Japanese rock band one ok rock. Interview with Taka of ONE OK ROCK

Foundation and success

The band was formed in 2005 by guitarist Toru (also a singer and rapper) who teamed up with bassist Ryota. Subsequently, vocalist Taka (ex. NEWS), who previously performed pop music, and another American-Japanese-born guitarist Alexander Onizawa joined them.

After a number of successful concerts, the musicians released the EP "One Ok Rock" in mid-2006, followed by another mini-album "Keep It Real" at the end of the same year. In 2007, permanent drummer Tomoya joined the band. His parts were first recorded on "Naihi Shinsho" (2007), songs from this release were played on the radio and opened the way to the general public. The release of their debut studio album, Zeitakubyou (2007), was preceded by a tour followed by 2 LPs in 2008.

Alex's departure

In mid-2009, the band's guitarist Alex was involved in a scandal. According to police, drunk Alex was riding a train to the city of Kawasaki and molested a 21-year-old student at a private school. He was arrested and admitted to all the charges against him. Because of this, the group canceled their tour of Japan and canceled the release of the single "Around the World Shonen". The title track from the single was supposed to be the theme song for the series "God Hand Teru", but due to the scandal, another song was already chosen. Subsequently, Alexander decided to leave the group without destroying the image of the group. Since May 2009, One Ok Rock has become a quartet, having decided not to look for a new guitarist.

Return

In the summer of the same year, the group returned to the music scene, already being a quartet. According to Taka:

« We used to be like a pentagon that is difficult to balance. Since there are four of us now and we are like a square, the distance between us has become the same, and we can walk together through what we encounter; I think our productivity has improved.»

Style and theme

AllMusic has defined the band's sound as power pop, alternative rock, indie rock, hard rock, and pop punk. At the same time, vocalist Taka came to rock music from other genres:

« No. I used to sing to very "pure" music. I played then in a band with two more members - a keyboardist and a guitarist. I didn't know much about instruments yet, but in a small studio I couldn't see who played what (laughs) and I just heard loud sounds (laughs). It was convenient that they played loudly. I heard the real sound of drums, guitar and bass for the first time. I was very impressed because I have always been interested in it. Initially, I really liked the band RIZE. The genre was not the one I was used to, so it felt like I was in new world and I had a lot of fun. We played together every week and I still didn't know much.»
.
Guitarist Toru and bassist Ryota both started out in a hip hop dance group, Ryota only took up bass for the first time at Toru's request due to their lack of a bass player. The musicians themselves refer their work to a mixture of rock, emo, metal and hardcore. Also among the most influential on their work, they attributed: My chemical romance, Enter Shikari, Good Charlotte, Last Winter, Saosin, Linkin Park, Metallica, RIZE.

Compound

Taka (Jap. タカ, real name Takahiro Morita (森田寛貴); born April 17, 1988 in Tokyo) - Vocals. Son famous singer Shinichi Mori. Former member NEWS.
Toru (Japanese トオル To:ru, real name Toru Yamashita (山下亨); born December 7, 1988 in Osaka) - Guitar and backing vocals. Former member of the hip-hop dance group Heads.
Ryota (Jap. リョウタ Ryo:ta, real name Ryota Kohama (小浜良太); born September 4, 1989 in Osaka) - Bass guitar. Former member of the hip-hop dance group Heads.
Tomoya (Japanese トモヤ, real name Tomoya Kanki (神吉智也); born June 27, 1987 in Hyogo Pref.) - Drums.
Former members[edit | edit wiki text]
Alex Onizawa, Alex He left the group in May 2009 due to allegations of harassment.

ONE OK ROCK is a Japanese power pop/alternative rock band under the AMUSE label. They play rock of various genres, but at the same time they manage to keep their original sound, also thanks to Taka's wonderful vocals.
The name ONE OK ROCK comes from one o'clock - night time, when the band gathered for rehearsals

The band was formed in 2005 by guitarist Toru (also a singer and rapper) who teamed up with bassist Ryota. Toru and Ryota were originally part of the hip hop group Heads. In the summer of 2005, they formed the band ONE OK ROCK, with another American-Japanese guitarist, Alex, joining them. And later - vocalist Taka (ex. NEWS)

After a number of successful concerts, the musicians released their first album "One Ok Rock" in mid-2006, and then another mini-album "Keep It Real". In 2007 permanent drummer Tomoya joined the band. His parts were first recorded on "Naihi Shinsho" (2007), songs from this release were played on the radio, and opened the way to the general public. The release of their debut studio album, Zeitakubyou (2007), was preceded by a tour followed by 2 LPs in 2008.

Taka - vocals
Real name: Moriuchi Takahiro
Date of birth: April 17, 1988
Place of birth: Tokyo
Blood type: A
Height, weight: 168 cm, 50 kg

Toru - guitar, backing vocals
Real name: Tohru Yamashita
Date of birth: December 7, 1988
Place of birth: Osaka
Blood type: O
Height, weight: 177 cm, 66 kg

Leader and initiator of the creation of the group. Former member of the hip hop dance group Heads along with Ryota. They have released six singles and one album. Featured in the drama Shibuya 15

He was fond of rock music from elementary school, and in high school he seriously decided to do it himself, for which he invited Alex (a class older) and Ryota (a class younger) who studied with him.

Ryota - bass
Real name: Kohama Ryota
Date of birth: September 4, 1989
Place of birth: Osaka
Blood type: B
Height, weight: 174 cm, 56 kg

At first he wanted to be a dancer and just like Toru was a member of the HEADS group. He began learning to play the bass after the formation of the group (at the request of Toru).

Tomoya - drums
Real name: Kanki Tomoya
Date of birth: June 27, 1987
Place of birth: Hyogo
Blood type: A
Height, weight: 167.5 cm, 51 kg

He joined the band in March 2007, before that he worked with them as a session musician. I met the rest of the members through my school music teacher, whose wards often played at combined concerts with ONE OK ROCK

Former member
Alex - guitar
Real name: Alexander Onizawa
Date of birth: March 18, 1988
Place of birth: San Francisco
Blood type: B
Height, weight: 180 cm, 65 kg

He has been playing the guitar since elementary school.
Model (from agency GIG MANAGEMENT JAPAN). Featured in the movie "Aishiteyo"
Left the group in May 2009.

The reason: in the first half of the spring of 2009, Alex was driving to Kawasaki, as it turned out later, still not quite sober, and on the train he touched an unfamiliar girl on the knee or somewhere on the leg. The girl seriously fussed, and Alex was arrested. He fully agreed with the accusations and explained his behavior in the following way: "She was my type." However, things did not go further, and he and the girl solved the problem WITHOUT COURT.
But in the life of the group, this incident did not play very well. good role: The release of the single "Around ザ world 少年", scheduled for April 6, 2009, had to be canceled, as well as the country tour, and, on top of that, the makers of the drama "God Hand Teru", which was supposed to serve as the soundtrack of the song of the same name from the single , refused this idea and from cooperation.
It was decided that the only way for ONE OK ROCK to continue safely with their work was for Alex to leave the group. He left voluntarily.
Since May 2009, One Ok Rock has become a quartet, having decided not to look for a new guitarist.
After a long break on February 3, 2010, the single "Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer" was released. It ranks at number 9 on the Oricon charts. June 9, 2010 ONE OK ROCK release their fourth studio album "Niche Syndrome".
Their next single "Answer is Near" is released on 16. 02. 2011. On July 20, the group releases their first A-side single "Re:make / NO SCARED", NO SCARED became the theme in new game for Play Station Portable "Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME", based on the popular OVA and the song of the same name Miku Hatsune.
Released in October 2011 new album Zankyou Reference, which climbed to number two on the Oricon charts in its first week of sales. Concerts within the framework of the promotional tour invariably gathered full houses, and the two-day final performance took place on the stage of the huge YOKOHAMA ARENA stadium.
In 2012, ONE OK ROCK took part in the recording of a collection of covers for songs legendary band Nirvana, for which they performed the song Smells Like Teen Spirit. On May 30, to the delight of fans, the recording of the winter concerts in Yokohama was released on DVD. In May-June as part of the Start Walking tour The World Tour musicians played for the first time outside of Japan: concerts were held in Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. The release of the single The Beginning is scheduled for August, which will become the theme of the full-length film Rogue Kenshin. The band plans to spend the rest of the year on tour, starting on September 4 and ending on November 16.

(Onizawa Alexander / Onizawa Alexander / 鬼澤アレクサンダ)
Date of birth: 03/18/1988
Position in the group: lead guitarist, backing vocalist (2005-2009)

ONE OK ROCK is a Japanese alternative rock band under the AMUSE label. They play rock of various genres, but at the same time they manage to keep their original sound, also thanks to Taka's wonderful vocals.

The name ONE OK ROCK comes from one o "clock - the night time when the band gathered for rehearsals

In mid-2009, the band's guitarist Alex was involved in a scandal. According to police, drunk Alex molested a 21-year-old student at a private school. He was arrested and admitted to all the charges against him. Because of this, the group canceled their Japanese tour and the release of the single "Around the World Shonen". The title song of the single was supposed to be the theme song for the series "God Hand Teru", but due to the scandal, the creators of the drama abandoned this idea and the collaboration. It was decided that the only way for ONE OK ROCK to continue safely with their work was for Alex to leave the group.

Since May 2009, One Ok Rock has become a quartet, having decided not to look for a new guitarist.

After a long break on February 3, 2010, the single "Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer" was released. June 9, 2010 ONE OK ROCK release their fourth studio album "Niche Syndrome".

Their next single "Answer is Near" is released on 16.02.2011. On July 20th the band releases their first A-side single "Re:make / NO SCARED".

In October 2011, the new album Zankyou Reference was released, which climbed to number two on the Oricon chart in the first week of sales. Concerts within the framework of the promotional tour invariably gathered full houses, and the two-day final performance took place on the stage of the huge YOKOHAMA ARENA stadium.

In 2012, ONE OK ROCK took part in the recording of a collection of covers for the songs of the legendary band Nirvana, for which they performed the song Smells Like Teen Spirit. In May-June, as part of the Start Walking The World Tour, the musicians played for the first time outside of Japan: concerts took place in Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

In 2013, the album Jinsei x Boku= was released and the group's first European tour took place.

2014 One ok rock spent on concert tours - by South America and Europe, as well as VANS WARPED TOUR in the USA. In September, they drew 60,000 fans to Yokohama Stadium during the Mighty Long Fall concert.

In 2015, the group finally went global by signing with Warner Bros. and released an album called 35xxxv in two versions - Japanese and English, followed by a massive arena tour in Japan and another tour in Asia and Europe, and then North America in support of the new album. Producer John Feldman, known for his collaborations with bands such as Good Charlotte, The Used, Blink-182, and others, took part in the recording of 35xxxv.

In 2016, One ok rock staged another small European tour and performed at the Download, Rock am ring and Rock im park festivals, as well as toured the US with American bands.

The release of a new album under the Fueled By label is scheduled for 2017.

Taka took some time to chat with JaME about the band, the changes they've been through recently, and the future.

Popular rock band ONE OK ROCK returned after a somewhat tumultuous summer with a new line-up, a fantastic ZEPP tour last November and a new single Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer which came out on February 3rd. JaME was able to talk to the vocalist Taka during the Christmas holidays and find out about changes in the group and new ONE OK ROCK.

Could you introduce yourself?

Taka: I Taka, vocalist ONE OK ROCK.

Now there are four musicians in the band, has this influenced your sound in any way?

Taka: Yes! (laughs)

First two guitarists, now one in person Toru is a very big change. How do you deal with it?

Taka: Of course, during the recording we include more guitars in our songs, originally they were written for two guitars. When it came to this tour, in order to overcome any incompatibilities since we only have one guitarist now, we cut guitar parts where we could cut them. I think the album we're recording right now is completely different from the rest. Since we now have one guitar, the bass lines have also been reduced, our melodies have become more prominent, the music has become more rock and simple.

Do you use the same arrangements during concerts?

Taka: We only used them for one song Never stop dreaming.

Except for that song Toru tunes everyone else to one guitar?

Taka: Yes. We increased the bass presence where we could and I played guitar on two songs.

You recently returned with a rather extensive national tour after a break. Was this tour different from the previous ones?

Taka: Our music has become simpler. I think our motivation has grown; we each have our own responsibilities and each has the same vision of the material as the others. We used to be like a pentagon that is difficult to balance. Since there are four of us now and we are like a square, the distance between us has become the same, and we can walk together through what we encounter; I think our productivity has improved.

It is felt that the contribution to the music of the group of each individual member has increased.

Taka: I think yes. When there were five of us, each of us continued to walk our own path and thought about what was happening as if we thought the rest of the members were on the same level. But when there were four of us, we became equals and started thinking about the same things in terms of songwriting and performances.

You all have matured a whole year and now seem even cooler.

Taka: Thanks a lot! (laughs)

Taka: I think yes. I can sing a lot louder than before, and our music will also be simpler and more rocky.

You have a new single coming out in February Dreamer (完全感覚Dreamer). Could you tell us about it? In the title song dreamer the lyrics in english and japanese are perfectly combined, it's just wonderful. What did you feel when you wrote the words?

Taka: I wrote them directly, as is. I used to write complicated lyrics, compared everything written to different things, but now if I express the Japanese song title Kanzen kankaku dreamer just on English language, it will simply be "Dreamer" and "Kanzen kankaku" means "wonderful feeling". This song expresses how we will mix our feelings to chase our dreams, how we will use our powers to get something and how we will only go forward. This song will be really rock.

This is a strong, moving rock track with an explosion of the main melody. Why did you choose the song in addition Lonlina?

Taka: It was planned that this song would be an extra song on the previous single. Since we are currently writing and recording a lot of songs, this track expresses our change better than the others. So we thought we should release it as soon as possible since we still have a lot of songs.

Did you overwrite it?

Taka: No, it's almost the same as it was. We re-recorded only the first part.

Regarding the lyrics of this song, I think that you see reality for what it really is. Do you always see things so objectively?

Taka: Maybe yes. I try to see everything as objectively as possible and not create a reflection of myself... ....but it's quite difficult. (laughs)

AT Ring Wonderung the message "seize the moment, live now with all your strength" is felt.

Taka: Yes. I wrote lyrics to her along with dreamer. Meaning Ring Wonderung is that "if we always look down, we will not be able to reach our goal". This means that we must see things objectively. Of course, the "present" is important, but not only; I wanted to say that "we will draw a line from ourselves to the goal and just run along it, we are always looking at the things in front of us, we cannot know what the future holds for us, and no one knows what we will become in the future, so we just look at the goals we have set and we will run towards them.”

The cover of this single features an ouroboros, a serpent that has grabbed onto its tail. You compare it with the name Ring Wonderung?

Taka A: No, we consulted with the designer after we finished all the songs. This symbol means "infinity", so we made this cover as it expresses our future possibilities and present motivation.

In a previous interview, you mentioned that you were influenced by the western emo scene at that time. Has it changed? Are there any new influences?

Taka A: We haven't changed much. The reason we started the band is not because “we like the same music so let's make a band”, we started with “we want to make music and play in a band”. We learned more and more, and our favorite music has changed with us.So, at first our theme was "emotional" (emotional from English "emotional"), but even we do not know for sure if it was actually "emotional" when you think about it "objectively. But we've come pretty close to this style. I don't think we've been able to achieve the "motion" we're aiming for, and I think other people would think the same, but what we have to do now is to do what we can do with all our strength, and we want to do everything more steadfastly.

Do you see your goals and ideals clearly and go straight to them?

Taka: I think yes. First of all, we deal with the things around us, set goals and achieve them one by one.

Has something new influenced you?

Taka A: Well, not really. When we started making music, the mixing of styles was already popular, and it was hard for us to listen to the usual rock that was popular before. But I think that music rotates with time, so this genre may become popular in the future. Perhaps the genre that we love and work on now will become popular in ten years. I don't know this, but we go through trial and error, listening to different artists and absorbing their experience all the time.

Is there anything new that you would like to try in your future releases? What about things you would like to show through your music?

Taka: Well, it's very difficult, but we want to make singles and albums that we think are cool. We always think like that, but we might think that "we want to do it next time", we want to find the next step in writing albums. I think it's great if we feel like "want to do something like this next time" at the end of a job, rather than "we did it". I think this is the most important.

So it's not a feeling of wanting to try different aspects?

Taka: Not. We don't understand at all musical theory, and I think that it is deeper than we imagine it. Therefore, we have not yet reached the point where we can say "this is it!". Much more important is that we make albums through research and discovery.

Can you recommend any early or recent CDs to our readers?

Taka: Well, it's hard to say, because there are so many. It's quite difficult to advise people who already listen to our music, and those who are only slightly interested in it. As for what we would like to advise them to listen to... Now there are four of us, and you can find a new direction in our music, so I think you should listen to everything that interests you. Everything is OK! (laughs)

Before taking a break from the band, you played an unreleased song at a concert. Will she be on the new single? If not, do you plan to release it?

Taka: This release has already been canceled once. I think that we will release it sometime later in new form but this is not currently planned.

The Zepp Tour will take place mid-2010. What do you have planned?

Taka: We have received a lot of wishes from fans, so I want to make them come true. As the venues get bigger, the shows we're aiming for will get bigger. But we want to release everything planned during the Zepp tour as the band is focusing on getting more organized.

What do you want from this tour? Have you noticed any things while being around the audience?

Taka: We should have more patience, since the four members of the group must be real members of the group. I just want to say that we should give ourselves more to the music, think what we need. I think that concerts are my reason to live, and if I couldn't express myself properly on stage, I would constantly feel that there was no point in continuing. Therefore, I will work hard to be able to express things more directly.

I think that you could feel that the audience is waiting for you. As soon as your tour was cancelled, everyone was waiting for you and constantly supporting you, and you could feel their anticipation like "finally we can see you".

Taka: Yes. I felt that we were supported by a great power, much greater than our own. It could have been something that only we on stage could feel, but I actually felt a lot more.

Are you planning any special concert, like an acoustic one, for your fans?

Taka: Yes. It would be cool if we ever manage to arrange something like this. We mainly make set lists of melodies, not riffs, so some songs would sound better acoustically. I think we will be able to give such a concert in the future.

In your previous interview, you said “I feel like I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground.” Have you succeeded?

Taka A: I don't think it's changed much, and I feel like "security is the greatest enemy." (laughs) Even if I could get used to the big waves and couldn't ride them, it would be useless. If I can't learn how to perform on stage, we won't be able to wrestle well enough. If you compare it with surfing, then it would be exactly like that. I mean, it's pointless to just sit still.

At concerts during several songs you played the guitar and sang. Should we expect the number of such songs to increase?

Taka A: Well, I don't think I'll play guitar that much. (laughs) To be the person I'm supposed to be, it's more important for me as a performer to hold a microphone, run around the stage and bring my lyrics, thoughts and melodies to the audience, and not play the guitar. So I try not to think about it and write songs.

Are you physically well prepared for this tour?

Taka: One of our members got the flu and we canceled one show, but I survived it... even without getting 100 points. (laughs)

Please leave a message for our readers.

Taka: We will continue to write music and organize tours, so please listen to our music if you get a chance!