Janis Tanaka (born January 9, 1963) is an American bassist who has worked as a session musician and on tour with a number of well-known artists including
Pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
,
Fireball Ministry
Fireball Ministry is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1999.
Biography
Formed in Cincinnati in the late 1990s by James A. Rota II and Emily Burton, Fireball Ministry moved to New York City before settling in ...
,
Hammers of Misfortune
Hammers of Misfortune is an American heavy metal band from San Francisco, California. The band's style has varied from album to album, at times incorporating different elements of folk metal, doom metal, NWOBHM, black metal, 1970s rock, and th ...
, Stone Fox, and
L7. She was also a member of the
Pagan Babies, a band started by
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as t ...
,
Kat Bjelland
Katherine Lynne Bjelland (born December 9, 1963) is an American musician. She rose to prominence as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the alternative rock band Babes in Toyland, which she formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1987. ...
, and Deirdre Schletter in the 1980s.
Career
Tanaka grew up in
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
, in a family with several sisters.
She took courses at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
for one year followed by
Long Beach City College
Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...
.
Tanaka began playing guitar,
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, and piano in elementary school.
Music
Early bands Tanaka played with include The Jackson Saints and
Sugar Baby Doll.
She left
Hammers of Misfortune
Hammers of Misfortune is an American heavy metal band from San Francisco, California. The band's style has varied from album to album, at times incorporating different elements of folk metal, doom metal, NWOBHM, black metal, 1970s rock, and th ...
to play with Pink.
In 2001, Tanaka appeared on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014.
The fourth incarnation of the ...
supporting Pink.
She has also played in the band Winterthrall. As of 2017, Tanaka was reportedly playing in The Big Meat Combo and in the all female version of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
-based
Femme Fatale
A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
.
Film
Tanaka has appeared in several films as herself including ''L7: Pretend We're Dead'', released in 2016 and directed by
Sarah Price, and ''Fireball Ministry: Master of None,'' released in 2003. She has acted in the films: ''
Live Freaky Die Freaky'', ''Down and Out With Dolls'' and starred in the film ''The Year of My Japanese Cousin'' (1995). She had a starring role in ''The Year of My Japanese Cousin'' and received a favorable review of her performance in the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
''.
References
External links
*
Living people
American rock bass guitarists
Women bass guitarists
American women singers
American women heavy metal singers
American singers of Asian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
American women musicians of Japanese descent
L7 (band) members
Singers from San Francisco
American film actresses
Actresses from San Francisco
1963 births
Guitarists from San Francisco
20th-century American bass guitarists
20th-century American women musicians
Feminist musicians
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