One Ok Rock

One Ok Rock (stylized as ONE OK ROCK) is a Japanese rock band formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 2005, composed of Taka, Toru, Ryota, and Tomoya.

2005–2006: Formation and earlier days

The foundation for One Ok Rock began when Toru Yamashita, then a high school student, wanted to start a band. He told his friend Ryota Kohama, a fellow member of the hip hop dance group Heads, to learn the bass and asked Alex Onizawa, who was their senior in school to join. He asked his classmate, Yu, to play drums. At that time, Taka Moriuchi was playing with another band named Chivalry of Music; however, Taka didn't enjoy playing with them, so Toru insisted that he join One Ok Rock instead. After signing with a label, Amuse, Inc. Yu left the band to pursue an acting career and his parents didn't want their son to pursue that line of work. Tomoya Kanki had been teaching at ESP (Musical Academy) and was already in a band that wasn't going well. He then joined One Ok Rock in 2006, but only became an official member when they debuted in 2007.

The band's name, One Ok Rock, comes from "one o'clock", the time that the band used to practice on weekends. They chose to play at one o'clock in the morning because it was cheaper to use the rehearsal space during such hours. However, noticing that the Japanese language made no distinction between r's and l's, they changed "o'clock" to "o'crock" (or "o'krock"), which was then separated to become "ok rock".

2010–2012: New formation, Niche Syndrome and Zankyo Reference

With the new four-member formation, the band released the single "Kanzen Kankaku Dreamer" on February 3, 2010. It reached 9th on the Weekly Oricon Chart. They released their fourth studio album titled Niche Syndrome on June 9, 2010. The band had their tour This is my own judgement! in five Zepp music halls across the nation in 6 days, starting Sendai, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and ending in a 2-day concert in Tokyo. The second part the tour took place at sixteen different venues until 11 December 2010. They held a final performance in Nippon Budokan, Tokyo on 28 November, followed by the release of a concert DVD "This is My Budokan?!" on 16 February 2011. On August 6, 7 and 8, ONE OK ROCK headlined Rock in Japan Festival and Summer Sonic Festival, followed by Rising Sun Rock Festival, Monster Bash, Treasure05X, Mad Ollie, Countdown Japan 2010/2011, and Radio Crazy.

The band supported Pay Money to My Pain in their 2010 STAY REAL tour, The Hiatus in their ANOMALY 2010 tour, and TOTALFAT in their OVERDRIVE tour.

Their next single, "Answer is Near", was released on February 16, 2011. The Answer is Alive 2011 tour took place in six Zepp music halls and three other venues from April to June 2011. The band released their first double A-side single "Re:make/No Scared" on July 20, 2011, one of which's songs was the main theme for the Black Rock Shooter: The Game video game. The band's fifth album, Zankyo Reference, was released on October 5, 2011. ONE OK ROCK announced fourteen dates between November and December 2011 for the Zankyo Reference Tour. The band also announced their final tour for this album as a two-day concert in Yokohama Arena on 21 and 22 January 2012. This was their first time playing in Yokohama Arena, the biggest venue in Kantō region. The concert was sold out with more than 24,000 attendees. Later, the documentary of the Zankyo Reference Tour and the performance from the second night in Yokohama Arena was released on Blu-ray and DVD on 30 May 2012.

In 2011, ONE OK ROCK headlined many music festivals, including Jisan Valley Rock Festival in South Korea. In July the band headlined SETSTOCK 2011 and Jisan Valley Rock Festival, followed by Rock in Japan Festival, Rising Sun Rock Festival, Summer Sonic Festival, Monster Bash, Sky Jamboree, and Space Shower's Sweet Love Shower. At the end of the year, they headlined Radio Crazy and Countdown Japan once more.

The band declared their first overseas tour in Start Walking The World on May and June 2012, covering Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Mao Abe, Hello Sleepwalkers, and Crossfaith were the guest performers of their four concert dates in Japan. They headlined Rock in Japan Festival on the main stage, as well as Summer Sonic 2012, alongside Green Day, Franz Ferdinand and Rihanna. They also headlined Oga Namahage Rock Festival, Rising Sun Rock Festival, and Sweet Love Shower.11

2014–2015: 35xxxv, second world tour and U.S. debut

On January 12, 2014 their album producer John Feldmann tweeted that ONE OK ROCK had already started recording their new album. Their first single from the forthcoming album, "Mighty Long Fall", was the theme song for the movie sequel of Rurouni Kenshin. ONE OK ROCK released the new single "Mighty Long Fall/Decision" in July 30, 2014.The song "Decision" is the theme song for their documentary film "FOOL COOL ROCK". A music video for "Decision" released in August 20, 2014 is a compilation of footage from their last tour in Europe and Asia. They also revealed the theme song for another movie sequel of Rurouni Kenshin entitled "Heartache".

In September 2014, ONE OK ROCK held a 2-day stadium concert in Yokohama Stadium in front of 60,000 people called "Mighty Long Fall Live at Yokohama Stadium 2014". This was their first time performing in a stadium. They played more than twenty songs, including three new songs and one cover of A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton.

ONE OK ROCK announced U.S., South American and European tours in late 2014. They performed at Knotfest, in both Japan and the United States, with an additional two dates for the United States in October.They visited Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Mexico for South America in November and France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and Russia in December. They performed alongside Ghost Town in the US and UK, and with Tonight Alive and Mallory Knoxfor most dates in Europe. On November 27, they were a guest performer in Hoobastank's Japan tour.

On October 9, 2014, the band announced that new album will be released February 2015. The official website of the band was redesigned along with this announcement.

Around December 16, 2014, the band revealed the cover and name of their new Japanese upcoming album, 35xxxv.

ONE OK ROCK performing at Lucky Strike Live, October 22, 2015

In April 2015, they opened alongside Finch for Yellowcard's U.S. tour. Following that, the band returned to Japan for their extensive album tour starting from May to September. The final concerts included bands like Issues and Against the Current. In July 2015, ONE OK ROCK officially announced that they have signed with Warner Bros. Records and planned to re-release 35xxxv as a deluxe edition containing all English tracks on September 25, 2015. The band was set to have a North American tour in fall 2015 with a few selected cities as headlining artists, but will spend the majority of their time as the opening act for All Time Low and Sleeping with Sirens. ONE OK ROCK will also have world tour in Europe and Asia to promote their album.

On October 17, 2015, 35xxxv (Deluxe Edition) debuted at #20 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums and its highest peak position is at #17.This chart is for new and upcoming musicians, which is usually a stepping stone towards Billboard 200 or Billboard Hot 100.

One Ok Rock planned to return to Japan for their ONE THOUSAND MILES TOUR 2016 concert along with All Time Low and PVRIS.

Musical style

ONE OK ROCK's basic influences were Good Charlotte and Ellegarden, the group's initial idea began when Toru wanted to start a rock band and invited Ryota to form a rock band. Good Charlotte influences are seen on their first album. After the scandal of Alex Onizawa groping a high school student, the band decided to continue without Alex.

In their sixth album Jinsei×Boku=, they expressed how this album was influenced by Linkin Park's and Coldrain's screaming and yell-rapping. Their new seventh album 35XXXV, was produced along with producer John Feldmann whom also worked with 5 Seconds of Summer, The Used, and Sleeping With Sirens. The album was described as "too Americanized" by international fans, yet it managed to get the first place on the Oricon Album weekly ranking being the first time the band achieved the first place. Fans are in constant dispute over their dynamic music style change as new albums release different sounds.