Heavy Sigma & Patrick Lew Band Bio

For the last five years, Patrick, Dave, and the rest of the musicians and friends associated with Patrick Lew's Electric Army are positive everyday people doing music as a passionate hobby, and balancing everything important essentially before getting together to make music.

Patrick Lew's Electric Army reign over localized Bay Area rock music - and for that matter, the social-media - was a critical success and sporadic struggle since 2008. As a cult-like social media phenomenon on the Internet and their very own hometown of San Francisco, California, Facebook "likes" and Internet virality through the Electric Army's music websites online varied but never kept themselves or their fans quiet worldwide since their 2008 formation, the garage punk band while often a critical jackpot or success within the music industry - depending who you ask - have created very extraordinary experiences for themselves in contemporary society. Before they became band, Patrick, Dave, Faith, and the rest of the musicians and friends associated with this garage band phenomenon in Patrick Lew's Electric Army, were merely misfits and fairly below the status quo of society. They struggled years to accomplish what they've dreamed about, musically procrastinated for a long time, and yearned for in their pre-adolescent childhood aspirations to become and feel like a part of something, after being isolated for so long. Anyone who had played music, made contributions, and recorded with these peeps, was a precursor for bigger things to come in life generally speaking.

All the band members (former and current) were 1980's babies, who had their childhoods growing up in the 1990's, but growing up in that essence was found comfortable through the Grunge (Nirvana and Pearl Jam) and later, Britpop musical movement that found their way through the pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook, and still fairly primitive technologically resourced days of cable TV on a Magnavox.

Patrick was just 13 years old when he found out what he wanted to put his passions and interest towards, whether it made him successful or not. He was a pre-teen rebel at the infamous Rooftop Middle School in the city of San Francisco. Life wasn't easy for the de-facto leader of the band growing up. His beloved grandfather passed away when Patrick was aged four, and spent nearly his whole childhood sheltered and isolated from "the in-crowd." When he was just aged 13, he bought his first electric guitar at a mom-and-pop music store, and painstakingly practiced and procastinated when learning how to play the guitar.

While he wasn't particularly skilled as a musician, at least not yet by conventional standards, Patrick was going to Cumberland Church every Sunday in the Chinatown. It was here! Where he met his soon-to-be high school classmate Tommy and struck a close friendship which lasted since day one. The two friends began establishing themselves with aspirations to become professional - or semi-professional yet amateur - musicians and were damn passionate about playing rock & roll music. Regardless what many critics and haters thought of them since day one, never letting those jeers and poor criticism discourage their passion for playing music in garage bands. Tommy and Patrick formed a garage punk duo called Goldenweasel (which eventually became Band of Asians), and it was the tail end of the 90's as the two were about to graduate from 8th grade with diplomas before luxoriously attending Raoul Wallenberg Traditonal High School as freshmen.

Whilst their freshmen years in high school, Napster and mp3 technology was changing the way the music industry and how bands, musicians, any many other things could be heard and distributed. Computers and Internet, while still in its pre-Facebook days, were becoming more affordable for home office usage and digital music software was replacing the 4-track Tascam! While the Internet didn't virally made Patrick Lew a very successful millionaire rock & roll superstar with millions of "likes" or "fans" on Facebook, it did give him and a million other unsigned bands locally an option to get heard. But realizing the oversaturation of the Net of dozens and dozens of unsigned bands putting themselves out there, Lew had a lesson to learn in later years.

The next step meant! Jamming in their garage, playing their music aimlessly to create instrumental and songwriting ideas, fine tuning their musicianship, and everything else. This took quite a long time, as Lew procrastinated and practiced for years on-and-off to consolidate himself as a guitarist, songwriter, and musician. Plowing through a series of unsuccessful garage bands, and battling his own problems in his life before putting it back together.

In 2008, that dream being a successful musician making money, touring and performing in bands across nightclubs and theaters, and being super publicized and making professional studio recordings, were slowly but surely fading. Even though realizing music wasn't going to pay the utility bills, groceries, and the rent, Lew enrolled into a university in Hayward called CSUEB. Resumed his music as mainly a hobby, but cutting any expensive seriousness that would devour time, money, and effort into making a music career work in the long run. He graduated university in June 2011 with a B.A. in Philosophy and Music. Although music was no longer meant for seriousness for a potential career and benefit. It didn't mean he had to quit doing what he loved doing. He had to make music primarily as a hobby, and play guitar with the friends he chose carefully to play music with as a favorite past-time when everyone isn't busy with school, work, and other important or busy things in life. Flashing back three years prior to graduating college, Lew formed the Patrick Lew Band - later band named the Electric Army or simply, Patrick Lew's Electric Army.

Together, the PLB Army recorded and created music at the expense of their much heavily invested musical gear that Lew spent on with some of his college aid money. Somewhere in Patrick Lew's king-size bedroom inside a house in Antioch, California, that became the band practice room for the PLB Army where they made music. Sometimes, digital and electronic collaboration via Internet was related to the music making priorities. Through Skype and private email messages through social-media website GIANT, Facebook. This led to how Lew created music alone and with the assistance of others as sidemen musicians on record.

To get themselves out there however! They had to have a website. Most of Lew's free time leisurely on his Netbook was spent making a few websites here and there and posting the music by Patrick Lew's Electric Army up for everyone to hear online - SoundCloud, Reverbnation, etc etc. Lew and the rest knew this was going to be mainly a passionate past-time hobby recreationally, not a career path for success and to make a living financially. While the PLB Army doesn't really perform locally live, given the lack of many kinds of resources to do so. This doesn't mean the Patrick Lew Band doesn't perform onstage. They busk low-key shows and gigs anywhere they can. Whether it be downtown SF near the Powell BART station, churches, Antioch house parties, or secluded small Contra Costa County warehouses. That's their philosophy on how they handle their musical entrepreneurship. While the Patrick Lew Band is open about opportunities for exposure in music, they're not getting their hopes up. Many of the band members are rapidly approaching the big Three-O, and have other personal and career priorities for the most part.

But let's hope the music stays what it is and forever. Music will always be the weapon for the Patrick Lew Band.

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

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.

Patrick Lew Band EPK (as of 2012)

1) band name: Patrick Lew Band 

2) hometown: Antioch, California, USA 

3) genres: Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Garage Punk, Grunge, Punk Rock 

4) years active: 2001-present 

5) labels: Heavy Sigma Records (USA/Canada), Unsigned (worldwide) 

6) related bands: Band of Asians, The P & G, Distorted Harmony, Goldenweasel, Logic's Enemy, Retrograde Fire 

7) website: http://www.reverbnation.com/patricklewsband 

8) band members: 

Patrick Lew - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2001-present) 

Faith Marie Lew - TBA role (2009-present) 

David Hunter - bass (2012-present) 

Greg Lynch - keyboards, guitar, backing vocals (2012-present) 

former members: 

Jeremy Alfonso - lead guitar, backing vocals (2009-2011) 

Zack Huang - keyboards (2005-2008) 

Eddie Blackburn - lead guitar, backing vocals (2001-2005, 2007) 

Tommy Loi - drums & percussion (2001-2005) 

David Arceo - drums & percussion (2006-2012, recurring onwards) 

HISTORY 

Starting out as a musician by aimlessly jamming in Lew's bedroom with then-limited experience and education in playing musical instruments, creating their own brand of Garage Punk. They recorded their first demo tape between 1999 and 2001, and in May 2001, Patrick Lew began promoting his music on the Internet as a solo rock musician or in his freelance garage bands. Unlike most of their contemporaries in San Francisco, the band was interracial and inter-gender. Alongside, displaying more 80's and early 90's hard rock and grunge inspirations fused with contemporary punk. Lew also adopted a part Mod, part Hippie, and trendy Asian pop culture image. But later replaced it with varying hairstyle lengths and casual men's attire. 

The Patrick Lew Band mainly created music, freelanced with other musicians in the Bay Area community in garage bands, and busked free low-key gigs locally in bars, churches, high schools, even outside of retailers in downtown San Francisco. 

One of the most notable moments during their brief time as a live performing Garage Punk band was opening up for the all-girl SF pop punk trio Tinkture, Scarlett Bombs, and former lead guitarist Eddie Blackburn's other band Nocturnal Rock Turtles during a 2007 local tour across recreational centers sponsored by KLC Productions. 

Some time in 2008, the Patrick Lew Band dwindled into being more of a Patrick Lew solo project with the occasional contributions of other musicians Lew was close to from City College SF and Cal State University, Hayward. By this time, Lew no longer performed live gigs and assembled a homegrown rock band recording studio in his own bedroom, to create his own music alone. Despite many turbulent times, Lew persisted and determined himself to improve as an artist, songwriter, guitar player, and musician after years of being deemed "amateurish" as a musician playing and making rock & roll music given the lack of experience at the time playing guitar and creating music. This led to three more albums, "Curb Your Wild Life" (2009), "Let It Rise And Against!" (2010), and "Murder Bay" (2011). The Patrick Lew Band took an indefinite hiatus in Fall of 2011 to devote more time to other extracurricular side projects, such as The P & G. And because of consistent expansion of the Patrick Lew Band, Lew finally receive slight recognition for his efforts and earned some online fame as a musician. Alongside, a creative lull for the Patrick Lew Band itself when making new music. 

Although the Patrick Lew Band never signed with a major or indie record label, and were also turned down by a lot of the Internet music critics and the rock music industry for its uniqueness or unconventional sound or alleged notoriety, and never appeared on mainstream multi-media publications, the Patrick Lew Band nearing the end of 2011 has become somewhat of a critical moderate success in the independent rock music scene across the universe, and attracts a cult-like following via Internet based on persistence and uniqueness. 

Why this name?

Because it's Patrick Lew's solo project. Pretty much! In the last 11 years since the Patrick Lew Band existed, there were: 3 drummers (Tommy, Dave, and Faith), 2 lead guitarists (Eddie and J), 1 keyboardist (Zack), no bass players. But there is only! One Patrick Lew. Fo reals.

Do you play live?

No, we jam and make music in the studio most of the time!! But you might see me busking down the street corners of downtown SF sporadically...

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?

It depends. I'm content with what I have now as far as my musical merit and accomplishments are concerned. But I'm open for the forthcoming "right" opportunity for my music if it ever comes my way! 

Most of the time, I rather be known and recognized as an artist or pure musician rather than just an entertainer.

Your influences?

The Beatles, Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl Jam, AFI, Steelheart, White Lion, Tesla, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, Dead Kennedys, Silverchair, Mother Love Bone, Bad Religion. 

Being in a rock & roll band is like being in a marriage. It's not just about getting in a studio or club playing music together. It's also very similar to a romantic relationship with someone. I mean I been in bands where a guy gave me a hard time for reasons that seem irrelevant today. Basically...Either, you have to get along and resonate well with your band. Or else, sh*** man...You're unemployed musically for the time being. I do most of the music alone, given the skills I've gained over the years in the regional music field. And somehow...Persisted because of it.

Favorite spot?

San Francisco! Other than that, Seattle. As far as overseas goes, I love Ireland and my homeland of Japan and Taiwan in the Far East.

Equipment used:

My musical gear consists of... 

Guitars: Gibson SG, Epiphone Les Paul custom Hot Rod, Excel Stratocaster 

Amps: Fender 25R Frontman Amp 

Pedals: Digitech RP50 Multi-Effects, Digitech Death Metal hi-gain distortion box, Boss DS-2 Turbo 

Other Guitar Accessories: Dunlop bottleneck slide (for my crappy slide guitar skills...), Monster 15 ft cables 

Recording: Acoustica Mixcraft 4, M-Audio Fast Track USB digital interface, Various guitar VST's (for Mixcraft), Countless #'s of drum loops via DVD, Beheringer USB guitar interface, Line6 TonePort GX (discontinued as of 2011), My Toshiba laptop 

The Gospel (promoting my band): Toshiba laptop (equipped w/ WiFi), critical thinking & writing skills for band bios and EPK's, countless #'s of my finished pieces of music via mp3 files, ANY indie music website with high traffic, big demographics, and registered artists & bands (ex. Reverbnation, Facebook, etc)

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.