideas and small details and understand, pull out, pull in of like what they're trying to visualize and understand because you guys design stuff. It's not just like here, drop this here, it blows up. It's like, no, we have to design it with layers so the visuals happen on B and they go off at the same time when they need to, and then you get to the right thing that goes off. Exactly. Man, woo. So I think this is fun. Yeah, it is, it is. It's a beautiful thing. Start a little summer camp or something. I'm telling you, actually, Eric's kind of talked about that before. Yeah, yeah. Well, did I just let some cat of the bag at it? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

It's one of those things we just kind of have mentioned before that you know, it'd be nice to you know get people that are really interested interested in fireworks to outs and uh you know, spend a week or spend uh a weekend, you know, coming out at a little screen and you know, figuring out how the stuff actually works.

SPEAKER_05 29:23

And uh, Derek also helps out uh Mompiro with the uh Christmas tree lighting the last two, three years.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

Oh yes, let me tell you, that's been spectacular. We've had some really good turnouts. The weather's been a little yep, the weather's been a little cold, but the people have come out have said them it was they didn't expect it.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Right.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

They didn't expect it. So that was due to you, Corey.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Yeah, thank you so much. Corey kind of heads that up again.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Yeah, I appreciate that. Come and shoot some downtown, we're just trying to make explosive here in every shape forum. I mean, look, we're trying to have a podcast, we're trying to just get people on the streets, you know. What are they called? Feats of the streets, feats, feats, peeps in the beds, yeah, and whatever they say. Yeah, yeah. So I'm just saying, I'm like, I think it's I think the cool part is that I feel like the connection with a lot of cool things are still permeating between a lot of different areas now, and people are trying to see it, but now they're getting the story behind it.

SPEAKER_05 30:08

Right. You know, that it takes a lot of time for these guys.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

I didn't know this. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you right now, this is insane. I because you know, you go somewhere, like say you go to Vegas and you see all these crazy shows, you're like, oh, of course it's fine, they got those people, but you never peel back the onion layers and say, Okay, what does it really take?

SPEAKER_05 30:23

Sure. Well, with these guys, they make it from scratch, whereas a lot of maybe Vegas shows. Derek, yeah, this is true. I'm I'm gonna give credit where credit stuff. Okay. They grab it from a box and they put the pin in and they, you know, they can do that. So people are assumptions.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Haley build it from scratch. Yeah. These days we build, we s we still try and build a lot of stuff from scratch. Uh-huh. Uh, but we don't have the the members, the team.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

We don't have the manpower.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back, yeah, back when we first started, the shows were 100% hand-built. Hand built, which yeah, and these days we have to import some.

SPEAKER_05 30:52

But you know, definitely not criticizing, but but no, they say that one.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Yes. After we finish the Fourth of July show, we start prepping for our our our guild show, and that one is 100% hand built.

SPEAKER_05 31:04

And then guys, these guys build it. Literally, the Mumpiro team with Pyrotech's Guild International, these that PGI sob Derek's talent, grabbed Derek in Haley and in Mumpiro and said, Hey, can you put on this, you know, this build competition? Not build competition.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah, we it's uh uh a display, but it's bigger than the minute display that we do. Okay, and it's built from scratch. Okay, we we show up with a trailer load of stars and parts and stuff ready to go.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Well, I want to say this again. This is in Mine's own backyard. Sawyer, North Yeah, you know. And it's just I mean, it's just this is a good reason to put mine on the map. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It would be awesome if we could find a location somewhere to bring PGI to money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:43

I mean, with you know what would be a good time to learn about this would be during the wintertime when people have nothing to do. You guys should probably get people to gather during the wintertime.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

A lot of what we do is outside, so it's well, I'm not talking about if you're building.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

I'm talking about like if you're just showing and building inside instead of like but even then there's still so much of it that happens outside.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Uh yeah, like a part of the processing, uh, you know, a lot of our bigger, more dangerous machines are outside.

SPEAKER_04 32:06

Oh, I see. I see.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

Yeah, so we we do most of our prep.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

Well, it's just another activity I'm thinking to bring people together. Yeah, yeah. Do you have any more questions, Christine? No, actually, I think you really answered a lot. I mean, I guess what does my not need to know what it takes to like really just care and bring make you feel like you're doing something worthy of what you're doing, like for the community. What is it that they need to know that would they don't know that would help your cause, our cause to make my not better? What do you think it is? Um What do you think they don't know?

unknown 32:35

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

The insane amount of work that we put into it.

SPEAKER_05 32:40

Yeah, Derek, Derek and Haley, Jeremiah, Chase, uh, Wayne, Wayne Jansen. Um, you know, these guys put in so much. They literally have a chemist, a doctor, Dr. Wayne Jansen. I mean, little, you know, he's a legit doctor. Uh, these guys have put in all this, uh, the hours at present hours. And I think the biggest thing they they need is if you, you know, if um you can get a hold of uh, you know, Mine of Fireworks, give a message out there. And um, you know, and it just we need the manpower, so therefore maybe they could be finished setting up by four o'clock. It would be awesome.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

That would be great. So you guys can enjoy your opportunity before you guys set everything off.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Or if there's uh another thing uh we ran across a few years ago. Yeah, um, there's some parents contact us, can contacted us, said hey, uh my kids are trying to build rockets, like we're we're trying to do it from scratch.

SPEAKER_04 33:29

Oh, yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Like there's a lot of people that are interested in explosives and rockets and stuff like that. Like STEM kids get out of they it's in the garage. They're the ones uh they came out and talked to us, they're trying to make it out of PVC pipe. And we're just like we're like, there's so much better ways to do it. These are the tools you need. So we brought it up right here with them. They they poundered a few black powder rockets.

SPEAKER_05 33:53

Yeah. They shot them for the first time. Be kind of cool. Maybe if mine is state and you can get together and collaborate on that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_04 33:59

Well, even have a class for like young people like the like I said, mentioned STEM or people who are interested in like building something, knowing that they could use their mind to do something like that, but know the right way, yeah, the safe way, and what not to do and you know, and who to act. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:14

I see now, yeah. They everything for us.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

All ages or just a certain age group. Uh no, I an age group. That's really cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

I was competing when I was eight is when I first started competing. Teacher now, Haley, I think you got it in your future, especially a teacher.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Yeah. At the convention, the we do three balls classes. Uh-huh. Uh, we show everybody how to actually assemble these shells. They get to take them out later in the week and drop them and shoot them themselves. Oh, that's satisfying. And then the uh the seminar, the big the display that we're doing, uh, we're instructors for that. So you know, we're showing them how to build every part of the show, all the comments, the minds, all that stuff. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_04 34:58

Yeah. I I mean, this is this is really a great conversation. I mean, you know, to add to the more stuff we can do. I mean, spring and summer, guys, we have a guide for kids. Now we have a guide for adults. And you know, I mean, I just think that there's a lot of cool stuff. And if you're looking to meet people and get to know your community, you're definitely are you guys located in Minot?

SPEAKER_02 35:17

No, we're we're out by Sawyer.

SPEAKER_04 35:18

By Sawyer, okay. So it's a town outside of Minot. Yeah. But it's not far, guys. It's we're talking 10 miles. A quick a quick jaunt. I mean, really. But um, you all come into town probably quite often. Yeah. And so yeah. I mean, this is this is really impressive.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

I'm I'm really if there's any parents that their kids are interested in fireworks and how it works. Um, when we're during when we're in build season like this, like we don't want kids out there. Um but if we're in the off season, we we definitely welcome, you know, like bring your 12, 13. Oh, I love that. Bring bring your kid out. Yeah, yeah. We'll show them how the fireworks work. Uh, if they want to build something, we'll put a basic shell in their hand and like oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 35:58

Okay. So it's I think that's a safe way to get it's like get into that.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

Like there's so much interest uh in explosives and fires and stuff like that, that's you know, kids can go out, and I know a lot of people, a lot of kids do it. They'll open up firecrackers and they'll try and make oh, you don't tell me, I remember.

SPEAKER_04 36:17

I I you know what it starts somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:19

Yep, and and that's that's how it starts. So you know if you got kids that are doing that, you can blow a hand off real quick, or you can get come out and spend an afternoon with us for nothing, right? And learn how to do it. Right.

SPEAKER_04 36:31

Well, you know what? I think that'd be great. If we get your information, we'll share it in this podcast below so people can reach out to you guys. So I think this is fantastic. Yeah. So there's a a few things we're looking at. We're looking at the fireworks, um, you know, the actual education part for that component. But the real part right now today is if it's coming around the corner, is having people volunteer. That's the real call to action today that we're looking for, guys.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

People out there dropping shells, reading scripts, yeah, yeah, you know, coming out.

SPEAKER_05 36:57

Yeah, but if you're an electrician, by all means get on out. Come on, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Yeah, and you'll get fed and uh you'll have some fun, meet some new friends, and then you'll be missing it by uh winter time and saying, you know what? Yep, it'll be uh next year. I'm gonna come back.

SPEAKER_05 37:12

Good deal.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

I mean, that's usually how it starts, right? You just gotta try something once. Yep.

unknown 37:16

All right.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

Well, we want to think great conversation, guys. Wonderful. Yeah, thanks for everyone. Yes. Yes. And uh anything else?

SPEAKER_05 37:25

No, that's it. Check them out on Mum Pyro on Facebook or Mine It Fireworks if you want to donate your time and get a hold. Message to there. And I want to say thank you, mine it.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

And I and I also want to say this, guys, this is a special episode because fireworks are, you know, they the 4th of July is coming up, but I just wanted to make sure that we got them in here because um this is one of those things that if you don't have fireworks in your community, at least 4th of July, it doesn't feel like it's 4th of July. So just be safe if you do shoot off. Not saying I want you to, but please come out and support this cause and this celebration because that's really what it's about. Celebrating your work, celebrating a visual, and enjoying with family and friends.

SPEAKER_05 38:01

Yep. Celebrating 250 years of freedom.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

Yeah, and just be safe. We just always want that to be safe, guys. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_05 38:08

See you in one.

SPEAKER_04 38:08

Thank you. Bye. Have a good one, guys. You see, that's the magic of me, me, me.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Am I yet no tea? Now you see life ain't no ways. Just what you dream is the way that you make those things reality. You see, that's the magic of me, me, me.