Origins
The musical group was founded in Daly City around 2001 through an ad on the Recycler and Music Connection by then-inexperienced
musician Patrick Lew. At first, the band practices with the Samurai Sorcerers band did not last very long at Patrick “Audio”
Lew’s house. The band was formed by keyboardist/guitarist Patrick Lew, drummer Jesse Bodas and other guitarist Graham
Palmer. The band underwent several bandname changes: rotating ideas for the group’s name. Their style of music was a
mix of folk-rock, punk and grunge.
Audio Rage (or Samurai Sorcerers)...The musical group is the project of Patrick Lew mainly...He
learned how to play various musical instruments at a music school near his house called Vibo Music Center. He got his first
electric guitar and other instruments at Guitar Center or Costco.
Some early RARE cassette tape demos of these early Samurai Sorcerers sessions
were recently found in Patrick’s bedroom at home. However, due to the terrible quality of the music and sound recording
that came from these early band practices, they were never published anywhere. Patrick however, did put some of the songs
from this boombox tape online around 2001 or 2002.
Jesse Bodas left the band by early 2002 for art school and to move back to
Modesto. Graham however, had a HUGE dispute with Patrick over the group and music and quit around Patrick’s 16th birthday.
The Wallenberg High Yearbook (2002 – 2005)
When Patrick
was desperate to form another group of musicians to do his love for playing music, he met 15-year old Eddie Blackburn at his
drama class at Wallenberg School of Arts. An aspiring musician that also played electric guitar and shared Patrick Lew’s
interest in Guitar Music Culture and its icons like Steve Vai, the two quickly agreed to form a band together. Patrick at
some point, put a “band wanted” ad on the school newspaper, but to little results.
The two musicians had IDEAS for the group and the music…Samurai Sorcerers
was intended to be a SOLO PROJECT of sorts for Patrick “Audio” Lew. Another but different musical project would
be in the works later on. Eddie contributed Samurai Sorcerers as a session/studio guitarist. He would however, play live with
the band during their May-June 2004 “starving musician” gigs.
Patrick then called upon a friend, Mayumi, from the school’s Japanese
culture club, to join the Samurai Sorcerers on bass. Thus forming its most significant and famous version of the Rock Ensemble’s
lineup.
Starving Artists of Rock!
Usually, the whole group would do a band practice in each other’s houses to play music as a hobby. One thing
about the most FAMOUS lineup of Samurai Sorcerers was they had no drummer. So Eddie used his $$$ and bought a drum machine
from a local music store as a substitute for the whole musical group and band. Throughout 2003 and early 2004, the Samurai
Sorcerers began a “sort of” Making the Band as the musicians planned their ideas out for long-term musical activities
and their future as members of the Samurai Sorcerers band camp.
Around the “Making the Band” story of Samurai Sorcerers during
this time, controversy began to surround the musical group as the musicians outside the band began having their personal lives
(Patrick mostly) exposed at school, the SF community and etc. This slowed down the process of getting the music and the whole
musical group thing working, but they still fought hard.
Live! Like a Garage Band!
In mid 2004, the ensemble of musicians known as “Samurai Sorcerers” decided to some of the more FUN musical
activities for the band…They would do “starving artist” gigs and perform their musical work in a street
corner in Downtown SF or for Patrick’s drama class back at school. At some gigs, Patrick brought along with him an OLD
boombox to tape the performances the whole band did. The quality of these live bootleg recordings of the Samurai Sorcerers’
“starving artist” gigs were poor, but some managed to be showcased via internet.
The Samurai Sorcerers planned a live EP/VCD for the famous “starving
musicians” tour in May-June 2004, but plans were cancelled.
On May 31, 2004, two of the aspiring musicians/artists from the band Patrick
and Mayumi went to the record shop at Haight-Ashbury called Amoeba Music to see J-Pop singer Nami Tamaki live for a free concert.
After the musical performance from the great Japanese pop idol, an autograph session was held and both members of the Samurai
Sorcerers got Nami Tamaki’s CD “Greeting” which they bought at the store that day signed, and left home
happy.
That diary and memorable event in Patrick Lew’s life and music led to
the band to write the song “Tokyo Pop Princess” as an ode to that real-life “dear diary” moment on
the band’s online journals. It eventually became the Samurai Sorcerers FIRST big and well-known song from their catalog
of musical work.
Psychotic Love
The band took the whole summer of 2004 off as Patrick graduated from Wallenberg
High School and went to community college at City College of San Francisco (Eddie would go there 2 years later). Mayumi went
on a family trip to Japan and Eddie focused on other musical projects. Patrick was unaware at the time that his good musician
friend and bandmate from Samurai Sorcerers, Eddie, was either uninterested in doing an ALTERNATIVE project to Samurai Sorcerers.
So Patrick placed an ad on Craigslist.org to create that idea.
It didn’t work anyhow. Patrick’s plan for the alternate band and
project to Samurai Sorcerers didn’t go as planned. But a change in the musical group’s roster would occur.
Mayumi left the band on August 22, 2004, focusing more on education and college.
Her bass playing role was left vacant for a few months…But Eddie and Patrick decided to go back to the local music store
and prepare themselves for a memorable band practice and “live-in-the-house” musical performance at Patrick’s
house on September 12, 2004 which this famous jam session became broadcasted as an Internet-only Samurai Sorcerers live concert
for the fans on their personal webpage. Shortly after this, Eddie’s good friend and talented artist Shanti Blacharski
joined the Samurai Sorcerers band camp on bass as the NEW but talented musician in the band’s ever-changing lineup.
At the time, the Samurai Sorcerers became split into 2 different musical projects.
The Samurai Sorcerers band itself was indeed Patrick Lew’s solo project as Patrick, Eddie and Shawn would try to CREATE
a rock n’ roll supergroup of musician friends from the CITY through the band/music geeks club. Some time around October
2004, two session musicians recruited from the band’s MySpace social-networking music webpage Janet Wang (DJ) and Mony
Ngin (Drums) joined the Samurai Sorcerers for an “online musical/band collaboration.”
Although the musicians were not in the room inside the home studio at the
same time, the five musicians as Samurai Sorcerers still played music together and recorded their musical instruments through
the 4-track computer studio console separately for the “Psychotic Love” album. Also…Mayumi’s bass
parts that were recorded also were kept in the band practice vaults as the band’s diaries and master tapes of their
music were kept in there before release.
On October 23, 2004, minus Janet and Mony since they were ONLINE friends of
the rock n’ roll band, the Samurai Sorcerers group project went into Eddie’s house to record some songs for an
ALTERNATE band project to Samurai Sorcerers which Eddie and Patrick planned to do during the formation of their very own musical
group Samurai Sorcerers’ most famous incarnation of its musicians. The friends made music at Eddie’s home in San
Francisco and had dinner at a Taco Bell fast food outlet, but the album remained unfinished and kept in the library until
May 2005.
For the rest of 2004 and early 2005, the one-man band version of Samurai Sorcerers
begun to occur as Patrick Lew went to community colleges, Haight-Ashbury stores and Balboa High to a live tour in support
the upcoming “Psychotic Love” album. “Psychotic Love” was finally ready and released for fans on the
internet on DMD websites like SoundClick.com on December 6, 2004. This demo tape became the band’s 1ST official studio
album, the music was a mix of all styles the band were influenced by from the music they got on iTunes or at a record store.
The unique musical fusion of electronica, hard rock and teen pop became the centre of Samurai Sorcerers sound.
On February 13, 2005, the one-man musical group version of Samurai Sorcerers
made their last stop on the “Psychotic Love” tour at Balboa High. This day also marked a beginning of an on-and-off
again love & romance relationship Patrick Lew had with a Japanese woman named Yoshiko Kuwamoto. After this tour ended,
the band laid low. Hinting rumors of a possible breakup.
Musical success, New band and Controversy
The musical activities of Patrick Lew and Eddie Blackburn came back in schedule around May 2005 as the musicians from
the counterculture rock band Samurai Sorcerers got together to play music again for band practices at Eddie’s house
as the “reunited” group of the band came together to make music and songs for a new studio album. Now, the “art
school” ensemble of best musician friends were using computers along with various musical instruments to make a new
album.
Fans were excited about it. Unfortunately this would prove to be the end of
the “Wallenberg High” era and version of the band.
On popular social-networking website MySpace.com, Patrick Lew won runner-up
prize for a “Sexy Asian musicians” contest to get their bands showcased on their website. The alternate band project
and that music they made back in October 2004 was finally released as “The Blizzard of Sound” under the bandname
“Silent Minister.” It met with bad results as Eddie was not happy with the finished musical product, and when
the DMD was being sold on the Samurai Sorcerers website…It immediately got taken down.
Some would say this caused a growing tension between Patrick and his friend
Eddie. It actually did. On June 8, 2005, the last public performance of the Wallenberg High version of the Samurai Sorcerers
occurred at Riordan High’s school gym. The Samurai Sorcerers by now, had many and various personal webpages online to
showcase their band and music.
Eddie Blackburn and Shawn Blacharski left the Samurai Sorcerers band camp
in August 2005. They went onto form the new band Logic’s Enemy. Patrick Lew however, kept the Samurai Sorcerers as his
one-man musical group and “official” solo project in his music.
The College Years (2005 - present)
A trip to the music store was what Audio did to get his musical instruments and computer applications created the musical
group. formerly known as Samurai Sorcerers now called Audio Rage.
BACK IN TIME on May 8, 2004, Audios band of high school musicians Samurai
Sorcerers were the most infamous band in the Bay Area as they played music for gigs across the CITY. Tens of few had stayed
at the playground or school talent show to cash in on Audio and Eddie Blackburns Samurai Sorcerers play that show in support
of their album Psychotic Love which was due out around Christmas. The album Psychotic Love finally was available through the
Samurai Sorcerers and Audios website. The one that started it all! But by the summer of 2005 their fortunes and careers had
changed. After 3 years of drug addiction, musical controversies, onstage tantrums and occasional drama, their members began
to drift away fast, their co-leader Audio had become bogged down in personal hardships, and The Blizzard of Sound, a collection
of rock n roll songs recorded in Eddies house, had been released to mixed reviews and disappointing sales.
The members of Audios band of Samurai Sorcerers what was left of it emerged
at Eddies house to begin the band practice. A room with a pool table and two video game consoles, they began to prepare for
their next album, which the group expected to release some time the next year. But what was once music and rock ensemble magic
quickly began suffering from an illness that has proved fatal to bands from time onwards immemorial: BOREDOM. Mr. Patrick
Lew himself tried to hire new musicians by placing ads in the local newspaper, and that proved to be a disaster with bad results.
Mr. Patrick Lew (Audio) had appointed himself the leader of the project along with Eddie as well, but Audio didnt seem to
know where to lead. As Eddie Blackburn, the bands longtime session/onstage guitarist, thought the starving artists songwriting
style along with the procrastinations at band practice fatiguing. Audio also enrolled at City College of San Francisco studying
music and media/electronic arts, there was the school where Patrick Lew studied music and electronic arts, and made a concerted
most unsuccessful effort to fit in socially with other students. Working a part-time job at a comic book store, he barely
had enough money to survive in purchasing new instruments at the local guitar store. He tried his hand going to Skyline College,
but got supsended for a FIGHT he had with another kid. An electronica mix called Battle Royale, released on Samurai Sorcerers
website, would be the last addition to the original ROCK BANDs catalog. Eddie and bassist Shawn quit the band on August 2005,
and so did the Asian girls who played the instruments for the Samurai Sorcerers anime show. Of the founding members and survivors,
Audio was just left.
But rather dwell on the past he created the de facto Samurai Sorcerers project:
Audio Rage. He did it all with the computer, instruments he got from Guitar Center and sometimes (but rarely) studio musicians
hired from a paper ad. He had a few musicians hired for studio time for a short-term job to make Audio Rage and the music
come alive, guitarist Mark Hawkins only played a job for ONE DAY in the studio with Audio and the revised band. Audio and
a good friend Zack Huang then assembled Audio Rages home and workshop which was the studio became a rockers playground: Two
video game consoles, home entertainment system, a huge DVD and record library, state-of-the-art computer applications and
equipment and as many as 10 instruments lying around. But Audio wasnt just there for fun and games. Zack stepped in to produce
some song ideas in the studio near the end of 2005, and visited the bedroom workshop when Audio and him began talking about
the project and music, and insisted his friend Patrick Lew (or Audio) can focus more on composing and playing. At band practice
on Dec 22, 2005, Zack and Audio managed to study Audio Rages musical ideas on a notebook and called the first shot the song
Asian Woman Blues which became the new revised bands first original song (Mr. Lew fussed over the song so much that, he, Zack
and other studio technicians and engineers stayed up until 5am adjusting the music to the one-man bands standards). But it
was panned by some critics, while delighted by many others. Another song from the NEW BAND, The Final Hour earned poor reviews
and became very quickly forgotten.
Band practice was fun, but more work followed. Soon afterwards, Audio AKA
Patrick Lew created more musical showcase Audio Rage websites via internet or revised the Samurai Sorcerers ones into Audio
Rage. Audio burned as many as six CDs on his computer with various mixes of different songs, which he studied. Audio Rages
archive of recorded works in his library swelled into include more than 350 digital audio tapes and other media, all ideas
of music recorded for Audio Rages upcoming album [we will get to that later] of Audios new music and to label the progress
of the songs. The tapes remain in the bedroom's closet. He did pass out the flyers to his one-man band by going to KINKOS
to make copies of his websites.
By musical analysis of the work in Audios bedroom, the one-man band kept roughly
12 songs for the A list for the album and another 35 or so in various stages of production on the B list. Audio Rages new
album was now going to be called Revenge. The name of the record came from Audios diary of his life and career throughout
the 2000s as he went through tons of personal hardships and shortcomings in his musical and school career. Some songs from
the album project for Audio Rage (both A and B list musical works) have yet to include vocals/songwriting because of Mr. Lews
writers block and his inability to write lyrics or storytelling poetry to sing along to because he felt he wasnt a good singer/songwriter
and focused more on playing musical instruments for his group. However the electronic-made instrumentals and band without
vocals were actually pretty good. Broken Hearts Become One, War! and others were some of the strongest material Audio has
made ever in music.
The process was drawn out even further after Audio (Mr. Lew) hired a
new musician DJ and college friend David Arceo whom had prior experience with MIDI and electronica in his musical career.
Still Audio seemed to be emerging beyond his garage band dramas out of his past. In early 2006, for what would be the first
time since the Psychotic Love tour ended in February 2005, he performs in public, with his community college band of friends
at Serramonte Shopping Mall at Daly City. Currently at work on his Audio Rage bands album Revenge in his studio using his
musical instruments and computer programs, Audio is still an active musician on the Bay Area local scene and is also in focus
of finishing community college.
