Patrick Lew Band History

Known under names such as Famiglia and Samurai Sorcerers, Patrick Lew Band formed in May 2001 and quickly became the second main project musically for Patrick Lew as he soon was able to create music alone as a one-man band. Aptly titled, Patrick Lew’s Band. Mainly being a solo project for the Taiwanese/American local rock musician and artist, but with sometimes contributions from members of his other bands he played guitar in. Around this same time in 2001 when Lew and Loi were high school freshmen, they began promoting their demo MP3’s of songs they wrote and recorded on the Internet through personal and indie music webpages. In the summer of 2001, Patrick Lew played his first concert as an Internet and Bay Area rock musician as a busker and attendee at Vans Warped Tour 2001, playing guitar with his schoolmates at a tent where musical equipment was free to test out for the punk music festival’s attendees.

San Francisco and Daly City were Patrick Lew’s Band’s fame center stage early on in his music career. Playing high school talent shows and, because the musicians were at the time teenagers. Their parents carpooled the teenage musicians from Patrick Lew’s Band or carried their entire musical equipment through BART trains or public buses. Usually, the musical performances of the Band were described as sloppy, chaotic and technical…Like not-so-experienced musicians playing music in a garage band. But Eddie’s guitar leads often prevented the musicians and Band from sounding too amateur-ish. There was manic energy, devotion and hidden talent within their early musical performances however. When Lew became a 10th grader at Wallenberg High School, he and his Band returned to San Francisco to focus on band practices and writing and recording original music on a Portastudio. Eventually, Lew’s schoolmate and Japanese female friend Mayumi eventually joined Patrick Lew’s Band on bass guitar (the bass duties in his other band Silent Minister were by Eddie’s friend Shawn Blacharski).

They returned to their priorties in San Francisco during 2002, although drummer Tommy Loi dropped out of the Band early in the year to focus on his pre-college studies and getting a great education. Mayumi took over bass, Blackburn settled on lead guitar, and Lew played rhythm guitar and sang most of the Band’s music. There was a problem however, they didn’t had a live drummer for recording and live performing. So to solve the problem for the time, they went to a store and bought a drum machine or used drum backing tracks off Lew’s laptop onstage for live performing. In mid-2002, Patrick Lew’s Band (minus Loi) made their and his first recordings for his solo band. The music of Patrick Lew had barely developed at this stage, and these recordings were sloppy originals and amateur-ish tape recorded Rock And Roll music at best. And Lew’s songwriting at the time dealt with more fiction such as early songs such as “Drug Commercial” and “Cheerleaders of My Love.” These recordings were done on a 4-track, and became Patrick Lew’s first demo “Live! Like a Garage Band!” Only 25 to 50 copies of this demo tape were made reportedly, to hand to their schoolmates and family. This time period was almost significant not only promoting their music online to an extremely limited audience, but their trademark look was developed by bassist Mayumi. Japanese pop culture became an interest for Lew because of this, and Blackburn and Lew began to restyle their pop punk haircuts for fobby Asian pop star shags. Which gave their musicians their visual sound and personality on record.

Near the end of 2002, Patrick Lew’s Band played and was booked to perform at a local “Battle of the Bands” event in their hometown of San Francisco to compete with other teenage bands for a grand prize opportunity to get free recording studio time and their resume sent to record labels. They performed at the event for 15 minutes roughly, although they did not win or sound proper musically at the “Battle of the Bands.” However, parts of this event was taped when one of the band’s friend’s snuck in a tape recorder. Although no photos exist from this performance historically, but there is a short recording as evidence. By promoting themselves constantly locally and on the Internet, Patrick Lew’s Band and his other band Silent Minister received an opportunity off an email through their Soundclick.com music page by Statue Records. Signing a record deal (though it was later to be revealed as a SCAM by Statue). In 2003, Patrick Lew and the Band followed the same avenues as they did the year before. Alternating between playing music and high school. During band practices, they began recording Patrick Lew’s first album “Psychotic Love” as a musician, albeit with poor mixing, producing and engineering on a 4-track. It was released via Internet on their website, in April 2003. Which made Patrick popular at the time on the website Findapix.com.

What Patrick Lew’s Band done musically was take the elements of hard rock, pop, alternative rock and metal they loved and make them their own. Since the Samurai Sorcerers days, they had steeped deeply into 80’s hair metal, Bay Area thrash and the Seattle grunge scenes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Motley Crue, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and others. They’d also kept an ear open to the early 2000s alternative metal and pop punk of Incubus, Korn and Blink 182. And also paid close attention to Bay Area music and J-Pop. Though the musicianship and skill-levels vary between every musician making the music, there was a sense of uniqueness and strange deviant vibe to Patrick Lew’s Band. With made them stood out from their contemporaries from their Bay Area underground music community. Though not always popular or appreciated, they developed a cult fan base which still exists today for Lew’s music outside of the norm. Patrick Lew was also credited to these things, refining the ideas despite limitations without formulating to tinker with the conventional mass media. And during the later and current studio band years of Patrick Lew’s music career, his knowledge and information from what he learned and experienced was effective in his ability to promote him on every relevant website for unsigned bands. Mastering his promoting skills online by making everything accessible, and translate concepts and ambitious ideas into what seems possible, through recording technology, and widening sounds and instruments through newly available digital technology for musicians.

Just as crucially, as limited and primitive as they can be, Patrick Lew’s Band was never the ones to give up during hard times or oppression, and is strong-willed to determine their success and future the way they want it or whatever pleases. In 2004, Patrick Lew graduated high school and went to cram school first at City College of San Francisco before transferring to a CSU school. After watching a free concert at a record store by J-Pop singer Nami Tamaki, Lew wrote the song “Tokyo Pop Princess” which became Lew’s first hit single via Internet and was a notable song locally in his hometown before he left high school. Just like he did with high school, Lew alternated between music and education when going to a 2-year college. He played a few shows sporadically, and his other band Silent Minister jammed on some music too.

However by late 2004, some problems were experienced by Lew and his Band. Because of personal struggles, the Taiwanese rock musician and superstar Patrick Lew began his first time in personal rehab. A sporadic practice to learn life the way he wants it, that continued for the next few years. Although Lew did not like his first time in college due to personal problems, his band Silent Minister (not Patrick Lew’s Band) began splintering when lead guitarist Blackburn begun various roles in other projects. Lew and Blackburn briefly regrouped in May 2005 for band practices with Silent Minister before mutually parting company to pursue their own life and artistic avenues. Patrick’s bassist for his solo project Mayumi, left the band after she graduated high school in June 2005 to attend UC Davis. Patrick Lew would make music solo, but focused his energies with his college friend Zack Huang to form the Band of Asians with schoolmates at City College. On February 13, 2005, Patrick Lew played his only concert during 2005 at Balboa High School. Unfortunately, by this time…Patrick was able to access a digital camera to take pictures during band practices. Which explains why NO photos exist of Lew’s time with Silent Minister, except writings and records.

By this time, Patrick Lew’s Band and Silent Minister withdrew from Statue Records after it was learned they were scamming musicians and unsigned bands on various indie music websites for “fake” record deals. An unauthorized recording was published and sold to retailers from Patrick Lew, called “Tokyo Pop Princess.” But Lew claims he hates the recording for butchered sound quality from demo tapes and live recordings taken from that time. Patrick and Eddie would not play music together again, until May 2007, where Patrick joined Eddie’s new band Logic’s Enemy onstage for a gig at Civic Center.

Most of 2005 was a period of rebuilding in Patrick Lew’s Band. He took a year-long break from community college to focus on his music career and personal life to evolve. Patrick Lew and his friend from City College, Zack, formed a new band called Band of Asians and Patrick took music in his new band seriously. Looking for a lead guitarist, Lew tried social-networking website MySpace.com by placing an ad. But the guitar player they jammed with twice whom was met online, never went long-term as a musical project. Instead, Lew began to be determined to get better and improve as a guitar player to play guitar leads in Band of Asians. He even took a three-week guitar lesson at a school near his house called Vibo Music. Lew began going to Skyline College in early 2006, which he protested against attending for cram school. Feeling he wasn’t ready to go back to community college yet to focus on his new music. He did however meet his closest friend and Band of Asians drummer Dave Arceo and bassist Augusto Hernandez, finally creating the Band of Asians as a Rock Band. They began upgrading their musical equipment, buying a lot of digital technology such as synthesizers and computer programs to record on. On February 10, 2006, Patrick Lew’s Band began a short leg of gigs in Skyline College and some house party in Daly City.

On May 8, 2006, the Band of Asians played a live electronic recital at Vibo Music. Which Augusto and Patrick could be heard arranging their instruments and parts when playing their music live. This recital, featuring tape loops, samples, electronic elements along with amateur-ish rock band performances. Became a Band of Asians live EP, and Patrick Lew’s only live album to date. Much of 2006 was a turbulent time for Lew and Arceo, who became very close friends but dealt with personal problems separately in their personal lives.

But 2006 was also a controversial year for Patrick Lew Band. One of the first was Patrick Lew’s failed relationships with the opposite sex, had a major impact on Lew and sent him to a major depression and worried about his role in society. Whether it was Lew’s fault or not, it was one of the other few bad experiences the Taiwanese rock musician went through in 2006. Another was a violent argument that occurred in Lew’s home, with Arceo scuffling two musicians supposedly brought for a jam session named Anthony and Manchi. By this time, things later would be more frightening and more difficult to experience. Arceo and Lew tried lost their music club at Skyline College because of a bully on campus named Aaron Cheng. Which also resulted in a scuffle which made Patrick decide to go back to City College. Lew also began experimenting with drugs and alcoholism with schoolmates at SF State University’s dorm rooms reportedly.

But however, the music of Patrick Lew was in fact very important in his life and hobby. Even for a serious long-term ambition and goal. The Band of Asians began recording their “Revenge” CD in a friend’s personal recording studio with the latest and expensive recording and musical equipment. Lew and Band of Asians’ intentions for this album were to let their RAGE out at the society and enemies that the Internet rock musicians experienced with musically, and proved to be a fundamental departure from the fictional and J-Pop tribute songwritings of the high school days. Using digital technology, electronics and what they read to make better music. They released their Instrumental Rock album “Revenge” through CDBaby.com on Lew’s 21st birthday on November 15, 2006. This was a step forward when writings, photos and audio recordings were important to Patrick Lew’s musical franchise, and home video and Patrick Lew’s Band shirts were still ages away.

But if anyone could do it, Patrick Lew and his schoolmate musician friends could. This was a radical step indeed, and although this was Patrick Lew’s second major album (he later shared joint credits to the record with Band of Asians as both their project’s recorded work). It was a stylistic departure from the early days of Lew’s music as digital music technology and the tools and experience learned in later years, gave Patrick Lew’s Band and the music a sound that remained unto themselves. The appearance of singles “Revenge,” “War!” and “Night Vision” shown hints of artistic progression in the Band. Lew was voted by Dmusic.com as one of 2006’s “Artist Picks."

When "Revenge” was released by the end of 2006, the Band of Asians and Lew especially were asked by a local concert promoter KLC to play some gig dates opening up for their peers and Lew’s high school friends Screamo band Scarlett Bombs. The big concern was, that the music from “Revenge” was very difficult to present live without backing tapes or without a whole ensemble of live musicians playing certain parts, 60% of the record was done on a computer. So instead, Lew and the Band of Asians chose to write new songs to perform on tour, during band rehearsals. The Band of Asians however, lost their original bassist Augusto Hernandez, who’d left to join another local Bay Area band and focus on his college studies. Arceo and Lew were however, attending City College again, and met their schoolmate and close friend Cory Gaitan. Whom replaced Hernandez on bass and also, became the group’s 2nd singer. Patrick Lew as a solo artist, also jammed with his some of his bandmates and other musicians he met through networking. The Band of Asians toured San Francisco with Scarlett Bombs through recreation centers and their school, City College from early 2007 until October of that year. It seemed as if, life was ambitious and experienced with less conflict at the time. And that the Band could do no wrong.

However, musically the progression and creativity would continue. Personally and socially, not so much. The Band of Asians began to unravel at a very quick pace just as they began getting active. Lew and Gaitan sent their demos and resume to A&R people in the music industry, but came up short on receiving an answer. Band of Asians co-founder, Zack Huang, was absent on occasion during 2007 to avoid foreclosure with his family’s house and other daytime jobs. Gaitan, who joined the Band of Asians several months earlier, left the band for overseas briefly due for personal rediscovery. Leaving Lew and Arceo to perform and make music under the “Band of Asians” name. Lew began improving as a songwriter, and the years he played in garage bands, he began developing as a solo artist musically and creatively. But was not always met with a positive reception from music critics and sometimes, the underground music community. Arceo, suffering from a personal setback, would have a more limited role in Band of Asians by late 2007. Although the group recorded two songs which made the 2nd round of two Soundclick.com contests, “No Music, No Life” and an amateur-ish cover of “Jingle Bell Rock.” When the Band of Asians finished their tour on October 10, 2007 at City College, Lew and Arceo were debating the future of the group in the press and on their blogs. On January 9, 2008, Lew’s closest family member. His pet Dog passed away untimely, sending him to an aftershock.

By this time, the Band of Asians were originally supposed to play club gigs in early 2008. But with the dwindling lineup and personal problems the musicians were experiencing separately, forced a cancellation of those prospects. Overtime, Patrick Lew was experiencing discrimination from various music critics and third-party music industry people and its audiences, as a solo artist. Lacking focus, and more focused on their own long-term goals alone, on March 29, 2008. Arceo announced his departure from Band of Asians due to personal and professional differences with Lew. Although the two best friends remain close and respect each other on many occasions, Lew knew it was time to do music on his own and look into other opportunities which came along the way.

In the middle of 2008, former bandmates Gaitan and Lew began a reconnected relationship when he returned from overseas. Lew’s family however, purchased a new house in Antioch, a small town in East Bay, CA. Lew decided, after the years with the BAND ON THE RUN and ups and downs with his personal life and music. He would take an extended hiatus from playing live, and focus on finishing college with a Bachelors Degree. Lew left City College in the summer of that year, but did not receive his Associates Degree mainly for not finishing college-level math and algebra, a subject Lew disliked since grade school. However, he transferred to a CSU school at CSU East Bay. And resumed his studies more seriously. The latter part of the year, Lew was in a short-term relationship with former girlfriend Jenny Mintz, met on a free dating website.

From 2008 to the end of 2012, marked the second era of Patrick Lew Band. A reconstruction of bidding farewell to his past musically and personally, and starting the studio band years of Patrick Lew’s music as a solo artist. Earlier in the summer, Lew began his often tinkerings in the studio. He first began doing music solo by remixing well-known Video Game Soundtracks. Lew, based on sympathy from his former music critic and later sometimes Soundclick.com supporter Steve Gilmore, decided to put his old demo tapes and anything related to his past work and experiences in a box and locked it in a closet. Lew later admitted recently, to disregarding his earlier music before 2008 for many reasons. But he decamped himself in his home studio, strong-willed and confident to improve as a musician and songwriter regardless. Composing a lot of songs and recording a slightly big amount of musical ideas. Regardless, of what criticisms might bring or how he might be perceived musically and personally.

That being said, by the end of 2008 saw significant changes and personal maturity and growth in Lew. He released his third major album, “Curb Your Wild Life” independently. While, described as a very “indulgent” and “messy” record. It featured the artistic progression in Lew’s music, and shown Lew as all grown up through this sprawling disc. However the album was musically disjointed and disorganized, and the album was met with negative reactions online. Lew, now with longer hair and wearing glasses, despite negative reviews had maintained his audience and music through status updates on networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. In 2009, IStardom.com reported Lew to be the #10,144 most famous musician online. He was also #432 in a statistic of most famous bands from his hometown of San Francisco.

In 2009, while attending CSU East Bay majoring in Philosophy, Lew began putting together a new version of the Patrick Lew Band. Band of Asians drummer David Arceo, who composed their track “Night Vision” was enlisted as the band’s studio drummer. Eddie, who was no longer an official member of the group began performing with the Nocturnal Rock Turtles, before ultimately disappearing from the music scene shortly after. Patrick became friends with former Distorted Harmony guitarist Jeremy Alfonso while attending college and offered him to participate in a virtual collaboration musically. Through collaborating online, each musician would share songwriting ideas and individually record their parts in their own home studios. Disappointed by the reaction Curb Your Wild Life received on the social-media, the Patrick Lew Band began recording their fourth album Let It Rise And Against through online musical collaboration. Around this time, the Patrick Lew Band was beginning to gain appreciation in some circles, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area.

By the end of 2009, their fourth album Let It Rise And Against was released on iTunes through distributors CDBaby.  Initially, the album was musically uneven and wasn’t received well by the public. Complaints about the uneven track list had an effect on the quality of the record. Many of the best music that was recorded during that period did not make the final mix for the album. Aware of the inconsistency with the original version of the album, the band released a revision of Let It Rise And Against almost two years later. The revised version of the album was slightly more cohesive and musically balanced than the original issue. Patrick initially described the revision as a primitive rock opera. The revised version of Let It Rise And Against now stands as the official release, although the original cut is still available through iTunes. The album also showcased a new sound for the band. Much of the Satriani-like technicality of Eddie’s guitar leads were replaced with more emphasis on the songwriting. Musically, it was described as an eccentric homage to British punk, grunge and arena rock. Lyrics were now more focused on social issues and the introspective.

Patrick took a break from music during the start of the 2010s. Patrick began a serious long-term relationship with Faith Kruse nee Lambright, a woman he met online around his 21st birthday. For the first time after many years of failed relationships with the opposite sex, he finally found a partner who bonded well with him. However, several of Patrick Lew’s friends were not happy with the relationship and were being very unsupportive of it. Several of these people that were acquainted with Patrick intervened into his personal life, sometimes going as far as harassing Patrick’s girlfriend Faith. This was a setback Patrick had to experience for a couple of years, as the couple had a stillborn son Steven who passed away on February 26, 2011. Patrick returned to making music, forming a new version of Patrick Lew Band with college friends Greg Lynch and David Hunter alongside Alfonso. While jamming with the Patrick and Greg Blues Band, Patrick, Jeremy and David began recording their follow-up to Let It Rise And Against via online collaboration once again. After the music for the album was finished being recorded, Jeremy parted ways with Patrick Lew Band as their lead guitarist.  The Patrick Lew Band’s fifth album Murder Bay was released in June 2011, the same month that Patrick, David Hunter and Jeremy graduated from college. Musically, Patrick attempted to make a record reminiscent of the music he was influenced by growing up, but with the purpose of making it his own style. The album’s title was a tribute to a late 80’s and early 90’s San Francisco hair metal band of the same name. Patrick, now a college graduate with a Bachelors Degree, began touring locally in East Contra Costa County with Patrick Lew Band. Performing stripped down unplugged covers of their favorite bands such as Green Day and Oasis. When David had conflicts with committing to the project, Patrick took his role as the bass player while Greg sung and played guitar.

Patrick at this point hasn’t performed live in over three years, maintaining his audience through the absence of live performing through creating videos of himself playing music on YouTube. When he returned to live performing, Patrick began receiving slightly better reception from the public. He was ranked #2 most famous band/musician locally on ReverbNation under the Rock genre briefly. And was subsequently interviewed by Absolute Punk and online music journalist Leicester Bangs. By 2011, Patrick Lew Band’s presence began increasing slowly but surely on the Internet. Later that year, Patrick moved back to San Francisco and began creating music with David Arceo and then-fiancee Faith under the guise Heavy Sigma, releasing three albums in less than two years. After releasing Heavy Sigma’s third album Voyager, Patrick would briefly retire from the music scene or take an indefinite hiatus (depending on source).

During late 2011 and early 2012, Greg became appointed the co-leader of the Patrick Lew Band. The original idea for Patrick Lew Band was to move away from being an online collaboration type of project with friends cutting and pasting parts together in their personal studios and become an actual band. The proposed line-up was rumored to be Patrick, Greg, David Hunter, David Arceo and Patrick’s soon-to-be ex fiancee Faith. However, creative and personal differences, different priorities and traveling issues became too much for the group to get involved in the creative process and the Patrick Lew Band would announce an indefinite hiatus on September 5, 2012, the same day Patrick and David’s EP Taiwanese Rebels with Heavy Sigma would be released on social-media. By the beginning of 2013, Patrick’s relationship with Greg and Faith soured and declined considerably and during the remainder of Patrick’s relationship with his then-fiancee became a very difficult and complicated situation. Patrick Lew and David Arceo, close friends for seven years, had a brief falling out and didn’t speak to each other for half a year. When Patrick and David reconciled, friends and supporters encouraged the duo to perform at Mama Art Cafe on September 13, 2013. A former friend saw video footage of their performance and invited Patrick and David to play in his new band Kings of Malevolence. However, the project fell through due to creative reasons. The remainder of 2013 and most of 2014 was a quiet period for Patrick Lew musically. When Patrick and Faith ended their six year relationship and engagement during the Summer of 2014, Patrick Lew decided to return to the music scene after being stifled from pursuing his passion from his former significant other. Patrick also cut ties with his former bandmate Greg because of extremely heated tensions during the remaining years of their friendship.

On New Years Day 2015, Patrick revived the Patrick Lew Band as his solo project and began working on new music. He would put himself out there often on social-media websites such as Instagram, Facebook and others and released his first single since 2011 - “Cut the Cord.” The track was heard by TV antenna makers Antennas Direct and they quickly appointed Patrick as their Ambassador. On July 3, 2015, Patrick would participate in a free TV antenna giveaway in San Francisco’s Chinatown and was later interviewed by a local television station. In the Summer of that year, Patrick Lew Band released their first new album since 2011’s Murder Bay titled To the Promised Land digitally. He also returned to live performing, playing a show at Cafe International on August 14th that year.

Patrick continues to make music at his own time and freedom, without adhering to the music industry. Playing guitar and recording for the sake of quality music rather than focusing on the worldly matters when it comes to the Patrick Lew Band.