James Iha Takes a Bow
Asian American Magazine
February/March 1998
By Jim Cho
Thanks to etherstragic@hotmail.com for sending us this article.
The Smashing Pumpkins’ enigmatic guitarist steps into the spotlight with his solo recording debut, Let It Come Down-an intimate, acoustic departure from the Pumpkins’ electric angst.
Interviewer: Whats the impetus behind the solo album?
James: Recently I’ve had some songs backed up for a while, and I’ve been
kind of storing them up and waiting for the opportunity to do a
whole album of just my songs, the way I wanted to do these songs as
opposed to in a band context. Because I don’t think that a person
buying a Smashing Pumpkins record would expect half the songs, or for
the matter of me singing my own songs.
Interviewer: Whats your favorite track on the album?
James: Well, it’s kind of like picking a favorite child. I can’t really
do that. I like all the songs for different reasons. I really didn’t
want to
turn out an album with a couple of good songs and a bunch of filler. I
wanted all the songs to be good.
Interviewer: Is the atmosphere in the band restrictive? How much control
does Billy Corgan have over the Smashing Pumpkins?
James: He writes a lot of songs and people expect to hear his kinds of
songs and the Pumpkins’ records. He has a really strong idea of what
he wants to hear on his songs. It is restrictive for me in a way, I
can’t do all my songs because they just don’t fit into the band vibe.
You
know, you can say it is restrictive, or it’s also great ‘cause I wear a
couple of different hats. Sometimes, I’m just a guitar player or
sometime I’m a songwriter or I’m a producer.
Interviewer: What was the first song you ever wrote?
James: I don’t know-Probably a bad song.
Interviewer: When you were younger, did you dream about becoming a rock
star?
James: It’s kind of every teenage boy’s fantasy to become a rock star.
It was fun playing in a band and the kind of energy one gets from
making this horrible noise. When you are that young you can’t see that
far down the road. It is kind of a daydream.
Interviewer: A lot of the lyrics are about love. Were they written for
anyone in particular?
James: Songs are seldom written about one person. But I sort of had
other songs that deal with other subjects, but they didn’t make the
album. I don’t know, I just wanted to make love rock.
Interviewer: Who are the most prominent women in your life?
James: Well, there’s this girl that I’m seeing, you know, and we’ve been
going out for I don’t know how long now. But I talk to her about
almost every day. She has a big impact on my life because we talk every
day. I guess she’s like a really good friend. She’s supportive but
objective at the same time.
Interviewer: Is she a musician?
James: No. She couldn’t really say what I’m playing is technically good.
But she knows what she likes. I have another friend who’s a
write. We have the twentysomething-angst conversations. And another
friend who is a designer(Ann Sui). WE also sit around and have
these Gen-X conversations.
Interviewer: What does the woman that you’re seeing do?
James: I don’t want to bring in their names or place in society. I know
a lot of people would want to ask me just because all of my songs
are about relations. But I really don’t want to.
Interviewer: DJ Theo Mizuhara says he found more support from other
communities than the Japanese American community. have you
had a similar experience?
James: I grew up in a very white-bread, homogeneous suburb that could be
a suburb anywhere. When my parents moved into the suburb,
which was would be in the late 60’s when I was born, there weren’t any
Asians, let alone Japanese people. So I never really had a
community to base my work from.
Interviewer: What about at shows and fans?
James: When we used to play clubs and smaller shows, people would have
more access to us just because whenever we would be breaking
down equipment or when there was no backstage. I never had that many
Asian kids come up to me over the years. Now that we play bigger
shows, our access to people is really small. I get a small percentage of
letters and comments and people. I don’t get any negative feedback,
but I don’t get much feedback from Asian kids in general.
Interviewer: Who would you say your music influences are?
James: I just like good songs and I like good singers and bands. I like
classic rock, groups like the Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Dylan. I think
they’re all great. I like other things like country rock like Graham
Parsons. I’ve been listening to this Bossa Nova CD, early Jobim. I buy
things here and there. Gustav Mahler. There’s no real one defining
influence, I just look songs and melodies.
Interviewer: There are some songs on your solo record that sound like
the Beatles or Rolling Stones.
James: It’s hard to get away from the Beatles and Stones and classic
rock. They sort of wrote the book on the three-and-a-half-minute pop
songs. Their melodies and their arrangements form such a huge core of
what pop music is about. But I don’t think I am like Oasis where
I’ve taken that much. There might be a few Beatlesque things but not
that much. They’re not odes to the Beatles.
Interviewer: Are you a spiritual person?
James: No, not really. I don’t go to church. There are some songs that
kind of have things to do with faith and god. But I’m not a big
believer in organized religion. I believe is some higher power, but not
really into the context of going to church ever Sunday, doing all these
things to be closer to god. But each person has their different needs.
The answer to that question could be an hour long.
Interviewer: I saw the Smashing Pumpkins live and you were standing in
the background. Why is that? It may have been that you had a
problem with your guitar.
James: Yeah, I always have problems with my stupid guitar. The guitar is
the bane of my existence. It is also the greatest thing. I don’t
really stand in the background. It’s just when you watch a band, most
people watch the singer-unless you have Jimmy page on the left. A
lot of the focus is on Billy. He’s outspoken, the main songwriter, and
the singer of the band. So that’s probably why people think that. You
know when I do interviews with the band, thats who they focus on.
Interviewer: What drew you to modeling?
James: I’m friends with Anna Sui and she just asked me to do it. You
know I think it was pretty fun. It’s completely different that music.
It’s sort of like this sick insane job to have. I definitely wouldn’t
want to have it as a job normally.
Interviewer: Are you going to continue modeling?
James: Mmmm...too old.
Interviewer: Really?
James: I really want people to focus on the music and really don’t want
to have all these other different things going to. I don’t know. I
might do something for fun, but I really don’t see me making it a second
career.
Interviewer: So is this the alternative-glam-rocker image we see in the
media who you really are?
James: They see the Pumpkins’ videos and press pictures, and that’s what
they get.
Interviewer: Is that who you really are?
James: You know, it’s all part of the band and music.
Interviewer: So what do you do on a regular day?
James: What do I do on a regular day? Well, I swing from the chandeliers
and do lots of drugs and put on makeup. I mean, what do I do on
a regular day? If I’m at home, generally, I get up around nine,
nine-thirty something like that. I make tea and toast and orange juice,
and I
sit there with my notebook with things I gotta do. I try working on a
song in the morning. I walk my dog Bugg make endless phone calls to
management, people, and friends. I run some errands. I go to Starbucks
or something like that, work on the song again maybe later in the
day, have dinner. That’s it. I have a completely boring life.
Interviewer: It sounds like heaven and hell.
James: (laughs) Yeah, it’s great. Thats it I have time. But most of the
time I’m either touring or recording. So that’s why I choose a more
mundane lifestyle when I’m off touring.
Interviewer: I heard you dropped out of college.
James: I didn’t really drop out but I didn’t finish. I was one year from
graduating from Loyola University(Chicago) with a fine arts degree.
Interviewer: Were your parents supportive of your decision to go into
music?
James: I think my dad was definitely skeptical, but it’s not like that
cut me off or anything like that. You know, it was just something I was
doing. I mean, from their viewpoint, it just seemed insane. “Why would
you want to become a musician, when education is everything?” I
mean, they have a very good point. But at the same time, I told my mom
that it’s only once in a lifetime you can try to go for something
and if you don’t do it now, that window of time gets very small. It’s
not like I could go back to college and finish up my degree and then go
back into music. It just wouldn’t happen.
Interviewer: What do they think of your music?
James: Uhhmm. I don’t know. I think they like it.
Interviewer: Can you tell me about your hair history?
James: My hair history. That’s kind of a dodgy subject. My hair history.
I don’t know why my hair is such a big thing. I guess I’m like Bon
Jovi or something. I just have this insane hair thing on my head. It
just used to be green, used to be red, used to be blue, then I put all
these
skunk stripes in it. I just thought I looked too normal so I just sort
of did something to it. But now I’m so sick or seeing myself this way
that
I think I’m just going to chop all the crazy stuff of and get a like
normal Supercuts cut. I think that would be more rebellious, that would
be
more punk rock than dyed hair.
Interviewer: Do you mean a business cut?
James: Just like a regular guy hair cut. Whatever that is. Which is
something normal. I’m sick of looking unnormal.
Interviewer: What about the nickname “Asian Cat”?
James: I have never heard of that. It must be on the internet.
Interviewer: I found it on the internet, but I had no way of confirming
it.
James: (laughs) I guess I look like one. It’s probably because of the
streaks. It’s not a nickname I gave myself.
Interviewer: Have you seen the websites?
James: I have heard about the web sites, but I have never been on the
websites, I can only imagine.
Interviewer: I heard you are a big fan of Popeye’s Fried Chicken.
James: It is so weird the information people get about me. It’s just so
weird to me. I kind of like Popeye’s, but I don’t go there everyday.
People will come up to me and say something like that, and I don’t know
what to say to them. I’m like, “Yeah.” It just sounds like stalker
information.
Interviewer: I guess there is a lot of stalker information.
James: I’m really normal and boring. There’s not that much celebrity gum
to write about in my opinion. But then I’m really weird, so
maybe my ear is really off.
Interviewer: Some fans describe you as an enigma.
James: I don’t know what people expect out of celebrities and out of
rock stars these days. I am who I am. I dress the way I want to dress. I
say the things I want to say. I’m not really trying to be this enigma
for people to put on tv or in a magazine. It’s funny what people’s
perceptions of celebrities are. I guess a lot of celebrities turn it on
for the media and stuff. It’s such a strange thing. People see me in the
context of the band so they ask Billy all these questions. They’re
already asked all the serious artistic questions to Billy so when they
get
around to me I make these off-the-wall comments. So people think of me
of being mysterious or something. I’m not being mysterious, I’m
just making jokes. In doing this interview for this magazine, I’m not
really a big believer in different groups. I think people should do what
they want to do. I’ve never really been held back being Asian. I’ve
always done what I want to do. I’m surprised that there aren’t more
Asian kids in music.
Interviewer: Do you think that it is because of a lack of visible
presence with Asian Americans in rock music?
James: It used to be weird for people to see women in rock bands. And
now it’s not like a big deal at all. There used to be on or two female
bass players or something like that and that was kind of odd. But now
people really don’t write articles about that anymore. It’s like, who
cares?
Interviewer: When people think of Asian American musicians, classical
musicians quickly come to mind...What has been the music
industry’s reaction to you?
James: This it the first time I really sort of stepped out and done
something that is just me without hiding in a band or in the guise of a
bigger unit. I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see.
Interviewer: What happens when you meet with the record executives?
James: I think that is a bigger issue that I am in this big alternative
rock band. I have never had people comment “Oh, you’re Asian” or “you’re
Japanese”. I have never really sought that out. I always wanted to be
treated as an equal either as a musician or a songwriter and not based
on my race or gender. You know, there are a few Asian musicians I’ve
seen, like that guy in that ska band Save Farris. I hope that one day
when people write about it, they don’t say “these Asian American people”
or “these Asian musicians”. I mean, it shouldn’t really make a
difference. Either the music sucks or it’s great.
A PUMPKIN HISTORY: “They’re all nice records” James Iha says of the Smashing Pumpkins’ smashing four-album history...
Gish: The Pumpkins gold-record debut was a growling showcase of electric indie rock. Iha recalls the making of this album as “painful.”
Siamese Dream: A quadruple-platinum-selling album with the Pumpkins signature electric core, warmed over by acoustic guitars and strings. “Slightly more painful,” Iha says of putting it together.
Pices Iscariot: Platinum compilation of unreleased songs and B-sides. Iha says his songwriting was more in the forefront. “There are a few of my songs on there.”
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: An eight-time platinum double-disc of refined angst and wispy reveries. “Relatively groovy,” Iha calls the album.
The Aeroplane Flies High: A trove of Pumpkinly prodigiousness, this fancifully designed box-set contains 33 previously unreleased tracks.
