Wind gusts carried the folk tunes of Jake Ilika throughout the St. Mary’s campus this past Friday, as part of Mid West Music Fest’s newly established Sounds Like School initiative.

Sounds Like School is a  noontime concert series and extension of the main MWMF event in April. Artists play a set on the WSU or SMU campus during the day, then perform at more established gig locations, such as Ed’s No Name Bar or Broken World Records,  the same evening.

Sounds Like School’s goal is to promote music in the Winona area and expose residents to the sounds of regional musicians. “I love what Mid West Music Fest is bringing to our community and the Greater Minnesota music community at large, and I think their efforts with the Sounds Like School program is pretty great in reaching out … and getting school, community, art, and music involved together,” Ilika said.

On Friday, September 19th in the St. Mary’s University central plaza, Ilika performed a set that lasted about 45 minutes.

“My parents were choral musicians, my mother was a church organist, so I sang in the church Metropolitan Boys choir and we would go to Orchestra Hall a lot when I was growing up,” Ilika said “I was into music from the day I was born pretty much.”

Ilika’s set consisted of eight folk and blues songs, sung with strong vocals, acoustic guitar, and the occasional harmonica. The musician describes his sound as a heavy hitting lyrical and melodic feel. The calming performance radiated confidence. Ilika started with songs such as ‘Circling the Drain’, ‘Hate Coming Here’, then moved onto ‘Let The City Sleep Tonight” among others. Closing with ‘Minnesota Homegrown’, Ilika sends a message to listeners on stopping to appreciate the local surroundings.

Many SMU students heading to lunch stopped for a minute or two to listen to Ilika. Others grabbed a seat and fought the wind to listen to the music.

After the outdoor performance, Jake proceeded to St. Mary’s KSMR radio station to take part in a 15 minute question-answer interview and short in-studio live recording.

Currently, Ilika is working on  full length albums with both his duo and band, the Heavy Set, and hopes to get a full solo album out. “It all costs a  lot of money and I’m not sure I would go the Kickstarter route… I’m on the fence about asking people to help me make my record.”

As a solo artist, Ilika leans towards folk and blues, and amps up the soul when working with his duo. The Heavy Set is “a mix of roots rock and Americana.” Ilika is a natural performer, he just enjoys playing any set up and is in love with the music.

The uniqueness of the music industry gives Jake a sense of satisfaction when he is able to make things happen independently- “Much like a farmer harvesting his crop and eating a meal from it, I get to make my own posters, write my own music, book my own shows, and when it’s all successful- it’s a very rewarding feeling.” Most of his performances are in the Minneapolis or Winona areas, but he toured with Mike Munson to Seattle last spring.

“I face a lot of challenges being an independent musician,” Ilika claims, “from not having enough people show up to shows to make enough money, to getting people as excited about your music as you are.”

“Although I tried to make my living off of this I’m definitely not in it for the money when it comes to writing songs…   I’m going for something that will stand the test of time, and will be good music  years from now as much as it is today.”

For more information, and to catch Jake Ilika & The Heavy Set, mark Mid West Music Fest onto your calendar for April 23-25.

http://jakeilika.webs.com/

http://jakeilika.bandcamp.com/