Exclusive Interview
Punk rock band, Lewnatic!
Punk rock band, Lewnatic!
Lewnatic has been making noise in the punk rock scene. What sparked the formation of this project? Oh yes, that is what up! I originally started Lewnatic just well before the pandemic in Summer 2019 as a reset with my life and music. I was dealing with a lot back then in my life, and I wasn't doing Patrick Lew Band at the moment because my mother passed two years before that. I was playing in a few local bands here in San Francisco, but it didn't have a good ending pretty much. So in July 2019, I started Lewnatic originally with my old friend Ahmed, who was this Filipino rapper I knew from my neighborhood. Originally, Lewnatic was a rap-metal duo. I did a few dates quietly in Japan in August that year, and we had did shows at San Francisco's DNA Lounge once a month till the pandemic hit. After COVID happened, me and Ahmed parted ways from doing Lewnatic. And I revived the Patrick Lew Band one last time in mid-2020. That's when everything started becoming all that I've ever wanted with my music and everything else. By 2022, I revived Lewnatic as a solo live-streaming and touring project. I quickly signed with Bentley Records in the Summer, released several EP's and singles under them for three years. By the time I wrapped up my deal with Bentley Records quietly, I felt like I did all I could with the Patrick Lew Band. So, I rebranded PLB as a continuation and next chapter of life after PLB and got Madeline Lew (collaborator/alter-ego) involved occasionally. And here we are now in 2026, still rocking. Still making music!
Like you mentioned, you were previously known for leading the Patrick Lew Band. How is this era different creatively with Lewnatic? I did PLB (Patrick Lew Band) for 25 years and it was a lot of weight for me emotionally, mentally, and in general. There was a lot of good, bad, and ugly that went down during my 25 year tenure with the Patrick Lew Band. I didn't want it to go stale and I felt like I accomplished everything I could have had in PLB for sure. PLB called it a day on July 4, 2025 publicly online and I felt it was right to evolve as Lewnatic. It was like when PS2 went to PS3 as far as gaming eras goes. Or when Paul went to do Wings after The Beatles. What motivated me to do Lewnatic is to honor PLB's legacy and origins, while evolving with the times as a virtual rock star. This era is less about being grandiose and "wanting to make a larger than life" rock band, and more about being comfortable in my own skin as an elder statesman as I just turned 40. I kept a lot of the digital-only rock band traits with Lewnatic that I had with Patrick Lew Band. But I was no longer just experimenting with different genre-bending complex styles and I just wanted to like ROCK out. Reminiscent of the circa 1992 rock I grew up inspired by, by very modern at the same time. In this era, I wanted to rock but at the same time use modern tech and vibes to make this all happen. I use AI-assisted tools and my own guitar playing and input when making music. And keeping everything as punk rock as possible!
Japanese punk rock has a rich history of rebellion and individuality. How does Lewnatic honor that tradition while carving out its own identity? Lewnatic honors that side of the tradition because I am very proud of my heritage and represent my culture a lot as an artist and as a human being. We grew up on punk rock as kids back in the 90's and early 2000s. While we were also listening to classic rock from our parents generation, 90's rock (grunge and Britpop), J-Rock, J-Pop, video game music, blues, rap, and all the other good stuff! We wanted to honor our Asian-American and Japanese culture and heritage, but be ourselves completely at the same time based on our story and personality. As kids, we didn't have much and we stood out in school and our surroundings. Back in the day, it was very rare for East Asians in the United States doing rock music as we were an underrepresented group of people. I wanted to honor my "punk" roots while trying to be unique and be myself at the same time! Back in the day, when I was with Patrick Lew Band in the early 2010s, we were lost in a fragmented local music scene in the Bay Area competing with a lot of different people, such as metalcore/post-hardcore bands. The Bay Area music scene still very fragmented from all counties, and I was always a punk garage band trying to make it. But the local music scene wasn't giving us that spot yet, so the Internet was our playground and stage to get heard! And it did us well sort of. Just too many fragmentation and gatekeeping where we were at, so we used the Internet as our main stage! That's where I became exclusively a virtual rock band. I like it too, because I'm not comfortable with the traditional rock star platform and prefer personal autonomy too.
Your music carries both aggression and precision. When writing a new track, do you focus more on raw emotion first or tight musical structure? I usually have this philosophy where the music comes first before anything else! I don't thin too much of the emotion. A lot of it turns out the way they did just by trial-and-error. When I'm making new tracks, it's always music first, delivery and lyrics second. If there are any lyrics in my music because I'm not a very good singer myself, and Madeline is the main lead vocalist in Lewnatic and formerly Patrick Lew Band! I don't give out too many details how the music is created. But with Lewnatic, I use a lot of modern technology such as AI-assisted tools to create backing tracks, then everything else comes right after such as my guitar and synth parts and Maddie's vocals. I consider Lewnatic a virtual rock band because I normally don't follow traditional rock star platforms and activities, and keep it predominantly like a "bedroom producer" and occasional local live show performance type of thang. But yeah, it's always the music first before the delivery of any raw emotion on headphones!
What themes dominate Lewnatic’s lyrics, personal struggles, social resistance, empowerment, or something else? A lot of Lewnatic's lyrics are based on personal struggles, societal resistance, alienation in the digital age, San Francisco city life, rebirth, grief, and all the angsty stuff. I think even if you're 40 years old, a lot of the angst never fully goes away in the music and life. Especially, for us geriatric millennials. We love a lot of 70's and 80's classic rock like hair metal, but the lyrics were always too cheesy and plastic for us. We weren't all about partying, fast cars, money, and having a good time always in the songs we write. We wanted to talk about life on a deeper level, angsty, but at the same still empowering and positive!
Being rooted in punk energy, how important is authenticity in an era dominated by streaming, algorithms, and social media? It's hard man. Sometime, I get a little thrown off by my lack of algorithms (number of likes and comments) on social-media compared to some people who are also like us on Instagram and TikTok. It bums us out sometimes man! But "success" has a different meaning now than how it did 20 years ago in the music scene. It isn't all always about being signed to a major label, tour the world, and make appearances on MTV and radio anymore. the Internet made it easier for guys like me to get out there in music. We got Bandcamp, we got Soundcloud, and everything else. Success to us isn't always about how our numbers and algorithms look on social-media, and how many people are streaming our songs on Spotify. I felt that because I got so out there through independent non-mainstream platforms like music blogs and etc etc since 2020 really did put Lewnatic on the map in our own way. I mean, we got 62 countries worldwide listening to Patrick Lew Band intermittently since 2015 on Spotify! We have a huge digital footprint. Even if our algorithms suck, we definitely feel we've been validated since then and we're not wrong about it! We don't really wanna be mainstream. It's like that Vietnamese guy from that episode of Hey Arnold on 90's Nickelodeon when he was a famous country singer for a short time! He didn't like it. Don't think we wanna be that mainstream either!
Patrick, you’ve been known as a one-man musical force for years. How has working on your Lewnatic project influenced your songwriting and production approach? I always felt being a one-man band was easier for me mentally and creatively. I was in a few local Bay Area punk bands just before I created Lewnatic and brought back PLB one last time in 2020. But felt stifled mentally and creatively hindered. I didn't like the drama of being in those bands, although I did not mind playing shows and touring the West Coast sporadically during the mid-to-late 2010s in my old dead Nissan Rogue I don't have anymore! The outcome wasn't positive let's put it that way! I think being this one-man band in Lewnatic gave me full creative control over what I wanted to do with my music, gave me all the personal autonomy and stability in the world, and full independence from being stuck in a stagnant unhappy situation, like being in a band that didn't favor my presence long-term. Even though, it's kind of hard being a one-man band. I compare it to like playing a very hard video game at the arcade by yourself on one coin from start to finish. It's very refreshing and rewarding at the same time. If I were to do Lewnatic as a live band, I would need to assemble a backing band of three other musicians. But that's a pipe dream at this point! I'm content being a V-Tuber and all-digital rock band!
The Japanese rock scene often blends strong visuals with powerful sound. How does Lewnatic approach imagery, branding, and live presentation? We try and go for Anime inspired visuals/imagery/branding. In representation of our Japanese heritage and AAPI roots. Right now, Lewnatic is being heavily promoted on a Japanese music website online (https://musicpr.jp/artist_english.php?id=3899&tm) and it's been doing a good job getting my name out there in the motherland as marketing and promotion. Our live presentation is also similar to Japan's rock scene, where it's kinda reminiscent of punk legends GUITAR WOLF, but also V-Tuber and Utaite artists like Ado and Hatsune Miku. I didn't mention this earlier, but Madeline Lew is actually an alter-ego I created through digital technology and is marketed the way she is in my band Lewnatic, a close muse of mines in this lifetime, brought together by fate and the music. Her singing voice was actually created through AI technology and Vocaloid earlier on. In some ways, Madeline Lew from Lewnatic is the "Asian-American Hatsune Miku." And we do this heavy rock stuff like in a garage-y style like Guitar Wolf or Melt Banana. So it makes sense!
What has been the most defining moment for Lewnatic so far, a show, a release, or a turning point creatively? We don't do many live shows. But in the early years of Lewnatic, we were performing once a month at DNA Lounge in San Francisco, before the pandemic hit. Those were fun. And there's videos of it too on YouTube. We done a mix of in-person shows and mostly live-stream events in 2022 and 2023, and a QR code promo tour in Los Angeles, in May 2024. The most important part of all that is getting old fans and new people engaged with what I do, creating our own community I call the Lewniverse! By 2022, the turning point was I got signed to Bentley Records. That's when I began using AI as an assisted tool to make the music. That changed everything for us creatively, but still sounded a bit like us, because my guitar leads are still on tape. Our best records were typically released as EP's or singles. And honestly, I am very proud that I made that music too! Once the Patrick Lew Band era was over, I decided to integrate my alter-ego Madeline Lew again into my post-PLB work with Lewnatic and keep doing what we gotta!
Looking ahead, what’s the mission for Lewnatic? Are you aiming to expand globally, experiment with new sounds, or double down on pure punk intensity? I definitely wanna expand more globally and experiment with new sounds and styles of music while keeping ourselves legit and authentic like our punk rock selves and roots. We just wanna keep making unique music, keep getting it out there, like maybe play a live show locally a few times a year, and keep ourselves pure from any "mainstream" gatekeeping and corporations trying to water me down! All I can say is, please keep posted whenever we post online on our social-media. I also started a stripped-down punk band called THE LATER, THE BETTER (TLTB) which focuses more on me playing guitar and real instruments away from the digital polish and AI stuff. All I can say is...Stay tuned!