Pat Irwin (born May 17, 1955) is an American composer and musician, who was a founding member of a number of groups that grew out of New York City's No Wave scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including 8-Eyed Spy and Raybeats. He has composed the scores for numerous films and cartoons. He also played guitar and keyboards with The B-52s for many years.

Biographie

Pat Irwin graduated from Grinnell College 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 band 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 New Wave rock band 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.

Irwin began to write film scores in the 1990s. His film and television work includes 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.