Posted by  Patrick in on May 18, 2007 at 11:24 AM
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Renegade: musician, band in the box, Asian American boy with solid amateur skills on electric guitar and a former classical musician playing instruments such as violin and piano. Who thought he'd make a great entertainer? Although Renegade has been on both sides of the fence since his Samurai Sorcerers debut in 2002, that his initial appearance was received with jeers of a live crowd in one of his first shows in a rock band.
"Renegade" Patrick Lew's gimmick as a former classical musician and Asian American standout isn't the product of the music industry's hype machine. Attending Wallenberg High School in San Francisco and studying electric guitar for 1 month at Vibo Music Center. Lew was a former classically trained violinist who played in his school orchestra. Although he learned classical music before turning to rock and roll instruments, he was always a huge fan of Grunge and Hard Rock music.
After his classical musician days were over, several local bands made Lew a "lucrative" contract offer to join the rock and roll music industry (local). Lew turned it down after several attempts at playing rhythm guitar in those bands and prepared for life in high school and after classical music.
In addition to those offers, Lew did some acting in theater for high school and ran music clinics with his friends at school. Finally, almost two years after Y2K had arrived, Lew decided to switch from classical music to rock music, a move that shocked and dismayed some of his Asian American peers in the classical music scene.
Interest in Lew wasn't that hyped yet, but he still received a tryout to learn guitar which he had since he turned 13. In June 2002, Lew took 3 private guitar instruction at Serramonte Music Store and later, Vibo Music Center. Before he could make it into a band, he had to convince musicians to join with him. Following three months into September of 2002, Lew placed an ad in the school newspaper to look for a band to join, and there came 14-year old guitar wizard Eddie Blackburn into the picture. The rest was history! Lew and Blackburn formed Samurai Sorcerers and for an additional seven months, traveled to the Wallenberg High School music department and Guitar Center where they worked on their craft.
Nearly a year after he formed Samurai Sorcerers, Lew made his debut on a May 2003 edition of the Wallenberg High School culture & arts ceremony. They referred to him as the "Most 100% Musician in Musical History." A clear slam against the fake stigma often attached to rock music, especially by members of the classical music community and amongst Lew's Asian American peers. His boastful showmanship and constant reminders of his past glory (including carrying his diploma in completing basic piano) quickly earned him the ire of his schoolmates.
While Lew may not have been beloved by all the time, he certainly was somewhat successful. He quickly got his first taste of ROCK music industry royalties, signing with a small record company Statue Records after being discovered on the Samurai Sorcerers' MySpace music profile around February 2004. Prior to that, the band had played some small shows across the City of San Francisco in recreational centers. As if one title wasn't enough, he and the band earned a 3/5 review on Allmusic.com with their now RARE out-of-print demo, "Live! Like a Garage Band." Although they managed to play shows along with time in Patrick's recording studio, they rebounded with a surprise concert tour around Daly City and San Francisco between April to June 2004. Patrick rebounded when him and Mayumi (the Samurai Sorcerers' bass player) attended the Nami Tamaki free concert at Amoeba Music on May 31, 2004, which inspired the hit song "Tokyo Pop Princess."
On August 22, 2004, less than a year after debuting in rock music with Samurai Sorcerers, Mayumi left the band and hung up the bass guitar for education and college. Patrick and Eddie's friend Shanti Blacharski replaced her on bass, and created the garage band's best lineup. Lew was expected to delay the publishing of the Samurai Sorcerers' studio albums for quite some time, due to Patrick going to college and the amount of time spent in the recording studio to put quality into their music. Instead, 18 of 36 recorded songs in the studio became "Psychotic Love" in November 2004, the Samurai Sorcerers' studio album.
Although the new lineup of Patrick Lew, Eddie Blackburn and Shawn Blacharski went into Eddie's home studio to record "Blizzard of Sound." The album was delayed due to problems with Statue Records putting out unauthorized recordings and bootlegs of "Psychotic Love" without their permission (see "Tokyo Pop Star") They commenced "Psychotic Love" with a concert tour across Patrick's new school of City College of San Francisco and closing the show for an encore at Balboa High School on February 13, 2005. Never one to forger his musical background, on December 2004 on a Glam Metal website, the Samurai Sorcerers was inducted as "Band of the Month."
As the storylines for 2005 began, "Renegade" Patrick Lew seemed to be on the side of Samurai Sorcerers as each member of the band began SIDE PROJECTS. Lew had a flood of gold come his way during the spring and early summer of 2005, named "Sexy Asian Guitarist" in a friend's magazine and essay article. But just weeks before May, Patrick brought in his college friend Zack Huang into the Samurai Sorcerers on keyboards. Much to Zack's dismay, he never really got along with the other musicians in the local garage band. Earlier that year, Eddie and Shawn began performing in their new garage band Sapien, which was Samurai Sorcerers without Patrick Lew in it replaced with other local musicians. In May 2005, they were in the recording studio working on demos and scrapbooks for the third studio album. Finally, "Blizzard of Sound" was released. But as quick as popularity goes, Patrick's ongoing injuries and depression kept the musicians in the Band in the Box from acting as a team.
During late 2004 and the first half of 2005, Lew underwent several drug treatment programs for depression and frequent drug use. The injuries, though never revealed on the Samurai Sorcerers' website, were caused by abusive love & romance relationships Patrick had during his time playing music in the band. Community college life was stimulating but also bad for Patrick as injuries took up most of his time in music and education. Lew also began performing part-time away from the Sorcerers as DJ Ryusuke (later Band of Asians) making electronic music. The goal for the planned follow-up album to "Blizzard of Sound" was rumored to be based on electronic instruments. After a period of recovering, he returned to work with Samurai Sorcerers in the summer of 2005 in the studio & workshop. They recorded the song "Battle Royale" which wasn't one of their best mp3 singles off their music/band website.
After recording "Battle Royale," the Samurai Sorcerers played their final gig to this day on June 9, 2005 at a local school event. Patrick was shocked to discover his grandmother passed away after the show. Meanwhile, some dramas went on within the garage band as Eddie and Shawn began playing music in the Samurai Sorcerers spinoff project, Sapien. Zack and Patrick would gather at music and computer stores looking for musical gear for the studio. An upcoming appearance at the Ori-Wave 2005 concert was canceled. The album was slow to begin to work.
Months later, Patrick shocked the world by jumping to play music in the Jam Band, STORM, with Gray Eser in September. Zack joined on keyboards. Though Sapien and STORM were associated with Samurai Sorcerers, the real local Band in the Box known as Samurai Sorcerers was the draft Eddie and Shawn did for their concerts playing music as Sapien.
After STORM, the Samurai Sorcerers appeared sporadically in the local music scene in late 2005, playing some house show events in Hong Kong. Lew's last appearance with the Samurai Sorcerers took place on February 8, 2006 in a short promotional advertisement.
On March 10, 2006, the Samurai Sorcerers website granted Patrick Lew an early "release" from his music/band contract due to "personal reasons."
Just a few weeks after leaving Samurai Sorcerers, Lew formed his "Renegade" gimmick and founded a music club at his college of well-minded musicians to play their musical instruments in Renegade Youth, "Renegade" Patrick Lew's solo musician project. It was announced the new Renegade garage band would be playing at a small music school/academy on May 8, 2006.
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