Early years Lewis grew up in
Westchester County, New York, and left to attend
Evergreen College in
Olympia, Washington, in 1980.
Supreme Cool Beings During a summer break at Evergreen in 1982, Lewis was visiting her friend Gary May's apartment. The room had been turned into an impromptu rehearsal space, and after playing with a drum set she was invited to drum for his band. After adding Doug Monaghan, the trio, including drums, sax, and guitar, was named the Supreme Cool Beings. The Supreme Cool Beings played a live performance of eight songs for
Calvin Johnson's radio show on
KAOS (FM).
Beat Happening Lewis had been a part of another trio with Johnson, which later lost a member and added Bret Lunsford. That trio was
Beat Happening. Though Lewis had moved to Seattle, she remained in the band for an improvised tour of Japan, where they recorded their first demo. Though Lewis was Beat Happening's drummer, the band didn't own a drum set for much of its existence. Instead, she would borrow drums from touring bands, or create impromptu drum sets out of garbage cans or cardboard boxes. and
Kathleen Hanna of
Bikini Kill. ==References==