Peter Ostroushko knows who he is: a musician, a songwriter and an American of Ukrainian descent.

“I’m a Ukrainian-American,” he said. “The music I write I consider to be Ukrainian music.”

Raised in a Ukrainian neighborhood of the Twin Cities, Ostroushko was introduced to the sounds of the mandolin at an early age by his father and the serenading of Ukrainian folk songs from his mother.

By the time he was 10 years old, Ostroushko knew he wanted to be a mandolin player as well.

Proficient on both the mandolin and the violin, Ostroushko said he didn’t get his sense of identity from just his family, though. “It’s a community thing,” Ostroushko explained. “I was born here about a year after my parents immigrated. Our neighborhood was full of people virtually right off the boat.”

He even styles his music after his Ukrainian background. Often asked what kind of music he was playing, Ostroushko was forced to come up with his own label: slz dz.

“I started taking to calling it slz dz because people wanted me to describe my music,” he said. “I just started calling it something.”

Ostroushko said he borrowed the phrase from his mother. A variation of a Ukrainian saying, loosely translated it means “over the edge” or “off his rocker.”

Critics have said Ostroushko’s most recent solo recording, Heart of the Heartland, forms a landscape, and it has even garnered him comparisons to landscape photographer Ansel Adams. But to Ostroushko, music is music.

“Music just comes into my head,” he said. “I’ll be somewhere and witness something that might inspire something. That’s the process. I’m not the kind of writer to pull out a pen and just start writing. These melodies come from the heavens.”

The heavens must appreciate the Ukrainian sound as much as Ostroushko does because his music is heavenly. He said the Ukrainian sound is “pretty blatant” in his music and that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I enjoy doing it,” he said. “Ukrainian music is very emotional, very intense. I remember trying to pick up Beetles’ songs when I was young. But I was also very interested in learning Ukrainian music.”

Ostroushko added that he made the decision to play Ukrainian music virtually on stage.

After playing mainstream music for a period of time, Ostroushko said an audience member asked him to play some Ukrainian music.

“I hadn’t played any [Ukrainian music] in about 10 years,” he said. “But it all came back to me. It’s amazing how it all just came flooding back.”

The flood continues Sunday when Ostroushko and guest guitarist Dean Magraw play the MoonCookie Cafe.

Ostroushko said, “Dean Magraw is one of the finest guitar players [the audience] will ever hear.”

MoonCookie Cafe is located at the UU Fellowship of Ames, 1015 N. Hyland Ave. Show time is 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are available for at the door for $10.