Biography

Pat Irwin has spent over 4 decades pushing the boundaries of popular music with his soundtracks for some of the most recognized and popular shows in television, including, Dexter: New Blood, Nurse Jackie, Bored To Death, and scores for animation including, Rocko's Modern Life, Pepper Ann, Class of 3000, and SpongeBob SquarePants (for which he won 3 ASCAP Awards.) Scores for film include But I'm A Cheerleader and My New Gun.

Pat Irwin graduated from Grinnell College in 1977. He received a 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 1978 he was a founding member of 8-Eyed Spy which included members of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and the Contortions, Lydia Lunch, Jim Sclavunos and George Scott. With Scott, he formed Raybeats with other former Contortions Jody Harris and Don Christensen.

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 The B-52's 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 began recording and performing with the ambient music group, SUSS, in 2018. SUSS has released several records on the Brooklyn based indie label, Northern Spy.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jahn Sood/Pat Irwin