Pat Irwin has been living and making music in New York City since the late 1970′s.  He was a founding member of The Raybeats and Eight Eyed Spy and later joined The B-52s, recording and performing with the group from 1989-2008.  He is currently scoring the upcoming season of Nurse Jackie for Showtime and recently completed the scores for the HBO Documentary, “Fall To Grace,” written and directed by Alexandra Pelosi, (Sundance 2013) and “Hopper Stories” a series of shorts based on works of Edward Hopper  including “The Muse”  written and directed by Sophie Barthes (Arte France).

Irwin graduated from Grinnell College in 1977. Shortly thereafter, he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for international study and moved to Paris. In Paris he attended composition workshops with John Cage. Moving to New York City in 1979 he became an important part of the early punk rock movement.

Robert Palmer, writing in the New York Times, 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 Eight 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 The B-52s in 1989, playing keyboards and guitar. His relationship with the band began when they borrowed Irwin’s amplifier for their first gig in New York in 1978.  He stayed with the band for 18 years helping tracks like “Love Shack” and “Roam” become international hits. “The Raybeats” recorded several albums as well as unreleased sessions with composer Philip Glass.

Irwin began to write film scores in the 1990s. His television work includes Season 3 of Bored to Death for HBO, the animated series Rocko’s Modern Life, Pepper Ann, JetCat from KaBlam!, and the Emmy Award winning Class of 3000 (with Andre 3000 from the band “OutKast”).  Film scores include “My New Gun,” written and directed by Stacy Cochran, “Bam Bam And Celeste,” written by and starring, Margaret Cho, and “But I’m a Cheerleader written and directed by Jamie Babbitt. In 2011 and 2012, he won ASCAP Film & Television Music Awards for his work on animated television series Spongebob Squarepants.

In 2012, Pat received an honorary doctorate from Grinnell College.  He  currently teaches a seminar in film music composition at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Music Theater Program.

Pat’s new band “Command V”  has a forthcoming CD and digital release on Mush Records and his ongoing series “New Sounds From The Lost And Found” is available in the Online Store. Volume 6 is scheduled for release in 2012.