Tetsu ~ bassist ~

Tetsuya Ogawa (born October 3, 1969,at Maibara in Shiga, Japan), known professionally as tetsu, is the leader and bassist of the Japanese rock band L'Arc~en~Ciel. He also does backup vocals and has written some of the band's songs, including 'Link', 'READY STEADY GO', 'finale', 'Driver's High' and 'Pieces'. 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'.

In 2007, Tetsu and 22-year-old actress Ayana Sakai got engaged.

Playing Style

Tetsu 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 songwriting can be seen as more 'poppish' as compared to ken's who has a heavier and sometimes bluesy approach. He frequently uses slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs in his playing.

Tetsu plays with a pick most of the time, but uses fingerstyle occasionally when the song calls for it, such as in 'winter fall' and 'jojoushi'. In a few songs Tetsu can be heard using the slap style of playing such as in the Laruku song 'THE NEPENTHES' and 'twinkle, twinkle'. 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 a 5 string bass since L'Arc~en~Ciel's 15th anniversary, but is known to occasionally use 6 strings in L'Arc~en~Ciel songs such as Neo Universe, Time Goes on,Get out from the Shell where Tetsu plays lead melody.But in Perfect Blue he use a 6 string baritone guitar (similar with electric guitar but tuned one octave lower).

Even though Tetsu is endorsed by ESP Guitars and has several models, he has used his Zon bass for most of his recording works. Tetsu is an avid collector of basses and guitars. He owns over 120 basses and more than 20 guitars.


official web site --> http://www.tetsu-tetsu.com/