One OK Rock is a Japanese rock band, formed in Tokyo, Japan in 2005. The band's name 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). The band uses both Japanese and English lyrics in their songs.

History

2005–06: 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 NEWS; however, Taka didn't enjoy playing with them, so Toru insisted that he join One OK Rock instead. After signing with 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 was a student at the 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.