He always loved music. But it took Labsco sales rep Brian Rojik a while to discover his talents.
By Laura Thill
Music has been a staple for Brian Rojik for as long as he can recall. “Growing up, there was always music in the house,” he says. “My mom was a music major and my dad was a huge music fan.” Yet, he himself never took any music lessons, admits the LABSCO sales rep. But, it so happened his roommate in college did take music lessons when he was young and was “a phenomenal guitar player.” When the two hung out, Rojik often found himself singing along to the alternative rock songs his roommate played and was surprised to discover he had a pretty good voice.
Still, his studies kept him busy – he was a bio, pre-med major – and after graduating he became interested in laboratory product development. Chemical equations – not musical notes – filled his mind. Rojik settled into a Boston, Mass., apartment and assumed his direction was set.
In part, it was. But, as luck would have it, his complex was swarming with young musicians. “One evening, I brought them my friend’s guitar, hoping it could be tuned.” His musician neighbors saw more than just a guy with a guitar. Before the evening was through, they convinced him to audition as a singer with local bands. “I landed a job singing with a band and played with them for a year, until I moved to the South Shore,” he says. On the side, he taught himself the basics of guitar, which he grew to enjoy.
Unique voices
It wasn’t until Rojik turned 28 that he was approached by a group of friends looking to start Elbow Room, a Boston-area cover band often seen at weddings and other functions. In fact, they looked to him not only as the lead singer, but a guitarist as well. Was he ready to play guitar on stage? “I thought I was,” he laughs. “The band has had a lot of changes since the beginning.” Today, the five-member group plays material from the 1970s and 1980s, and covers “anything from the Beatles to Justin Timberlake,” he says. “We play at about 10 regular venues.
A few years after Elbow Room took off, Rojik was at a club performing solo on the acoustic guitar, when he caught the attention of another guitarist. The guitarist approached him about helping launch a local band called Harbor Buoys. “I had wanted to play more acoustic material,” he says. “But, having five performers in Elbow Room always called for a lot of compromise.” Harbor Buoys would only have three members, and fewer personalities in the mix meant a bit more opportunity to try new things. The band performs at only half as many venues as Elbow Room, but it features a more contemporary lineup, which can provide a nice change of pace, Rojik says.
Rojik plays no favorites when it comes to his bands. Two bands, two experiences, he says. “On Facebook, Elbow Room has about 2,700 fans and Harbor Buoys has about 600,” he says. “It’s very rare we are not asked to return to a venue.” That’s in spite of not having time during the week to rehearse, he adds. “During the week, it’s about family and work,” he says. “On weekends, we have soccer games and basketball.” Then, around 8 p.m. on Saturday night, he typically heads to a club for a 9 p.m. performance.
The show must go on
For the most part, the gigs run pretty smoothly. But, there are the occasional challenges. At a performance this summer, 30 seconds into Harbor Buoys’ opening song, the band’s expensive P.A. system failed. “We were playing at the British Beer Company,” Rojik recalls. “We had about 200 people staring at us, waiting!” Fortunately, the previous evening, he had played a gig with Elbow Room and had some backup equipment still sitting in his car. And, while the manufacturer, Bose, replaced its broken equipment, “that didn’t help that evening,” he says. And, as the lead singer, he had to maintain a calm, confident and positive disposition, he adds. “All eyes are on the lead singer. I can’t look unhappy.”
Then there are the personality conflicts, which are bound to arise from time to time in any tight-knit group. “Balancing different personalities can be challenging,” says Rojik. People have “bad nights,” he points out, and the worst thing a band can do is to leave things hanging. Whether someone is playing off key, too loud or is off tune, when the band’s sound is off, it’s important to pick an appropriate time to address it, he explains. “We need to over-communicate with one another” – a skill he finds he is particularly in touch with given his sales background and his experience building relationships with his customers.
Both Elbow Room and The Harbor Buoys are more like family than colleagues. “It’s a nice network and we support each other,” says Rojik. The Boston area as a whole has a tight music community, he says. “Last week, another local band lost a band member [to cancer], and the other musicians in the area have come out to show their support. This is more than simply about playing together in a band on weekends.”
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