James Iha
James Iha
James Yoshinobu Ihais an American rock musician. He is best known as former guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins and for his eclectic musical projects of recent years, most notably being a permanent fixture of A Perfect Circle. He was most recently a member of Tinted Windows, a 1960s/1970s inspired group with members of Cheap Trick, Fountains of Wayne, and Hanson...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth26 March 1968
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I'm happy doing different things. Being in a band is great, but being in a band can be difficult sometimes.
But, yeah, as far as Asian Americans go, I hope they know they can look at me and see that they can do music on their own, within a band or just on their own, and not feel like there's any barriers. I've never felt any particular barriers myself, being who I am.
I mean I like pop music, and I like heavy music and, stuff that I like... the band I've signed on to our label right now; they're called The Sounds. They're kind of like a new-wave pop band.
Composing is just another exciting thing. It's as exciting as being in a band. It's kind of like joining a new band for three months.
If you put all the songs together that I've written on band records, and put it up next to my solo record, there's definitely a different kind of feel than Billy's songs.
All the bands I've played with have had dynamic front men.
The band set up in January and just started rehearsing. If there was a song, we'd just rehearse it as a band, and it would get arranged as a band, and it got changed around a lot.
Well, we didn't have our original drummer on our last record. And most of that album was not played as a band in the studio. It was mostly the world of computers and overdubs. There was very few things played live or worked out as a band.
You know, it's going to be a really long tour, and well, I guess I'll see what happens with A Perfect Circle, 'cause they do other projects too, and I don't know. I hope I can always do a lot of different things, do 'em well.
It's probably getting our old drummer back and actually playing as a band. And, I don't know, it sounds like what we do best right now.
We have a partnership deal with New Line Records, which is part of New Line Cinema, and... I worked on that.
Well, I always hope that I'm a role model.
Well, I'm pretty domestic actually. I walk my dog. I go grocery shopping. I hang out with friends. I'm pretty normal, whatever normal is, on my off time.
I like a lot of different kinds of music. I like strong projects, big music.