MAY 2013: TOKYO CALLING
One Ok Rock, usually written as ONE OK ROCK, is a major label Japanese rock band formed in 2005. The founding and current members, are Taka (vocals), Toru (guitar), Ryota (bass), and Tomoya (drums). The band originally had five members, but Alex, a 2nd guitar player was found guilty of groping a girl on the train, and was asked to leave the band. The group fuses various musical styles such as rock, heavy metal, pop, with melodic musicianship and expressive, often emotional and confessional lyrics. Although based in Japan, they write and sing songs using English lyrics. The band’s name, One Ok Rock, comes from “one o’clock”, which is the time that the band originally met for practice each Saturday. However, as the Japanese language has no L sound (causing foreign words with L to be pronounced with an R sound), they changed the “o’clock” to “o’crock” which was then separated to become “ok rock”. After forming, the band spent most of their time performing at live music venues and smaller festivals, rather than focusing on recording. Performing at locations all over the country, their fan base grew due to their energetic sound and live performances. Writing lyrics that express [...]
