“Jump, rattle and roll to his rock and roll freak show.” There’s nothing quite like this particular catch phrase from Asian-American rocker Patrick Lew Hayashi. There’s one thing you can probably say about this man - this guy knows how to make an impact wherever he goes and what he does!

During summer 2009, the Yay Area music scene witnessed this young, wild and hungry man rise against all his opponents and take his brand of punk rock music to a whole new and strange level on the Internet with his Patrick Lew Band. They got their worst nightmares and satisfaction delivered when on Dec. 11, the Patrick Lew Band self-released their second full-length album Let It Rise And Against through CDBaby. Auspiciously interrupting the masses and the underground who didn’t quite believe in the hype surrounding his almighty PLB, the brash and erratically unhinged upstart introduced himself to the world through the power of the digital age as a rock star who wasn’t afraid to be himself and take it to the next level.

The son and middle child of Winson Lew and Winnie Hayashi, Hayashi was born in San Francisco, CA, with ancestral roots to Japan, Taiwan and mainland China. A rock and roll fan at an early age, he began playing guitar at thirteen years old once his beloved cousin Andy was living with him and his family one summer as an international studies student at a local community college. And made his musical debut in 2001 at the ripe young age of fifteen. Starting out in the rigid amateur territories in San Francisco, Hayashi went on to play music for many regional start-up bands in Northern California, solidifying his repertoire along the way.

After briefly reaching notoriety and prominence in Band of Asians, Hayashi created PLB in its first proper form in 2007, firing up many detractors and putting his name out there on the World Wide Web among the legions of cult followers known as the “PLB Army” or “Lewnatics.” Growing frustrated with the music scene politicking that plagued his hard work, he sensed a brighter future in PLB and broke the walls down on social-media with his brash, edgy, straight-ahead and no-nonsense brand of punk rock in 2009.

While some people would grow rather cold and dismissive under the weight of such a hyped underground rock and roll idol, Hayashi reveled in it. In the years that followed, the Lewnatic himself grabbed himself quite a number of titles and bragging rights while serving under his Patrick Lew Band. He was handpicked by Dmusic.com as 2007’s Rising Artist of the Year, July 2016’s Akademia Music Awards Best Experimental Rock Song (the hit single “Game Changer”) and collected other credentials under his name such as being mentioned on-air on Northern California classic rock radio station 107.7 THE BONE and serving as the Ambassador for Antennas Direct for a few years. In 2019, he became the first Japanese-American man to receive the 40 Under 40 Award at his alma mater Cal State East Bay.

Hayashi has left and returned to PLB on several occasions. During his various hiatuses, he worked on himself, honed his craft with other Bay Area bands and even made an uncredited cameo appearance on the critically acclaimed Amazon TV series The Man in the High Castle, but he’s always found his way back home to the band that made his mark across the universe that he’s still got his more life in the tank.

After a few years away from PLB to work with other side-bands regionally, Hayashi made his shocking return to Patrick Lew Band in March 2020 as a direct response to the COVID-19 and the anti-Asian xenophobia related to it worldwide. His mission now was to break the walls down even further and push more buttons while doing so, referring to himself as the “Japanese-Taiwanese Rock And Roll Pariah” and “The Moral Compass of the Yay Area Music Scene” With eight full-length studio albums and several EPs already under his name, Hayashi continues to occasionally make new music, put it out there worldwide and to promise everyone that he’s here to stay and raise some hell.

With the heart of a Steel Lion, the voice of a rugged rocker and the will of a fighter. Patrick Lew Hayashi will always do what he does. To be here to break the walls down, break barriers and opposition in equal measure.