Tetsuya Ogawa (born October 3, 1969, at Osaka in Kansai, 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 composed many 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,...

Tetsuya Ogawa (born October 3, 1969, at Osaka in Kansai, 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 composed many 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 26 November 2006 he changed his solo name to 'tetsu'. In 2007, Tetsu and 22-year-old actress Ayana Sakai got married.

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 composing 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, "Munkimpo-kun", (which he whips to the audience afterwards) prior to the beginning of a song (usually "Stay Away'") in some concerts. Additionally he seems to be the main focus for a mischievous HYDE, usually resulting in him being licked, kissed, groped, hugged or with HYDE dancing under or around him while he plays, presumably defenseless. 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). Tetsu also performs a Guitar / Bass  Double Neck on the song "Trust". 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.