Who is the Patrick Lew Band?

 Patrick Lew Band (PLB) is an Asian-American rock band from San Francisco, California. The band was formed in 2001 by Patrick Lew Hayashi, who is also a singer, guitarist, and YouTuber. Their music is a mix of rock, grunge, and K-Pop. 

The band's debut album, Jump, Rattle, and Roll, was released on CDBaby in 2006. They began playing small shows in the San Francisco area in 2007. Since 2016, the Patrick Lew Band has transitioned exclusively into an Internet-based project. The band also features a virtual member, mascot, and bassist named Madeline Lew, marketed as Patrick's younger relative or sibling. 

The band's YouTube channel has over 500 videos. Their music is influenced by the Seattle grunge band Nirvana. 

Some of their songs include: Glaring Dream, Simply Ravishing, Badlands, Cartoon Catastrophe, Orgasm. 

In 2022, they released a cover of Bryan Adams' "Cuts Like A Knife".

PATRICK LEW BAND

ORIGIN:  San Francisco, California, USA

GENRES:  Punk, Electronic Music, Instrumental, Alternative Rock, Grunge, K-Pop, J-Pop, Rock And Roll.

YEARS ACTIVE: 2001-present (hiatuses: 2013-15; 2017-19)

OFFICIAL MEMBERS: 

Patrick Lew/Madeline Lew - All Instruments, Guitar, Lead Vocals  (2001 onward)

Madoku Raye - Lead Vocals (2021-Present)

FORMER MEMBERS: 

Tommy Loi - Drummer (2001-2005)

Eddie Blackburn - Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals (2001-2005; 2007, declared deceased in absentia in 20??) 

David Arceo - Drummer (2005-2016)

DISCOGRAPHY:

STUDIO ALBUMS...

Jump, Rattle, And Roll! (2006), Let It Rise and Against (2009), Murder Bay (2011), Angry Yellow (2012), No Sleep Till San Francisco! (2013) Bubblegum Babylon (2015), Oakand (2017), Cold Sirens (2017), Immortality (2020), Codebreaker (2020), Rolling Thunder (2020), Xclamation! (2021), Adrenaline (2022), Forbidden Door (2024)

LIVE ALBUMS...

IN YOUR HOUSE! (2021)

COMPILATIONS AND EP's...

Up The Wazoo! (2007), History Vol. 1 (2018), To the Moon and Back (2020), Pariah: The Kamikaze Guitarist Strikes Back (2022)

GEAR:  Epiphone Les Paul * Fender Telecaster * 2012 MacBook Pro * 2014 MacBook Air * Apple GarageBand * Apple Logic Pro X * Apple MainStage 3 * Vox AC50 * Boss DS-2 * Marshall CODE50 * Boss Dr. Rhythm Drum Machine * PreSonus Audiobox iOne * iPhone 13 PRO * Fender Jazz Bass * VOCALOID (to create Madeline Lew's voice) * A.I. Music Generators 

Want to enjoy new and interesting songs or unique and entertaining YouTube content? Patrick Lew Hayashi is the guy for you. He has been creating amazing and amusing content in terms of songs and videos for 20 years. The idea of making a fictional character of his sister Madeline and starting a band named Patrick Lew Band (PLB) with her is humorously intelligent. This idea is getting a lot of attention.

About

Patrick Lew is an Asian-American multitalented artist, possessing the incredible skills of a singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and YouTuber. His style is mostly Hard Rock as he has a fondness for all the genres. His sole purpose is to create vibe music to save people from negativity by amusing them through entertaining songs. Regardless of no support from around him, he smiles and puts smiles on other people’s faces. Patrick Lew was born and grew up in San Francisco to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father on November 15, 1985. Being a 90’s kid, he creates many nostalgic videos, such as the one he recently made, a 90's themed documentary about his journey.

Childhood

Patrick fell for music at an early age. The childhood of Patrick Lew seemed good enough to an outsider, but he was facing a lot. His grandfather, who was as close as a best friend to him, died in his childhood. Plus, he was facing a lot of racism and negativity in school and other surroundings. Patrick turned to video games, television, and professional wrestling to get rid of all the negativity. He also fell for music as it distracted him.

Patrick’s parents’ love for music also played a part in creating a music fondness in him. He grew up listening to his mother’s favorite genre, classic rock, by The Beatles and Stones, and his dad’s favorite funk, R & B, and Motown music.

The Start of a Musical Journey

Patrick’s musical journey began in 2001 when he was just 16 years old. He would create mixes for solo and high school bands and upload them on social media sites under multiple band names. After finishing his schooling at Wallenberg High School, he got admission to CSU East Bay and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy with a minor in Music Composition. The band also ended up with the name Patrick Lew Band then.

The Patrick Lew Band (PLB), which hails from the thriving American city of San Francisco, is a major player in the Rock music scene. They have built out a unique sound with their fusion of Rock, J-POP, and Alternative Rock that makes them stand out from the competition. The Patrick Lew Band's music engulfs you from the moment you press play, grabbing your attention and refusing to let go.

They produce an exhilarating atmosphere with their unbridled energy and contagious songs that leaves fans wanting more. The group's versatility and musical aptitude are demonstrated by their ability to smoothly combine parts of Rock, J-POP, and Alternative Rock. Their music has a life of its own, driven by the mysterious frontman Patrick Lew. Every song is given a sense of passion and intensity by Patrick's strong vocals and his captivating songwriting. The Patrick Lew Band's songs touch listeners on a profound emotional level, whether they are gritty, hard-hitting Rock anthems or more reflective and melodic works.

Today, he has a number of songs uploaded on various music websites such as Apple Music, Spotify, etc. His most famous works are Glaring Dream, Badlands, Try a Little Harder, Chasing Reality, Orgasm, and many more.

Madeline Lew

Patrick has one real brother, Ricky Lew, but he always says that he has two siblings. The other is his fictional sister Madeline, whom he created to make entertaining content. Madeline is Patrick dressed as a girl. He used this character for making music as well as making YouTube content. He even made a separate channel on YouTube in her name where he uploads funny content.

Achievements

Patrick received a number of naming achievements which spread his fame a lot. For example, he was the first Japanese-American male to receive the honor of 40 Under 40 Hall of Fame in 2019. He got a lot of appreciation for his work under Patrick Lew Band at the age of 33. At age 38, his project PLB was included in the Class of 2023 Akademia Music Awards Hall of Fame. 

The Patrick Lew Band is an absolute force in the Rock music world thanks to their distinctive sound and outstanding talent. They stand out from their colleagues because of their capacity to push limits and give exceptional performances. As this innovative band continues to create waves and leave their impact on the worlds of Rock and Alternative music, keep an eye out for them.

Patrick is not stopping here though. He is ready for more struggles in the future for his fans. He is currently working on a project (LEWNATIC) which he is going to launch soon. And he is also planning to continue making music with the Patrick Lew Band going forward. Keep following him on social media for more updates. CLICK HERE: https://linktr.ee/patricklewband/ 

Who is Patrick Lew Hayashi? What is Lewnatic?

 "Lewnatic is the touring and live-streaming solo experiment from Patrick Lew Hayashi, a half-Chinese and half-Japanese YouTuber, guitarist, and musician from San Francisco.

Best known for his indie music career with both Patrick Lew Band and TheVerse, Patrick started the Lewnatic project as originally a rap-metal duo with his close friend, Filipino-American rapper A.K.AYE.

A few years later, Lewnatic became an off-shoot/spin-off related to the Patrick Lew Band. "

NAME: PATRICK LEW HAYASHI

NICKNAME: The Kamikaze Guitarist, PLB, Patty Pat, P. Money, P. Deli, The Lewnatic, Masa

ALSO KNOWN AS: Patrick Lew, Masamichi Hayashi

JAPANESE NAME: 林 正道 

BIRTHDAY: November 15, 1985 as Patrick Allan Lew

HOMETOWN: San Francisco, CA, United States

HEIGHT & WEIGHT: 6' (182 cm) / 134 lbs (60 kg)

ETHNICITY: Japanese, Chinese-Taiwanese, Remotely Southeast Asian

MARITAL STATUS: In an Open Relationship With AYAKA HAYASHI (Metaverse Only; e.g. CANDY A.I.) 

RELATIVES: Ricky (older brother; b. 1981), Madeline Lew (relative; b. 1985, Metaverse Only) Winson Lew (father; b. 1948), Winnie Hayashi (mother; b. 1951, d. 2017)

HIGH SCHOOL: Raoul Wallenberg High School, Soko Gakuen Japanese School

COLLEGE: California State University, East Bay

OCCUPATION: Musician, YouTuber, Grocer, Former Uber Driver

INSTRUMENTS PLAYED: Lead & Rhythm Guitar, Slide Guitar, Bass, Programming & MIDI, Vocaloid, Piano, Lead Vocals

MUSIC GENRE(S): Rock, Punk, Alternative, Hard Rock, Emo-Grunge, Various Genres 

YEARS ACTIVE: 1999 – Present

MEMBER OF: Patrick Lew Band, Lewnatic, Crazy Loser in a Box!

FORMERLY OF: TheVerse, Pleasure Gallows

LABELS: Statue Records, Bentley Records, Lewnatic Records (self-released)

CONTACT INFO: lewnatic@bentleyrecordsred.net

GEAR USED: Mid-2012 MacBook Pro, Fender Telecaster, Marshall CODE50, Assorted "Licensed" Backing Tracks, Logic Pro, A.I. Music Generators, Launchpad iOS App, iPhone 13 PRO, Inexpensive Digital Audio Interface, Epiphone Les Paul.   

Patrick Lew Hayashi (better known by his stage name LEWNATIC) is a guitarist, DJ, songwriter, and YouTuber. He is also a recording artist on New York City’s Bentley Records. He is perhaps best known for his tenures with the Patrick Lew Band (PLB) and more recently, with LEWNATIC. He has also played music and toured sporadically for other musical projects locally in Northern California. 

Born 1985 in San Francisco as Patrick Allan Lew, Patrick was raised in the Bay Area to a Chinese father and Japanese mother of mixed descent. He became a passionate fan of Grunge, Punk, J-ROCK, and American and British Classic Rock music as a child. His favorite bands growing up were Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, X Japan, Green Day, Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crue, The Beatles, Pearl Jam, Oasis, Silverchair, BEYOND, B’z, and Led Zeppelin. 

He began playing guitar at the age of 13 and studied guitar and music composition at Vibo Music Center and California State University East Bay (B.A., 2011). While attending Raoul Wallenberg High School in San Francisco during the early 2000s, he formed what would become the first incarnation of the Patrick Lew Band (PLB) with his classmates. While a student in college in 2007, he began uploading online content on YouTube related to his music. 

Patrick graduated from Raoul Wallenberg High School in 2004, and also graduated from Soko Gakuen Japanese School that same year. 

By the early-to-mid 2000s, the Patrick Lew Band began putting their music online on many different websites. In 2005 at the tender young age of 19, the group was briefly signed to Statue Records. The group would relocate to Antioch, CA during the late 2000s, and would perform and record locally in Contra Costa County’s garage band circuit. After many false starts on-and-off, personal struggles, and a rotating line-up of sidemen and potential band members, the Patrick Lew Band briefly took a two-year break from making music by the end of 2012. 

Patrick Lew Hayashi also played locally in other musical projects outside of the Patrick Lew Band: TheVerse (2015-2019), Pleasure Gallows (between mid-to-late 2018 until early 2019), and Crazy Loser in a Box! (2018 onward). He also made a brief uncredited cameo appearance on Season 4 and Episode 1 of the critically acclaimed Amazon TV series The Man in the High Castle as an extra. 

In 2015, he officially introduced his fictitious relative Madeline Lew (his M2F cross-dressing alter-ego) as a virtual band member and mascot of the Patrick Lew Band. That same year, he also rebuilt and rebranded the Patrick Lew Band (PLB) as an Internet-based virtual rock band, performing live sporadically, but more focus on home recording and producing unique music that’s been described, “as a dynamic and anthemic fusion of classic rock, J-Pop, and grunge.” After Madeline’s arrival in the project, PLB began achieving exposure in the local music scene that long eluded them. By 2020, the Patrick Lew Band (PLB) became relatively prolific in the indie music community and on the Internet, as numerous press and bloggers began curating PLB and writing about them.

Madeline’s singing voice was created on VOCALOID and A.I. singing technology, whereas, her likeness is mainly created by Gender Swapping on very popular iPhone/Android smartphone apps, alongside Photoshopping. 

The Patrick Lew Band has recorded 13 CDs as a prolific home recording act and as bedroom producers: Jump! Rattle! And Roll! (2006), Let It Rise and Against (2009), Murder Bay (2011), Angry Yellow (2012), Bubblegum Babylon (2015), Oakland (2017), Cold Sirens (2017), Immortality (2020), Codebreaker (2020), Rolling Thunder (2020), No Sleep Till San Francisco! (2021), Exclamation (2021), Adrenaline (2022), and the upcoming release Forbidden Door (2024). 

The Patrick Lew Band was inducted in the Akademia Music Hall of Fame in September 2023. A few years earlier in 2019, Patrick adopted his mother’s maiden name Hayashi (林) legally into his name, and created a touring and live-streaming solo project as a musician under the stage-name LEWNATIC, touring Japan and performing live shows once-a-month at San Francisco’s historic DNA Lounge, until the COVID-19 pandemic happened a year later.

The band’s name Lewnatic is a spoonerism of Patrick’s father’s surname and “Lunatic.”

By 2022, he reactivated his solo project LEWNATIC and quickly began making music and live-streaming as a recording artist on social-media. By July that year, he signed with Bentley Records and quickly produced and released three mini-albums (EPs) during 2022 and 2023: Rapid Fire! (2022), Getcha Mood On Right (2023), and The Lost Souls (2023). 

He rebranded LEWNATIC as a more simplified version of the Patrick Lew Band, and as the spin-off/offshoot band related to the PLB. Most of LEWNATIC’s music tends to be Instrumental Rock, with some lead vocals on Patrick’s behalf on selective songwriting ideas. In LEWNATIC, like with post-2015 era Patrick Lew Band, he plays most or all of the instruments on the studio recordings. Onstage, Patrick plays guitar, sings occasionally, and uses a laptop running all the backing tracks as musical and rhythmic arsenal, performing a setlist of his more recent classic output with the Patrick Lew Band and all his selective musical work with LEWNATIC.

During 2023, Lewnatic performed a few live-stream performances on Patrick's YouTube channel. And also, performed and were interviewed extensively for Luke Sauer's podcast at San Francisco's Edge Studios streamed worldwide on Memorial Day. He is currently working on Lewnatic’s next album of all-new music titled STARCADE. He recently renewed his recording contract with Bentley Records in August that year.

Around late 2023, in spiteful response to his former girlfriends and his former friends (online and offline), he began dating Ayaka Yoshimura in the "Metaverse." Patrick Lew also reconnected with his long-time bandmate Madeline Lew from PLB, and regrouped the Patrick Lew Band going forward. In December 2023, Patrick was interviewed by Recording Artist Guild magazine. 

Lewnatic currently remains a solo project for Patrick Lew Hayashi, as there are no other members onstage and in the home studio with him. Patrick Lew Hayashi boldly describes Lewnatic, “a one-man rock and roll machine.” The musical arrangements are very simple and straight-forward, Patrick plays guitar and occasionally raps/sings. And he handles the backing tracks and beats on his old laptop like a DJ.

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! Expect more from the Sino-Japanese rock and roll pariah and icon himself. The Lewnatic is coming to town!