wanted to start a band

The history of One Ok Rock began on July 29, 2005, when Toru Yamashita , a high school student, wanted to start a band. He invited his childhood friend Ryota Kohama , who was also a member of the hip-hop dance group HEADS they were both in years prior. He told Ryota to learn the bass and asked Alexander Onizawa, who was their senior in school, to join to be their guitarist and his classmate, Yu Koyanagi, to play drums. While searching for a vocalist, Toru found Takahiro Moriuchi , who was in a cover band called Chivalry of Music. Impressed by Taka’s singing skills, Toru insisted he join One Ok Rock instead. At first, Taka refused, despite repeated attempts to sway him, but eventually, he joined the band. The band’s name was suggested by Koyanagi and comes from “one o’clock”, the time that the band used to practice their music 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, “O’CLOCK” transformed into “O’CROCK” or “O’KROCK”, which later transformed into “OK ROCK”. In addition, One Ok Rock can be expressed as “10969” ( wan-ō-ku-ro-ku ). It is also the name of their management agency they set up in 2021.