Patrick Joseph Cowley

Profile:
San Francisco based musician and record producer Patrick Cowley, born in Buffalo, New York, has been recording and performing in the Bay area since 1971. Cowley grew up in upstate New York where he worked in local rock bands and eventually studied English at the university of Buffalo. After moving to the Bay Area he began an intense study of the synthesizer at San fransisco City College.

Cowley's recording career began when he was asked to join San Francisco-based artist, Sylvester, in the studio after Sylvester heard what Cowley was doing with the synthesizer and was excited by his innovative techniques. The result was the album Step II which skyrocketed Sylvester to international notoriety. The album landed Cowley a job as a back-up musician on Sylvester's subsequent world-wide tour.

Cowley remained close to the San Francisco club scene and eventually joined forces with producer Marty Blecman to form Megatone Records in the summer of 1981. Under auspices of their parnership Cowley created a succesful dance-oriented 12" single that opened the doors for his award-winning Megatron Man LP (Menergy).

While writing the music for his latest album, he also wrote and produced the succesful dance single "Right on Target" for San Francisco artist Paul Parker which reached #1 on Billboard's Disco Charts. He reunited with Sylvester during the same period and produced the chart-busting "Do You Wanna Funk", also on the Megatone label.

Patrick Cowley died of complications due to AIDS in 1982.

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