PLB Biography

The new-school hard rock group Patrick Lew Band were formed in the suburbs of San Francisco, California around guitarist/vocalist Patrick Lew, lead guitarist Eddie Blackburn and drummer Tommy Loi. Originally known under different pseudonyms and band names, the band debuted in 2002 by starting a website and uploading their demo “Live! Like a Garage Band” on the Internet. In 2003, the band signed to Statue Records and released their first album Psychotic Love later that year. Both Lew and Blackburn were active in other projects in the local music scene, with Blackburn, performing in San Francisco in the band Logic’s Enemy (later Nocturnal Rock Turtles).

In mid 2004, the Patrick Lew Band began busking locally and playing house shows across the Bay Area. Patrick Lew began attending City College of San Francisco, and founded the nu-metal outfit Power Trip with schoolmates David Arceo, Zack Huang and Cory Gaitan. Putting the Patrick Lew Band on hold during the mid 2000s, in order for Lew and Blackburn to focus on their own bands separately. Loi left the music business to focus more on his college education, Blackburn would sporadically contribute to the group between 2005 to 2007 as a part-time band member.

Power Trip (formerly known as Band of Asians) recorded their only studio album Revenge in 2006, self-releasing the album on CDBaby. In 2007, Power Trip went on a tour across recreational centers and parks in San Francisco with Tinkture and Elevator Love Letters, alongside performing open mics at their alma mater City College. The band would debut their controversial first hit single on social-media “Asian Girls” during these live performances. When the tour finished in October, Gaitan and Huang departed Power Trip, leaving Lew and Arceo as the only members in the band. The band would also begin receiving a critical backlash on Soundclick.com, with users complaining about the quality of their Lew’s music and questioning their abilities as musicians based on the humorous slant of their performances. Power Trip quietly disbanded in April 2008, and Patrick Lew would spend a few months away from performing and recording and making public appearances. Something that would affect Lew for a couple of years after.

In August of that year, Patrick announced on his MySpace blog that he will pursue a solo career and begin recording new material in his personal recording studio under the name Patrick Lew Band. Releasing the group’s second album Curb Your Wild Life in January 2009. Wild Life was greeted with negative reviews, with many critics criticizing the amateurish punk rock style of the band and deriding the toilet humor common in the Patrick Lew Band’s music. Realiizing the situation he was in, Lew recruited Power Trip drummer David Arceo and former Distorted Harmony guitarist Jeremy Alfonso whilst attending California State University, East Bay. The band would begin recording their third album Let It Rise and Against and performed an exclusive free concert for Lew’s Philosophy course on September 1, 2009. Because of the grueling schedule and demands faced by all band members, the Patrick Lew Band initially was a virtual rock band in which the members would collaborate on the Internet, send each other recorded instrumentation via Facebook or email and copy and paste everything together. During this time, Lew began uploading videos on YouTube of himself playing music or creating promos.

Let It Rise And Against was released in December 2009, saw the band trying to “mature” as musicians. While some of the humor and raw punk rock in previous work was retained, Lew began exploring songwriting dealing with more serious and personal topics: “Gift of the Artist”, “Free My Soul” and “Subhuman Threat.” The album spawned the hit “Little Miss Preppy” on the Internet. Lew recruited college friends David Hunter and Greg Lynch into the Patrick Lew Band and began rehearsing for a possible tour locally as indies.

The band continued to evolve as musicians and songwriters, which was evident in their 2011 release Murder Bay. The Patrick Lew Band began touring in the Summer of that year, playing surprise shows in the Antioch and Brentwood region of Northern California, which some of those performances were later taped and broadcasted on Internet television through Facebook and YouTube. Jeremy left the band that same year, and Lew and Lynch became the main leaders in the project which later led up to the band’s three-year hiatus.

By this time, Lew and Lynch decided to make the Patrick Lew Band into a serious touring and recording act. But musical differences, different priorities and friction divided the group and began takings it toll on the band. Lew presented the rest of his bandmates material he hoped would become the follow-up to Murder Bay, which Lynch and Hunter rejected his musical ideas. Lew and Arceo were also having difficulties playing music with Greg Lynch, and tensions began rising at an unprecedented level. Lew took his rejected musical ideas and recorded three albums under the pseudonym Heavy Sigma in 2011 and 2012. A growing number of detractors began appearing on the Internet and through the Bay Area music scene, dating back to the release of the song “Asian Girls”, began taking its toll on Lew mentally. When it became apparent that Lew and Arceo couldn’t collaborate with Lynch in a civil manner, the Patrick Lew Band went on an indefinite hiatus by the end of 2012. Lew’s relationship with his on-and-off again fiancee Faith Lambright also declined and his displeasure with the music business forced him to reconsider his music career. He didn’t fully disappear, he would upload vlogs on YouTube during his absence.

Lew and Arceo were invited by guitarist Salvador Martinez to play in the new band Kings of Malevolence during late 2013, but didn’t work however for the long run. By the time Patrick Lew and his former fiancee Faith ended their six year relationship, he made the plans to return to performing, recording and being actively involved with the music scene. He returned to producing music under the Patrick Lew Band name in his home studio, and fully returned to the indies in 2015 by becoming active on social-media. He also became an Ambassador for Antennas Direct, a television antenna maker, and released two albums that year: To the Promised Land and Bubblegum Babylon.