Press Release - Patrick Lew Band Hiatus (as of October 2011)

The Patrick Lew Band formed whilst the musicians were still in high school as teenagers, and began posting their music on the Internet in May 2001. Regularly busking and freelancing individually and together in the San Francisco Bay Area via jam sessions and busking live performances. The following year, the band recorded their first album Psychotic Love on a 4-track Portastudio. While seriously dedicated to their music and remaining focused and persistent, the band gained some degree of notoriety revolving around Lew's personal problems at the time and Bandalism. It would be four full years before the Patrick Lew Band was able to record a follow-up to Psychotic Love, aptly titled Revenge (2006) with new members Dave Arceo (drums) and Zack Huang (keyboards). Patrick met his girl Faith by late 2006 on a free dating website, and began dating before she re-located back to Texas in the Bay. 

The band set out on a tour locally in 2007 (as Band of Asians) sponsored by KLC Productions as an opening act for Tinkture, Scarlett Bombs, and former lead guitarist Eddie Blackburn's other band Nocturnal Rock Turtles. After the tour concluded, the band underwent another difficult period of rehabiliation, losing Huang on keyboards. Blackburn re-signed from the Patrick Lew Band by the end of 2007, to focus on his own bands he was playing music in at the time. 

During this period, the band underwent a change in sound, discarding their post-hardcore style from their first two albums, and began experimenting more with new broader and eclectic sounds on record. By this time, the band became an inter-band freelance activity and presumably a solo project for Lew. Original Distorted Harmony guitarist Jeremy Alfonso joined the Patrick Lew Band by mid-2009, and Lew reconnected with his long-time girlfriend Faith Marie, who also became an auxiliary contributor and group member of the Patrick Lew Band. In the studio, they created two more albums, Let It Rise And Against (2009) and Murder Bay (2011), which expanded Lew's music and recognition through the indies locally and via Internet. Becoming the first major success for the Japanese & Taiwanese musician and guitar hero Patrick Lew. In addition, the last two Patrick Lew Band albums also developed and solidified Lew as a garage punk "fused" prototypical hard rock act. Combining grunge and various punk influences and creating their own distinct sound while playing and making rock & roll music. During the Murder Bay sessions, Alfonso mutually departed the Patrick Lew Band to focus on college mostly before re-locating to Toronto, Canada. 

In October 2011, Patrick Lew announced the Patrick Lew Band will be going through an "indefinite hibernation" to experiment more in the home recording studio as a solo musician under a "TBA" band name, alongside jamming freelance with other musicians in garage bands. For the time being, the TBA band was under the infamous name Chaos in Chinatown for a few months. The former name was given as a recommendation from an estranged former friend on Facebook named Candace. However after much deliberation, the name Chaos in Chinatown was quickly dropped due to rising concerns of raising the anger of the Asian American community. The then-TBA solo rock band was given the name Heavy Sigma, reportedly as a pun on another local band that Lew did not get along with, primarily their bassist by the name of Damien. During the last two months of 2011, Lew and Arceo rented a recording studio in Antioch, California, and began taking their unfinished musical ideas and rehearsed cover songs they were jamming to, and recorded a demo EP. Called Studio Demos 2012 (sometimes referred to as “Oddities”). It was self-released via Internet as a free download on the Heavy Sigma websites. 

While there is no word when the Patrick Lew Band will return to the Bay Area music scene, Lew insists when his musical ideas are not as creatively stagnant or “filler” even, he would return to recording another album with the PLB. It could be an instrumental punk record, or even more experimental leaps from Murder Bay. For the time being, Lew is investing his time and creative energy to Heavy Sigma and making music alone there. Lew also set up his own indie record label, Heavy Sigma Records, to handle the distribution of Patrick Lew Band and Heavy Sigma albums and related merchandise for America. Lew is busy making music, playing guitar, and rocking in the free world. And it’s a good time indeed to be content with it all.

Heavy Sigma Band Bio (A Patrick Lew Offshoot Band...)

Heavy Sigma is an instrumental experimental rock band that formed in Antioch, California in 2011. It was founded as a solo project for guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Lew, whilst his band the Patrick Lew Band was becoming more of a construction of an actual band with other musicians involved sporadically. Heavy Sigma also features musical collaboration and performances by other Patrick Lew Band members including Faith Marie and Dave Arceo. Playing music under pseudonym 'guises' in an attempt to preserve their low-key ethnical and musical approach to musical enterpreneurship and to thwart mass media hype, Heavy Sigma mainly plays abrasive, loose, and raw non-conventional sounding rock & roll and garage punk. Following the same promotional tasks that Patrick Lew Band took to get their music heard, the Internet and local San Francisco Bay Area social-media were methods to getting themselves out there. 

Heavy Sigma 411

1) hometown: San Francisco East Bay, California, USA

2) genres: Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Garage Punk, Grunge

3) years active: 2011-present

4) record label: Unsigned (fuck record labels...)

5) related bands: Patrick Lew Band, Band of Asians

6) band members:

TWRebel85 (AKA Patrick Lew): Guitar, Electronics, Lead Vocals

Angel Eyes (AKA Faith Marie Lew): Drums & Percussion

Stitch (AKA David Arceo): Electronics 

Patrick Lew and Faith Marie met on a free dating website and became a serious romantic couple despite long-distance separating one another, especially because of personal priorities in life. Lew and Dave Arceo met at Skyline College whilst Lew was taking a few music courses, and played together in the now-eponymous Band of Asians from the San Francisco post-hardcore scene. Prior to forming Heavy Sigma as a Patrick Lew solo project, with credited contributions with close ones musically, Lew was experiencing the sudden critical cult-like success and was playing music frequently in the Bay Area with the Grunge/Punk self-prolcaimed buzzworthy band the Patrick Lew Band. Brushing off the critical success and experiencing immense pressure from sudden cult-like fame for his music in the PLB Army, Lew decided to take a brief hibernation from the Patrick Lew Band to focus on other musical activity as an artist and rock guitar player. Aware of the overwhelming experience with how to follow-up the critically acclaimed "Murder Bay" recording with PLB while making music, Lew chose the other method of being a musician, by going more low-key in his approach to recording and marketing his music alone experimenting with more second-rate songwriting ideas and instrumentals. Which was the genesis of Heavy Sigma as a Patrick Lew solo project.

Heavy Sigma's material mainly consists of chaotically raw and unpolished produced music featuring unfinished musical ideas Lew experimented alone, feeling no need to record it with the Patrick Lew Band considering he felt it was not his best music as an artist and rock guitarist. A lot of Heavy Sigma's music is experimental post-rock, but dabbles with other styles closely associated with the Patrick Lew Band such as Grunge and Garage Punk. However, on the Heavy Sigma studio demo which was published and posted via Internet as of early 2012, many of the musical ideas wounded up becoming instrumental-only produced rock music. Lew's guitar playing skills were also at the time artistically challenging, as he felt his lead guitar playing sound was suffering on record given his experience and limitations as a musician. Many of the songwriting ideas that were rejected by the Patrick Lew Band in the music making process were given its presence in Heavy Sigma, which were still unfinished yet reasonably listenable post-rock/garage punk band recordings of Lew's music. Lew is pretty much, the only lone guitar player in Heavy Sigma, both in the studio and sporadically onstage for local gigs. With today's digital technology and computers with fast-speed Internet or WiFi, online collaboration between Lew alongside Faith Marie and Dave Arceo via webcam when making the music on Skype and social-media website juggernaut Facebook enabled some of Marie and Arceo's musical performances and contributions on record in the studio. Recording bits and pieces of the music in their own home studios and computers, emailing back the multitrack files via WAV to Lew so he could Frankenstein the music on record. 

Between October to December 2011, Heavy Sigma began making music in the studio. It resulted in their recorded EP, Studio Demos 2012 (also known as Oddities). Which later after they finished making the music, was posted on the Internet as a free download on PLB-related band websites. Usually, Lew hands out printed pamphlets of Heavy Sigma locally at gigs and elsewhere to get his new solo project out there. But most of it was musical entrepreneurship based methods on the Internet itself. Lew intends Heavy Sigma as more of a solo project hobby for his passion for playing rock & roll music, but doesn't discount any prospects of performing live shows under the 'guise' Heavy Sigma sporadically.

WATCH THIS GROW! ENJOY THE MUSIC AND PLAY IT PASSIONATELY.

The Patrick Lew Band - 10 Years of Rebelling, Chaos, and Taiwanese Man Blues!

Patrick Lew Band. The 100% Truth.

1) band name: Patrick Lew's Band


2) formation date: May 2001


3) years active: 2000s, 2010s


4) web address to use as a link that can be seen by all users:
http://www.myspace.com/patricklewsband
http://www.reverbnation.com/patricklewsband
http://www.facebook.com/patricklewband

5) preferred genre classification: Grunge, Garage Punk, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock

6) home state (or country if not U.S.): Antioch, California, USA

7) band members:
Patrick Lew - Guitar, Bass, Electronics, Lead Vocals
Faith Marie - Drums, Percussion

8) Discography:
1st album: Psychotic Love (2002) --!!! OUT OF PRINT !!!--
2nd album: Revenge (2006) --!!! OUT OF PRINT !!!--
3rd album: Curb Your Wild Life (2009)
4th album: Let It Rise And Against (2009)
5th album: Murder Bay (2011)

FOREWORDI am just an Asian guy who loves and is passionate about music and was lucky enough to survive many struggles in life and enjoy what I love doing and making, regardless of what other people thought. My relationship with the music and through the Internet is to maintain a friendship with listeners & fans of PLB and encourage constructively with other bands to share the music we make to everybody where ever we're at around the world, whether I'm in San Francisco or you're somewhere in Liverpool or Tokyo. The Internet should be used as a musical weapon to get ourselves out there, heard, exposed, and maybe even some prospects along the way! While I don't play gigs very often, based on many different factors such as a lack of a band to play guitar and sing in as one of the major pitfalls along with other limitations. I take pleasure in jamming with friends in the Bay Area in garage bands. That's what I been doing since I was 13 during the end of the 90's! While I am often at home, I mainly play my guitar figuring out how to write new music and record them on my laptop. One of my intentions as an artist is to write good songs, and improve myself not only as a musician but also a human being!

Band History:

Patrick Lew (guitar, vocals) met Faith Marie (born Faith Lambright) (drums) in 2006 on a free dating website online. While Marie came from a subtle yet relatively turbulent and dysfunctional personal and family background, Lew's childhood was thrown into turmoil when his beloved grandfather passed away when he was four, and his family endured many moments of being financially and socially challenged as an Asian American family. In his youth, Lew was a "somewhat" outsider in school and experienced countless struggles and conflict within the social-network online and in real-life. Lew was also highly creatively inclined and artistic as a child, drawing comic books and developing a love for 60's British rock such as The Beatles and late 80's/early 90's hard rock in the process. Eventually, Seattle grunge (Nirvana and Pearl Jam) and contemporary punk rock worked his way into his interest in music and whilst attending Rooftop Middle School, he began playing guitar at the age of thirteen and met his childhood friend and schoolmate Tommy Loi at his summer recreational day camp at Cumberland Church in San Francisco.

Together, Lew and Loi began jamming aimlessly on their own brand of garage punk music in Lew's house near the tail end of the 1990s called Goldenweasel, and Lew enrolled in a few music courses at a local guitar store. Lew also met a couple of popular punk bands and musicians such as Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and the band AFI while furthering his interest in punk rock and seeing live music locally. Lew attended Raoul Wallenberg High School, and began playing guitar and jamming freelance with several garage bands like Samurai Sorcerers, often including Nocturnal Rock Turtles lead guitarist George "Eddie" Blackburn.

Although most of Lew's high school band pursuits as a musician, guitar player, and artist were mainly a freelance hobby, Lew intended to take his music very seriously as an independent artist. During his times jamming aimlessly freelance with friends in garage bands miming the post-hardcore and punk rock they grew up witnessing on MTV and the mass media, Lew also created a one-man band called the Patrick Lew Band which was his musical outlet for his own songwriting ideas on record when not playing in other bands
locally for whatever purpose.

Through keyboardist and friend Zack Huang while attending a community college, Lew met close friend and drummer Dave Arceo, who had an intense passion for music and art, which meant that he, like Lew, felt alienated from the atypical superficial, bland, and not-so-interesting types of people from the masses and the Bay Area. Arceo, like Lew, also were considered outsiders within the community and social-network and felt "left out" of the status quo. Lew, Arceo, and Huang decided to form a post-hardcore band called the Band of Asians, with Arceo on drums, Huang on keyboards, and Lew on rhythm guitar. Lead guitar duties were handled by Eddie Blackburn temporarily, and subsequently by their schoolmate Cory Gaitan. The Band of Asians landed a few gigs locally and recorded a small output of musical ideas and instrumentals in a local recording studio (which caused Lew a credit card debt). Alongside a rotating cast of freelance garage bands in which Lew jammed and played his guitar in, and a rotating cast of Bandalism and band members, the bands Lew played in went through many band name changes as it did with whom he was playing guitar with or the ideas he had musically on record as a musician. As Band of Asians didn't put enough effort to further their music and pursuits as a local Bay Area band, mainly because of personal and creative differences, the Band of Asians decided to part ways and embark on solo careers.

Deeply devastated by the outcome of the events and years of adolescent turmoil, Lew pondered his musical future as an artist. Relocating his family to Antioch, California, a suburban Bay Area town about 45 miles Northeast of San Francisco in the Contra Costa County, and took his college education more seriously. Transferring into the California State University, East Bay, and spent most of 2008 in seclusion tinkering in his newly assembled home recording studio digitally creating new rock & roll music alone and posting his demo recordings of song ideas online. Two years earlier, Lew met his close friend and future spouse Faith Marie on a free dating website online and went on a couple of blind dates in the Bay Area. Only to be separated once again, because of Lew's personal crisis with music critics, transitory moments in life, alongside Marie's dysfunctional relationships with former boyfriends when she re-located back to Texas.

Lew began taking his music alone more seriously by 2008, his solo project the Patrick Lew Band and some other freelance jam sessions with friends. With the help of musical entrepreneurship Lew self-taught himself how to do, Lew began posting his music online alone as the Patrick Lew Band and seeing where the prospects take him. And suddenly, Lew's close friend Faith Marie came back into the picture and Lew and Marie solidified their friendship through social-network website Facebook and as a couple long-distance. Lew recorded 20 or 30 tracks or song ideas in his home recording studio. That became, "Let It Rise And Against" the demo album in its original form. Published on Valentines Day 2010 digitally online via iTunes and other mp3 stores.

In 2010, Lew and Marie began living together in Lubbock, Texas, as Lew sacrificed his college education and local friends and family to be with her respectively. However, the interracial and happy couple were oppressed by much of Lew's social-network online and in real-life and the social-media imposed claims and gossip about Marie which were fallaciously damaging and atrocious. Much of 2010, Lew and Marie's relationship were on the rocks partly because of the social-network that resented, judged, or oppressed them via Facebook and in real-life. However, the couple has since reconciled and took steps to filter out these unfortunate people in their social-network and keep their relationship strong and healthy. Also, Lew spent sporadic moments making new punk rock music in the studio.

Currently, the band Shanghai Kiss is working sporadically on new music as an Internet collaboration punk rock project between Lew and Marie at this very moment. Lew is also working on his music solo, and freelance jamming with others in the Bay Area in garage bands. Lew just recently published his album "Murder Bay" on his Partrick Lew Band website. Stay tuned for more music, more "dear diary" moments on Facebook, and more extreme and ultimate rock & roll from the rebellious Asian punk rocker named Patrick Lew!

The Chaos Room

Chaos Room: The Patrick Lew Band Anthology
This Soundclick.com music page is dedicated to 100% Patrick Lew Band's music. What you will see and hear is a historical recollection focusing directly on Taiwanese American punk rock musician and guitarist Patrick Lew's music, rather than his personal demons and truimphs. This is pretty much a boxed set anthology "kind of" band webpage of previous rare unpublished recordings such as Patrick Lew home-recorded demos and rough band rehearsal or onstage recordings, spanning from as early as 1999 to today from Patrick's freelance garage bands he played guitar and jammed with. What you will also see and hear are YouTube videos related to the Patrick Lew Band such as band practices, solo punk rock recitals, rant video blogs, and etc. You will also get a chance to hear all the Patrick Lew Band official albums on record as mp3 and streaming hi-fi audio. This music is NOT for everybody, but if you're passionate about the music and this outsider musician, enjoy.

Chaos Room (also known as PLB) are an Internet garage punk band that originally formed as Patrick Lew's Band in 2001 in San Francisco, California. They play a very loose and unpolished musical hybrid of 70's guitar-based hard rock, 90's alternative rock (especially Grunge), and contemporary punk music. The Chaos Room mainly promote their music online as a relatively unknown rock band from the Bay Area. Since 2011, their line-up consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Lew, keyboardist Faith Marie, and drummer Dave Arceo. Most of the band's pursuits as musicians are jamming in Patrick's bedroom writing songs and recording music, and aforementioned posting them via Internet.

1) band name: Chaos Room

2) Also known as: Patrick Lew's Band

3) hometown: San Francisco, California, USA

4) genres: alternative rock, hard rock, garage punk, grunge, punk revival

5) years active: 2008-present

6) related bands: Band of Asians, The London Lights

7) website(s): www.patricklewsband.com

8) band members:
Patrick Lew - Lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, electronics
Faith Marie - Keyboards
Dave Arceo - Drums, percussion

former members:
Jeremy Alfonso - Lead guitar, electronics

9) discography:
Curb Your Wild Life [demo] (2009)
Let It Rise And Against (2009)
Murder Bay (2011)

Why this name?

While this is still Patrick Lew's Band (PLB), the solo project of muah! The band name Chaos Room was something that was completely f***ing random when I was surfing the Net on some band name generator website. True story peeps. No f***ing joke! I wanted a secondary band name for PLB, like a 'guise' or alter ego or something!

Do you play live?

No! Unless I were playing in a local band serious about the music, with serious musicians who take their pursuits, passions, and everything else seriously. I WOULD. Right now, I do play bass in freelance "temporary" garage bands in the Contra Costa County with my friends from the college I graduated from. Most of the time, I am just making music sporadically in my OWN home recording studio, using my guitar gear, recording software, and little Netbook laptop. And post my new music on websites like this.

How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?

Now you can go on Net and have your stuff heard by people all over the world pretty much. Another good thing about the Internet is it helps others rediscover lesser notable bands and artists from music from more than 15 years ago on websites like YouTube and MySpace and it helps them get some posthumous recognition and stuff.

The good thing about the Internet and mp3 is it helps hobbyists and serious pro musicians to get their stuff out there when the mass media isn't marketing or paying attention to them!

But, the downside of it is mp3's causes illegal downloading and piracy where no one goes out to a record retail place anymore and buy the CD. But then again! A lot of the stuff (Rock, Rap and whatever) out there being spoonfed to us right now on MTV and Top 40 radio is garbage. Indie musicians get a better chance with the mp3's and the Internet because it would have been much harder 15 to 20 years ago without it to make their music entrepreneurship stuff work and all. Or even get heard when not on the stage!

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?

There was a time, when I was a teenager banging amateurishly performed post-hardcore music in the band Goldenweasel (and Band of Asians) with my friends from high school and early college years in our garage that either one estranged member of the band suggested, we use the Internet as a stepping stone to receive that popularity and success in the music field. My drummer Dave, always was against the idea of commerce and corporate recognition and opportunities in music. Meaning, he was 100% against doing music for mainstream reasons and something that seemed the opposite of what we set our music to be. Artistry and creativity.


I might or might not be considered GOOD enough as a Rock musician locally or online, I'm really apathetic what others think about my skills and musical experience. I mean whilst I was a former member of the obscure local bands I played guitar in, based on the encouragement (not the easiest of ways to breakthrough or go viral I figured) from my former bandmates that myself and even the former bands I was a part of use the Internet as a stepping stone to get that success as a musician. I had NO IDEA it was going to be such a huge challenge to get viral when you're competing with a load of other bands/artists/musicians on the Net on whatever site that was more accessible for everyone. I am not even sure, if A&R and record company people even scouted websites like Soundclick for new talent to sign.



Looking back...I didn't think the intentions of doing music for popularity, money and mainstream commerce or success based on my former bands was a good idea or an aspiration to strive for. I realized the Net was a good place to post my band and music, but a word my close ones told me..."Even with the Internet making it easier for people to get their music possibly heard, it's a 1 out of 100,000 chance you get discovered." I had some regrets with my musical past I hate to say, mainly because me and my bandmates had to fork out so much of our personal investment financially to chase that hard-to-earn opportunity.



It's not music critics or my detractors that was the main concern about my musical past. It was because, I was a bit naive growing up as a guitarist and so-called Punk musician to try those ways to go viral or get exposure.


Now what are my intentions as a musician being on the Net?


Nowadays...While I do not mind opportunity from the field of music (if I were ever to get it). I mainly am using the Internet as a musician to use it as a medium and tool for those living faraway outside of my hometown region of the San Francisco Bay Area to hear and share my music if necessary. I am not usually a guy who is doing music for fame, money or a widespread popularity, even for those who assume I do. Yes, those three are nice to have. But only in moderation and to an extent. I am more currently doing the "INDEPENDENT" route as a musician and music-maker, and I am using the Internet to promote my music. Maybe a few fans and a community I can happily share my work with. Honestly, even with the few press coverage I had locally and on the Net as a musician. I am content with what I have now as far as fans, level of recognition and etc etc.


I am not doing music just for a paycheck and to become a celebrity or something. I am mainly doing this because I love playing/making music and I want to share it to others online. And I let the listeners find me from there or so. I don't mind opportunities in this field, but I am content with what I have now pretty much.

Your influences?

INFLUENCES: Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Green Day, Mother Love Bone, Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, AFI, The White Stripes, Steelheart, John Lennon, Smashing Pumpkins, The Vines, Tesla, White Lion, Blink 182, Angels & Airwaves, Dead Kennedys, Anti-Flag, Gin Blossoms, Beyond (HK), L-Arc-En-Ciel

FOLLOWERS: (To be written 10 years from now...)

Favorite spot?

The Bay Area. Other than that...Seattle, Japan and Ireland.

Here, there, and everywhere...I'm a wandering spirit.

Equipment used:

Les Paul guitars, Fender 25R practice amp, Line6 TonePort GX interface, Acoustica Mixcraft 5 (recording), Toshiba laptop, Rogue bass...

UPDATE: I also use a BOSS Micro BR to record demos!