Posted by  Patrick in on March 3, 2008 at 6:35 PM
|
|
![]()
A life-long musician and hobbyist of Alternative music, Band of Asians is the musical creation of Taiwanese-American musician and artist Patrick Lew. He grew up in San Francisco and went to Wallenberg High School and City College SF for his education while working odd jobs at Tower Records and a comic book store Heroes Club as a teenager. Having been into Alternative and Metal music since the age of 6, he got his first electric guitar kit at Sears on his 14th birthday in 1999 and began taking guitar lessons at Vibo Music Center. By 2001 as a freshman in high school, he already formed his first local band he played an instrument in, Silent Minister.
Before playing shows locally and doing live musical performances with Silent Minister, he and his high school band often spent weekdays in school and weekends for band practice compiling and creating music from a scrapbook of sheet music and songwriting symphony ideas of Patrick's. In 2001, the age of Electronics and Computers (especially the Internet) allowed independent musicians and bands who were unsigned and signed to independent record labels to publish and promote their music on the Internet. With a tape recorder and the limited roster of musicians in Silent Minister. They created a demo tape in Patrick's dining room creating their earliest musical work on that tape recorder. Despite very poor sound quality and limited musicianship at the time, the Silent Minister first published their music on the Internet in May 2001. They signed up for a free musician member's account on Lycos Listeningroom and struggled as amateur musicians with a batch of bedroom recordings in front of other smaller known indie bands and musicians. The website however was more like a developmental territory for the high school band as they never achieved much success with their music on Lycos Listeningroom before closing down by mid 2002.
2001 and 2002 saw Patrick and his musician friends in Silent Minister went to many Concerts such as Warped Tour and Ozzfest music festivals. On June 16, 2001, Patrick Lew met the famous punk/pop band Blink 182 at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco and got his Blink 182 CD autographed by the 3 punk musicians. He also got Mark Hoppus to get his band's management to purchase him a copy of The Beatles "Let It Be" CD at the record store!
By then, they played "Battle of the Bands" in 2002 at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall and got a friend to use their tape recorder to pirate a bootleg of some of their live musical performances. The Silent Minister made it to MP3.com but were also lost in the shuffle. At the time, MP3.com was the independent musicians social-networking website. Silent Minister debuted on MP3.com around August 2002 but mostly was in the indie music community webpage's very undercard roster of talents. Mostly getting their music promoted on the C-brand of MP3.com which was for the new musical groups who just begun their music careers but needed an extra music school training with other local groups that were very underground. MP3.com was later merged with SoundClick.com by the end of 2002, and Patrick Lew's music and art would be mainly published on that indie music page.
Silent Minisrer spent 2003 touring, recording and going to school of course. They published their early collection of bedroom musical recordings "Live! Like a Garage Band!" by the end of 2002 and spent most of 2003 doing live musical performances and events locally and band practice. However, they would win a title to their musical resume on SoundClick. "Live! Like a Garage Band!" was awarded a 3/5 musical critique and review by music critic Thom Jurek but there were hints to come in Patrick Lew's still relatively new musical resume and career occupation as a musician to progress but in later years. Silent Minister and Patrick Lew's early years in the Internet independent music community showcased them as an up-and-coming musician and local band as mid-carders in the musical competition on SoundClick.
Patrick first turned HEEL when he was meeting Groupies from his DJ Audio Rage/Silent Minister music pages on the Internet through Indy music community websites and the defunct social-networking page Findapix.com. A brash and quirky musician, Patrick in mid-2003 was reportedly in a variety of Swinger relationships with Asian women he met on Findapix.com.
It wasn't however, until 2004 when Silent Minister began ranking themselves in the independent music community and tournament of talented independent musicians. Despite Patrick Lew's divorce from high school girlfriend Amy Shawn and personal hardships with depression and narcotics. Silent Minister and Patrick Lew began their road to the big leagues of the music industry by doing a concert tour locally in April to June of that year. A trip to Amoeba Records and meeting Jpop singer Nami Tamaki during a free concert at the music store with a library of records and music inspired the band to create and record the song "Tokyo Pop Princess" which shot to the middle of the Independent Music Charts on SoundClick. Their 2004 debut album "Psychotic Love" was recorded in the home recording studio of Patrick's after little musical formulas and songwritings at the time. More of a Live Band than a Studio Band, they used the 4-track PortaStudio to experiment with creating music along with each band member adding their own ideas to their album. "Psychotic Love" became the launch of Patrick Lew's musical career and his long independent musician odyssey towards making it to the bigger leagues of the popular music community. A second Silent Minister album, "Blizzard of Sound" was recorded in one night at guitarist Eddie Blackburn's home on October 23, 2004. Silent Minister began earning some exposure locally and mostly on the Internet music world.
Patrick graduated high school on June 3, 2004. He first considered an Alternative project (later Audio Riot) to playing music in Silent Minister by placing an ad on Craigslist.org. It didn't work.
However, the band's relationship and marriage was put to the test during the "Psychotic Love" tour across local recreational centers and City College SF. After their concert at Balboa High School on February 13, 2005, they gave up on touring and decided to work on music for the next studio album in Eddie's home recording studio. During the constant promotion on SoundClick, Patrick Lew won his first solo musician title to his resume with "Sexy Asian Guitarists" winning 4th place in the music tournament. Zack Huang, a college friend of Patrick's. Joined Silent Minister on keyboards in May 2005 which resulted supposedly in creating music for the third studio album with the high school band in Eddie's private recording studio. What followed was tension between the band members and musicians in the high school band and on June 9, 2005, Silent Minister played their final concert in Chinatown in San Francisco before Eddie and Shawn left the group to form a local Funk Metal band Soundeater and has since published their music on rival indie music community website locally, KLC Music Productions. However, Patrick would mutually put his differences aside with Eddie and Shawn but play music in his own solo project.
In 2005, Patrick was in romantic relationships with his former Japanese girlfriend Yoshiko, whom he acquainted at Silent Minister's show at Balboa High School. He also was in romantically linked with an estranged relationship with a friend Laila whom he met randomly.
Zack and Patrick would team on-and-off as musical collaborators and musicians to create music for Silent Minister by placing ads in the newspaper Craigslist to hire a new guitarist to replace Eddie. Mark Hawkins joined Silent Minister in July. The association lasted for only a few weeks, Patrick and Zack briefly joined Internet musician Gray Eser's Metal band The Original Tapeworms in September for jamming on music in Gray's home in the Richmond village of San Francisco. Patrick and Zack took Silent Minister to Hong Kong in October and November 2005 for "Blizzard of Sound" CD Promotion Tour but the high school band quietly disbanded by the end of 2005. Patrick left City College due to burn out, personal hardships and his interest/hobby to further his music career.
Band of Asians formed when Patrick went to Skyline College and met Dave Arceo (drums/turntables) and Augusto Hernandez (bass guitar) in the school's music club. Due to Patrick's shambolic love relationships with women, Patrick grew intense and content to create better music and work his way up as a top independent musician on the Internet which resulted him in turning HEEL. On SoundClick, Silent Minister's website was left in the high school yearbook and Band of Asians came onto the music community as the solo project of Patrick Lew with the help of his musician friends. Patrick turned rulebreaker. Being misogynist, malevolent and utterly misanthropic. This was well-documented on his blogs on the Band of Asians music page showing and convincing others that he wants to be a great musician and the king of Alternative music. Following one concert in 2006 at Vibo Music Center (also became a live album EP for Band of Asians), Patrick turned his attention to the aborted third Silent Minister studio album.
Patrick's time at Skyline College was very short, although he formed Band of Asians at the college. His relationship with Yoshiko was in shambles and was forced out of the media and spotlight to heal some nagging injuries and to create music in the local recording studio.
That unreleased and unfinished music intended for Silent Minister's third studio album became Band of Asians' musical masterpiece "Revenge." Recorded in a variety of small local recording studios and published around the world on SoundClick and other independent music community websites on Patrick Lew's 21st birthday. The Band of Asians debut CD showed a more Experimental and Music Fusion huge wall of sound for Patrick's 6 year musical career as he arranged, played 75% of the musical instruments, produced and recorded at the local recording studio. Endorsing new musical gear at the Guitar Center, they created a more interesting yet unique music with the "Revenge" album. Which later resulted in SoundClick independent music cross-promotions with other indie music websites like Muzie. This album also earned Patrick Lew "DMusic.com 2006 Artist of the Year" although the "Revenge" album was met with poor record sales and mp3 music downloads due to lack of funding to merchandise and publish the album. Augusto soon left Band of Asians to promote his music on Muzie with his JRock band. And Dave and Patrick became the Band of Asians tag team of musicians.
In late 2006, Patrick officially broke up with his former Japanese girlfriend Yoshiko after almost 2 years. He met his former girlfriend and currently good friend, Faith, on dating website PlentyOfFish.com which resulted in Patrick losing his virginity on their first and only date in Stockton, California on November 25, 2006. He returned to City College during the Fall 2006.
By 2007, Patrick Lew made his 2nd coming and musical comeback locally and in the indepedent music community and media with Band of Asians by starting back from scratch with his new solo musical group. Playing small shows locally for live musical performances and the DIY of his music and SoundClick flyers across the villages in record shops. Patrick, still a HEEL. Formed an Alliance with musician and backyard wrestler Cory Gaitan (who became Band of Asians' substitute bassist for touring) along with Dave Arceo and declared rebellion towards the music community who wouldn't listen to their music and art. Such incidents included Patrick and Cory scuffling an Asian poser kid at the Goth Club, Diemaschien in 16th and Mission in San Francisco. But still, the music should do the talking not the autobiography as Band of Asians built a home recording studio called Band in the Box (as Patrick wrote on his SoundClick blog) with the musical gear from Guitar Center. Together in that bedroom, they recorded a whopping 70 to 80 songs and published them on the Internet on SoundClick! Playing a show with Scarlett Bombs and Tinkture on April 14, 2007 also saw Band of Asians playing music but antagonizing the audience if they didn't appreciate Band of Asians music. Not to mention Patrick, Cory and Dave partying at The Independent Club with Scarlett Bombs' Michelle Mingoa and Nicole R. for their 19th birthdays with Patrick angrily casting aside people who underestimated or underappreciated him as a musician and individual.
The Band of Asians played their biggest concert to date at Golden Gate Park for a local festival on August 11, 2007 (Cory's 19th birthday) for a live musical performance. Patrick then turned his attention to the SoundClick music contests and tournaments feeling he was decent enough to earn a spot in the musical tournament of other talented bands and musicians on SoundClick. Two tournaments the Band of Asians sent a resume and their songs "No Music No Life" and "Jingle Bell Rock" for the 10th anniversary of SoundClick and Holiday SoundClick contests only resulted in them being in the 2nd round before being voted off.
Making matters worse, music critics on SoundClick discouraged the Band of Asians' music. Provoking the anger of Patrick Lew. Zack also re-joined into Band of Asians as they defeated their Garage Band enemies First Amendment on August 29th. However, Cory Gaitan was released from SoundClick and Band of Asians on September 12, 2007 due to personal issues. Zack soon began doing his own music and contemplated getting a FREE music page on SoundClick. Dave Arceo was released from Soundclick on December 4, 2008 for personal reasons.
Things would be very different without Dave by Patrick's side as he was already a big mid-carder musician on the SoundClick band roster. After the death of his beloved pet Pekanese dog and more blantant criticism from Steve Gilmore. Patrick contemplated leaving SoundClick.com and publishing his music elsewhere on the Internet through a different independent music community website. Band of Asians went into an extended vacation as Patrick contemplated his musical future with Band of Asians as "Buy Product" was already an Internet-only published album. After much begging and plodding from his peers and friends on SoundClick, Patrick returned to the big online Indepedent Music Community within a week.
Now a FACE again. Patrick is now more laid-back and wiser. He still draws mixed reception from music fans and critics but he contemplates finishing college. On February 24, 2008, Dave Arceo signed a new contract with SoundClick.com and is set to debut in his own solo project,
Band of Asians would do a musical crossover-promotion with Patrick's new Thrash band Audio Riot which he is looking to form with musicians when he finisheds City College and heads to a CSU college.
|
|
User Comments
You must be logged in to post replies to news articles.
Log in or register with the form at the top of the page.
|
|
|
|
