Pat Irwin (born May 17, 1955) is an American composer and musician who was a founding member of two bands that grew out of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

No Wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

scene in the late 1970s, the Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy. He joined

The B-52s The B-52s, originally presented as the B-52's (with an errant grocer's apostrophe, apostrophe; used until 2008), are an American band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate ...

from 1989 through 2008. He currently performs and records wit
SUSS
who have released several records on the indie label Northern Spy. He composed the score for the Showtime series, '' Dexter: New Blood.'' Other television scores include

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's ''

Bored to Death ''Bored to Death'' is an American comedy series that ran on HBO from September 20, 2009, to November 28, 2011. The show was created by author Jonathan Ames, and stars Jason Schwartzman as a fictional Jonathan Ames—a writer based in Brooklyn, ...

,'' Showtime's '' Nurse Jackie,'' and '' The Good Cop'' on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

. He has composed scores for many cartoons including ''

Rocko's Modern Life ''Rocko's Modern Life'' is an American Television comedy, comedy animated television series created by Joe Murray (animator), Joe Murray for Nickelodeon. The series centers on the surreal life of an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic Australian ...

'', ''

Pepper Ann ''Pepper Ann'' is an American animated television series created by Sue Rose and aired on Disney's One Saturday Morning on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It first premiered on September 13, 1997, and ended on November 30, 2001. It was the f ...

'', '' A Little Curious'', and '' Class of 3000''. Independent film credits include '' My New Gun'', '' But I'm A Cheerleader'', and '' Bam Bam and Celeste.''

Biography

Pat Irwin graduated from

Grinnell College Grinnell College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalis ...

in 1977. He received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for international study and moved to Paris after graduation. In Paris he attended composition workshops with John Cage. Moving to New York City in 1979 he was a founding member of the

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

band 8-Eyed Spy which included

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

and Jim Sclavunos, both members of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and George Scott III from the Contortions. With Scott, he later formed the Raybeats with other former members of the Contortions:

Jody Harris Jody Harris is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer who was born in Kansas and became a central figure in the seminal no wave scene in New York City in the 1970s. Career history Harris was lead guitarist in the Contortions, an ...

and Don Christensen. 8-Eyed Spy dissolved in 1980 after the death of George Scott. The band released Live on ROIR as a cassette only issue and a self-titled record on Fetish that was completed without Scott. Both Irwin and Scott contributed to

's solo recording on ZE, '' Queen Of Siam''. Scott was credited as Jack Ruby, a reference to his band before joining The Contortions. The Raybeats continued to perform with Danny Amis on bass. They released two full-length albums, '' Guitar Beat'', produced by Martin Rushent and recorded in 1981 at Rushent's newly built studio outside London. The Raybeats second LP, ''It's Only A Movie'' was recorded in New York City in 1983 and was produced by the band with Joe Blaney and mixed at

Electric Lady Studios Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer. It was completed by 1970. Hendrix ...

. In 2013 The Raybeats release
''The Lost Philip Glass Sessions''
on Orange Mountain Music, a collection of recordings that were started with

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

in 1982 but were never completed. Robert Palmer, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', described Irwin as a "mercurial presence on the New York rock scene of the early 80's. The bands he helped found, the Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy resembled each other only in that they had an aversion to the predictable and the ordinary." He began touring and recording with new wave

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

The B-52's The B-52s, originally presented as the B-52's (with an errant apostrophe; used until 2008), are an American band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, k ...

in 1989, playing keyboards and guitar. His relationship with the band began when they borrowed Irwin's

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

for their first gig in

in 1978. The band toured steadily through the 1990s and had two Top-Ten hits with " Love Shack" and "

Roam "Roam" is a song by American New wave music, new wave band the B-52's released as the third single from their fifth studio album, ''Cosmic Thing'' (1989). The vocals are sung by Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson. The B-52's worked with a co-writer, R ...

". Recently, he has been performing and recording with the ambient-country group
SUSS.
Irwin composed the score for the Showtime series, '' Dexter: New Blood''. He also composed the scores for

’s ''Bored To Death'' and the Showtime series, '' Nurse Jackie''. He composed the scores for many cartoons including '' Rocko’s Modern Life'', ''

'', '' A Little Curious'', and the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

winning '' Class of 3000'' (with André 3000 from the group,

Outkast Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...

.) His contributions to the ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' is an American animated television series, animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It first aired as a sneak peek after the 1999 Kids' C ...

'' soundtracks were given

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

Film and Television Music Awards in 2011, 2012, and 2013
The Cartoon Music Book
referred to Irwin’s music as "astonishing musical cues that hold up with the best of

Raymond Scott Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow; September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist and record producer. Known best in his time as a composer of production music, Scott is today regarded as an early ...

." Irwin has performed in various venues throughout the world including

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

, Max's Kansas City, Mudd Club, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop, The Knitting Factory,

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

and

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

. Irwin’s first feature film score was for '' My New Gun'' which was shown at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

in 1992. He has since composed the scores for many independent films including '' But I’m A Cheerleader'', and '' Bam Bam and Celeste'' as well as several documentaries including '' Fall To Grace'' written and directed by Alexandra Pelosi for HBO Documentaries. In 2012 Irwin received an honorary doctorate from

. He currently teaches a seminar in film and television music at NYU's

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, as well a seminar in Scoring for Film and Television at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

Discography

*See The Raybeats Discography *See The B-52's Discography *See 8-Eyed Spy Discography *2018: SUSS -
Ghost Box
' *2019: SUSS -
High Line
' *2019: Pat Irwin & J. Walter Hawkes -
Wide Open Sky
' *2020: SUSS -
Promise
' *2021: SUSS -
Night Suite
'

Filmography (composer)

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

:
The Day Of Five Billion
' (Documentary) *1987–88: '' Tales from the Darkside'' (TV) *

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

:
Without Borders
' (Documentary) *1990–96: '' Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' (TV, Theme) *

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

:
Nauru: The Island Planet
' (Documentary) *

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

:
Nova: An Astronaut's View Of Earth
' (Documentary) *

:
I Talk To Animals
' (Documentary) *

: '' My New Gun'' *1993–96: ''

'' (TV) *

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

: '' Heading Home'' *

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

: '' Loose Women'' *

:
Breathing Room
' *

:
Sudden Manhattan
' *

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

: '' Colin Fitz Lives!'' *1997 ''

Bear in the Big Blue House ''Bear in the Big Blue House'' is an American children's television series created by Mitchell Kriegman and produced by Jim Henson Television for Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney preschool television block. Debuting on October 20, 1997, it a ...

'' (episode) Why Bears Can't Fly? *1997–2000: ''

'' (TV) *1998: JetCat from '' KaBlam!'' *1998–99:
A Little Curious
' (TV) *

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

:
Paramour
' (TV) *

:
Arresting Gena
' *

:
Suits
' *

:
24 Hour Woman
' *

: '' But I'm a Cheerleader'' *

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

:
Drop Back Ten
' *2000–02: '' A Little Curious'' (TV) *

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

:
The Groovenians
' (TV, Songs and Theme) *

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

: '' Trekkies 2'' (TV, Theme /w Fred Schneider) *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

:
Personal Sergeant
' *

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

: '' Bam Bam and Celeste'' *2005–08: ''

My Gym Partner's a Monkey ''My Gym Partner's a Monkey'' is an American animated television series created by Tim Cahill (producer), Tim Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill for Cartoon Network. It aired from December 26, 2005, to November 27, 2008, ending with a total of fou ...

'' (TV, Theme co-writer) *2006–07: '' Class of 3000'' (TV) *

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

:
The Accidental Advocate
' (Documentary) *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

:
Stags
' *2011: ''

'' Season 3 (TV) *

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

:
Cherry Cottage
' (Documentary) *

:
Pervertigo
' *

:
La Muse
' (short) *

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

: '' Fall to Grace'' (Documentary) *2013–15: '' Nurse Jackie'' Season 5-7 (TV) *2019: '' Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling'' *2021: '' Dexter: New Blood''

References

External links

* *
SUSS WebsiteSUSS Artist Page
( Northern Spy Records) {{DEFAULTSORT:Irwin, Pat 1955 births American film score composers American rock guitarists American male guitarists Place of birth missing (living people) American male saxophonists Grinnell College alumni Living people 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American saxophonists American male film score composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Raybeats members 8 Eyed Spy members The B-52's members