, known exclusively by his stage name Pata, is a Japanese musician. He is best known as rhythm guitarist of the visual kei rock band X Japan. He joined the band in 1987, stayed with them until their dissolution in 1997, and rejoined when the band reunited in 2007.
Pata began a solo career in 1993, releasing two studio albums featuring Western musicians such as Tommy Aldridge, Tim Bogert, James Christian and Chuck Wright. When X Japan disbanded, he formed the short-lived duo P.A.F. in 1998 with former Make-Up singer NoB and the rock band Dope HEADz in 2000 with X Japan bassist Heath and former Spread Beaver programmer I.N.A. Both projects released two studio albums before ceasing activity. Pata then formed the instrumental band Ra:IN in 2002, which still tours extensively to this day. In 2018, readers and professional musicians voted Pata the ninth best guitarist in the history of hard rock and heavy metal in We Rock magazine's "Metal General Election".
Early life Tomoaki Ishizuka was born on November 4, 1965, in the town of Matsunami, Chiba, Japan. His father was an elementary school teacher and later principal, his mother was a housewife, and he has a younger sister two years his junior. Due to the influence of his father, Pata came to love baseball and often played it with friends in the neighborhood park. Although he claims to have had no artistic ability, he attended art classes for about two years because his sister wanted to. There, he was friends with Katsuhide Uekusa. In junior high school, Pata was a member of the tennis club. However, after his father died from cancer in the middle of his second year, he rarely attended school. When he did, he would only go half the day in order to avoid the classes he hated.
Instead, Pata spent his time playing an acoustic guitar that his parents had bought his sister. He had previously watched Kiss' 1977 Nippon Budokan concert on the NHK television show Young Music Club, and it made a big impact on him. Although he and members of his family owned albums by other Western acts, such as Rock 'n' Roll Music by The Beatles which was the first album he ever bought, Pata was not allowed to play Kiss too loud. At the time, rock music was thought to be a bad influence on children and his parents threw away a magazine that he had bought because Kiss was on the cover. Cheap Trick is the Western rock band that had the biggest influence on Pata, with him citing them as the reason he started playing guitar and the intro to "Dream Police" as the first thing he learned. The first electric guitar he owned was a cheap Explorer replica, the same style and paint job as Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, that his parents bought him in his second year of junior high from a mail-order magazine advertisement.
Because of his poor grades due to truancy, Pata was told he only had two options for high school; one near his home and one in Kisarazu, an hour away. He chose the latter because it had a good baseball team; although he never played for the school. However, he was frequently absent due to asthma, attending less than a single semester, and had to repeat his first year. But he gradually stopped attending anyway.
Career 1979–1997: Early bands and X Japan
Together with a former junior high classmate, Pata formed his first band in high school, Headlock, named after the wrestling move. They performed at the Yamaha-sponsored music contest East West, but fell apart as the members gradually stopped hanging out. He then formed a band with high school classmates that he met at a Sakae, Chiba musical instrument store that he frequented and later became a part-time employee at, and performed at the school festival during Pata's repeat of his first year. This was the predecessor of what became Black Rose, named after the Thin Lizzy song. Pata and the other guitarist were the composers of their five or six original songs. Pata was present at East West '83, where one of the bands competing was X. By the time he turned 20, Pata was in Judy, a band he formed with the vocalist of Black Rose. Whereas the previous group had a twin guitar setup, Pata was the only guitarist in Judy. And although he wrote some songs, the bassist was the main composer in the new band. When Judy found themselves without a drummer and a concert approaching, a mutual acquaintance asked X drummer Yoshiki if he would provide live support for them. In total, Pata estimates that Yoshiki filled in on drums three times for the band. He asked him to officially join, as at the time X was going through member changes, but Yoshiki declined. Unable to find a permanent drummer, Judy could not book performances and naturally disintegrated.
Around New Year's 1987, Pata received a phone call out of the blue from Yoshiki. X were about to record for an omnibus album, but had fired their guitarist. Wanting to repay his debt to Yoshiki and with no musical activities of his own, Pata agreed to help. He made his recording debut playing as a session musician on X's songs "Stab Me in the Back" and "No Connexion" for the 1987 omnibus album Skull Thrash Zone Volume I. The record also saw his occasional nickname, "Pata", become his stage name. It was coined after someone at the music shop he worked at had told him his personality resembled that of the title character of the manga series Patalliro!. A short time later, he received another call from Yoshiki, stating that while they had hired Hide, they needed a second guitarist for concerts. After supporting them at one or two live shows, Pata officially joined X. According to a 1989 issue of Rockin'f magazine, Pata officially joined after his predecessor Isao was involved in a traffic accident. Yoko of United said that Pata was previously a roadie for brief X member Hally and used Hally's guitar when he joined X himself.
X released their first album Vanishing Vision in April 1988 and toured extensively in support of the record. They became one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label. X are also widely credited as one of the pioneers of visual kei, a movement among Japanese musicians comparable to Western glam. Describing his own visual aesthetics, Pata said he had Nori from Tokyo Yankees, who was a roadie for X and had briefly attended a barber school, dye his red since every other member of the band had blond hair. Pata also shaved one side of his head because he liked punk rock. This later became a mohawk when X made their major label debut. When he first joined the band, Pata would borrow a leather jacket that Hide had worn in his previous band, but eventually switched to a longer one after seeing Steve Stevens in the music video for "Rebel Yell". Because it was rather plain, Taiji took it home and painted a punk-like image on it.
Their major label debut album, Blue Blood, was released in April 1989 and debuted at number six on the Oricon chart. Its success earned the band the "Grand Prix New Artist of the Year" award at the 4th annual Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1990. Their third album Jealousy was released in 1991 and debuted at number one, selling over 600,000 copies. It was later certified million by the RIAJ. On August 24, 1992, at a press conference in New York City at Rockefeller Center, the band introduced their new bassist Heath and announced that they were changing their name from "X" to "X Japan". Shortly after the release of August 1993's Art of Life, which also topped the Oricon, the members took a break to start solo projects. Dahlia, which would become the band's last album, was released in November 1996, and once again, it reached the number one spot. In September 1997, it was announced that X Japan would disband. They performed their farewell show, aptly titled The Last Live, at the Tokyo Dome on December 31, 1997.
1993–2007: Solo career, Dope HEADz and Ra:IN
On November 4, 1993, Pata released his first self-titled solo album. He never thought about creating one before, but the other members of X Japan were doing it, so he agreed when the record company made an offer. He contacted his friend Stan Katayama, a Japanese recording engineer living in Los Angeles that he met while recording Jealousy, who recruited Western musicians to play on the album. First was Tommy Aldridge, who agreed as long as it was not pop music, followed by drummer Simon Phillips and bassist Tim Bogert, whose work with Jeff Beck and Beck, Bogert & Appice, respectively, Pata liked. Although Pata initially assumed the album would be instrumental, he had trouble composing only instrumentals and Katayama introduced him to House of Lords vocalist James Christian. Aldridge, Bogert and Christian toured Japan with Pata in November to support the album.
In March of 1994, Pata began supporting his fellow X Japan guitarist Hide on his Hide Our Psychommunity solo tour. Hide had asked Blizard guitarist Ran to be in his live band, but Ran would only agree if Pata did so as well. Pata's single "Shine on Me", released on January 21, 1995, features Hiroyuki Shibata on vocals. His second solo album, Raised on Rock, was released on July 5, 1995 and again featured Christian and Daisuke Hinata, as well as Chuck Wright and Ken Mary. However, he was unable to tour in support of it due to his work with X Japan. In 1996, Pata once again supported Hide at his solo concerts, this time on the Psyence a Go Go tour. When X Japan broke up, Pata formed P.A.F. with former Make-Up frontman NoB in 1998. Planning to work as a solo artist, Pata initially only had NoB help by writing lyrics and providing temporary vocals for demos. Then while recording and wondering who should sing, the guitarist realized he should just ask Nob to be an official member. The duo is named after P.A.F. guitar pickups. In about one year's time they released two studio albums, one mini-album, one live album and two singles.
For the 1999 Hide tribute album Tribute Spirits, Pata teamed up with X Japan bassist Heath and former Spread Beaver percussionist and programmer I.N.A. to cover X's song "Celebration". This was the catalyst for Dope HEADz, the band the three formed the following year. I.N.A. later suggested that Heath had wanted to form a band with him because they both liked 1990s industrial music, such as Nine Inch Nails. When Pata was suggested as the guitarist, he decided to give it a try, but said he would quit if he did not like it. Vocalist Jo:Ya auditioned twice before earning the role of frontman in September 2000. Dope HEADz made their live debut at a New Year's Eve countdown event at Cafe Le Psyence in Yokosuka on December 31, 2000. In 2001, they released two singles, "Glow" in February and "True Lies" in April, followed by their first studio album, Primitive Impulse, in June. The drums for tracks recorded in Los Angeles were provided by Joey Castillo, while the drums for songs recorded in Japan were provided by Ryuichi "Ryu" Nishida, who also toured with the band. The singles both peaked at number 35 on the singles chart, while the album reached number 20 on its respective chart. However, Jo:Ya left the band after a September 9, 2001, concert at Zepp Tokyo. Dope HEADz recruited Ravecraft vocalist Shame as their new frontman and released the album Planet of Dope in July 2002. In March 2003, they announced they were entering a hiatus.