by Danny Colman originally published on Rock On! This Week’s Sound Bites…11/20/2025
“I definitely should’ve changed my name to a showbiz name years ago but it’s a little too late for that,” laughed guitarist Bruce Wojik as he discussed his latest album called, “The Hard Way,” his band The Struggle and more. “Yeah, it came out on October 3 and I’m really excited about it. I’m hoping people will enjoy it, which would be nice but yeah, I’m just excited about it and glad to have it out.”
A native and current Buffalo/Niagara Falls resident, Wojik knew from a very young age that music is what he wanted to do, in fact, in his mind, there was absolutely no other option.
“It’s all I ever wanted to do,” he said with total conviction. “I was raised by my mother and my grandparents and they tell me that ever since I was a kid, I would listen to BJ Thomas, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” just standing over a little record player and watching it spin, just listening. Then from there it went to Elton John when somebody got me his first greatest hits album, I was probably five. I don’t know, there was just something about it; I just started listening and everywhere we went, if they visited people and they brought me along they’d stick me in the son or daughter’s room and say, “Just play him some records and he’ll be good to go.” So, that’s what it was, my cousin was very influential to me with a lot of records. Elton John, Peter Frampton, Paul McCartney and Wings were my heavy hitters back in the day; KISS of course, I was a huge KISS fan when I was young. My first concert was when I was like eight years old and there’s a song on the record about that and that was it, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I just watched KISS and loved the rock magazines when I was a kid, “Hit Parade,” “Circus,” “Rock Scene” and all the others; why would anyone want to do anything else? That was it for me, it’s all I ever wanted to do, I never wanted to do anything else and here we are.”
Given his various and somewhat wide ranging tastes, did those styles and artists influence his music and or writing style?
“Oh a ton,” he stated emphatically, “Not that you’re gonna listen to my stuff and go, oh that sounds like this or that but as far as guitar playing, I find myself and it’s tough looking at yourself but sometimes I’ll say, that’s a little Framptonesque or Ace Frehleyesque kind of thing I’m doing in the sense of melody or feel with the way a solo goes but as far as writing goes, I don’t know. There again, if you listen, you may find a parallel there; I do one thing, there is one song on the record called “Yesterday’s Gone,” I loved “Funeral For a Friend” and “Love Lies Bleeding” from “GoodBye Yellow Brick Road” and that is sort of a take on that a little bit. When you hear the track there’s a kind of piano thing with that pound-pound kind of thing that “Love Lies Bleeding” had in the beginning. Are you familiar with Bobby Rondinelli? Bobby is on that song on drums and he produced that song, that’s the only one he is on on the record. That song, if you take a listen to it is my “Love Lies Bleeding” kind of thing but again, you sort of have to make those judgements on your own in terms of some of the other flavors of the songs but those were the main things I pulled from when I was young and still do. That (“Yesterday’s Gone”) is just a song that was written a while back and the intro, when you hear it, it was just what I wanted.I wanted that kind of vibe and when you hear it, you’ll get it.
Wojik has alluded to his love for and the making of “Honest music.” When asked as to what he thought that was, he was quick to answer.
“Honest music? Some of the things we’ve already touched on like, I never was one to like something with a schtick to it. I know I said I was a big KISS fan but musically, when I think back about KISS and all of that stuff, yes, it was very interesting to me but the music, when I look back on why I loved the music so much, besides the schtick, it was just great. Melody for me is everything, I love a great hook and that kind of thing and so, when I think about this record, it’s just all of the things that sort of led me to where I am today. Things on the road, things in the studio, the guys I’ve played with and all of the things I’ve listened to; this is sort of a culmination of some of those great things that I hope come out and as I say, if you listen to it I hope you’ll get what I’m saying, it’s where it has brought me.”
“The Hard Way” is out on Segno Records and is available on vinyl as well but when putting this all together, well, Bruce relied on some friends and family too.
“My son Vito is on drums for two tracks on the record and he was only 15 maybe 16 when he did those. Bobby is on one track and my drummer Denny Pelczynski from my band is on the rest. I’ve got my brother who co-wrote the last song on the record called, “Watching The Sky Turn Blue” and he’s a bass player and he co-wrote and played the bass on that. There is a girl on there that sings on a couple of tracks named Erin Hoyle. I play with her father in a separate project called Strictly Hip doing the music of The Tragically Hip and she’s on the title track “The Hard Way” and does a duet with me and another called “1983.”
With Winter already getting a bit blustery in his area of the country and colder more treacherous months ahead; how does he plan to promote the record now and what are his plans going forward?
“Again, you’re from Jersey and I’m up here in Buffalo/Niagara Falls so we know what winters are like so we probably won’t stretch it out and if we do it will be in the Springtime. I haven’t done much traveling with the band lately, I’ve been doing a little bit with Strictly Hip, mostly border towns nothing crazy but I would like to stretch out in the Spring, do maybe eight or 10 cities here in the Northeast, maybe a little bit in the Midwest and I’d love to be able to get back out West too. We were fortunate with my other band to play the Whiskey and The Viper Room and places like that. So, I’d love to get back out west because I have so many friends out there but for right now we’re just keeping it local. We had a release show when the album came out on October 3 in Buffalo and a couple of other things locally but we’ll try to stretch it out in the Spring for sure.”
“I’m sifting through ideas all of the time. I’m listening to snippets on my phone that I put on there. This album just came out so I’ll work it for a while but my wheels are already turning about another one and some of these new songs. I just called the guys suggesting we get together and putting these ideas together and see what flies so yeah, absolutely. I always just keep on writing, keep on going and so forth. I’d love to do another with Bobby Rondinelli and he said, “If you’ve got something else that would be great.” So, I’d like to do something like that again but I just want to mention my band. Keyboard player Dan Delano, sax player Will Holton and bass player Leo McDonald, they are like family and I’m very lucky to have them.
To Discover more about Bruce Wojik and The Struggle, please visit https://www.brucewojick.com/