Patrick Lew Band
MyAfton Emerging artist Patrick Lew Band: I am Patrick Lew Hayashi. I was born in 1985 to a Chinese father and Japanese mother as Patrick Allan Lew. I was born and raised in San Francisco, and I still live in San Francisco present day! I played in various local bands since I was a teenager back in the early 2000s! My main project is PLB, also known as the Patrick Lew Band. During the last couple of years during the previous decade, I played in other bands too. I worked with Afton to get gigs with my previous bands TheVerse and Benigneglect. I’m primarily a lead & rhythm guitarist, and I also sing and write my own music. I also play other instruments too! Such as bass guitar, piano, synthesizers, MIDI, harmonica, slide guitar. Sometimes on rare occasions, I also rap too! I also play guitar for my friend Yandie’s band up in San Jose called Crazy Loser in a Box! currently.
8 Questions With Patrick Lew Band
What different genres have you performed in/ created music in? What are your favorites?
Well. My band PLB started out as a straight-ahead Garage Punk band back in our 2000s and early 2010s heyday. I later branched out to doing other genres of music, such as Electronic Music and Progressive Rock. According to Napster, PLB’s music genre is: Hard Rock, Pop, Grunge, Britpop, Punk, Pop-Metal, Electronic Music, Grindcore, Techno and Prog-Rock. In my previous band TheVerse, we were mostly doing Shoegaze and Post-Punk type of music. Benigneglect was more of a Rap Rock type of two-man band. In my band PLB, our music is either sung in English or Japanese language, or they’re mostly instrumentals! Sometimes, I feel some of the music I create doesn’t necessarily need lead vocals to be a hit or on point! My favorite band as far as touring and playing shows goes, was with TheVerse and Benigneglect. But PLB (Patrick Lew Band) was the band that put me on the moon and back!
If you could have another band/artist produce an album for you who would it be?
That’s a good question. I honestly don’t know, but my goal is to aim to reach as many audiences globally as possible. I have a strong following in California, but I also have a cult following in places like Japan and the United Kingdom too. As far as another band or artist to produce an album for me? I would love Andy Wallace to be my dream mixer in the studio. He did a lot of the mixing for 90’s bands like Nirvana, of course. My dream producer to work with? That’s a really really good question to be honest with you. I always was a musician/artist who did everything on my own terms without any middle-man involved! PLB is like a lone wolf at what we do, but it just so happens in recent years, I’ve gotten more so-called prolific at what I do.
Have you been writing any new material during this pandemic? If so, do you have a release date for any of the new music?
I’ve been making music and new YouTube content a lot lately while on pandemic. When 2021 began, PLB released two new albums worldwide on Spotify and Apple Music (Rolling Thunder & No Sleep Till San Francisco!). Because of my full-time day job going on at the moment, I’ve been putting the guitar in the gig bag and began utilizing modern technology by creating new music on my phone! Some of those ideas I made on my phone through those apps have since been released as two new singles “Take You to the Top” and “Guns N’ Samurai” on Apple Music and Spotify. Right now, I am working on new ideas and recording guitar parts to some demos that Yandie sent me via email for our band Crazy Loser in a Box! We should be putting out a new album soon hopefully! If I’m not making music with PLB, I’m always playing guitar and co-writing songs with my other band via Zoom video chats, email and putting it all together in separate home recording studios: Mines in SF and Yandie’s studio up in San Jose!
Pre pandemic what places have you performed at?
I worked with Afton in the past to get me shows in the past. I toured with TheVerse sporadically from May 2016 up until late August 2018. We played The Stork Club, Brick & Mortar Music Hall, Britannia Arms and places like El Rio and Thrillhouse Records here in San Francisco. With Benigneglect, we often played outside once-a-month at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge. We also released some live albums from our gigs at DNA Lounge worldwide on Spotify and Apple Music under our former name LEWNATIC. Benigneglect also toured Japan in August 2019 by doing some very low-key dates and appearances. As far as Patrick Lew Band (PLB) goes, I don’t really play shows much with PLB. I did a couple of times in the past however! At places like Dolores Park, Brick & Mortar Music Hall and live stream performances at my home recording studio Lewnatic HQ out in San Francisco. Some of my live performances were since uploaded on my YouTube channel from what I just mentioned!
When things are open again are you planning to start playing out again?
Of course! Most definitely! I look forward to performing live shows again locally with my project PLB. Give the one-man band a shot for once by bringing it on the road and play some live music! It will be however, arranged differently than how it’s done in the studio. I’m pulling a Miyavi, playing guitar and singing onstage. But with the aid of backing tracks on my laptop via AUX cable. Even though I work a full-time job at SAFEWAY right now, I’ll definitely consider going on tour sporadically again with my main band PLB!
Do you have any upcoming livestream shows that fans can catch you at?
I did some live stream shows sporadically since March 2020 up until January 7th this year with Patrick Lew Band. There’s currently no plans for that at the moment. I really miss performing in front of a live audience, whether the crowd cheers or boos me onstage. Hahaha. Plus, I’m waiting for everything to re-open so I can play shows once again!
What is your favorite music related memory?
I’m a Class of 2019 40 Under 40 Hall of Famer at my university CSU East Bay with Patrick Lew Band. I also was a July 2016 Akademia Music Award winner for Best Experimental Rock Song with PLB as well! Last year was when I brought Patrick Lew Band back full-time after a three-year hiatus. And began working with a lot of music bloggers and indie music press to get PLB out there. People are now even saying, “2020 was my best year in my band PLB.” It’s pretty awesome.
What is something that your fans don’t know about you?
I’m a wrestling fan. I watch AEW and NXT. Other than that, I’m also multi-lingual: I speak English (fluently), Cantonese (some), Japanese (some), American Sign Language (some) and Taiwanese Mandarin (very little). Other things my fans don’t know about me is, I’m a cat person and I love my Asian sisters and curvy women. Lol. Need I say more?
One last thing I wanna to address and say! I’m also a cross-dresser. I cosplay as a tall bubbly Japanese/East Asian girl named Madeline Lew. This alter-ego persona also has a large role in my music with PLB, almost like a virtual band member. As of Halloween 2015, my cross-dressing alter-ego Madeline has been associated with Patrick Lew Band as a virtual band member for sure!
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