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Patrick Cowley
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Patrick Cowley was born in 1950 in Buffalo, New York State. As a teenager he was a drummer in amateur bands and studied English. In 1971 he moved to San Francisco, where he studied music at City College, with an emphasis on synthesizers. In 1978 he met the singer Sylvester, who asked him to strengthen his studio band after hearing early synthesizer recordings by him. Cowley played synthesizer on the album Step II, with the hits You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) and Dance (Disco Heat), and wrote songs for the album Stars. He also toured with Sylvester's live band.
Music and breakthrough
In 1981 he had success of his own with Menergy and Megatron Man, which ranked high in the American dance charts. Menergy is a frank tribute to the city's gay club scene, and the parties at The EndUp carried that name. He also wrote and produced Right on Target for Paul Parker, and made Do Ya Wanna Funk with Sylvester. In 1978 he built a remix of Donna Summer's I Feel Love of more than fifteen minutes, working from an ordinary record because he did not have the original master tapes. That remix has become a sought-after collector's item.
Influence
Alongside Giorgio Moroder, Cowley is regarded as a pioneer of electronic dance music. His style, Hi-NRG, is fast, synthetic and built for the dance floor. He made his last album, Mind Warp, when he already felt the effects of HIV. He died in November 1982, aged thirty-two.
Listening
Menergy · Patrick Cowley, 1981Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1981Megatron Man
- 1981Menergy
- 1982Mind Warp
- 2009Catholic
- 2013School Daze
- 2020Some Funkettes
- 2022Malebox
- 2024From Behind
- 2025Hard Ware
Mentioned in other articles
- Synth disco and Hi-NRG Genre
Hi-NRG itself took shape in the early 1980s in gay clubs in San Francisco, New York and London: fast, electronic dance music, with producers such as Patrick Cowley and Bobby Orlando.