- [Interviewer] Coffee drinker yourself?

- 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) (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)