The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | 16 The Bootlegs play for their hometown crowd by Nathan Howes Special to the Beaver Artscene "Connected to your Community" I f you mash together songs by The Strokes and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the outcome may sound like an original tune by Oakville's The Bootlegs. That's the comparison singer and rhythm guitar player Andrew Oliver, 21, makes when describing the indie-rock sound of the local foursome, who recently played their first hometown show at Philthy McNasty's sports bar. "We've been doing shows mostly in Toronto, so it's (been) hard for a lot of our friends and family to get there late at night. People can expect good music and a good time (at our show)," Oliver told the Oakville Beaver prior to the band's Aug. 16 performance. The group, which also features guitarist Brady Burke, drummer Ben Labenski and bassist Elliot Hepworth, has been together since September 2012. Oliver and Burke started recording songs later that fall and compiled five tracks that make up the band's first EP Knock Me Down, which received a digital release in November 2012 while the CD came out earlier this year. "Music has been a part of our lives from a pretty young age. Burke and I moved into a house at Western University and we're both playing our music all the time, so we decided we might as well make some music together," said Oliver. The Bootlegs released a single off the record called Fail To Recall, which received substantial airplay on his school's radio station, Oliver said. A music video for the song was filmed and posted on YouTube. "The video director is in my program at university and he just The Bootlegs performed at Philthy McNasty's in Oakville Friday, their first hometown show. They hope to play again in Oakville during the winter holidays as the members are currently gearing up to return to university. Here, from left, guitarist Brady Burke, singer and guitarist Andrew Oliver, and bassist Elliot Hepworth perform. Not seen in photo is drummer Ben Labenski. | photo by Eric Riehl ­ Oakville Beaver got (accepted) into film school in Los Angeles. We just (played) him our music and he sent us this crazy idea for the music video and we really liked it. We did it and it was lots of fun," he said. Oliver, who also writes the lyrics and handles the technical production of the live shows, has been playing guitar since he was 12. "I try to write songs that are personal but not too personal so that it's not relatable. (It's situations) people can see themselves in, but it's all coming from a real place," said Oliver. Although every band member is currently attending university, he noted they have been able to find time to work on new music. "We have three songs in the works right now and another three that are ready to be recorded once those are done. We're hoping to find someone to (make) a video for at least one of them," said Oliver. Once the songs are complete, he said they're going to release them as individual singles. "About a month from now we're going to release the first one and then (we will) release the other two shortly after that. Every couple weeks we will release another single," said Oliver. As for the group's next Oakville show, fans may have to wait until the holiday season, Oliver said, because the musicians will be returning to school shortly. At Western, The Bootlegs singer is about to enter his last year of a four-year media program, hoping it will help him find a career in music production. But whether it's just for fun or if The Bootlegs becomes a full-time gig, Oliver said the band "will keep on rockin'." "Music has hopefully prepared me a little bit. The rest of the band has pretty promising other career paths as well. We will keep trying to (play music) around the rest of our stuff we have going on." The Bootlegs' Knock Me Down EP can be purchased on iTunes or is available for free download on the band's website at www. thebootlegsmusic.com. Artist Kamil Swiatek paints in front of an audience Oakville artist Kamil Swiatek will be painting in front of an audience. His live painting exhibit, called Movement in the Right Direction, opens Friday (Aug. 23) at the historic Sovereign House gallery, located at 7 West River St. in Bronte. During each day of the exhibit, except for opening night, Swiatek will paint a new piece of art. The exhibit will incorporate the importance of movement and rhythm in music directly into his paintings. He will select the right music and musician to influence each piece he's working on. "I've decided to title the exhibition Movement in The Right Direction because I've come to a point in life where I have to follow my passion and now is the perfect time to do so," Swiatek said, in a news release. Earlier this year, Swiatek painted live on Breakfast Television and donated the finished painting to a viewer as a giveaway prize. His Oakville show runs until Sept. 1. The gallery is open Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday from 1-4 p.m. The opening reception is on Friday from 7-10:30 p.m.