LEWNATIC - THE BAND BIO

LEWNATIC415 is a hard rock band that was created by Patrick Lew Hayashi, who is best known for his indie music career and his work with the Patrick Lew Band and TheVerse. Born to a Chinese father and Japanese mother of mixed descent, Patrick began playing guitar at age 13 when his cousin Andy was living with his family while studying at a community college as an International Student. He began his indie music career in 2001, playing guitar and singing in his high school band, which later would evolve into the Patrick Lew Band. Patrick is also a moderately known influencer, having been making YouTube videos online since 2007 at age 21.

In July 2019, during the second year of Patrick Lew Band’s (PLB) hiatus, Patrick began brainstorming ideas to go “back-to-basics” with his music as a solo artist. 

Much of the 2010s was dedicated to experimenting with many different styles of music (particularly prog-rock and EDM) as a semi-professional musician with PLB. After completing and serving four years touring and recording with the San Francisco shoegaze/post-punk band TheVerse, Patrick Lew was without an active band and left without any musical ideas for the first time since 2013. 

Patrick decided to return to his gritty, abrasive and in-your-face metal, hard rock and garage punk sound for his new idea as a musician and guitarist. For the first few weeks, he asked his friends on his Facebook page about ideas potentially for a new band name for his new heavy metal music project. Initially, the band was known as Lewnatic Park. Shortly after, Patrick dropped “Park” in the band name, concerned that the audience would mistake his new project as a Linkin Park cover band, and out of respect for the band’s frontman Chester Bennington (who died in 2017). He eventually settled on the official name Lewnatic (a spoonerism of his father’s surname “Lew” and “Lunatic”) when pursuing this new music project of his. 

Lewnatic’s sound is best described as garage punk, hard rock, metal. They take some of the heavier and rocking elements from the early 2010s era PLB sound, except very modern. Another way to describe Lewnatic’s music is a modernization of hard rock bands from circa 1992. 

In August 2019, the band Lewnatic traveled to Japan for a week for musical and leisure related purposes. Playing a few very low-key and underground punk shows in Japan. He returned to his hometown San Francisco by the end of month, and began occasionally jamming with Filipino-American rapper A. K.AYE at his home studio.  

Between November 2019 to March 2020, Lewnatic would work with their booking agents Afton Shows and began performing monthly residencies at San Francisco’s historic DNA Lounge. On their December 15, 2019 performance, A. K. AYE made his first live appearance onstage with Patrick at the club. This improvised and spontaneous live performance would become their debut album Brotherhood, released worldwide via CDBaby in early 2020. On March 8, 2020, Patrick and A. K.AYE would perform one more show at DNA Lounge before the COVID-19 pandemic hit worldwide and forced all musicians to cancel their plans and go into complete Quarantine.

For the next two years, Patrick returned to performing, recording and live-streaming webcasts with the Bay Area band that made him sort of famous globally with his cousin Madeline Lew, the Patrick Lew Band.  Embarking on their most prolific stage as artists. By this point, the Patrick Lew Band began receiving recognition and exposure worldwide and online. As bloggers and curators began writing about PLB more positively and they began putting Patrick Lew Band’s music more out there to the public. 

Lewnatic would eventually return from hiatus in early 2022, as COVID-19 pandemic began winding down considerably and quietly in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began working with his booking agents Afton Shows again. The band Lewnatic (sans A. K.AYE) once again performed live music at DNA Lounge on February 20, 2022. 

The band’s live setup and tech rider is based on minimalism and convenience when traveling with Patrick’s guitar rig. Instead of bringing his 50 watt Marshall amp and lots of gear in an Uber ride to venues he’s booked to perform for the evening, most of Lewnatic’s live gear is based off a virtual guitar amp and backing tracks on Patrick’s laptop. Alongside, an inexpensive audio DI box and Fender Telecaster. 

As a live musical act, the band Lewnatic performs a mix of PLB and solo heavy rock inspired material that Patrick created mostly without Madeline and Madoku involved in the Patrick Lew Band. The musical arrangements vary and are different for every performance every night! 

During the end of March 2022, Lewnatic began recording their second album Strictly Prohibited at their home studio in San Francisco. On one of the new upcoming tracks “As Gritty As I Want To Be,” Patrick’s relative Madeline Lew makes a guest appearance as a lead singer. The music creation for the entire album was finished in less than a week reportedly, and is currently pending to be released worldwide on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube through their distributor CDBaby online. 

Lewnatic is set to perform a virtual concert inside their rehearsal space. Which is set to world premiere on Patrick Lew Band’s YouTube channel on May 1, 2022 at 7:15 PM (PST)! 

The main motives for doing the band Lewnatic is to have fun, play heavy music and not take life and music in general so seriously. And the occasional punk rock show, whether it be a webcast or at the local dive bar! A lot of musical ideas in the studio that was omitted from PLB will be compiled exclusively for the band Lewnatic in the near future!