(gentle music) - [Narrator] On this episode of "Postcards"... - My favorite order in Pen House Boba is coconut milk tea.

(laughs) Yeah.

I love coconut milk tea.

Not everybody like it, but it's okay.

We have so many flavor.

- I wanted to play tenor sax like Lenny Pickett, but I was delegated to alto sax, but I was a little bummed out, but I got over it eventually.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region.

More at wcif.org.

(upbeat music) (EK chuckles) (drink rattles) - It's my business.

(chuckles) Yeah, it's my business.

I run it.

I don't have to work for other people.

I quit my 9-to-5 job, go to 24/7 job.

(laughs) That's my journey and I like it.

(upbeat music continues) My name is Em Moo Thaw, but when I came to the United State, they messed up my name, so they put Agg.

I don't know what that mean.

And then most likely people call me Pen here with the Pen House Boba.

They call me Pen.

- Hi, my name is EK.

Originally we came from Burma, but due to war and conflicts, we had to immigrate to Thailand, the border of Thailand, which is called Mae La camp.

There's about 13 camps in Thailand around the border.

And some of us can register to come to America for better opportunities and lifestyles.

(gentle piano music) It was coming up on wintertime, didn't know English, didn't know what snow it was.

- It was very scary because we came to the whole new country, the whole new place, everything's different.

I study in school in city like St.

Paul.

I don't know how to get to school.

I don't know how to use locker, like don't know the language here.

Everything is difficult as a beginner here.

- I remember going to school, didn't know really, like, too much English, and got bullied, but we got through it.

- My dad have to came to Willmar to work, and my mom have to go to school.

For us to get the EBT at that time, we have, my mom have to go to school, and then my siblings have to stay with me.

I'm only 11 and take care of three siblings.

Like a lot of people have to do that.

Not just me, but you know, it's not easy.

But I do my best.

(laughs) - I started speaking like a little bit of English, and I'm able to help my parents translate and going to, like, doctors, paperwork, and a little bit of everything.

When I was 17, me and my sister was on our way to St.

Cloud and we wanted some boba.

And on the way back, we like, "We don't have any boba where we live."

We looked more into it.

We did some research about how to make boba and maybe if it could become a business and making a living out of it.

We took a LLC class, which was called Elevate.

We found this place and took us six months to remodel it, everything, to how we want it.

And then we opened on April of 2023.

Started off, it was very popular around that time, especially in the summer, - Starting a business, it's not easy at all.

So we have to start little by little, so we go slow compared to other people.

But it's okay.

Oh, see myself here.

(chuckles) And then we're gonna add like a little tea, like half.

(drink slops) These two.

There you go.

It's all done.

- [EK] So boba tea is originally from Southeast Asia, very popular in Taiwan.

That's where it started.

And then it kind of like just shifted to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, very popular over there.

- A lot of people don't know about boba in Willmar.

So when we opened the boba shop here, peoples are walking around in downtown, they like, "Oh, what is this?"

They want us to explain about the drink, and then we have them like, "Oh, you should try, you know."

And then they like it, and then they keep coming back, which is nice to happen here.

They were like, "It is very unique," because they don't have anything like this here in Willmar, you know?

- We sell, like, three different kinds of boba.

We also have milk teas, fruit teas, and slushies.

- My favorite order in Pen House Boba is coconut milk tea.

(laughs) Yeah.

I love coconut milk tea.

Not everybody like it, but it's okay.

We have so many flavor.

Our snack is, we don't make profit on it.

If we don't eat it, we go buy to our store.

We're gonna have to buy the same thing, you know?

So we might as well eat our food.

(solemn music) My aunt lives in Burma with my grandma, take care of my grandma.

(chuckles) Every time when there's helicopter coming, they have to run away.

It's not even safe to live in a village anymore.

They have to run, run into the jungle to find a safe place.

We do worry about that 'cause is it, got bomb?

And then we don't know how we gonna find out the information if theyre just gone like that, you know?

I went back to Thailand and Burma two times already.

Oh, and I'm trying to go again because my grandma is really old, and so I'm trying to go again before she is not here anymore.

So things are getting worse in the moment.

So we have to be more careful comparing to when I go back to 2018, 2020.

(people chatter) (child giggles) (people chatter) - Growing up I always liked documenting and cameras in general.

So every time I go places, I want to keep those memories forever just by holding the camera up and showing what real life is like.

This is the school system right here.

(people chatter) This is grade eight, and this is grade seven over there.

And my auntie.

It's beautiful there.

So we enjoy the nature, community, the culture, people, a little bit of everything.

Like playing in the dirt and in the rain, it's probably some of the good memories living in the camp, I'd say.

The people are very nice.

The people are very kind.

They welcome you with open arms, and they'll share every little moments with you and every little thing that they have, and what they can offer.

(people chatter) - Each day, you have to creating the new drinks, you have to come up with a new idea.

- I think they should make a strawberry cheesecake flavor.

- We have strawberry cheesecakes, remember, there.

You should definitely try.

(giggles) Working with my brother sometimes is, you know, sibling is like, (indistinct) Well, it goes smooth, but we are like na-na-na, like arguing a lot.

But then, you know, it's a sibling so we be able to argue.

(laughs) So it's fun.

(laughs) - When you're, like, coming from nothing, you're not doing it for yourself, you're also doing it for your family.

Working hard for your family, making sure like, they don't have to go through the struggle again and over and over, like how they did when you was a kid.

And for my family as well and for my partner.

And so they don't have to struggle like we did, which that's what motivates me to work hard and just keep going.

- Well, see you.

- Yes.

Have a good day.

- Yep.

Bye-bye.

- Bye.

- I used to be, but then caffeine made me really jittery.

(laughs) - [Interviewer] So now you just, you make it for other people.

- For other people essentially.

Yeah.

And I screwed up already.

(laughs) I guess you have to have the grounds in the coffee before.

- Yes.

- [Mike] I got ahead of myself there.

- Yep.

- Ooh.

Go with a good Joy one.

(chuckles) All right, well, here's the coffee that I likely burnt.

All right, I suppose I gotta... (coffee swooshes) Oh, yeah.

- [Interviewer] Beautiful.

(lively saxophone music) - Hi, my name's Mike Gill.

I'm a musician.

I play saxophone, guitar, and I sing.

Those are the primary instruments that I play.

But I do also play some bass and some piano as well.

(lively music continues) How I got started in music, I feel like, goes back to when I was really young.

I took an interest in just listening to music.

(lively music continues) My dad is a big music fan.

He has a quite the collection of CDs and albums.

He'd always play music on road trips and stuff.

And the first, at least what I recall, the first inkling that I had that I wanted to play music was when I watched "Saturday Night Live."

And there's a tenor saxophonist named Lenny Pickett.

He played really high whistling tones, and I was like, "Ooh, I want to try that."

(chuckles) So it would've been the summer going into my sixth grade school year.

I wanted to play tenor sax like Lenny Pickett, but I was delegated to alto sax, but I was a little bummed out, but I got over it eventually.

(lively music continues) And then in seventh grade, I heard The White Stripes, and I was like, "Man, I wanna figure out how to do that.

I just enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure out the guitar.

And for me, that was probably my real passion was the guitar more so than the saxophone.

Eventually I got a little, an electric guitar, and I was highly influenced by Jimi Hendrix.

I thought he was so cool.

(energetic guitar music) (mellow guitar music) ♪ I wasted all these years ♪ Hiding behind my fears ♪ What am I gonna do ♪ Thinking I am worthless ♪ Knowing I can't fix this ♪ I'll even bend the slightest (indistinct) ♪ ♪ I toss and turn in bed all night ♪ ♪ Thoughts are racing I can't fight ♪ ♪ Why the hell do I I was a band geek.

And in middle school, there's an elective classes you could take, like sewing and dancing.

And anyway, I ended up taking jazz band with Mr.

Marks, and he actually gave me the opportunity to try improvising for the first time.

So I still remember it was "London Bridge is Falling Down," and that was my first improvised solo that I got to play on.

And I was really interested in like, I mean I don't have to play the notes on the sheet, (chuckles) and kind of create my own melody, if you will.

And then eventually got to high school and had a very good band teacher, Mrs.

Monica Castle.

She was really good.

She was strict, but she had a lot of expectations out of everyone to do their best.

And just how she challenged me to try to improve upon what I already know was hard, but it was fun.

(upbeat music) The most memorable era of my music career so far, I have to say probably just post college.

I joined a funk band in St.

Paul in Minneapolis called Pho, P-H-O, Pho Funk.

(upbeat music) Here comes the B section.

(upbeat music continues) You have a solo coming up here.

(lively saxophone music) (upbeat music) (Mike speaks indistinctly) Initially was a cover band of funk tunes, but we quickly deviated to making our original music.

And why it was memorable was we were fortunate enough to play a lot of cool gigs.

One that sticks out is playing First Avenue for their Funk on First concert series.

Another reason why it was memorable, I guess for me, it really pushed my limits and capabilities.

(upbeat music) I eventually came back to Granite Falls in 2022.

I had been living in the cities for about 10 years.

I had gotten burnt out from the music scene.

This one's kind of a bittersweet memory.

I voluntarily left the band Pho 'cause I just couldn't function.

There's, unfortunately, there's a video of me, and you can, at least from what I'm seeing, you see a person who's very anxious.

And for me, that wasn't enjoyable.

And I know if you're a musician standing next to someone who's really anxious, that doesn't help with the vibe.

(upbeat music) So I got a job, an office job, and did that.

I'm still doing it, but I did that for about a year.

And then I'd hear about open mics at the Bluenose.

So finally, after a year of living in Granite, I finally worked up the courage like, all right, we'll just make something up, and then we get off stage, we'll go home, just to kind of dip the toe back into the music water, so to speak.

And I found that I really missed it.

And I also really liked the fact that it was a very welcoming environment.

(lively saxophone music) (upbeat music) (audience shouts) The catharsis is my favorite part.

It's like my way of screaming just to get, ah, get all the, I don't know, it's my therapy I guess.

(laughs) Singing is fun to do, especially with blues tunes.

I feel like I'm getting more confident being in front of people.

I am naturally an introverted person, quiet and shy.

But I feel like when I get on stage, I just kind of switch to like a different persona, if you will.

And then when I get off that, I just leave that there, and go back to like staring at the floor.

(laughs) ♪ Hey, baby - Whoo!

- Whoo!

- Yeah.

♪ Love is no, no (upbeat guitar music) Music has offered me a way to sort and express my feelings in a healthy way, I would say, and maybe in a way that creates synergy and kind of makes you want to go back to it.

It's okay.

(chuckles) (upbeat music) (mellow guitar music) ♪ I wasted all these years ♪ Hiding behind my fears ♪ What am I gonna do ♪ Thinking I am worthless ♪ Knowing I can't fix this ♪ I'll even bend the slightest (indistinct) ♪ ♪ I toss and turn in bed all night ♪ ♪ Thoughts are racing I can't fight ♪ ♪ Why the hell do I even try ♪ It's like chasing the sun to move forward in life ♪ ♪ You only get so far ♪ Till you lose the light ♪ And you're swallowed whole ♪ Thrown into the unknown ♪ And there's no one home ♪ They tell me I'm a nobody ♪ And I can't be happy ♪ Why won't this pain subside ♪ I've held my cards close ♪ Especially the ones I love most ♪ ♪ Oh why can't my spirit be free ♪ ♪ Suppress all my anger ♪ Undermines my character ♪ Oh why can't I even speak ♪ Is there a light out ♪ That I can depend on ♪ I'm lost ♪ At sea ♪ Waves crashing over me ♪ I'm all alone ♪ It's like chasing the sun to move forward in life ♪ ♪ You only get so far ♪ Till you lose the light ♪ Then you're swallowed ♪ Whole ♪ Thrown into the unknown ♪ And there's no one ♪ At home ♪ I think I'm crazy ♪ Maybe ♪ I think I'm crazy ♪ Maybe ♪ I think I'm crazy ♪ Maybe (upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding, and support for a thriving region.

More at wcif.org.

(upbeat music)