HISTORY:
2001-19: PATRICK LEW BAND
In 2001, Patrick Lew-Hayashi formed a band under the banner Patrick Lew Band in his hometown of San Francisco, CA, when he was just 15 years old. At the time, Hayashi played guitar and occasionally sang and they had a lead guitarist named Eddie and a drummer by the name of Tommy Loi. Most of Hayashi’s early years in the indie music circuit was playing in a garage band mostly. In 2005, Hayashi was attending City College of San Francisco and was briefly signed to an indie label based in La Jolla, CA. After he was dropped from his developmental contract with the label, Hayashi decided to book studio time with the help of his friends.
Most of the time, Hayashi was on the Internet putting his band’s music out there. While recording a demo in a local recording studio, the band eventually came up with enough music to self-release a full-length album. On November 15, 2006, which was also Patrick Lew Hayashi’s 21st birthday, the Patrick Lew Band released their debut album JUMP, RATTLE, AND ROLL on CDBaby.
Patrick Lew Band would begin to sporadically play small shows in the San Francisco area by 2007 with a frequently changing line-up. They originally attempted to pitch in with the post-hardcore scene, but the band did not fit in as they were considered too raw, lo- fi and unhinged. Their first single “AZN GIRLS” was posted online during late 2007, leading to a critical backlash among the band locally and social-media over unbeknownst reasons. Around this same period, the band’s chiptune rearranged cover of the Nirvana song Drain You was published on Nirvanaclub.com.
By 2008, Hayashi built a home studio and began recording demos rigorously throughout the year. However, an intense backlash over his music and public persona intensified on social-media. By this time, the band had dwindled to Hayashi and his close friend and drummer David Arceo. While attending CSU East Bay to study a B.A. in Philosophy, he rebuilt Patrick Lew Band around himself and Arceo with three of his former toxic friends Jeremy, Greg and David Hunter.
Amidst the troubled and trying times, Hayashi re-located to Antioch, CA to live with his mother Winnie.
During 2009, Patrick Lew Band began making their strides in the regional music scene and on the Internet. Their song “Everyone Loves Ashley” brought them to notoriety and initial indie-level fame. Between 2009 to 2012, the band would write and record up to as many as 60 songs per year in their home studio. The band was trying their very hardest to land a spot in the major leagues. To have something to fall back on, Hayashi taught himself the fundamentals of the indie music business and being his own entrepreneur in the digital age.
During this period, Patrick Lew Band had aborted plans to tour locally. Adding more trouble to the dysfunctional garage band, they canceled an offer to perform a benefit show at UC Berkeley in Fall 2010 because of tensions within the Patrick Lew Band. However, the group would perform live in the Antioch area occasionally during some of 2011 with Hayashi and his former friend/bandmate Greg Lynch on guitar and lead vocals on stage. Some of these performances can be found and since leaked on Patrick Lew- Hayashi’s official YouTube channel.
Between 2009 to 2012, the Patrick Lew Band self-released their music online: Let It Rise And Against (2009), Murder Bay (2011) and the EP Angry Yellow (2012).
On February 4, 2012, Patrick Lew Band performed at Dolores Park in San Francisco. After taking a few years away from the music scene and indies because of a failed common-law marriage with his then-partner Faith and very well documented personal problems, Hayashi made his return to music with the Patrick Lew Band by the beginning of 2015. Embarking on their most profitable and memorable run in the indie music circuit. 2015 began with Hayashi being appointed the Ambassador for Antennas Direct. And conducting a televised interview with the 24 HOUR K-POP music TV channel in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While maintaining a stabilized indie music career, Hayashi also began working traditional day jobs following his college graduation from CSU East Bay. Working numerous day jobs such as a cashier at Walgreens, a computer sales associate at Best Buy and a local
By this time, the band’s line-up had just whittled down to just Hayashi and Arceo. Around this same period, Patrick Lew-Hayashi introduced a crossdressing M2F alter ego by the name of Madeline Lew Hayashi into the band. Created from digital special effects, CGI and Photoshop. In a music marketing storyline, Madeline’s role in the band is described as, “the long lost younger sister of Patrick Lew-Hayashi saving the band from failure and bringing his band and his music back to prominence.”
Madeline Lew-Hayashi’s introduction into the Patrick Lew Band as a virtual band member and mascot brought Patrick Lew’s profitability back to prominence in the music scene and helped Patrick Lew Band achieve publicity and moderate indie-level success that he did not accomplish prior to 2015. The band’s drummer David Arceo mutually departed from the Patrick Lew Band in mid-2016 to pursue other life avenues. The success and exposure that the Patrick Lew Band received during this period included a couple music blogs writing about the Patrick Lew Band online and being mentioned on-air on Bay Area rock FM radio station 107.7 THE BONE.
The band was mostly recording in their home studio in San Francisco. By 2016, the band launched their own label and multimedia start-up Promisedland. The band was often working on new music in their home recording studio between 2015 and early 2017. The Patrick Lew Band would release their album OAKLAND on Valentines Day 2017.
Tragically, Hayashi’s beloved mother Winnie passed away on April 8, 2017. For most of the year, Hayashi laid low. He returned to the music scene as Patrick Lew Band later in the year, working with booking agents AFTON SHOWS. He and his alter ego Madeline Lew would perform at Brick & Mortar Music Hall on October 8, 2017.
By the end of 2017, the Patrick Lew Band no longer was a full-time responsibility as Hayashi began working a stable full-time job at Chocolate Heaven Pier 39. He also began only sporadically making studio recording appearances with the band as he branched his talents to other outlets and playing music with local bands outside of Patrick Lew Band.
The Patrick Lew Band would officially become discontinued on June 8, 2019. One day following Patrick Lew-Hayashi receiving the 40 Under 40 award at his alma mater CSU East Bay. He would become the first major Japanese-American male to receive the high honor.
LEWNATIC/BENIGEGLECT (2019-2020)
Following the disbanding of Patrick Lew Band, Hayashi kept a low-profile. Instead, focusing on his day job as a chocolatier at Pier 39 and courier work.
On July 2, 2019, Patrick Lew-Hayashi announced worldwide through a press release that he would be pursuing a solo career under the name LEWNATIC. And was going “back to basics” as an artist. Focusing less on adhering to the traditions of the music industry and placing more emphasis on passion: “making metal music and putting it out there for everyone and living a more simple life.”
Intense guitar session videos were immediately filmed on his phone and posted all over Hayashi’s social-media accounts (ex. Facebook, Instagram and etc) as a buildup to an actual home studio recording.
He explained the second breakup of Patrick Lew Band: “I started Patrick Lew Band. I ended it. Simple as that.
The real reason? I felt I've done that all I could creatively with PLB. And made all the impact I needed to and desired. And it was one of those grandiose ideas where it became a boring exercise to make sophisticated rock music where it didn't go as far as I would have liked it to.
I've said to myself before, "once the PLB runs out of creativity and becomes in danger of becoming a caricature of its former self. That was the time to pull the plug on Patrick Lew Band." Plus I've made all that impact I've needed to with Patrick Lew Band in just almost 20 years but not the way I wanted it to be.
Rather than spare myself more trouble trying to push PLB to major league status. I've went the other route as a solo artist where I just wanted to be free from the anxiety and stress and play music as a labor of love rather than pressure and push myself to become the G.O.A.T in rock and roll.”
The band Lewnatic was intended as a born-again Japanese punk rock and thrash metal outlet for Patrick Lew-Hayashi. The image of the band was directly inspired by Japanese rock star Miyavi Ishihara and the Korean boy band BTS. The band’s name initially was Lewnatic Park, which was suggested by Hayashi’s close friend Rob Silver as an anagram of his birthname. The band’s name would eventually be shortened to LEWNATIC as Hayashi didn’t want the music business and the audience to mistaken the new solo project as a Linkin Park tribute band and out of respect for LP frontman Chester Bennington, who passed away in 2017.
To avoid compliance and patent issues, the band is sometimes known as LEWNATIC (JP) to avoid confusion between other bands and YouTubers on the Internet with the same band name or username. To distinguish the differences between Patrick Lew-Hayashi’s music from YouTubers or any bands or music artists with the same name.
Hayashi found out that he was going to Japan for the first time with his father and the rest of his family to serve his mother Winnie’s final purpose that Summer. He decided when he was going to be in Japan to busk as an artist or do open mics with his new band LEWNATIC. His first trip back to his native Japan also changed him greatly as a person and also helped repair some fractured relations with his father that’s been going on since the passing of his mother Winnie.
He came back to a hero’s welcome locally and at his day job at Chocolate Heaven Pier 39.
On September 6, 2019, Hayashi and Fil-Am rapper and friend A.Kaye performed an in-house live show at Patrick’s home recording studio. The performance has since leaked online on social-media.
While working with the band Crazy Loser in a Box sporadically in his home studio via online collaboration between himself and his one-time flame Sigyn for a new album. He decided to drop his first major release with LEWNATIC via digital distribution online. A two-song EP titled “The American Nightmare” was self-released on CDBaby and digitally distributed on streaming apps such as Spotify and Apple Music.
He also began working with booking agents Afton Shows again on the side. LEWNATIC performed their first show in the Bay Area at San Francisco’s historic DNA Lounge on November 3, 2019. A video of the live performance has since leaked online, especially on YouTube.
On December 15, 2019, fellow Fil-Am Bay Area rapper A. Kaye officially joined Lewnatic (JP) as the band's newest member onstage during their gig at DNA Lounge. This live performance would be released worldwide on CDBaby and streaming apps as the band’s first proper LP titled Brotherhood. A concert video of the performance has since leaked on MyAfton’s YouTube channel!
In early 2020, the band Lewnatic changed their band name to Benigneglect. Also A.Kaye and Patrick Hayashi rebranded Benigneglect into a rap-metal duo. They began working on demos at Lewnatic HQ (Patrick’s home studio) in February that year. The band was tentatively scheduled to perform at DNA Lounge again on February 9, 2020, but “pulled out” due to health reasons. Benigneglect then-rescheduled their canceled DNA Lounge gig to March 8, 2020 instead.
The band performed at DNA Lounge on March 8, 2020. A week later, the band went into a sabbatical and hiatus as both Hayashi and A.Kaye were more interested in pursuing solo projects outside the band amidst COVID-19 pandemic.
RETURN OF PATRICK LEW BAND (2020-PRESENT)
On March 17, 2020, Patrick Lew Hayashi shocked the world and Internet music community when he randomly announced “the return of Patrick Lew Band” on his Instagram and Facebook page. And furthered his intentions in the music scene amidst COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Because of his band Benigneglect’s uncertainty, Hayashi didn’t want to not have “anything to do” during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Advancements in technology and modern formats enabled the return of Patrick Lew Band and helped accommodate their music and band for their audience during Quarantine. Such as live stream concerts and a virtual fan club exclusively through PLB’s main hubs online: Facebook, Twitter, IG and YouTube.
The return of Patrick Lew Band involved Patrick Lew Hayashi himself and the return of his “kayfabe” sister Madeline in the band’s lineup.
Within the next couple of months, a flurry of activity followed. Patrick Lew Band made its first major appearance since their return to music by hosting a series of live stream concerts directly at Lewnatic/PLB HQ on the Covid Concert Series group on Facebook. After a dismal and lukewarm response in regards to PLB in the Covid Concert Series group on Facebook, PLB decided to revert to their YouTube channel for live stream Quarantine concerts and fresh new online content. Between April to July 2020, the band had created and uploaded at least 20 new YouTube videos on PLB’s channel.
The band was also busy working on new music in their home studio Lewnatic HQ in San Francisco. Rigorously practicing and creating new material. The band would release their first new music of all-new originals and not rehashes/off-cuts since 2017, a three-song EP titled PARIAH on May 1, 2020. Sister Madeline Lew was also involved in many projects outside PLB as well, including making music for a solo EP titled TO THE MOON AND BACK and making amateur JOI videos on Pornhub.
During this fruitful period however, the band was not free from criticism, controversy and toxic energies. But to much of the band’s relief, this thankfully did not lead to a third social-media backlash for Patrick Lew Band. As the band’s circle of stans and numbers in the digital age grew rapidly and skyrocketed during this eventful period since returning. Tragically, Patrick and Madeline’s pet cat Jinks passed away on June 20, 2020. The week after, Patrick and Madeline returned to their day jobs while continuing doing music with PLB full-time. They also occasionally worked with Yandie on new material in separate home studios (SF & San Jose) for their other band Crazy Loser in a Box.
On June 13, 2020, Patrick was interviewed via FaceTime with his good friend Howard Billington from the Japanese music scene for their YouTube channel The Baka Broadcast about PLB and the East Asian music scene and community. The podcast real-time interview would be posted a week later worldwide online.
During the month of July, Patrick Lew Band was featured on four prolific different music blogs on the Internet. All thanks to the music marketing services with the right middlemen on Fivver app. The band performed their first major live stream concert through their booking agents AFTON SHOWS on July 26, 2020. However, technical difficulties and failure to adapt to new technology within a short space of time led to a very lousy live performance from PLB. Fortunately during the following Sunday evening on August 2, 2020, Patrick Lew Band’s latest single, the Madeline Lew Japanese sung track “Nothing Stands Our Way” was played worldwide on Internet alt-rock radio station Shady Pines Radio based in Portland, OR. Another track, “Across The Borrowed Times”, pulled off Madeline Lew’s solo EP TO THE MOON AND BACK, was also broadcasted by Shady Pines Radio a month later.
To make up for their dismal June 26, 2020 live stream concert, PLB broadcasted a free live stream concert inside their home studio in San Francisco on their Facebook page on August 5th.
PLB would begin work with their good friend and indie filmmaker James Conrad for their first major music video for their comeback single “Good Morning Miss Bliss”, filming sequences in various San Francisco neighborhoods in August and September 2020. The video footage being used for the promo is currently in possession and in post-production video editing at Lewnatic HQ and is set to world premiere on PLB’s YouTube chanel on Patrick Hayashi’s 35th birthday on November 15, 2020.
Currently. PLB is hard at work on some new music and continuing to do their thang in the indie music scene and as prolific online content creators. There’s really only more to come! Patrick Lew Band was even tentatively booked to do an American live tour promoted and hosted by one of Patrick Hayashi’s American musician pals up in Vietnam some time in 2021! After a lengthy three-year hiatus, despite its bleak tone worldwide, 2020 remains not only PLB’s big comeback but it also is Patrick Lew Band’s best year in the music scene since 2012 at least! It was truly a resurgence for Patrick Lew Band in music. There’s only more to come! Pat’s vision for PLB is to keep doing what they’re doing and become bigger, better and badder than ever in rock, K-Pop and J-Pop music! Lol.
Watch out people. It ain’t over until the BBW lady sings. The PLB is back in action and coming to town!
NON-MUSIC RELATED
Outside of music, Patrick Lew-Hayashi has also acted in community theater and made a cameo appearance in Season 4 and Episode 1 of Emmy Award winning TV series The Man in the High Castle. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from California State University, East Bay and currently works a full-time day job at Chocolate Heaven Pier 39 as a Supervisor. He has also worked in tech for three years as a visual merchandiser and has an extensive work resume outside of the indie music industry.
"Awards and Accomplishments received by Patrick Lew..."
1. One Time Hall of Fame Inductee - CSU East Bay 40 Under 40 Class of 2019 as a member of Patrick Lew Band and as a solo artist. 2. Interracial Dating Grand Slam Champion
He has romantically dated every major ethnicity from the opposite gender: White, Black, Asian, Hispanic.
3. Celebrity Endorsee with Antennas Direct
4. The first male 40 Under 40 Hall of Famer of Japanese descent at CSU East Bay.
