Eric Sjolin aka Rikk Roxx grew up living in a trailer house next to his dad's bar, the Yodelin Swedes, located across the street from the famous world's largest Paul Bunyan statue in Akeley, Minnesota. Dollar General now sits on this location, which was at the time shared with Warner's Manufacturing and their impressive array of woodpiles.

He adopted the moniker Rikk Roxx for high school poetry and officially registered it with his FCC Radio Operator's license when studying Mass Communications at Bemidji State University began in 1987.

Later, his college theater lighting experience (and possibly his willingness to volunteer to roadie for free at the Akeley High School Prom upon their first meeting)😀 helped Sjolin to get hired by the St. Cloud based regional rock band Riff Raff.

Traveling with Riff Raff would prove to have a huge impact in his musical interest, as Sjolin credits lead vocalist, frontman and guitarist Randy Engebritson with showing him some basic chords and strumming techniques during off time between gigs. Though his tenure with the band was short, he did manage to get his name in credits for Riff Raff's original album release "Let's BBQ!".

Click Image for Riff Raff Music

After leaving the band, there would be a few years spent practicing guitar by himself before Sjolin found himself with fellow Akeley friends Don Moore, Jason Dunham and Cliff Johnson jamming in Moore's garage. They would eventually work up a set list of cover tunes that would entertain a crowd, but would need to be repeated to fill a complete night.

The friends called the band FourPlay, and played private parties and also at the Yodelin Swedes, with a tip hat passed around to help cover the band's bar bill for the evening. Later versions of the band saw Dunham move to playing guitar while Brian Hitchcock took the drums.

While FourPlay was an enjoyable and rewarding experience, eventually the band fizzled out and there was a few more years of time spent practicing guitar alone before Sjolin would sing karaoke for the first time and recognize his vocal potential. While he could now play his original music and sing it, he still couldn't do both at the same time.

The Northwoods Nights CD

In 2002, Sjolin met with high school friend Tim Gack who had a makeshift recording studio set up. The studio was located in the attic of a main street commercial location in Walker, MN which was closed on Sundays, so they could crank the amps up. The name Headbangers Loft was more indicative of what might happen if you didn't duck in certain areas than the type of music that might get recorded there. The pair met weekly and eventually recorded the 12 original songs Sjolin had written:

Akeley, MN
Alone
Audubon
Better Days
Carita
Destiny's Power
Dirty Bird Romeo
Fade Away
Jammin at Moondance
Northwoods Nights
Share Everything
Sharing Smiles

Sjolin later added a rough unedited tape recording of a song made during his solo practicing time when his daughter was quite young and can be heard playfully enjoying their time together. Sjolin titled that track "Playtime".

With the 13 songs together, Sjolin set out to press 300 copies and set displays with local retailers with $1 from each CD sale going to a playground project planned at the time at the Akeley city beach. In the end $200 was raised and given to the city of Akeley to assist with the playground equipment costs. (Pics below show that playground set).

Walker Pilot Independent Original CD Story

WayBack Machine Archive Version of CD Story

Moving On - After the CD and beach park project

Connecting with long time friend and accomplished local musician Jerry Snow, Sjolin joined Snow's band Point One Oh, and later was a founding member of the band Aisle 5, playing guitar and singing at bars, weddings and festivals as far away as International Falls. A pinnacle of these good memories include playing at the Moondance Jam as one of the local acts on the bar stage. During these years Sjolin enjoyed working with local artists Chuck Domrese, Joel Jay, Eric Reed, Brian Hitchcock, Julie Snow and others.

It was during this time that Sjolin found a method of disposing of his remaining Northwoods Nights CDs: giving them away for free to random patrons he'd encounter.

After a few years of these gigs, Sjolin parted from live performance entirely other than occasional karaoke nights.

In 2026 he still picks up the guitar or pen and paper when he gets an idea and records some to potentially work with later, but has no definitive plans to do more. "I see myself more as a studio musician without a studio," Sjolin laughs.

"Even assuming the Rikk Roxx alias was, besides being easier for people to spell or pronounce, a way of remaining somewhat anonymous. My highest hope is and has always been for an established artist with real talent to someday record my music. That would be a great honor" he said.

His attention more recently has been in appreciation and support of the talents of his son in law, Josh Nichols aka Casual Pharaoh, who is a rap artist based in Pueblo, Colorado. Following the many digital releases Nichols has produced gave Sjolin the idea to publish his own original music digitally as well.

Click Image for Casual Pharaoh Music

Using DistroKid, Sjolin published all 13 songs under the album title Northwoods Nights. Sjolin then set out to register himself and the works with ASCAP, the MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) and Sound Exchange to maximize any potential US-based revenues from the songs. Registering with Songtrust helps collect global royalties.

Sjolin then used a program called Neural Frames to create temporary "Official Music Videos" for each of the songs and loaded them to YouTube, sharing the links on Facebook to friends.

It was only after this had been done he heard discussion of a potential new playground to be set up somewhere near the Paul Bunyan statue across the street from where he had grown up. To Sjolin it was kismet or fate.

The New Akeley, MN Playground Project

Sjolin approached the city council and offered 50% of all digital revenues from his song "Akeley, MN" for the next 5 years to go directly toward new playground equipment near the famous statue.

To help generate clicks and purchases of the song, Sjolin also gifted the city a plaque to be installed near the statue with a QR code allowing visitors to hear the song and help raise the funds.

The council accepted the gift by unanimous vote, and working with the Akeley Chamber of Commerce and with assistance from friend Dave Moore (brother to Don Moore from FourPlay days), Sjolin now has the plaque in place.

Soon after getting the plaque in place, Sjolin decided to make the offer even better. For the entire 5 year term specified, 100% of all digital revenue from sales or streaming of the song "Akeley, MN" will be given to the city to be earmarked for new playground equipment. In addition, 50% of all digital sales of the album "Northwoods Nights" will also be given to the city for this purpose.

All visitors to the Paul Bunyan statue can now scan the song and purchase or play it, or purchase the album, each choice helping in it's own way to raise funds to build the future playground.

An AI imagined recreation of the time spent in the studio was used to tease the digital release of the music.

(Click image to view that video).

A more recent image of Sjolin posing with a couple of his pet ferrets Stitch and Nico.

Rikk Roxx with Aisle 5

In 2026 after releasing his music digitally, a fan sent him this image of a signed promo poster used by his former band Aisle 5.

Shown on the poster are (left to right): Mike Zimmerman (sound), Rikk Roxx (guitar, vocals), Jerry Snow (Frontman Vocals, Bass), Brian Hitchcock (Drums, Vocals) and Chuck Domrese (Lead Guitar).

Cover of Pearl Jam's Last Kiss by FourPlay with Rikk Roxx on vocals

Cover of Van Halen's Eruption / intro to You Really Got Me by FourPlay with Rikk Roxx on guitar.

Cover of James Blunt's You're Beautiful by Aisle 5 with Rikk Roxx on vocals

Cover of INXS's Pretty Vegas by Aisle 5 with Rikk Roxx on vocals

Akeley Playground Project

Jump On The Bandwagon

Northwoods Nights

Click images above to learn more about the playground project or the original music.

All content on this site is Copyright 2026 Rikk Roxx / Rural Rock Productions. Any images of the Worlds Largest Paul Bunyan statue in Akeley Minnesota appear on this site with permission as the copyright of that statue is owned by the family of creator Dean Krotzer. A heartfelt thank you to Tim Gack, Billy and Willy Krotzer, Dave Moore, the Akeley city council and mayor Brian Hitchcock, the Akeley Chamber of Commerce and everyone who helps the song Akeley, MN succeed in it's mission to fund a new playground to be located near the Paul Bunyan statue on Highway 34 in Akeley, MN.