The Patrick Lew Band Story
2001-2005: Early Years
Known under names such as Famiglia and Samurai Sorcerers until becoming a full-fledged project in 2008, Patrick Lew Band formed in May 2001 and quickly became the bread and butter for Patrick Lew on social-media. Mainly being the solo project for the Taiwanese rocker and artist, but with sometimes contributions from his friends. 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. 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. At the time, the band was known under the names Famiglia and Samurai Sorcerers, because Lew and the rest of his band couldn’t figure out an official band name for themselves at the time.
They returned to their priorities in San Francisco during 2002, although drummer Tommy Loi dropped out early in the year to focus on his college prep studies and getting a good education. Blackburn settled on lead guitar, and Lew played rhythm guitar and sang most of their 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 (minus Loi) made 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 “Mr. Gullible” 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.
Samura Sorcerers 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 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 as a free download on their website.
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. Which made them stood out from their contemporaries from the Bay Area underground. Though not always popular or appreciated, they developed a cult fan base which still exists today for Lew’s music outside of the norm. 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 them. In 2004, Patrick Lew graduated high school and began attending City College of San Francisco. 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 occasions every Saturday night. Lew and Blackburn briefly regrouped in May 2005 for practice with Silent Minister before that band would remain dormant until becoming rechristened as PATRICK LEW BAND three years later.
On February 13, 2005, Patrick Lew played his only concert during 2005 at Balboa High School. 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. Eddie left the band in the middle of 2005 to focus his energies on his band Logic’s Enemy and other projects. However the two would reconcile a year later and become friends again. 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.
2005-2008: The Power Trip Era
Patrick took a year-long break from college to focus on his music career and to figure himself out. Patrick Lew and his friend from City College, Zack, formed a new band called Band of Asians and Patrick took 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. He meets his closest and greatest friend and Band of Asians drummer Dave Arceo and bassist Augusto Hernandez, finally creating the Band of Asians official lineup. 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. 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’s personal life. 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 he went through in 2006. Lew also began experimenting with drugs and alcoholism with schoolmates at SF State University’s dorm rooms reportedly. Amidst other hardships.
But however, music was in fact very important in his Patrick’s life . 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 this local band experienced and rock hard as much as possible. 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. 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 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 concern was that the music from “Revenge” was very difficult to present live without backing tapes or without a whole live ensemble playing certain parts because 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 drama at that point.
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 putting themselves out there. 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 working a daytime job. Gaitan, who joined the Band of Asians several months earlier, left the band to re-locate overseas briefly due to a personal tragedy.. Leaving Lew and Arceo to perform and make music under the “Band of Asians” name. Lew began trying to improve 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 scene. 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.
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 music critics and third-party music industry people as a solo artist. Lacking focus, and more focused on their own long-term goals alone, on March 29, 2008, Band of Asians disbanded amicably with Lew announcing the band’s split on their MySpace page. Unsure what to do and where to go, Lew would lay low for awhile. Composing remixes of Chiptunes on his computer until August that year, where he decided to revive the intermittent Patrick Lew Band that he created in 2001 as a full-time musical priority. Lew’s family however, purchased a new house in Antioch, California. Lew left City College in the summer of that year and he transferred to 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.
2008-2012: Critical Jackpot
From 2008 to the end of 2012, marked the second era of Patrick Lew Band. A way of bidding farewell to his adolescence, 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. 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 most famous band from his hometown of San Francisco at the time according to the same website.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 and from the public eye 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 third 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 third album Let It Rise And Against was released on iTunes through CDBaby. Initially, the album was a musically uneven and disjointed affair 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 dirty riffs, raw vocals and a more anthemic rock sound. Musically, it was described as an eccentric homage to old school British punk, grunge and arena rock. Lyrics were now more focused on social issues and the introspective.
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. As it later turned out, his relationship with his then-fiancee Faith would prove to be rather toxic in the long run. 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 Lew 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.
He 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 pseudonym Heavy Sigma, releasing three albums in less than two years.
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.
2013-2015: Years of Struggles
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. Lew would not play guitar or create any music on-and-off during this period. 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 under the HEAVY SIGMA name. 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 remaining tensions during the final years of their friendship.
On New Year’s 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.
However, Lew experienced many detractors on social-media in 2015 such as a failed relationship with his then-girlfriend and reportedly was conned from a woman named Monique he acquainted with on his Facebook page. He also would engage in a strange yet bitter feud with his then-fiancee Faith over her reckless actions behind closed doors on social-media, sabotaging Lew’s interpersonal relationships and attempts to sabotage his reputation on the Internet. As of October 2016, his tumultuous feud with his then-fiancee remain unresolved.
2016-Present: The New Era Patrick Lew Band
Undeterred, Lew’s main focus was to become a better musician and put himself more out there. By the end of 2015, the Patrick Lew Band would self-release two more albums digitally: Bubblegum Babylon and Fire in the Sky. The latter, would get sold at Amoeba Music in Berkeley, California on CD. He would collaborate with Neverfade and former Distorted Harmony drummer Erick Salazar, who contacted him through his Facebook page, co-producing new ideas in Erick’s home studio. Lew would later complete these musical ideas in his own home studio because of his grueling schedule with Patrick Lew Band and would release his collaboration with Erick under the psuedonym THE STEEL LIONS on May 12, 2016 through worldwide digital distribution.
Long-time drummer David parted ways with Patrick Lew Band on good terms in mid-2016 to focus more on other life avenues, remaining close friends with Patrick still in the process. Patrick Lew is now the only surviving original member left in the Patrick Lew Band since their formation in 2001, and is solely responsible for the PLB’s direction and business in the indie scene.
Patrick Lew would unveil an LGBT-friendly crossdressing alter ego, Madeline “Maddy” Lew. Which is a female version of Patrick in a parallel opposite world.
In July 2016, Patrick Lew Band would win the Best Song Award with Akademia Music Awards under the Experimental Rock genre.
From December 2015 up until October 2016, Patrick Lew and his close friend David Arceo began jamming and collaborating with Bay Area local DJ Gem Jewels AKA Janny in the band TheVerse. They would record a few tracks at Patrick’s home studio. TheVerse would play a show at The Stork Club on May 18, 2016, an audio recording of the band’s live performance could be found on Patrick’s official YouTube account. Patrick would play guitar, co-write songs and co-produce material for TheVerse until October 19th of that year when Patrick announced his resignation from the band to focus more on other projects. Around this same time, Patrick would fill-in as a bass player for San Francisco local punk band The Tortured for a few live shows.
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.
