Lee Patrick Mastelotto was born on the 10th of September 1955 in Chico, California. Pat an autodidact drummer who, like most kids in the 60's took inspiration from "the two R's - Radio & Ringo" as time passed and Pat found himself listening to everything from Hank Williams to Bela Bartok. His heroes became Ginger Baker and Mike Giles for their drumming and Lennon and Rundgren for their songwriting. Pat's own drumming begun at the age of 10, teaching himself by playing along to records.
By the time Pat moved to LA in 1973 his drumming heroes had become "the Jim's- Jim Gordon , James Gadson and Jim Keltner ", within weeks of moving to LA he got his first LA 'session' gig with Juice Newton, but a year or two later when the record surfaced Pat's parts had been redone by Jeff Porcaro and Hal Blaine... reality bites.
Countless low budget 70's demos session led to meeting, then the worlds number 1 producer,
Mike Chapman who often used Pat for extensive session work. With Chinn&Chap and partner/producer Peter Coleman he played on records for Holly Penfield , Shandi , Michael Des Barres , Scandal , Nick Gilder , Danny Wilde , Bernie Taupin , Martin Briley . Mike also helped form a super band with hit songwriters Holly Knight and Michael Des Barres, paired with Prescott Niles ( The Knack ) and Pat who recorded (later) hits like "Obsession", "Bleeding Babies". This band was crumbling into 'Device' when Pat met the Misters.
Like most LA musicians he earn a living doing some odd jobs (like stamping envelopes along side exBeefheart/original Red Hot Chili Pepper drummer Cliff Martinez when Kim Bullard (from Poco ) advised Pat to contact Richard Page and Steve George. At Pat's audition singer Richard Page grabbed a bass and they jammed on a few of their new songs. Richard kept yelling 'Go!',... so Pat played more and more... Pat later learned Rich was saying 'Ringo!' (because Rich thought Pat had Ringo's feel) Half an hour later Mr. Mister was born. They released three albums, the second a number 1 LP selling million's and delivered two number 1 hits. This led to session work with Al Jarreau, Hall & Oats, Pointer Sisters, Kenny Loggins, Patti Labell, Eddie Money, Martika, Big Car (later known as Fastball ), Mark Anthony Thompson (later known as Chocolate Genius ) and many others.
In 1988 guitarist Steve Farris left and an extensive search for a replacement guitarist led Pat to call Adrian Belew's management only to learn Bowie had just reenlisted Adrian. The three remaining Misters went into the studio to record a fourth album (PULL) with guitarists Trevor Rabin and Buzz Feiten . During the two years writing and recording 'PULL' Pat also played on hit albums by
XTC and Cock Robin and
Jude Cole . On the 25th of September, 1990 the Misters were released from RCA, PULL the fourth album has never been released.
During the early nineties Pat CoProduced Cock Robin singer/songwriter Peter Kingsberry first solo record and did sessions including three CD's each for Jude Cole and The Rembrandts , hits within Tina Arena , soundtrack work with James Newton Howard as well as hired gun work for producers Tony Berg and Paul Fox who used Pat for Michael Penn ,
Ted Hawkins , Robyn Hitchcock , The Sugercubes , Too Much Joy and more. He even did some overdubs for a dance mix of a Rolling Stones Steel Wheels single with producer Don Was .
In 1993 Pat heard of the Sylvian / Fripp audition and flew to England and soon found himself touring with S/F throughout the year This led directly into the reformation of double trio King Crimson of 1994 with Robert Fripp , Adrian Belew , Tony Levin , Bill Bruford , and Trey Gunn . At this same time Pat moved his family to the Texas hill country near Austin as Crimson stomped through over a hundred shows, "VROOOM", "THRAK", "THRAKATTACK", "B'Boom", "Deja Vrooom", and "Vrooom Vrooom" and after a short pause into the 1997 KC ProjeKcts .
As the Crim breaks extended P@ took numerous drum and percussion lessons, both privite and at UT and North Texas State, but after nearly a year needed more 'human R&D' and started looking for local musical soul mates, finding Gumby and Monkey he formed MasticA and he developed an electronic alter R&D ego as BPM&M (with sound designer Bill Munyon) eventually releasing "XtraKcts & ArtifaKcts" .
1999 saw P@ moving between home and Nashville where King Crimson recorded 'The Construcktion of Light" then back to p@ garage were BPM&M completed King Crimson's ProjeKct X just in time for the Y2CRIM's quick trip around the world pausing briefly to arrange and mix disc 3 of KC's "Heavy Construcktion" .
2001 P@ rejoined Tony Levin but this time with the
California Guitar Trio ! Then helped introduce Crim to TOOL via emailing drumbud Danny Carrey . After a short cobill of TOOL and KC ending in Mexico City Pat started touring the very next day with the CGT and T Levin in Utah,after an exhilarating but physically abusive two week tour BPMM led the CG3+2 into their favorite Austin studio for 4 intense days of recording followed by several weeks of 24/7 editing (resulting in the acclaimed CG3+2 CD) until jumping right back into Crimson tour bus co-billing with John Paul Jones to finish out the year. Somewhere in the midst of all that Pat record with Abra Moore , Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets , did live shows with Left Over Salmon and the Spoonfed Tribe and got another dog from the pound.
2002 marked a return to the studio with King Crimson . Cyber collaborations with German band CENTROZOON , release of the MasticAttack freakout CD, work continued in Istanbul Turkey for the Mastelottoman and Xcarnation projects . . the completion of a duet CD with Terry Bozzio and the start of a duet projeKct with Rhythm BuddyTrey Gunn .
2003 King Crimson toured 20 plus countries after the release of "The Power to Believe" CD. Later that year P@ toured Japan drumming for
John Paul Jones , Steve Hackett , Nuno Bettencourt and Paul Gilbert .
2004 - The release of TU CD (a duo project with Trey Gunn) and debut gigs in Russia. Also the start of TU +2 (with the Finlandish duo Kluster) shows in Helsinkie and Tokyo and later TU+2 ( Azam Ali and drummer buddy Butch ) shows in Souithern California. More work in Istanbul with Cenk Eroglu for Mastelottoman and also drumming for the Turkish ballet Harrem Sultan .
2005 saw the release of TU+2 Kluster project (renamed KTU ) with Finlanders Kimmo and Samuli follwed by gigs in Germany, Portugal, Russia, Finland and Estonia. The Debut of TUNER (with german touch guitarist Markus Reuter ) at SXSW and later the release of the debut CD TOTEM followed by a short European tour. A duo recording with bass virtuoso Jay Terrien . Headlining a 45 improvisational gig in Italy. Studio work with And they will know us by the Trail of the Dead . Session work for Billi Sherwood from YES and the start of the 2nd Tuner record.
2006 starts with continued recording of the 2nd Tuner CD, and his next duo (tuo?) called Tunisia with Therimin virtuoso
Pamelia Kurstin . Followed by session work with Tony Levin and Mike Keneally for a Ronan Chris Murphy solo record. Another interesting new project with Russian Zhenya Rock formerly of the Red Elvises, better known in America as ZeeRok. The new project is called Zeegrasss and features a ethnotechnorockabilly flavor or as Zee calls it The Russian Hippy Gypsy Show.
P@ currently resides in the hill country near Austin Texas with his daughter, 4 dogs and an inordinate number of drums.
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