silent minister's jam was a music school band of 3 teenage musicians in a garage band. we now are in college in city college of san francisco. this band was formed in 2001, when i was 15 and getting guitar lessons at a guitar hut. you could say silent minister's jam was a manufactured local garage band of musicians put together like american idol. except we found each other through the music club at wallenberg high school. we f***ing changed so many musicians in the roster, it ain't even funny!
i would describe silent minister's jam as a nu metal/grunge band. with eddie's G3 concert event musician-like guitar solos filling in my repetitive power chords i am playing on my pawnshop guitar. we tried to develop our own sound while doing nirvana covers through reading e-books on our instruments and music school exams through our guitars and a portable 4-track recording studio. from 2001 to march 2006, counting a semi-reunion on may 25th of 2007 with all 3 of lineup #2 of silent minister recording a new song in eddie's home recording studio on Apple GarageBand on an Apple computer, we recorded. hung out. played a few shows as underage teens carrying our equipment on a muni bus or BART train at some local events.
silent minister's jam was also known to the local music community and media as "Samurai Sorcerers." but hey! we never liked our bandname so much, we played music together in this shitty garage band until a variety of different names.
this website/profile of our music is for the band of asians and eddie blackburn fans to re-live the yearbook memories of us playing music in this garage band as "silent minister." although this is not right, i myself is forming a new version of "silent minister" with musicians at city college after the fallout of my local nu metal band from the community college music department power trip broke up after we spent 2007 recording our demo/mixtape at bank studios at 16th and mission and playing only 3 shows locally. our website is scattered somewhere on the internet but it's never revised or updated anymore.
i found my friend sehaj from chinese language class at school to jam with me.
will this be the 2nd coming of silent minister?
i would just call it silent minister's jam 2.
-- it was a random bandname that me and my friend tommy (who goes to uc davis for college now) in high school. tommy loi was the first "official" band member to join silent minister back in 2001 when i was recording demo versions of my music on a 4-track, learning guitar at the vibo music center and when i turned 14 on november 15, 1999! i got my first electric guitar from my mom at the guitar center. i learned for one year and began my first band in 9th grade at wallenberg. with more musicians to come!
-- since i am mostly a studio guy with my solo musical group band of asians, i mostly prefer to do music as a hobby and inside my home recording studio Band in the Box in the house i live in san francisco near daly city. i did play some shows with band of asians, but it's mostly my solo project for my musical work and music career.
silent minister's jam did play a handful of live shows. twice at "battle of the bands." and mostly at college/school parties with friends and backyard music carnivals at eddie's house. our first show was at my schoolmate alula's house party on october 18, 2002. we were in music school learning to play our instruments. our hobby and interest of passion was MUSIC. we had to buy new musical gear at guitar center with our lunch money and piggy bank. whew! but only a few of our performances live made it on tape/recording. we used a walgreens tape recorder to bootleg our shows. our last show as silent minister took place on june 9, 2005 at a chinatown bar. after that, we split into 2 local bands. eddie and shawn's G3 garage band soundeater. and my one man "grunge" band band of asians.
we broke up on march 10, 2006 when i left skyline college and formed band of asians through the music department club at that community college. silent minister ceased to be a band by mid-to-late 2005 which we mostly spent time recording demos with a new guitarist, mark hawkins, from an ad we met on myspace. after that f***ed up, me and zack mostly endorsed instruments at computer and guitar stores. recording new stuff (which later became band of asians debut album "revenge") and building Band in the Box at my house. that dark day in my life on march 10th of 2006, i posted a news article about the breakup of samurai sorcerers/silent minister's jam on my website. boy was that hard!
however on may 25, 2007, lineup #2 of silent minister (i was playing music as a musician in band of asians and power trip at the time) of me, eddie and shawn reunited once to record a new song after i saw soundeater play at the civic center. although the semi-reunion was one night only. i continued my musical careers with band of asians and power trip. power trip was recording in bank studios and was applying for jobs to play shows at clubs and cory was using his paychecks to fund our local garage band in the recording studio for making a demo. but.
on september 12th of this year, kyle told me power trip broke up because cory moved out. so i decided to rest until i decided to meet local musicians at city college to form a new band. i might revise Silent Minister's Jam with my friend sehaj from chinese language lab at school to jam on music at my home recording studio. or others could be involved.
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
the internet and online music communities like soundclick.com, garageband.com and other music websites for local bands & musicians to publish their OWN music was what we started doing before playing shows locally. the band Silent Minister's Jam had made connections by publishing our band & music online. it might be a double-edged sword in some ways because, it hurts the music industry from record store wholesale and lots of famous bands not getting their CDs purchased at the record store since we all download our music on the Internet. oh well. sh*** happens.
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
we did with a small record/music company called Statue Records in 2004 for local bands. but since we don't play music anymore as musicians in that Garage Band, i doubt we will sign a record deal with any music company.
Your influences?
we appreciated all musicians, bands and songwriters who could play music and be passionate about it in the San Francisco music media. but since we loved music more than any other hobby of ours even though we sucked massively as musicians back then, we did love Guitar Virtuoso musicians like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and etc. i personally loved j-pop, j-rock, grunge, metal and punk bands and musicians.
Favorite spot?
anywhere other than school in san francisco like going to a "Battle of the Bands" show or a circus of musicians playing music anywhere. or playing video games at home, skateboarding around the City around a variety of villages in San Francisco and hanging out with old friends from our high school garage band days.
Equipment used:
we use these musical instruments and tools of mass production:
-- gibson les paul guitars
-- ibanez basses
-- digitech Grunge guitar stompbox (patrick)
-- digitech RP200 guitar stompbox (eddie)
-- Steve Vai's bad horsie stompbox (eddie)
-- marshall and Vox guitar amps
-- magix music maker 10 computer software (recording)
-- apple garageband 2 (recording for "blizzard of sound" album)
-- Boss drum machine
-- recording magazines
Anything else...?
patrick lew is NOW playing music in band of asians, power trip and is a struggling drum n' bass DJ in the local music industry in san francisco.
eddie blackburn NOW is recording a solo album called "personality" in his home recording studio which is still unpublished and is playing music in a variety of musical side projects.
asuka "mayumi" nagase well, has since been getting a college education at UC davis, a GOOD UC college/university. she hasn't been involved in music since 2005, but is still a music lover.
the silent minister's jam supports children and teenagers to learn how to play their musical instruments better at school in their own garage bands. we just regret we didn't do it sooner.
Patrick
leedsquietman
