Bio

artist

Patrick Lew Band

San Francisco, CA

Hard Rock

Crappy rock and roll since 2001. PLB * Steel Lions * TheVerse * Band of Asians * The Tortured Musician and actor of Taiwanese descent. Cord cutting advocate. Born in San Francisco, CA, Patrick had a somewhat dysfunctional childhood and adolescence growing up. Interested in extreme sports, Hard Rock and television technology and programming in his youth, Patrick began playing guitar in his early to mid teens and formed his first band while he was a freshmen in high school in May of 2001. The band was known under many different previous guises and names (such as Famiglia and Samurai Sorcerers) until finally settling on the Patrick Lew Band name as it was going to be an outlet for Patrick's musical work and ideas. Lew quickly began putting himself and his music out there on the Internet, gaining notoriety along with albeit small recognition amongst the San Francisco Bay Area music scene and on social-media. Initially, the band consisted of Lew (rhythm guitar, vocals) and his high school classmates Eddie Blackburn (lead guitar) and Tommy Loi (drums). The Patrick Lew Band was an intermittent type of project until 2008, mostly because Lew and Blackburn were playing in another local band aptly called Band of Asians during the mid 2000s. When the Band of Asians abruptly split in early 2008, Lew and Band of Asians drummer David Arceo began putting together Lew's solo project and spent most of the year recording the album Curb Your Wild Life, which was released by the end of the year digitally on iTunes. The band then recruited former Distorted Harmony guitarist Jeremy Alfonso, and augmented their live performances featuring David Hunter (bass) and Greg Lynch (guitar, vocals, keyboards). Due to the differences in distance between all the band members city of residence, college and other priorities, the Patrick Lew Band was mainly self-described as a "virtual Rock band." The five members would collaborate separately in their own home recording studios on the Internet through Skype and private messaging through Facebook, send each other files of instrumental parts they've recorded, and Lew would cut and paste everything together in his own home studio (known as the Blizzard of Sound) before all music would be posted online through social-media. The band would alternate between online collaboration and sporadic live performances between 2009 to 2012. The former lineup of Patrick Lew Band would show small but obvious signs of a breakup during the beginning of 2012. Alfonso left the group following the release of the 2009 release Let It Rise and Againstand following the release of their 2011 follow-up album Murder Bay, touring member Greg Lynch was appointed the band's co-leader in terms of the band's creative direction, business and ideas. Patrick would begin working on material in his home studio Blizzard of Sound to bring to Lynch, Arceo and Hunter on what would have became the follow-up to 2011's Murder Bay. However, Lynch and Hunter turned down the material because of creative and religious differences. Tensions began to rise at an accelerated pace related to religion and creativity. Adding along confusion and disorganization over the band's future and direction, Lew announced that the Patrick Lew Band would go on an indefinite hiatus on September 5, 2012. Lew would remain close friends and bandmates with Arceo, however his relationship with Lynch and Hunter dissolved in the years following the former band's indefinite hiatus. Lew would spend most of 2012 during the turmoil that Patrick Lew Band was experiencing by taking his rejected material and forming a side project Heavy Sigma, releasing three albums within a space of one year: Oddities, Taiwanese Rebels and Voyager. He would sign a distribution deal with ANN, an upstart indie label based near Seattle, Washington. Because of his turbulent relationship with his then-fiancee Faith and a growing number of detractors on social-media and in the scene, Lew would not tour or play shows to promote Heavy Sigma's new music. Instead, Lew would focus on concentrating on rebuilding his turbulent on-and-off again relationship with his then-fiancee. When 2013 began, his relationship with his former partner soured and declined considerably which negatively affected Lew's well being. Because of his marital complications and a growing number of heat alongside being dissatisfied with the music business, Lew would briefly retire or take a sabbatical (depending on source) from playing music and recording. It was not until near the end of 2014, long after Lew and his then-fiancee Faith officially ended their relationship and all potential legalities with the Patrick Lew Band name were resolved that Patrick Lew was able to return to the local Bay Area music scene. Lew would begin recording again, and was later appointed an Ambassador and Spokesperson for Antennas Direct, a digital television antenna maker. Along with the assistance of his close friend and band member David Arceo supplementing ideas with Lew in the studio, the Patrick Lew Band would release their first album since the 2011 release Murder Bay on June 8th of 2015 titled To the Promised Land. On August 14th that year, Patrick Lew Band would perform at Cafe International in San Francisco, which was their first live performance since February 2012. Consistently recording new ideas and songwriting fragments in his home recording studio, two more new releases followed in 2015 and 2016 respectively: Bubblegum Babylon and Fire in the Sky. Patrick Lew would also collaborate with long-time friend and Bay Area EDM producer Gem Jewels in the Shoegaze influenced band TheVerse by the end of 2015. Biography written by RateYourMusic.com. Reprinted with permission. BAND MEMBERS: Current Member(s): Patrick Lew - guitar, lead vocals (2001-present); bass, electronics (2015-present) Former Member(s): Tommy Loi - drums, percussion (2001-2005) Eddie Blackburn - lead guitar (2001-2005; 2007) Jeremy Alfonso - lead guitar (2009-2011) David Hunter - bass (2009-2012) Greg Lynch - guitar, lead vocals, keyboards (2009-2012) David Arceo - drums, percussion (2006-2012; 2015-2016) DISCOGRAPHY: Psychotic Love (2003) Curb Your Wild Life (2009) Let it Rise and Against (2009) Murder Bay (2011) To the Promised Land (2015) Bubblegum Babylon (2015) Fire in the Sky (EP) (2016) Shortcuts to Fame (EP) (2016)