James Yoshinobu Iha (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.
Iha has also produced songs, contributed guitar, keyboards and vocals and produced remixes for a number of artists, including Midnight Movies, Isobel Campbell, Marilyn Manson, Whiskeytown, Scott Weiland and Michael Stipe. Among his other musical projects, Iha has been a permanent fixture of supergroup A Perfect Circle since 2003. He was also a member of Tinted Windows, a group with members of Cheap Trick, Fountains of Wayne, and Hanson. He previously co-owned independent record label Scratchie Records with Adam Schlesinger and, from 1999 to 2012, owned a recording studio with Schlesinger and Andy Chase of Ivy called Stratosphere Sound.
Iha was born in Chicago, Illinois. He is a second-generation Japanese-American and is able to speak a little Japanese. He attended Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, which he described as "a boring, middle-class suburb of Chicago." Iha received average grades in high school, and, after a successful two-year stint at a local junior college, he majored in graphic design at Loyola University Chicago before dropping out to dedicate himself to the Smashing Pumpkins.
Like his bandmate Billy Corgan, Iha has a brother with a disability.
In 1987 Iha, then playing guitar in the Chicago band Snake Train, met Billy Corgan via a friend. Corgan had already been telling people he was in a band called "Smashing Pumpkins", and decided to make it a real band with Iha.
Iha later became romantically involved with the band's bassist D'arcy Wretzky, but the couple broke up just prior to the band's performance at the Reading Festival in 1992. After a brief feud between the two, Iha sustained a friendly and close relationship with Wretzky, citing her as a best friend.
Iha wrote and sang a number of Smashing Pumpkins' songs, such as: "Blew Away" on Pisces Iscariot, "Bugg Superstar" on Vieuphoria, "Take Me Down" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, "...Said Sadly", "Believe", "The Boy", and "The Bells" on The Aeroplane Flies High, "Summer" on the "Perfect" single and "Go" on Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music. He co-wrote with Billy Corgan "I Am One" on Gish, "Soma" and "Mayonaise" on Siamese Dream, "Plume" on Pisces Iscariot and "Farewell and Goodnight" on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. He sang the band's covers of the Cure's "A Night Like This" and Syd Barrett's "Terrapin". During his time with the Pumpkins, Iha recorded with other bands, including Ivy, to which Adam Schlesinger contributed, and Swedish New Wave band the Sounds.
Billy Corgan has claimed that Iha played very little guitar on the first two Smashing Pumpkins albums, with Corgan himself playing most of the parts in the studio that Iha played live.
Iha was often considered the "quiet one" in Smashing Pumpkins, but he was known to engage in ad-libbed jokes and rap sessions at live performances. His humor was encapsulated in his use of the catchphrase, "I've seen a million faces, and I've rocked them all," originally from the Bon Jovi song "Wanted Dead or Alive".
In 1998, Iha released a moderately successful solo album, Let It Come Down. One music video was produced from this album, for the song "Be Strong Now", which was released as a four-track single.
When his former bandmates Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin revived the "Smashing Pumpkins" name, Iha did not participate, and in fact had not spoken to Corgan in years. Corgan stated in a 2008 blog entry that when he and Chamberlin reunited, the "door was open" for Iha to rejoin, but he declined, and Corgan said that he "can now say definitively that Iha isn't ever coming back." However, in a 2012 interview about the band re-formation, Iha stated that he was never even asked back into the band in the first place. Iha also admitted within the interview that he had not heard any of the band's new music since the re-formation.
In a March 2013 interview, he was asked to reflect on the band's history. He admitted that he rarely thought about his past success with the group, though he did look back on their six studio albums together with fondness. He revealed that he and Corgan had not spoken in around ten years, but that he did speak to Wretzky "once in a while".
On March 26 and 27, 2016, Iha joined Corgan and Chamberlin on stage unannounced at back-to-back Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Iha played a third show with the band in their hometown of Chicago at the Civic Opera house on April 14, 2016. In 2017, reunion rumors were leaked through various sources, and in 2018, Iha was spotted with Corgan, Chamberlin, and former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder in the studio and at a photo shoot, confirming his return to the band. In summer 2018, the reunited band embarked on the Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour, which was followed at the end of the year by the release of their album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. Iha has remained in the lineup ever since, appearing on the albums Cyr (2020), Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts (2022-2023), and Aghori Mhori Mei (2024), and touring extensively.
2001–2004: A Perfect Circle, producing, Japan
After the Smashing Pumpkins' breakup in 2000, Iha pursued many projects. He continues to contribute to other artists' recordings, such as "Don't Be Sad" on Whiskeytown's Pneumonia released in 2001 and further guest appearances for bands Ivy and Fountains of Wayne, both of which he remained close to, appearing on virtually every release by both bands since 1997. Andy Chase of Ivy, and Adam Schlesinger of both Ivy and Fountains, recorded on most songs James produced or wrote for other artists. Schlesinger first recorded on Iha's song on "The Bells" by the Smashing Pumpkins.
Iha made bigger news when he joined the alternative rock supergroup A Perfect Circle in July 2003 in time for their Thirteenth Step club tour. He has since recorded on their 2004 album eMOTIVe as well as contributed remixes of Blue and Outsider, and is back with the band following its near 6-year long hiatus. In 2003, he joined Vanessa and the O's. The group released an EP Plus Rien in Sweden the same year and followed up with the album La Ballade d'O in 2005–06 on the band's independent record company Rushmore Recordings playing live shows in Sweden during the summer of 2005.
Iha has collaborated on musical and fashion design projects in Japan. He collaborated on and produced two tracks with Japanese musician Chara for her 2001 album Madrigal called "Boku ni Utsushite" and "Skirt". The latter was accompanied by a music video featuring Iha as a hunter in a forest. With the help of longtime friend and manager Isao Izutsu, Iha started the clothing label Vaporize (f.k.a. 'Vapor') in 2001, and recorded "Never Ever", his first solo song since the Smashing Pumpkins demise, for Vaporize's first runway show. The brand has been a collaboration with the Japanese label Beams since 2001.
In 2001, Iha played live with the Blank Theory and recorded on their album Beyond the Calm of the Corridor producing the song "Addicted" together with Schlesinger and contributing guitar playing.