tetsu is the solo artist name of tetsu from L’Arc~en~Ciel. According to him, the ‘69’ in his name refers to his birth year. He debuted in 2001 with the pop/rock single wonderful world/TIGHTROPE. Quote: |Tetsuya Ogawa (born October 3, 1969, in Osaka, Japan), known professionally as tetsu, is the founder, leader and bassist for the Japanese rock band L’Arc~en~Ciel. He does backup vocals, is one of the band’s primary composers and has also written lyrics for several songs (Milky Way, Perfect Blue, Bravery, Time Goes On and Hourglass). In the band, his name is ‘tetsu’ (All in lower case). Since 2001, he had solo work under the name ‘TETSU69’ (Number 69 is his birth year). As of 26th November 2006 he changed his solo name to ‘tetsu’.|He is renowned for his melodic style of bass playing. Many of L’Arc~en~Ciel’s songs involve Tetsu playing counter melodies with ken (guitarist of L’Arc~en~Ciel) while still holding a groove with the drums. Tetsu’s compositions can sometimes be seen as more ‘poppish’ as compared to ken’s, which often have a heavier and sometimes bluesy approach. Slides and hammer-ons/pull offs are frequently used in his playing. Tetsu plays with a pick most of the time, but uses fingerstyle occasionally when the song calls for it, like in ‘winter fall’ and ‘jojoushi’. In a few songs Tetsu can be heard using the slap style of playing such as in the L’Arc~en~Ciel song ‘THE NEPENTHES’. Tetsu has also used distortion such as in the song ‘STAY AWAY.’ Tetsu has also been known to play briefly with a banana (which he whips to the audience afterwards) prior to the beginning of a song in some concerts. Tetsu primarily plays 4 string bass, but is known to occasionally use 6 strings in L’Arc~en~Ciel songs such as Neo Universe, Time Goes on, Perfect Blue, etc. Recently, he has switched to 5 strings for his side project Creature Creature. Even though Tetsu is endorsed by ESP Guitars and has several models, he used his Zon bass for most of his recording works. Tetsu is an avid collector of basses and guitars. He owns over 100 basses and more than 20 guitars.| End of quote from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsu_%28musician%29 |
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