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
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.
There is a lot of work just in terms of traveling and logistics and people and gear and all that kind of stuff. But I never really have problems playing music. That never seems like work.
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 not like that often, I mean, I suppose out of a ratio of 10 fans maybe like 1 or 2 of 'em might be Asian, and maybe every second or third time they might bring up something that they're Asian and I'm Asian.
My first job in NYC was playing a gig in the early nineties at CBGBs.
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.
So there was something of a learning curve with doing your own thing and people seeing you outside of the band. I mean, people have never really heard my voice before - or heard a whole record of mine before. So it was a completely new experience.
I'm happy doing different things. Being in a band is great, but being in a band can be difficult sometimes.
Yeah, I'm sure there are stereotypes of Asian people.
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.
I'd like to keep doing film and TV, and I definitely can appreciate a good theme song. If it's memorable, that's a great thing.
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.