It’s no coincidence that ONE OK ROCK’s new undertaking Luxurious Illness turned out to be a real rock album. The uncooked ardour that pervades the set conveys the truth that the band has returned to their roots with a readability of which means and mission.
The album was produced by Rob Cavallo, identified for his work with Linkin Park and Inexperienced Day, and options Brendon Urie of Panic! on the Disco amongst different friends. Along with this strong rock lineup, Luxurious Illness additionally incorporates the newest pop strategies that the band fostered for his or her earlier album Eye of the Storm, and is an up to date model of ONE OK ROCK’s sound that goes past only a return to its roots.
Fifteen years after the discharge of the band’s debut album Zeitakubyo — a Japanese neologism which means the identical because the title of the brand new album — Billboard Japan interviewed ONE OK ROCK frontman Taka about the way forward for the band because it begins a brand new period, which they regard as their second chapter.
With Luxurious Illness, ONE OK ROCK has actually gone again to its rock roots, hasn’t it?
Taka: Once we first began making an attempt to maneuver into the US music scene, rock music, which we’d grown up loving, was on the verge of disappearing. We wished to deliver it again from the brink, so we tried every kind of issues. Nonetheless, we figured that, actually, as a Japanese rock band, even when we performed over there, our spirit simply wouldn’t come by means of. That’s why we noticed this era as a time to study American tradition, the native state of affairs, and what was in style within the U.S. scene. On account of that, on our final album, Eye of the Storm, we moved away from the rock sound, packing it with what we’d discovered in America. This time, although, we had a sense that when the album was to be launched, September 2022, rock can be making a comeback within the US. That’s why we began engaged on the album with this spirit of actually pouring our love for rock into it.
Moreover that feeling concerning the future, was there anything that motivated you to return to rock?
Taka: Once we have been on tour supporting Eye of the Storm, we began to really feel doubts about our actions in Japan. We’re a rock band, so with out rivals we simply don’t really feel as motivated. The hole between Japan and different international locations was big. Once we went to Japan, all of our reveals have been bought out. After all, that made us comfortable, in a sure sense, nevertheless it additionally prompted us to reexamine our place in Japan. While you begin taking a extra worldwide method in your music actions, you inevitably really feel this sense of dissatisfaction with Japan’s music business system. The timing was proper — it was the right time for us to deliver out that anger that was smoldering inside us — in order that’s the place we directed ourselves as a band.
In a earlier interview, you mentioned “Rock is lifeless in America.” On the time, that was true. Nonetheless, the state of affairs’s been altering steadily since then, and lately there’s been a rising pop-punk and emo revival.
Taka: That’s proper. Straight-forward punk and old-school rock are nonetheless fashionable now. I sit up for seeing a extra hybrid type of guitar rock making its ascendency sooner or later. The youthful era, the youngsters who adopted us, have grown up with out being uncovered to rock.
Good level.
Taka: So, in that sense, I feel proper now the younger folks which might be listening to rock see it as one thing of a vogue assertion. However as soon as they begin listening to rock, I’m certain that there can be an instinctual transfer amongst musicians to pursue it as a type of music. As a gaggle that has skilled being on the forefront of rock, we’ll have performed a helpful position in type of passing the torch on to the brand new wave of rock artists that arises. I actually really feel like with an surroundings like this, rock will come again and keep for years to come back.
So that you wish to make your band into a brand new position mannequin?
Taka: I suppose so. Once we have been in elementary college and junior excessive, there have been bands on the market like Linkin Park. The affect of bands like that stayed with us all over to our beginning to play emo and punk ourselves. I feel we’ll see that type of surroundings seem once more. I simply assume it’s going to much more of a hybrid than folks anticipate.
When did you begin working in your latest album?
Taka: We started earlier than the pandemic. The primary music we recorded was “Renegades.” We recorded it within the U.Ok., in Ed Sheeran’s studio. That’s additionally once we wrote “Marvel.” We wrote about 4 songs, after which we got here again to Japan to tour. After which the pandemic hit.
What led you to work with Rob Cavallo?
Taka: He was one of many folks we had in thoughts once we have been occupied with introducing rock to the youthful era. We, ourselves, additionally wished to take in the vibes of somebody who had been on the frontlines of rock for therefore a few years. After all, the brand new album isn’t simply what we absorbed from him. It’s extra like 20% Rob, 20% our personal strengths, 20% ONE OK ROCK’s future imaginative and prescient…and so forth, all totaling as much as 100% of the brand new album.
Did you discuss with Rob about what sort of album you wished this to be?
Taka: One of many fascinating issues about Rob is that he interviews you earlier than he begins working in your album. He ready questions for everybody within the band. “What route do you wish to take?” “What sort of outcomes are you on the lookout for?” That type of factor. As soon as he had a full understanding, then he began making options.
So that you gave a presentation on the way forward for ONE OK ROCK?
Taka: Proper. So Rob mentioned, “It feels like we don’t have to put in any non-rock parts within the album, then.” Stating that clearly, proper at the beginning, made an enormous distinction. While you work on an album, there at all times comes a time while you’re unsure what to do, however due to this choice, we have been in a position to work on the album with out ever losing time nervous about its elementary type. Rob’s a big-picture producer, however throughout recordings he’d typically play guitar, too, so in a way he was like a fifth band member.
Brendon Urie from Panic! on the Disco sings on the refrain of “Neon.” It’s a theatrical music, paying homage to My Chemical Romance’s “The Black Parade,” and to me it felt like a brand new departure that you just put quite a lot of work into.
Taka: That music actually displays an appreciation for musicals that I’ve at all times had. I don’t normally take heed to music, however I’m moved by film soundtracks and musicals. There are Disney motion pictures, like The Best Showman, and so on. It’d in all probability be going somewhat overboard to say that I’m higher at writing music like that, but when I don’t rein myself in, that’s the route my songwriting takes. [Laughs] Up to now, although, folks round me normally mentioned “NO” if I began bringing that aspect out. I feel Rob loved seeing that a part of me too. He was like, “That’s a part of what makes you you, proper?”
A type of kinds of songs is “Your Tears are Mine,” a spotlight of the latter half of the album.
Taka: That music was actually magical. It solely took like three minutes to jot down. Rob began enjoying that opening riff, after which I used to be enjoying round and put a melody on high of it. The engineer simply occurred to be recording on the time. We simply performed it by means of all the best way to the top, recording continuous, after which we put lyrics on it, and we had a music.
That’s superb.
Taka: So, we didn’t overextend ourselves. We didn’t overthink issues however acknowledged the standard of this factor that we had created on the spot.
That intuitive method is the precise reverse of what you probably did in your final album, proper?
Taka: The actual reverse! On the final album, first we’d write the verse, then the bridge, then we’d work on the refrain. It was a really concerned and exact course of…and it was onerous. [Laughs]
However I additionally discovered concerning the sorts of melody traces wanted for contemporary mainstream American pop music, and I discovered about manufacturing. If I hadn’t discovered as a lot as I did then, then I don’t assume issues would have gone so easily this time.
The primary music, “Save Your self,” is a distinctively ONE OK ROCK music.
Taka: Proper, I feel it has the commonest ONE OK ROCK sound.
The construction of the album — beginning out with that particular ONE OK ROCK really feel after which ending with “Your Tears are Mine,” which is not like something you’ve had on a earlier album — actually gave the album a sense of circulate from begin to end. The final album felt extra like a random compilation.
Taka: We didn’t actually see that far forward once we have been making the album, however I suppose it turned out that means. Once we have been engaged on the album, Rob would usually present us photos and be like “What you’re making an attempt to do is one thing like this, proper?” We have been like “Huh??” [Laughs]
What varieties of images?
Taka: Medieval European work of girls bathing or shade images of historic Roman ruins, that type of factor. However I knew what he was getting at. It’s summary, nevertheless it’s like making a story by combining photos that abruptly seem. It’s exact and detailed…however on the similar time not exact and detailed. I suppose that’s what makes it rock and roll.
So it’s a query of how far you are feeling you may go.
Taka: Proper. I’m a really emotion-guided individual, so I actually loved that method. I’m the type of one that doesn’t actually care about album titles or music titles. [Laughs] For me, what’s essential is what’s within the album. My focus with how I sing or the best way the album is produced is on the sensory affect while you pay attention, so I don’t actually care concerning the exterior trappings. That’s why I believed it was fascinating when he’d present me these photos, and I used to be comfortable that we have been in a position to make the album based mostly on that type of sensibility.
You created the album in the course of the pandemic. Did that grow to be extra of a unfavourable or a constructive?
Taka: Each. Whereas we have been engaged on the album, somebody I knew handed away. It made me assume extra deeply about life. I feel it’s my mission, as a musician, to take all of these parts — the constructive and the unfavourable — and provides them form. Whereas we have been engaged on the album, we have been additionally occupied with what we should always do, so there have been onerous occasions, however we hoped that by the point the album was launched, the world would have taken a flip for the higher. We didn’t take a measured, strategic method to creating the album, however as an alternative targeted on our instinctive approaches as musicians.
Is the title of the album, Luxurious Illness, a reference to your debut album, Zeitakubyo (Japanese for “a illness of affluence,” it actually interprets as “luxurious illness”), which got here out 15 years in the past?
Taka: Our label mentioned “The discharge date is developing quick! What do you wish to do concerning the title?” So, I talked with a buddy about it in the future as we drove round. They requested so much concerning the spirit of the album and what Japan was like. I instructed them “I would like this to be one other breakthrough album within the US and I mentioned that our first album was referred to as “Zeitakubyo.” They mentioned, “Zeitakubyo? What’s that?” I didn’t know the English for it, so I checked on my smartphone and it mentioned “luxurious illness.” I confirmed them and so they mentioned “That’s nice!” [Laughs] Apparently in English which means one thing like “ailments that the youngsters of the wealthy folks get,” however they mentioned “It sounds actually punk.” In order that was that.
So the title got here out of your want for a breakthrough within the U.S., a restarting level.
Taka: Proper. Belonging to a US label, having impartial administration, and dealing abroad — it was all an enormous change. I used to be actually targeted on making a brand new begin.
Have been these modifications a weight off your shoulders? Or did you see them extra as challenges that you just needed to tackle, regardless of the chance?
Taka: Evidently, a part of my persona is that I’ve to take dangers to get actually motivated, however I feel a elementary a part of being inventive is which you could’t simply go along with the techniques which might be already in place. I feel, in Japan, inventive work includes going from 1 to 10. The quantity of individuality concerned is so completely different then within the US, the place you go from 0 to 1. We got here up in a “1-to-10” surroundings, so, at the very least with the best way I dwell my life, I wished to begin from 0. I would like us to construct that type of sensibility within the U.S. and take it again with us to Japan. It’s nearly like a type of “samurai spirit” inside me, of taking over challenges on behalf of all of Japan. There can be no level with out it. That’s why there was by no means any hesitation for us.
So ONE OK ROCK is now within the place of passing on the torch to newer bands.
Taka: Precisely. New musicians have to do every kind of inventive new issues and lead the Japanese music scene into the long run. Japan has such a superb tradition and materials to work with and I feel it has distinctive views and mentalities relating to rock which might be not like these in the remainder of the world. I hope that the Japanese artists of the long run will confidently and boldly share that with the world.
ONE OK ROCK has supplied the theme songs for the Rurouni Kenshin movies, and when the ultimate movie got here out, you mentioned that it was time for ONE OK ROCK to start the second chapter of its personal historical past. For those who have been to symbolize Luxurious Illness, the beginning of Chapter 2, as a Rob Cavallo-style image, what wouldn’t it be?
Taka: Oh, that’s a tricky one…however, and I understand this could be shocking, I feel it will be a black and white image. I don’t assume it will be colourful. It could be like going again to our roots. Like we’ve gotten uninterested in ornamental thrives. Our method proper now could be targeted on the essence of our music, which is absolutely enjoyable. As an artist — as somebody who has determined to dwell my life by means of inventive endeavors — I feel that’s in all probability what the subsequent ten years can be like. Common, and monochromatic. Eliminating all the pieces that’s not vital. I feel our most colourful and extreme interval was in the course of the interval of our album Ambitions. On the time, it felt like we may see the top drawing close to. In a way, there was a way of despair.
So the monochrome of the long run is the results of coming to phrases with that despair?
Taka: Sure, I feel so. That sense of discomfort is like a side of vogue. While you have a look at issues by means of the lens of vogue, you find yourself residing a very uncomfortable life. However while you develop up, you simply can’t take that anymore. I feel that is true for each discipline, however when issues attain that time, you consider the place you need to go sooner or later. For those who can, you need to do away with what you don’t want — which incorporates hesitancy and doubt — and dwell your life.
This interview by Shino Kokawa first appeared on Billboard Japan.