PATRICK COWLEY
The San Francisco Sound
Official Biography
by Daniel Eduardo Heinzmann - © 2001

Silvester James, such was his name, was a gay star. He was a  transvestite who was very successful in the gay disco comunity in San Francisco, and he was characterized by make people frenzy in each of his shows. 

Patrick's performance with analog synthesizer work, electronic instruments, modified guitars and self-constructed equipement became in synonymous of Sylvester's sound and covered with synthesized sounds the edition of hits like  “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance Disco Heat”, and “Can’t Stop Dancing”.

Patrick and Sylvester working on 'Do Ya Wanna Funk' (1982)

                                  " It's almost amazing that Sylvester had Patrick tour with us, because synthesizer technology was so primitive at the time that Patrick was constantly patching and unpatching his board to make sounds when we were performing. Frecuently he had problems on stage due to the technical limitations of sound systems vis a vis live use of synthesizers  But one night at Roseland Balroom in New York Patrick played a solo that was so amazing that Tip Wirrick, Michael Finden and I were just in awe.
I remember Patrick shrugging in a humorous way and telling us : Some nights it goes well !! " (ROBERT KINGSOM )

This gave life to the "Step II" album that skyrocketed Sylvester to international fame. It was Patrick's recording work which really pushed Sylvester's 'Step II' album into a highly marketable category, to the point that it sold  more than 500.000 records in United States; it became a gold record. Another important  experience of Patrick with Sylvester's band was the recording live of his Living Proof  album,  at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, on March 11,  1979.

                            "Patrick was a really fun person who was also very spontaneous, in example, he frequently yelled at me publicity (but then, I was 18 or 21 years old and totally folish, so i couldn't blame him. But in the same moment he would hug me and we would laugh it off. " (ROBERT KINGSOM )

A PART  OF  HISTORY                     

Back in the 70's John Hedges was living with Gerry McBride and Danny Williams. John Hedges was the person who in many ways invented disco/ dance music. He was a DJ at Mind Shaft . One night he happened to listen to the song 'Rock Your Baby', he liked it so much that he figured out a way to make the song last longer, he mixed it and made it danceable. And ever since more and more dance sounds started to appear.                                

 John went from the 'Mind Shaft' to 'Oil Can Harry's'  and then to 'City Disco' where he was the head DJ. John and Gerry Mcbride were from Elyria, Ohio. They had an old friend, Marty Blecman, whom they convinced to move to San Francisco. Previously Marty was working at a Revlon factory.  So,  Marty Blecman, Danny Williams, John Hedges and Gerry McBride moved in to SF.

                     " More music things followed and eventually Patrick Cowley joined the DJ family, although he never lived with us. John Hedges and Marty Blecman were finding all kinds of musicians along their careers such as Barry Beam and others. i wrote the lyric for a hit called 'Castro Boy', and also did the vocals on the recording." ( DANNY WILLIAMS )     

PATRICK  &  MARTY  BLECMAN                     

Even though he was on tours with Sylvester,  Pat remained close to San Francisco 's disco scene and joined forces with his friend Marty Blecman ( Martin Sander Blecman) to found  'Megatone Records' in the summer of 1981, whose offices would be located  on  470 Castro Street, Suite 3209, San Francisco. At that time, Marty was employed as DJ at The City Disco; formerly he'd been working at  Fantasy Records.

 Big "Fantasy's" stars (Tip Wirrick, Martha Walsh, Jeanne Tracy, among others  ), would later be in Megatone. Patrick Cowley  and Marty Blecman  began their productions on "Studio C" of  "Automatt Recording Studios" , on 829 Folsom  Street in San Francisco . 

Letter to Megatone Records from The Dixie Dance Kings.

The Automatt had three recording studios,Its owner was David Rubinson and its studio manager was  Michelle Zarin. Studio "C" was on the second floor of the building .It was large and had very good technical equipment. It was similar to  Wally Haider's ( several engineers who were working there went on to work at the Automatt at that time). This legendary recording studio in which Patrick recorded  Megatron Man and  Mind Warp albums torn down in 1984.

                         " Usually in Patrick's sessions, were his singing vocals, two technicians and sometimes Marty Blecman would show up, but Marty was always there for the final mix.  His sound engineers were Maureen Droney (my wife ) and I.  I recorded and mixed the most of Patrick's productions , and Maureen took an active part on Mind Warp. After Pat was finishing to fine tunning the sounds, it would take 3 days to record them and one day to mix.  Obviously it was Mind Warp album the hardest one, because Patrick was very weak because of his advanced decease." ( KEN KESSIE )  

Before establishing himself in the Automatt Studio,  he worked at his home studio. Many of his first hits , like "Menergy", "I Wanna Take You Home" and  "Right On Target" were recorded there with an 'eight track analog machine'.  He showed there all his ingenuity and his talent potential since he spent lot of hours working and modifying programs to be able to fit all his sounds into just eight recording tracks . 

 

Patrick Cowley's home studio was near Fulsom and Mission, it was at 8th and Minna.  He rented a small space in what looked like a bombed out building, occupied by squatters. A brick warehouse building. His  place had a door, and when entered, recording machines and a desk for mixing, with wires running could be seen  just about everywhere.  

                            " The walls were just 2x4 , with insulation covering them for sound proofing. Patrick shared his space with Tip Wirrick and there was a heavy dividing door that went to another space where Maurice Tani  had the studio. They worked with Katie Guthorn who was later in Modern Rocketry . Some years later, Jo-Carol Block and Lauren Carter rented the space upstairs and had their recording studio there.  For recording his songs, Patrick played all parts on an '8- track recorder machine', meticulously mixing down the first 6 tracks, and recorded 4 more, then mixed down once again, added vocals, and then mixed it all finally. He was an obsessed man , and surely each song took weeks of work, sometimes twenty hours continuosly ! (PAUL PARKER )

 Patrick Cowley composed and worked all his wonderful productions almost exclusively on his "PROPHET-5  poliphonic  analog synthesizer" ( five voices) , about 3 feet long, 60 note keys , it created "fat" or "bass" sounds across oscillators that were easaily controlled by the many knobs on its control panel . Almost all marvels  this man created in his mind  were pumped out  from  his PROPHET V.

Patrick played his  Robotic voices  with an "studio effect box" . Most of his effects were adapted onto the synthesizer as he played it. He also used a "drum machine".... Everyone could say that Patrick could make a song with just his "Prophet V" and a drum machine.

                   "Patrick did not need special scores, by the time he would be in the studio with me and he would have all the parts written in his head.  He would just spend  a little time fine tuning the sounds, then he would record." (MAUREEN DRONEY )

                   "While recording 'Megatron Man' we didn't talk much cause we had a lot of work to do in a short time. He was the best synthesizer player I have ever met. " (KEN KESSIE )