Heavy Sigma is an instrumental experimental rock band that formed in Antioch, California in 2011. It was founded as a solo project for guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Lew, whilst his band the Patrick Lew Band was becoming more of a construction of an actual band with other musicians involved sporadically. Heavy Sigma also features musical collaboration and performances by other Patrick Lew Band members including Faith Marie and Dave Arceo. Playing music under pseudonym 'guises' in an attempt to preserve their low-key ethnical and musical approach to musical enterpreneurship and to thwart mass media hype, Heavy Sigma mainly plays abrasive, loose, and raw non-conventional sounding rock & roll and garage punk. Following the same promotional tasks that Patrick Lew Band took to get their music heard, the Internet and local San Francisco Bay Area social-media were methods to getting themselves out there.
Latest News
Check us out online!
http://www.reverbnation.com/heavysigmaband
http://www.facebook.com/heavysigma
http://www.soundclick.com/heavysigma
AND ENJOY THE MUSIC.
EPK
Born: November 15, 1985
Ethnicity: Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese
Birthplace: San Francisco, California (billed from Taipei, Taiwan)
Instruments: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Programming
Hobbies: Writing music, watching TV and movies, reading, skateboarding, sightseeing, education, attending sporting events, going to shows, spending time with his girlfriend Faith and friends.
Patrick started playing guitar and attempting to write his own songs at 13 years of age and grew up in San Francisco, California. His musical influences are Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, The White Stripes, Tesla, AFI, The Faces, and Green Day. Living in the SF Bay Area, Patrick attended CSU East Bay as a Philosophy major, graduating in 2011 while continuing his passion for making music locally. As it turns out, music wasn't Patrick's first serious passion as a child. He was into skateboarding and playing basketball until putting that all aside for playing guitar and writing his own music. His first rock concert was the Australian grunge band Silverchair while he was in middle school. It was watching that live musical performance that partially influenced Patrick to become a rock musician. He would go to Guitar Center, and buy him that "Hot Wheels" Epiphone Les Paul that would become his trademark instrument.
Patrick played in a nu metal band with friends from high school and college called the Band of Asians around the San Francisco bar scene, before deciding the problems he had with being in a band made him realize his music was better suited for a solo project. He started the solo hard rock group aptly called the Patrick Lew Band as a teenager, recording a countless number of musical ideas at home and uploading them online, alongside a revolving door of sidemen collaborating with him in the studio. In 2009, after nearly a whole decade of flops and attempts to get recognition and respect, the Patrick Lew Band began attracting a cult following on the Internet and in the SF Bay Area. Mostly comfortable as a home recording musician as opposed to playing guitar and singing onstage, Patrick feels most delighted whenever he writes a song on his guitar and records them on his laptop running Acoustica Mixcraft. Putting the finishing touches on every rocking new record he attempts before posting them online.
In 2011, Patrick accomplished a few small things with the Patrick Lew Band. His
name was mentioned in an electronic music magazine and the underground media. He played bass in a side project with his college friend Greg Lynch called the P&G and made YouTube videos through Patrick's digital camera of their live musical performances as buskers in Antioch, California. His album "Let It Rise And Against" brought Patrick the critical moderate success he needed as an independent musician. Aside from his talent in music, Patrick has acted in a few school plays and is an avid video blogger and amateur comedian on YouTube.
Patrick is passionate about creating music and playing his guitar. Without focusing or dwelling on fame and fortune, Patrick is a determined hard working young man who makes his success in his music on his own terms. He loves and cares about the few fans who come out on his Facebook page and support him, and takes extra time to make qualitative rock and roll music while taking care of adult responsibilities. His own bedroom is his rock star playground, with musical equipment and the latest electronics. Patrick currently resides in the Excelsior District in San Francisco. Some of his interests outside of music include watching TV and movies, traveling, going to sporting events, reading, and spending time with his long-time girlfriend Faith Marie and his friends.
BIO (UPDATED: May 2013)
Patrick started playing guitar and attempting to write his own songs at 13 years of age and grew up in San Francisco, California. His musical influences are Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, The White Stripes, Tesla, AFI, The Faces, and Green Day. Living in the SF Bay Area, Patrick attended CSU East Bay as a Philosophy major, graduating in 2011 while continuing his passion for making music locally. As it turns out, music wasn't Patrick's first serious passion as a child. He was into skateboarding and playing basketball until putting that all aside for playing guitar and writing his own music. His first rock concert was the Australian grunge band Silverchair while he was in middle school. It was watching that live musical performance that partially influenced Patrick to become a rock musician. He would go to Guitar Center, and buy him that "Hot Wheels" Epiphone Les Paul that would become his trademark instrument.
Patrick played in a nu metal band with friends from high school and college called the Band of Asians around the San Francisco bar scene, before deciding the problems he had with being in a band made him realize his music was better suited for a solo project. He started the solo hard rock group aptly called the Patrick Lew Band as a teenager, recording a countless number of musical ideas at home and uploading them online, alongside a revolving door of sidemen collaborating with him in the studio. In 2009, after nearly a whole decade of flops and attempts to get recognition and respect, the Patrick Lew Band began attracting a cult following on the Internet and in the SF Bay Area. Mostly comfortable as a home recording musician as opposed to playing guitar and singing onstage, Patrick feels most delighted whenever he writes a song on his guitar and records them on his laptop running Acoustica Mixcraft. Putting the finishing touches on every rocking new record he attempts before posting them online.
In 2011, Patrick accomplished a few small things with the Patrick Lew Band. His name was mentioned in an electronic music magazine and the underground media. He played bass in a side project with his college friend Greg Lynch called the P&G and made YouTube videos through Patrick's digital camera of their live musical performances as buskers in Antioch, California. His album "Let It Rise And Against" brought Patrick the critical moderate success he needed as an independent musician. Aside from his talent in music, Patrick has acted in a few school plays and is an avid video blogger and amateur comedian on YouTube.
Patrick is passionate about creating music and playing his guitar. Without focusing or dwelling on fame and fortune, Patrick is a determined hard working young man who makes his success in his music on his own terms. He loves and cares about the few fans who come out on his Facebook page and support him, and takes extra time to make qualitative rock and roll music while taking care of adult responsibilities such a part-time job at American Greetings and spending time with his girlfriend of 6 years Faith Marie and friends. His own bedroom is his rock star playground, with musical equipment and the latest electronics. Patrick currently resides in the Excelsior District in San Francisco. Some of his interests outside of music include watching TV and movies, traveling, going to sporting events, reading, and spending time with his long-time girlfriend Faith Marie and his friends.
New Heavy Sigma Bio
Heavy Sigma is a San Franciscan punk rock band. Led by Asian American rock guitarist and songwriter Patrick Lew, Heavy Sigma puts music together in Patrick's bedroom. Afterwards, the band puts music online and shares it for everybody to hear, support, or massively hate! You're looking at the real Heavy Sigma page right now! Patrick cares deeply about his fan base, and always strives to maintain close connections and relationships with their audience on their Facebook, Reverbnation, Soundcloud, and other websites! So feel free to strike a conversation, download the sh*** demos, share the website with your close ones, and check out this website for the latest updates, blogs, demos, everything else!
1) band name: Heavy Sigma
2) hometown: Antioch, California, USA
3) genres: Indie Rock, Punk, Lo Fi
4) years active: 2009-present
5) labels: Anti Nonsense Networking (worldwide)
6) website:
http://www.reverbnation.com/heavysigmaband
http://www.facebook.com/heavysigma
7) band members:
Patrick Lew - Guitar, Vocals, His Computer
BIO
Starting out by aimlessly jamming in his own bedroom with then-limited experience and education in playing music, creating his own brand of Garage Punk. He recorded his first demo tape in 1999 with a schoolmate named Tommy, and in May 2001, Patrick Lew began promoting his music on the Internet as a solo rock musician or in his freelance garage bands. Unlike most of his contemporaries in San Francisco, his sidemen band were interracial and inter-gender. Alongside, displaying more 80's and early 90's hard rock and Seattle grunge inspirations fused with contemporary punk. Lew also adopted a part Mod, part Hippie, and trendy Asian pop culture image. But later replaced it with more a casual mature look.
Lew mainly created music, freelanced with other musicians in the Bay Area community in garage bands, and busked free low-key gigs locally in bars, churches, high schools, even outside in downtown San Francisco.
One of his most notable moments during his brief time as a live performing Garage Punk band was opening up for the all-girl SF pop punk trio Tinkture, Scarlett Bombs, and former lead guitarist Eddie Blackburn's other band Nocturnal Rock Turtles during a 2007 local tour across recreational centers sponsored by KLC Productions.
Some time in 2008, Lew no longer performed live gigs with temporary jam bands and assembled a homegrown rock band in his own bedroom with Internet and computers, to create his own music alone. Despite many troubles, Lew persisted and determined himself to improve as an artist, songwriter, guitar player, and musician after years of being deemed "awful" as a musician playing and making rock & roll music given the lack of experience at the time playing guitar and creating music. He devoted more time to other extracurricular side projects, such as The P & G. And because of consistent expansion through the social-media, Lew finally receive slight recognition for his efforts and earned some online fame as a musician. Becoming somewhat of a critical moderate success in the underground rock and roll scene across the universe, and attracts a cult-like following via Internet based on persistence and uniqueness.
The 411
Heavy Sigma
1) hometown: San Francisco East Bay, California, USA
2) genres: Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Garage Punk, Grunge
3) years active: 2011-present
4) record label: Unsigned (f*** record labels...)
5) related bands: Patrick Lew Band, Band of Asians
6) band members:
TWRebel85 (AKA Patrick Lew): Guitar, Electronics, Lead Vocals
Angel Eyes (AKA Faith Marie Lew): Drums & Percussion
Stitch (AKA David Arceo): Electronics
The Genesis of Heavy Sigma
Patrick Lew and Faith Marie met on a free dating website and became a serious romantic couple despite long-distance separating one another, especially because of personal priorities in life. Lew and Dave Arceo met at Skyline College whilst Lew was taking a few music courses, and played together in the now-eponymous Band of Asians from the San Francisco post-hardcore scene. Prior to forming Heavy Sigma as a Patrick Lew solo project, with credited contributions with close ones musically, Lew was experiencing the sudden critical cult-like success and was playing music frequently in the Bay Area with the Grunge/Punk self-prolcaimed buzzworthy band the Patrick Lew Band. Brushing off the critical success and experiencing immense pressure from sudden cult-like fame for his music in the PLB Army, Lew decided to take a brief hibernation from the Patrick Lew Band to focus on other musical activity as an artist and rock guitar player.
Aware of the overwhelming experience with how to follow-up the critically acclaimed "Murder Bay" recording with PLB while making music, Lew chose the other method of being a musician, by going more low-key in his approach to recording and marketing his music alone experimenting with more second-rate songwriting ideas and instrumentals. Which was the genesis of Heavy Sigma as a Patrick Lew solo project.
Heavy Sigma's material mainly consists of chaotically raw and unpolished produced music featuring unfinished musical ideas Lew experimented alone, feeling no need to record it with the Patrick Lew Band considering he felt it was not his best music as an artist and rock guitarist.
A lot of Heavy Sigma's music is experimental post-rock, but dabbles with other styles closely associated with the Patrick Lew Band such as Grunge and Garage Punk. However, on the Heavy Sigma studio demo which was published and posted via Internet as of early 2012, many of the musical ideas wounded up becoming instrumental-only produced rock music. Lew's guitar playing skills were also at the time artistically challenging, as he felt his lead guitar playing sound was suffering on record given his experience and limitations as a musician.
With today's digital technology and computers with fast-speed Internet or WiFi, online collaboration between Lew alongside Faith Marie and Dave Arceo via webcam when making the music on Skype and social-media website juggernaut Facebook enabled some of Marie and Arceo's musical performances and contributions on record in the studio. Recording bits and pieces of the music in their own home studios and computers, emailing back the multitrack files via WAV to Lew so he could Frankenstein the music on record.
Between October to December 2011, Heavy Sigma began making music in the studio. It resulted in their recorded EP, Studio Demos 2012 (also known as Oddities). Which later after they finished making the music, was posted on the Internet as a free download on PLB-related band websites. Usually, Lew hands out printed pamphlets of Heavy Sigma locally at gigs and elsewhere to get his new solo project out there. But most of it was musical entrepreneurship based methods on the Internet itself.
Lew intends Heavy Sigma as more of a solo project hobby for his passion for playing rock & roll music, but doesn't discount any prospects of performing live shows under the 'guise' Heavy Sigma sporadically.