Patrick Lew. His very OWN rock and roll solo project. Which plays J-Rock music straight out of Hong Kong and Japan. Because Patrick Lew is Asian and this his nod to his Asian culture and roots. Solo J-Rock artist and band project. Basically just a one-man Samurai anime show with just him and a couple session musicians playing primitive rock and roll music and Asian boy/girl romance songwriting reminiscent of a Korean soap opera.

** Samurai Sorcerers [The AZN Beatles] interview by Musician MP3 content managment. **

==> How would you describe the band if you were a pressman or an editor?


==> Why did you choose your name?
In my solo project and me being the leading musician in Samurai Sorcerers, I get to make eccentric and unique works of art by playing most of the instruments and singing the Asian woman blues. It also means I have 100% control over what to play in my one-man Samurai Sorcerers cartoon show, and that I don't have to bow down to any other talented musicians in bands by being told what I go to do and this and that. But Samurai Sorcerers is mainly a solo project and a studio thing. But for the reunion version of the Samurai band Experience, I remember little of it but I liked mostly being around my buddies from Wallenberg and doing that little "Steve Vai" in concert type of thing.

But in any other case, I am not very satisfied with Experience in terms of personnel and how it turned out in the end. I am just an eccentric and artistic Asian dude who is a musician who has fantasies about Asian women and playing a variety of instruments to perform music in my very own project Samurai Sorcerers. I am a musician, but I'm not a technically experienced one. I'm a primitive musician and songwriter who does the blues and rock & roll about "life, lovers and the world." But man, if I had fantasies about Asian women, it's just a pipe's dream man. I placed dozens of personal ads on Match.com and social-networking websites like MySpace but my ever-ending search is useless. I'm not a fucking EMO kid, but I am dreaming on how things might of turned out as an Asian guy that is an eccentric artist with hopes of conquering the world with my anime-ish band Samurai Sorcerers.

==> How long have you been together?
When I was in 8th grade, I got a guitar because I wanted one and I loved rock & roll. But I never was a really good guitar player, and I mostly taught myself how to play the rhythm guitar through books. I was never really a good guitarist in any case because when I joined my first band Famiglia (circa 2000-2002), I was given the worst slams on my playing skills. Then I tried playing bass for a lil bit, then I got booted out from my bandmate Graham who was this egotistical pop-punk type of guy. So when I played in Samurai a couple years later, I played rhythm guitar most of the time but sometimes I would have to play bass to sub for Shawn if I can recall. So I played rhythm when I didn't use bass, because it was mostly what I used to mesh with. I am still a shitty guitarist like my former bandmates would say because they are "technical" and I am not. But if I were to sing a song, I would play rhythm and sing about the Asian woman I never had.

Well in terms of personal, I am going to Skyline College to get a vocational degree in music. But musically, I am in a sort of creative disposition. Meaning I'm really not sure what type of direction in music I want to pursue and who to jam with. I am doing Samurai Sorcerers as my main thing in the studio, but I am still stuck on how to move foward and come up with a "sequel" to beat what I did in the Experience. And I cry every now and then I lost that one White girl, but I hope I can find an Asian girlfriend because as much as I hate to admit it, have "Asian woman syndrome."

How the Samurai Sorcerers came to be was when I actually first met Eddie Blackburn, we shared similar and different musical tastes and we both had same personal experiences at Wallenberg High. This was in like I believe, early 2003 when I was going through too much personal crap. Eddie and I were hardcore '80s metal and guitar fanatics who both played the six-string axe and stuff. So we decided to start a band that does rock & roll in like, around the summer of 2003. Eddie was already in a band I think called Tripwire, and I just got out of an amateur pop-punk outfit called Famiglia for being a "sucky" guitarist. That band Famiglia I did was basically founded from an ad I made in the paper when I was like 15 and got these musicians with egos in the whole band. That's how Samurai Sorcerers started as a rock & roll band. You could compare me and Eddie to other rock duos, be it Lennon and McCartney or Ozzy and Randy Rhoads because we had good chemistry for a few months. So I was already playing guitar again, I haven't played it in like 7 months and I took up bass for Famiglia until I got sacked by that asshole in my band Graham. So officially on August 2003, Samurai was formed and it was a trio of me Mayumi, and Eddie. Mayumi joined Samurai because she was my buddy and was like the Stuart Sutcliffe of the band. We didn't practice a lot because of stuff going on, but we did manage to cut demos in Silent Minister Studios. We did play live before, but those performances were crap because the equipment and sound fucked us up when we didn't practice in months before. But Eddie had second thoughts and went back to Tripwire. But I am about to start a new band called T.O.R.M with another high school buddy which I re-connected wuth him on MySpace.com.

==> What type of music do you play? Will you still sign a record contract with a major label?
Would I still sign record contract with a major label? With the Samurai, it really depends really. I mean I want to publish the music I did with me, Eddie and the rest of people involved with the Experience and Samurai. But I rather get the duo of me and Eddie to reunite maybe for good times sake by playing onstage or making more demos at my bedroom. Kind of like Jimmy Page and Robert Plant getting back together for a quasi-Led Zeppelin reunion called "Unledded" and doing MTV Unplugged and live tours and stuff like that. But if me and Eddie were to perform together again as a part of the Experience, it probably be cool you know. The Samurai or the reunion me, Eddie and Shawn did called SME didn't record much stuff together, hardly did we ever collaborate and stuff. So I might think about finally putting out the "untagged" versions of me and Eddie's unpublished musical work with just the guitars and drum machine in tact. But without the vocals I did which I overdubbed for my solo album. Kind of reminds me of Hollywood Rose's CD "The Roots of Guns N' Roses" doesn't it? But I rather let the fans hear the duo's music as it was before it mutated into my solo album with my vocal overdubs along with the original "untagged" versions.

==> When are you planning your next release?
The AZN Beatles first demo of cover tunes from the duo's favorite rock & roll artists will probably surface through D.I.Y and self-publishing some time before the year is over. If not, early 2006 is a good shot for the side project's CD to be finally revealed!

==> Who are the best bands you preformed with?
We never played live accompanying or backing any other bands and musicians, other than ourselves.

==> Where are you planning for your next shows?
I might play live again, who knows. Maybe somewhere like bumming all the people on streets for cold cash on Haight-Ashbury or the BART subway station with my guitar? I don't know if I liked it because I mostly do music inside my bedroom when performing. So there's no particular special moment in my one-man band just yet. Unless you can count that one time I was in another band, well...That's a long story because that band has been dead and thrown in the scrapbook for ages.

==> Any last words?
More AZN Beatles Websites! == > [ http://www.soundcick.com/aznbeatlestributeband ] and [ http://independentartistscompany.com/kiac/artist.aspx?id=18160 ] Anything else...? Oh, I'm starting a new band with some friends. Anyone want to join or audition for a band practice? Because it's only me and my friend Mark at this point and we need more people in the garage band. Oh yeah! Don't forget to check our post-Samurai Sorcerers projects, such as T.O.R.M and Logic's Enemy. These are bands basically which me and Eddie and the rest of the guys involed and playing in now. Logic's Enemy did a show I think at Duboce Playground, it was great man but sadly I didn't go because I am going through stuff right now. But oh well.


Flashback and Moving On From Wallenberg High (BIO) - Samurai Sorcerers Biography
Flashback to 2002-03 on campus at Wallenberg High, a young and rocking cool 17-year old Asian kid by the name of Patrick Lew was sitting in the auditorium watching the band Tripwire performing. Enthralled by the pre-teen grunge band’s performance, Patrick compliments on the band’s live set after watching the young freshmen boys perform a 15-minute show. After the bell rung and school ended at 3PM, that’s when two students on campus at the urban and AzN PrIDe dominated high school got together and became musicians in the band known as Samurai Sorcerers. Patrick showed Eddie the Musicians Exchange ad on the school paper, and the rest was history.

The freshmen in the band was named Eddie Blackburn and expressed to Patrick Lew to put a new garage band together for the weekend jam sessions at Eddie’s house. He tried asking his friend and bassist of Tripwire Shanti Blacharski to join Samurai as an official member, but was more focused on Eddie’s main musical project Tripwire. The two guitarists then sat in a MUNI bus for a one hour ride to Patrick’s house in the Excelsior district, discussing their rock & roll dreams and sharing their musical ideas. They got together at Patrick’s house and had their jam session in Patrick’s small bedroom. The pair came up with many solid rock riffs and guitar-based musical arrangements which would become Samurai Sorcerers’ music. Patrick suggested they hook up Samurai with a bassist, and the two friends settled on Patrick’s good friend Mayumi at school. Main intentions? To be mostly a studio band.

They ventured to Eddie’s apartment building at the Marina neighborhood near the Golden Gate Bridge at 2120 North Point St, and had their first meeting/jam session on the bottom of Eddie’s bedroom/basement where he practiced his guitar and played the X-BOX game console with his friends. This was the first band practice that the local SF garage band playing a blend of J-Rock, ’80s hair-metal and punk fused into their original band sound as a teenage rock & roll band, and it happened on March 29th, 2003. Shortly thereafter, Patrick and Mayumi began recording a 7-track acoustic demo at Patrick’s bedroom and would write and make music together since Eddie wasn’t going to be around due to his live tour with Tripwire. After a couple months passed with Patrick going through his girlfriend woes and personal problems, the Samurai clan had composed enough material to deliver this 16 song CD (demo). Patrick and Eddie finished most of this recording known as “Psychotic Love” almost two years [autumn of 2004] after the band was established. The reason why was because Eddie was touring and performing with Tripwire, and Patrick and Mayumi put together the music and songs in non-stop perfectionist fashion in the home recording studio to make a brilliant masterpiece home-made CD. Recording took a long time to finish because of the absences of musicians and the problems Patrick went through in 2003 and 2004.

The project was shelved and missed its projected finalization times because of Eddie performing non-stop in Tripwire, and Patrick and Mayumi performing as Samurai Sorcerers in the studio with less accompaniment due to Mayumi’s lack of musical experience and her AP honor roll student role in Wallenberg. The project was finally completed after 18 months in November 2004 when Patrick hired two gothic Asian girls Janet Wang and Mony Ngin from MySpace.com to give Patrick and Eddie some musical ideas to complete the demo. With the home-made masterpiece completed, they decided to start spreading the word and gossip on Samurai Sorcerers at City College of San Francisco (the school Patrick currently attends). But sadly, Eddie left the band by the end of November to focus on his rock & roll dreams as a member of Tripwire. Patrick was the only man and Samurai left in the SF garage band known as Samurai Sorcerers.

One day early in 2005, Patrick got an e-mail on his MySpace.com profile from a high school friend of his by the name of Gray Eser, whom he met in his drama class during his Senior year at Wallenberg. They re-established an instant connection as friends and decided to form a band, but those plans were zilch at the time. One phone call rang up, and Patrick answered.

“Do you have a demo you can let me hear?” Gray said.

Patrick replied, “Yes, they are from my old band Samurai Sorcerers.”

Gray was impressed somewhat from what he heard and shared enthusiasm. “Well Pat, I think you and I should start a band together soon when my Junior year ends.”

Patrick persisted, “OK! I’ll bring my Les Paul guitar and jam with you man!” At this point, Patrick made his mark where he will go through a life-changing prospect.

In the summer of 2005 on a peculiarly cold foggy Saturday afternoon, Patrick and his college friend Bruce were taking the BART station subway train to Union Square to aboard a 38 MUNI bus to Richmond where Gray’s house was. Earlier on, Patrick’s friend he acquainted with on MySpace.com was a guitarist he jammed with on a few occasions but disappeared afterwards. Following the long walk to Gray’s house after passing by Mel’s Diner and a local record store, there Patrick and Bruce went inside the house where two unemployed musicians and high school friends met handshake-to-handshake and eye-to-eye. Gray shook Bruce’s hand and the three boys went inside the office to discuss the plan for the new band Patrick and Gray had in mind. Patrick, who was from the most locally anonymous SF band Samurai Sorcerers was about to make the biggest jump ship of his young musical career. There the boys discussed the prospects and the future set up for this all new rock & roll band which Gray promised, “To take over the local Bay Area music scene and make a mass audience with their politically and socially discontented rock & roll music.” There Patrick played a few chords and solid riffs incorporated onto Gray’s $150 Washburn guitar which he got as a 17th birthday present. Gray looking perplex, was impressed by Patrick’s mad six-string skills that can create such heavy rock & roll sounds coming out of an electric instrument and toy. Gray decided to hire Patrick and Bruce to join aboard the anticipated local Bay Area rock band TORM, abbreviation for The Original Rock Musicians.

Gray and Patrick decided they will work together to ensure their major debuts in rock & roll by counterculture methods from their music into the local music scene. And for Patrick, this could mean one of the biggest and musically anonymous comebacks in local music that was almost lost completely when Samurai ended. Gray will now peruse through ads on MySpace.com and Wallenberg High. Anything he could to hire new musicians for the band TORM.

That’s where and how the on-going saga of Samurai Sorcerers amalgamated into a new band called TORM. The storybooks have not been written yet, but rock & roll and counterculture history is likely to be made hopefully, soon. That’s where the long and unfinished road to the rock & roll band TORM begins. There’s plenty of chapters in the Silent Minister’s bible to be written before the rich and dramatic saga of Patrick Lew is completed and finished.