Welcome

1987: Andy Olexa and Hartmut Goetze meet when Andy was asked to audition to play bass for the band Hart was in, called Kryterion.

1987: Kryterion dissolves so Hart and Andy decide to create an original music project 

1987: Hart, Andy and friend Brian Schmidt build "Time Test Studios" in Andy's garage (2x 4 Track cassette tape recorders used

1987: Andy Olexa and Hartmut Goetze meet when Andy was asked to audition to play bass for the band Hart was in, called Kryterion.

1987: Kryterion dissolves so Hart and Andy decide to create an original music project 

1987: Hart, Andy and friend Brian Schmidt build "Time Test Studios" in Andy's garage (2x 4 Track cassette tape recorders used)

1987: Hart and Andy start recording original songs together

1987: First songs written together: Set You Free and Hide in Your Dreams

1987: Andy and Hart call their new original band Bluelaw

1988: Hart and Andy invest in a Fostex reel to reel 8 Track system

1988: Hart and Andy go in Fiasco Bros Recording Studio to record 3 songs

1989: Richard McMullan (keyboards, Midi Wind Instrument, saxaphone) joins Bluelaw

1989: Bob Benac (guitar vocals) joins Bluelaw

1989: Brian Schmidt (vocals) joins Bluelaw as a blues singer for some songs

1990: Jan 13 Wise Hall (Vancouver) Hart, Andy, Richard, Bob

1990: Aug 11 (Sat) Demostration-Fraser Arms (Richmond) Hart, Andy, Richard, Bob

1990: Sept 15 (Sat) Framstand-Fraser Arms (Richmond) Hart, Andy, Richard, Bob

1990: Bob Benac leaves

1990: Al Sabourin (guitar, vocals) joins Bluelaw

1990: Jan 21 (Sun) Klub Kaos (Coquitlam)  Hart, Andy, Richard, Al

1990: Nov 19 (Mon) Shindig Railway Club (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Richard, Al

1990: Dec 6 (Thurs) Club 88 (Langley)  Hart, Andy, Richard, Al

1990: Dec 12 (Wed) 86 Street Music Hall(Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Richard, Al

1991: Richard McMullan leaves

1991: Jan 21 (Mon) Klub Kaos Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Jan 28 (Mon) Town Pump (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Feb 16 (Sat) Club 88 (Langley)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Feb 25 (Sun) Champayne's Cabaret (Surrey)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Mar 6 (Wed) Cruel Elephant (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Apr 6 (Sat) Cruel Elephant (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Apr 9 (Tues) Town Pump (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Brian, Hart, Andy and Al create Benny Profane Jr and the Cunning Linguists

1991: April 22 (Mon) Klub Kaos (Coquitlam)  Brian, Hart, Andy, Al

1991: May 12 (Sun) Open Door (Vancouver) Hart, Andy, Al

1991: May 19 (Sun) Open Door (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: May 25 (Sat) Haney Hotel  Brian, Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Jun 4 (Tues) Town Pump (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Jun 9 (Sun) Open Door (Vancouver)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: July 12+13 (Fri-Sat) Club FX (Ladner) Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Aug 31 (Sat) Fort Langley Boogie (Fort Langley)  Hart, Andy, Al

1991: Bluelaw disbands

2014: Andy asks Hart to do all the drum tracks for Wellington Park's release Middle of Somewhere

2019: Andy asks Hart to do backing vocals on Wellington Park's song Carry the Torch

2020: Hart asks Andy to do some bass tracks for his Home Grown Creations project

2021: Hart and Andy are back together again....

Many years ago in a far and distant land, I started my musical journey. At the very young age of 6, my parents got me started musically with piano lessons, learning to play and understand music theory. One Christmas, my parents bought me a record, not just any record, but a Beatles record, Twist and Shout (a Canadian Beatles hits rele

Many years ago in a far and distant land, I started my musical journey. At the very young age of 6, my parents got me started musically with piano lessons, learning to play and understand music theory. One Christmas, my parents bought me a record, not just any record, but a Beatles record, Twist and Shout (a Canadian Beatles hits release). I was so influenced by it I wanted to play the guitar. So they bought me a nylon stringed guitar and I jumped right in. I went to guitar lessons but hated the teacher so I bought a Beatles music book and learned all the music and chords. 

Into high school, my tastes changed abit to more music of the day and brought my ,now 12 string, guitar to school to play for friends at lunches. One day, a guitar player student there asked me if I wanted to join his school rock band. The only problem was they needed a bass player, so I picked up an old Raven bass and started learning their cover songs. So interested in the bass my parents again came to help and invested in bass lessons. 

During this time, I figured out I could dabble in writing original songs, very simple songs but the interest was there. After high school I joined a number of bands doing the cover stuff and throwing in the odd original song I wrote, nothing really professional but had fun doing it. 

On to the working world, I bought a house with a garage. Also invested in a 4 track cassette recorded. I recorded many original song demos on this. Playing all the instruments, the structure was there and wanted to find other musicians to play and collaborate with. A fellow friend at work had a cover band (KRYTERION) and was in need of a bass player. I said I'd come and try out and they offered me the gig. Here I met HARTMUT GOETZE, their drummer. After rehearsals we would sit in HART's truck and talk music, our likes, our dislikes, and our interest in writing original songs. We both had 4 tracks we were recording with, so we would play each other's songs and listen with interest. All of a sudden the band they were in dissolved and HART and I decided to try the original avenue, dropping covers.  

One day, we had the idea of converting my garage into a practice-rehearsal-recording space and upgrading the recording equipment. And began a collaboration that created many songs and lasted years. Now we needed a band to get our music out naming it BLUELAW. We auditioned a cornucopia of musicians, some stayed, some went, a couple variations of a band unit but finally fell upon AL SABOURIN, a fantastic guitarist who added a much needed influence in our music and wrote his own songs. HART, AL and I became a power trio and played many of the original clubs and the BC lower mainland. We also joined a good friend and vocalist BRIAN SCHMIDT with a blues band called BENNY PROFANE JR to back up BLUELAW at shows. 

In the early nineties, BLUELAW disbanded and we went our separate ways. I moved to the BC interior where I kept on recording originals and playing with the local musicians then heading to Vancouver Island, playing in other original/cover bands, HART stayed in the lower mainland and AL moved to Vancouver Island. 

Not to long on the Island, and many years after the BLUELAW breakup, I was recording with WELLINGTON PARK, a band I started, and needed someone to record some drums. I called HART and asked, and HART was happy to do it. Later on HART would ask me to do some bass lines for an original project he was with (HOME GROWN CREATIONS) and, of course honoured, said yes. 

After WELLINGTON PARKseparated and the wretched Covid hit the world, we started chatting again and thought of collaborating under the obvious moniker of BLUELAW. Thank god for progress, technology and the internet. HART living in Surrey BC and I in Victoria BC, we can do our parts and send them back and forth until they are ready to go. That's where we are now. 

BLUELAW is recording again and will be submitting for your approval, brand new original music, to be finished at the end of 2021. Stay tuned.

Thank you

Andy Olexa 

My musical background started at an early age of 7 or 8 years old with my first instrument being a Hohner Marching Band harmonica. I also spent a number of my younger years singing and competing in school choir competitions in Southern Ontario. As a result, I developed my singing skills at an early age before taking my vocals a little 

My musical background started at an early age of 7 or 8 years old with my first instrument being a Hohner Marching Band harmonica. I also spent a number of my younger years singing and competing in school choir competitions in Southern Ontario. As a result, I developed my singing skills at an early age before taking my vocals a little more serious in my musical career. I dabbled with acoustic guitar and accordion, but neither felt natural, or the right instrument I wanted to tackle.

As a young teen, I played in various basement bands and took an interest in drumming. I worked towards my first drum kit by working for two months while off school for summer holidays. After a few months of honing my skills, I was forced to get rid of his newly acquired drum kit because my parents did not have the patience to put up with the hours of time it would take to become proficient, good drummer. This discouragement effected my interest in being a musician, and so I shelved the whole idea until much later into my early 20’s.

I relocated to Vancouver BC, in 1976 at the age of 21 in search of something new & exciting! What was supposed to be a two month vacation ended up as a historical decision to stay out west and make the lower mainland of Vancouver my permanent home. After a few months of living in the city, I decided to move out of Vancouver and found a house out in the country and built my first home practice studio, and bought my first drum kit since I was 16 years old. After developing some good solid time keeping and and simple basic techniques, I felt confident enough to start searching for other musicians that would be interested in starting a band. Or in collaborating together with others to explore possibilities?

I met my first semi pro Top 40 club band in Vancouver (MAGIC) in the later part of the 70’s. Holding down day jobs and playing around town, that project played all the ‘B rooms’ in Vancouver which had a very vibrant ‘live music’ scene in those days! In no time, the band quit their day jobs and hit the road. Travelling through out BC, Alberta and Vancouver Island, the band tightened and moved into the next level of club gigs. It was a good run for about two years, and then the politics of music reared it’s ugly head. The band started to fall apart, and I saw the writing on the wall, made the decision to leave the band before things got painfully worse.

At this point I had strengthened my abilities as a drummer/vocalist and decided to search for my next calling.  Then into the early years of the 1980’s, I met another Top 40 cover band in search of a drummer/vocalist and decided to get back to playing live shows, and to make some extra cash on the side. It was a lot of fun while it lasted, but once again music and personal politics interfered with that gig.

Realizing that there was more to music than playing Top 40 cover tunes and playing live gigs, I met my first ‘original music’ collaborator and dove in with both feet!

Entering into ‘new world of music’, I found that this was a natural progression for me to explore. Working with various ‘original musical groups’,  I played numerous showcase venues through the mid to late 80’s before I found ANDY OLEXA through a mutual friend, who was ANDY's work associate and guitar player buddy. After tightening up our friendship, ANDY and I decided we wanted to start an original project, but did not really have a place to practice and possibly record? As luck would have it, ANDY was a homeowner and had a garage on his property which we converted into a practice-rehearsal-recording space, and soon ANDY and I invested in some recording gear to start into the world of ‘home recording’.

Having worked on a combination of cover songs and original material, we soon had enough material to start expanding the band and launch auditions for other players.

Having spent months on expanding the band, we finally had a few good versions of the first BLUELAW lineup which started getting showcase gigs through out Vancouver. Always looking for the best lineup, BLUELAW ended up stripping the band to a three piece power trio, consisting of ANDY, AL SABOURIN, and me. The band played all the showcase clubs through out the lower mainland and Vancouver through the early 90’s, and had a good run as a three piece.  

Unfortunately the band ‘hit a brick wall’ after a couple of short years, and everyone went their separate ways. ANDY & AL ended up moving to Vancouver Island and got involved in various bands & projects, and I stayed in Greater Vancouver and did my own solo projects with various seasoned players, and got involved with in my own musical projects, and with musician friends from the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia.

It was during the Covid lockdowns that ANDY and I both were in limbo, and decided to give BLUELAW a revisit. So today there is another new start to an old project that never really ended. And currently ANDY and I are working on a new BLUELAW release and are hard at work laying down some new material that hopefully will be done in time for the years end (2021)?

And with that, BLUELAW rises again! Stay tuned……………………

Thanks!

Hartmut-Hartbeat Goetze