The versatile Asian-American artist, Patrick Lew, is an entertaining singer, creative YouTuber, and expert at playing multiple musical instruments. He enjoyed and worked on all types of music, but Hard Rock is his favorite. His primary goal is to make vibe music to distract people from pessimism through fun melodies. Despite the lack of support from those around him, he smiles and makes others smile. He makes many nostalgia videos as a 90s kid such as the one he recently created, a 90s theme documentary on his trip.
Early Passion for Music and Creativity
Patrick Lew was born in San Francisco in 1985 to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father. Patrick fell in love with music from a young age. Patrick Lew’s childhood appeared to be normal to an outsider, but he was dealing with a lot. His grandfather, who was like a close friend to him, died when he was a child. In addition, he was subjected to a great deal of prejudice and antagonism at school and elsewhere. Patrick turned to computer games, television, and professional wrestling to escape the stress. He was also drawn to music as a means of distraction. Patrick’s parents’ passion for music also instilled a love of music in him. He grew up listening to classic rock like The Beatles and Stones, his mother’s favorite genre, and funk, R&B, and Motown music by his father.
Occasionally, Patrick’s musical adventure began when he was 16 years old, in 2001. He’d make mixes for solo and high school bands and post them on social media under various band identities. After graduating from Wallenberg High School, he attended CSU East Bay and earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy with a minor in Music Composition. The band was also known as the Patrick Lew Band at the time. He now has a number of songs on major music websites such as Apple Music, Spotify, and others. Glaring Dream, Badlands, Try a Little Harder, Chasing Reality, Orgasm, and many others are among his most well-known pieces.
Moreover, Patrick earned a variety of naming honors, which greatly increased his fame. In 2019, he became the first Japanese-American male to be inducted into the 40 Under 40 Hall of Fame. At the age of 33, he received a lot of praise for his work with the Patrick Lew Band.
About his famous character: Madeline Lew
Patrick has one biological brother, Ricky Lew, who constantly claims to have two siblings. The other is his fictitious sister, Madeline, whom he fabricated for the purpose of creating interesting content. Madeline is Patrick’s female disguised as a female. He used this identity to create songs as well as YouTube content. He even created a YouTube channel in her name where he posts amusing videos.
Final Words
For the past 20 years, Patrick Lew has been creating outstanding and entertaining content in the form of songs and videos. The concept of creating a fictional character based on his sister Medaline and forming the Patrick Lew Band (PLB) with her is amusingly clever. This concept is gaining popularity. Patrick, on the other hand, is not stopping here. He is prepared to face new challenges in the future for his admirers. He is now working on a project that will be released soon. Follow him on social media for additional information.
PATRICK LEW BAND (PLB) is an Asian-American rock band formed in San Francisco, California by singer, guitarist, YouTuber and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Lew Hayashi (born Patrick Allan Lew; November 15, 1985).
PLB was previously known under various guises and pseudonyms. Since 2016, PLB is largely an Internet-based rock band and mostly participates in home recording and occasional local live performances.
The band also features a virtual band member and bassist named Madeline Lew, marketed as Patrick's younger sister. The band's bassist Madeline was created through modern smartphone apps, such as FaceApp and Reface, alongside other digital special effects and sophisticated editing, such as cosplaying.
He is currently an unsigned independent musician, but he is distributing his music through his own label, Lewnatic Records. Since the mid-2020, the Patrick Lew Band (PLB) has expanded and digitally reached 51 countries worldwide of underground music. Most of PLB's credentials came thanks to the Internet through bloggers/curators and digital music magazines writing about the Patrick Lew Band.
THE HISTORY
Patrick was born on November 15, 1985 to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother of mixed descent. He mostly grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. His upbringing was rather tense and unstable, but Patrick often maintains that he had a happy childhood for the most part. To make up for his problems during childhood and while going to school, he turned to rock music, video games, professional wrestling, and TV shows for comfort. He often traveled with his family for vacations in foreign countries, such as Hong Kong and common American tourist destinations, such as Las Vegas and Hollywood.
Patrick Lew Hayashi has been active both locally and online in music since 2001. He was playing in various short-lived local bands in San Francisco before he pursued his music with the Patrick Lew Band worldwide. He originally started his main YouTube channel and began uploading his homemade videos related to his life and his music on February 2, 2007. Patrick attended Wallenberg High School in San Francisco, graduating in 2004 after being held back one grade while in elementary school. He also attended Soko Gakuen Japanese School, and graduated and got certified around the same time he graduated from high school. He later attended CSU East Bay, graduating with a B.A in Philosophy and Music Composition in 2011. He began playing guitar at the age of 13 through his older cousin Andy, whom was living with his family at the time in San Francisco.
Patrick also began using YouTube as a platform dedicated to his life as an artist/musician and in general on February 2, 2007. After several years, his YouTube channel reached a respectable amount of recognition on the Internet. As of today, there are 400+ uploaded videos on his YouTube channel.
The Patrick Lew Band is largely influenced by the iconic Seattle grunge band Nirvana.
Other key influences in the band and their music ranges from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Yutaka Ozaki, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Oasis, Miyavi, Guns N Roses, X Japan, Danny Chan, B'z, Beyond (HK Band), Hatsune Miku, BTS, Jim Johnston, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, The White Stripes, Green Day, Blink 182, The Fall, The Sex Pistols, and many more.
After a few home-recorded and professionally made albums between 2006 to 2012, the former band considered transitioning from an online collaboration to performing in live venues and recording at home as a local rock band.
The idea eventually was abandoned, and Lew was dealing with a loveless relationship with his former fiancee, which affected and drained him mentally. Having played in the indie scene in many failed startup bands and false starts for over a decade, Patrick Lew seemed to have lost his passion for music. When his relationship with his then-fiancee ended, Lew decided to rekindle his passion for playing music and doing home recordings.
The Patrick Lew Band as we know it started in 2015 as a personal home studio project where Lew would write songs or compose instrumental ideas and post them on social-media to see what comes out of it.
Lew learned the hardship and frustration of getting his music out there in various platforms in the "commercial" and traditional music industry. He created his own indie label and named his home recording studio LEWNATIC, which foresees the releases of Patrick Lew Band related material through different platforms, such as digital downloads, CDs, etc.
Despite some of the hardships and negativity that Lew has encountered during 2015 and some of 2016 related to detractors on social-media, the Patrick Lew Band maintained consistency and was experiencing a very creative period in their indie music career. By July 2016, the Patrick Lew Band won an award for Best Experimental Rock Song with the Akademia Music Awards. Lew also pursued side-projects and worked with other local musicians.
Lew also began expanding PLB to where he originally wanted. And he self-released a few EPs with the Patrick Lew Band through Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and other sites. Regardless of what people thought of him in the past or present, Lew had enough music to release a full-length album. The loss of his beloved mother and a scabies scare temporarily prevented Lew from touring and promoting his new album .
But with the blessings of positive outlooks and putting himself out there, Lew began working with promoters Afton to handle the booking for live local Patrick Lew Band shows. The Patrick Lew Band was booked to perform at the Brick & Mortar in San Francisco, California on August 6, 2017. Local hard rock radio station 107.7 THE BONE marketed the show. Low ticket sales however pushed the show to October 8th that year, which Lew performed a stunning and blistering five-song set at the venue. A recap video of the show can be found on Lew's YouTube channel.
Also, the band introduced long lost sibling Madeline Lew as a full-time member on Halloween 2015. (SEE BAND BIO INTRO). And has remained a mainstay in the Patrick Lew Band since.
The band just returned to full-time status in 2020. And they reached potentially prolific status with their music and brand in the indies and on social-media with what they do. Recent years proved to be very prosperous and helped the Patrick Lew Band reach new heights. Since then, the band's music has reached thousands of listeners in an estimated 51 different countries worldwide on Apple Music/iTunes. Subsequent reviews and press regarding PLB have been positive. Since 2020, PLB has been featured in numerous blogs and digital music magazines online. While Lew maintains his citizenship and residence in San Francisco, the band also began gravitating their musical focus to "break into" the Japanese music scene.
2020 and 2021 also saw the band continue and sustain their momentum as a Internet-based rock band. Conducting a few Livestream concerts on social-media, and gaining new legions and generation of followers. The band also released several albums during these two years respectively on iTunes and Spotify, including their first live album IN YOUR HOUSE! Rumors began to swirl in mid-2021 regarding the Patrick Lew Band's future online. However, the PLB released more new music going into the year 2022 online.
On July 19, 2022, Patrick Lew signed a 1-year recording contract with Bentley Records under his band name LEWNATIC. Madeline Lew and Patrick Lew officially and mutually parted ways from the Patrick Lew Band, but insists, that the band will continue on making sporadic appearances and musical one-off's exclusively as an independent act. A press release annoucement from the two of them will air on Patrick Lew Hayashi's official YouTube channel at 9 PM on that same evening.
The band PLB however, continues to be active on the Internet and on social-media!
As artists, the main goal for Patrick and Madeline Lew of PLB is to bring their unique music worldwide without any limitations holding them back. They also want to add something positive to the world, the music scene, and the Asian-American community! In the 20+ years as an indie and personal home recording act, the band has seen, struggled, and triumphed. While the future remains unknown for the Patrick Lew Band, there should be more milestones and moments coming your way with PLB. Then. Now. And Forever!
MEET THE PLB BAND!
PATRICK LEW (林正道) - lead vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, synthesizers, piano, programming, drummer
MADELINE LEW (林綾香) - keyboards, synthesizers, programming, bass, lead vocals
THIS IS US!
