The Healthiest One: Tetsuya

On the previous months, I have been talking about Hyde, Yukihiro and Ken, let’s wrap this thing by talking about the man who start it all, the man that forms the best band in the world, L’Arc~en~Ciel. He is the leader of this band, he is the one that keeps the band running, he is Tetsuya Ogawa (used to be know as Tetsu Ogawa or Tetchan). In Larukuizu, I heard how Hyde still refers to him as Tetchan in spite of the fact that both of them are already above 40 years old.

Tetsuya was born in October 3, 1969 and that’s why I choose to talk about him this month (a week after his birthday). He is Laruku’s Bassist. His blood type is A. His height is about 165 cm.

Tetchan is a very talented bassist, the way he plays his bass is quite difficult to follow and I can finally differentiate the sound of bass after I fell in love with this band. Before listening to Laruku, I honestly didn’t know how to find the sound of bass among the other instrument’s sounds. Tetsu’s bass is so clear and easy to distinguish. Tetsu puts all his ability in every Laruku’s song. He looks so calm but he is very strict. He always lead the group to say something like a pray, but it’s not exactly a pray, it’s more like the last thing to talk about before going to the stage and perform.

In the beginning, Tetchan wanted to be the lead singer of the band he was going to form, but when he saw Hyde singing in his bad, Jerusalem Road, he changed his mind. He said ‘wow…I want him to be the vocalist in my band’. Tetchan kidnapped Hyde from his band (thank you Tetchan). Tetchan is the one who picked the name L’Arc~en~Ciel which means Rainbow in French, Japanese can’t pronounce it clearly and become Laruku an Shieru (Laruku for short).

Tetchan is a Kawai Man (cute), just look at his picture….he looks so Kawai. He is actually wearing glasses, but he never uses it while performing or in Laruku’s PV…maybe he wears contact lens. At first, his style is like Hyde, dressed like a woman and then he changed his style into sporty and recently becomes colorful. He really like colorful outfit and hair accessories.

This leader has an interesting gimmick, he likes to throw bananas to the audience. While touring to Asia, Paris and US, he practice to say ‘俺 のバナナ 食べたいか? – Ore no banana tabetai ka?’ (Do you want to eat my banana?). he even names his banana as Mukimpo. He is the only member in Laruku that doesn’t smoke. That’s why I call him as the healthiest one.

In my eyes, Tetsuya is a great leader because he is able to keep the band together for so long. Unlike most Japanese Rock band that keeps breaking up one by one, Laruku has managed to juggle between band’s work and personal’s work. They have been around for almost 20 years now, and I pray they will stay together or at least another 20 years or even more…Amen. During their break, Tetsu didn’t make any band, he was doing solo and called himself as Tetsu69. Most of his songs are as sweet as him.

Someone had reminded me that I forgot to mention what Tetchan did during laruku’s 2nd and 3rd break. I finally got a chance to fix it…thanks. On their second break Tetsu joined in a band called Creature-Creature and on their 3rd break He does another solo by the name TETSUYA.

New Update (Oct 20, 2010)

This Update is added too all post about Laruku’s members (Hyde, Yuki, Ken, Tetsuya) (^_^)v

I have posted my thought on Real. Before I post my thought on Smile, there will be a bridge post that connects both albums. Just like when I wrote about Laruku no Singuru (Laruku’s singles), I will fill the gap between Real and Smile with a post on their solo projects during their break.

Laruku’s 1st Break (Between Real and Smile)
Laruku’s 2nd Break (Between Awake and Kiss)
Laruku’s 3rd Break (Between Kiss and the upcoming new album)

This is also part of my tribute to L’Arc~en~Ciel