Photo: Tiffany Bauer (Flickr profile and personal homepage) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
James Iha is my favorite kind of musician: the quiet essential. The Smashing Pumpkins were defined by Billy Corgan's ambition, but the dreamy texture that made their classic records feel otherworldly owed plenty to Iha's shimmering guitar and gentle harmonies. His solo work confirmed what I long suspected, that underneath the alt-rock noise was a soft-spoken melodicist. As a Japanese American kid from Chicago standing at the center of nineties alternative rock, he also broke ground without ever making a show of it. His 2018 return to the band felt like a missing color restored to the palette. Understatement is his real instrument, and he plays it beautifully.
Overview
James Yoshinobu Iha (伊葉吉伸, Iha Yoshinobu) (born March 26, 1968) is an American rock musician. He is best known as a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the band's initial breakup in 2000 and rejoined in 2018.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- James Iha
- Name (Japanese)
- ジェームス・イハ
- Reading
- じぇーむす・いは
- Born
- March 26, 1968 (age 58)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aries / Monkey
- Origin
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- guitarist / composer / musician
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Elk Grove High School
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Guitarist — see all → · Composer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-10
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.