BENIGNEGLECT is an Asian-American rap-rock band from San Francisco, originally formed in 2019 by just YouTuber and Japanese-American musician Patrick Lew-Hayashi.
The band has its origins from their musical predecessor Patrick Lew Band. The band would eventually make minor splashes in the indie music circuit. Also making airwaves in the Japanese-American community and in general online just a few months after starting out. This is their story. Behind the music!
In December 2019, Filipino-American rapper, multi-instrumentalist and beatmaker A.KAYE joined the band. Making his first live appearance at their show at San Francisco's historic DNA Lounge. The duo eventually rebranded the band formerly known as LEWNATIC into a fiery, sonic and hard hitting rap-metal band known as BENIGNEGLECT. Shifting the band from a Patrick Hayashi oriented solo project dabbling in Japanese speed metal initially.
Band Members:
PATRICK LEW HAYASHI: Guitar, Bass
A. KAYE: Beats, MC, Bass
GENRE: Rock, Metal & Punk, Rap, K-Pop, J-Pop...Whatever!
The band has its origins from their musical predecessor Patrick Lew Band. Google search "Patrick Lew Band" on your computer or smartphone for more links associated with that band.
Following the disbanding of Patrick Lew Band, Hayashi kept a low-profile. Instead, focusing on his day job as a chocolatier at Pier 39 and courier work.
On July 2, 2019, Patrick Lew-Hayashi announced worldwide through a press release that he would be pursuing a solo career under the name LEWNATIC. And was going back to basics as an artist. Focusing less on adhering to the traditions of the music industry and placing more emphasis on passion: making metal music and putting it out there for everyone and living a more simple life.
Intense guitar session videos were immediately filmed on his phone and posted all over Hayashis social- media accounts (ex. Facebook, Instagram and etc) as a buildup to an actual home studio recording.
He explained that the second breakup of Patrick Lew Band:
I started Patrick Lew Band. I ended it. Simple as that.
The real reason? I felt I've done that all I could creatively with PLB. And made all the impact I needed to and desired. And it was one of those grandiose ideas where it became a boring exercise to make sophisticated rock music where it didn't go as far as I would have liked it to.
I've said to myself before, "once the PLB runs out of creativity and becomes in danger of becoming a caricature of its former self. That was the time to pull the plug on Patrick Lew Band." Plus I've made all that impact I've needed to with Patrick Lew Band in just almost 20 years but not the way I wanted it to be.
Rather than spare myself more trouble trying to push PLB to major league status. I've went the other route as a solo artist where I just wanted to be free from the anxiety and stress and play music as a labor of love rather than pressure and push myself to become the G.O.A.T in rock and roll.
The band Lewnatic was intended as a born-again Japanese punk rock and thrash metal outlet for Patrick Lew-Hayashi. The image of the band was directly inspired by Japanese rock star Miyavi Ishihara and the Korean boy band BTS. The bands name initially was Lewnatic Park, which was suggested by Hayashis close friend Rob Silver as an anagram of his birthname. The bands name would eventually be shortened to LEWNATIC as Hayashi didnt want the music business and the audience to mistaken the new solo project as a Linkin Park tribute band and out of respect for LP frontman Chester Bennington, who passed away in 2017.
To avoid compliance and patent issues, the band is sometimes known as LEWNATIC (JP) to avoid confusion between other bands and YouTubers on the Internet with the same band name or username. To distinguish the differences between Patrick Lew-Hayashis music from YouTubers or any bands or music artists with the same name.
Hayashi found out that he was going to Japan for the first time with his father and the rest of his family to serve his mother Winnies final purpose that Summer. He decided when he was going to be in Japan to busk as an artist or do open mics with his new band LEWNATIC. His first trip back to his native Japan also changed him greatly as a person and also help repair some fractured relations with his father thats been going on since the passing of his mother Winnie.
He came back to a heros welcome locally and at his day job at Chocolate Heaven Pier 39.
On September 6, 2019, Hayashi and Fil-Am rapper and friend A.Kaye performed an in-house live show at Patricks home recording studio. The performance has since leaked online on social-media.
While working with the band Crazy Loser in a Box sporadically in his home studio via online collaboration between himself and his one-time flame Sigyn for a new album. He decided to drop his first major release with LEWNATIC via digital distribution online. A two-song EP titled The American Nightmare was self-released on CDBaby and digitally distributed on streaming apps such as Spotify and Apple Music.
He also began working with booking agents Afton Shows again on the side. LEWNATIC performed their first show in the Bay Area at San Franciscos historic DNA Lounge on November 3, 2019. A video of the live performance has since leaked online, especially on YouTube.
On December 15, 2019, fellow Fil-Am Bay Area rapper A. Kaye officially joined the band as the newest member onstage during their gig at DNA Lounge. This would become their album Brotherhood, which has since dropped on Apple Music and Spotify under their former bandname LEWNATIC in January 2020.
In early 2020, the band rebranded as a rap-metal project starring Patrick Lew Hayashi and A. Kaye and changed their name to BENIGNEGLECT. Shifting from Japanese heavy themed speed metal to a more sonic, smooth and fiery alt-metal sound. Currently they are working on some music in their home studio Lewnatic HQ in San Francisco. The band was initially working on new music in their personal home studio during February 2020.
On March 8, 2020, the band performed their last live show to date at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. A week later on March 17, 2020, Patrick and his sister Madeline made a shocking return to doing Patrick Lew Band in music and as digital creators. Meanwhile, A. Kaye began pursuing a solo rap career and other projects after the band's most recent live performance. Patrick and A. Kaye remain close friends despite the band's hiatus.
We currently are working with booking agents Afton Shows and perform locally once every month or every other month. I also done a tour across Japan in August outdoors as a busking one man band while visiting my mother's homeland for vacation. We have performed at San Francisco's historic DNA Lounge twice already with Afton Shows helping get us booked to play shows there! Only more to come!
Metallica, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Chthonic, X Japan, Dir En Grey, Miyavi, Nirvana, The Sex Pistols, Motorhead, Alice Cooper, Mother Love Bone, BEYOND, BabyMetal, Crowbar, Nine Inch Nails, The Beatles, Def Leppard, Guitar Wolf, The Slants, B'z, Venom, The Rolling Stones, PRO WRESTLING
Apple Logic Pro X, MacBook Air, PreSonus AudioBox, Epiphone Les Paul Junior, Vox AD50VT, Marshall Code 50, Rogue Basses, Monster Guitar Cables, BOSS Dr. Rhythm.