"This band is almost 12 years old now, so I just wanted to do something new. A new style and new things."

After the release of their new song 'Change', we caught up with ONE OK ROCK frontman Taka Moriuchi to talk future plans, musical evolution, and their upcoming - and massive - Dome Tour.



TELL US HOW ‘CHANGE’ CAME TO BE…

Says Taka: "We wrote it two months ago, before we did our tour of Asia. I actually made it by myself with our producer; I wanted to do something that was a new style, a different type of song for ONE OK ROCK. I wanted to make new vibes. This band is almost 12 years old now, so I just wanted to do something new. A new style and new things."



HOW DO YOU FEEL IT COMPARES TO ‘AMBITIONS’

"I didn’t actually have a vision for the next album with it, I was just like, ‘Okay, what shall I do to make new stuff?’ but we’re working on a new album right now, I’m actually going to the studio to write new songs after this interview! I saw the reaction from our fans and some fans were like, ‘Oh no, this isn’t ONE OK ROCK! It’s very poppy, it sounds like ONE OK POP!’ but that’s good for me actually, I’m really excited to write for a new album because there are going to be a lot of changes but the power and the passion and the melodies will all still be there, it’s still ONE OK ROCK, just a little different in sound."



HOW DOES IT SOUND IN COMPARISON TO THE OTHER NEW SONGS?

"I can’t say at this point, but we’ll see. ‘Change’ is the most pop song we’ve ever written I think, so maybe we’re going to make some more rock songs now and more emotional songs. I want to just try and make many different types of songs."



DID ANY BANDS INFLUENCE ‘CHANGE’ IN PARTICULAR

"Actually not! Maybe like American pop songs, but not any songs or artists in particular."



WHAT WERE YOU WRITING ABOUT LYRICALLY? IS IT LITERALLY ABOUT CHANGE?

"Right, yeah exactly! That’s right, it’s about a lot of changes. I want to stay here, I just want to stay here but if you’re growing up, you’re going to another place, you need that change to grow and that’s life. You can’t stay in one place and that’s hard. As I say, our band is 12 years old and our fans around the world have always supported us and that’s amazing! If you’re living a normal life, things like that don’t happen, so I want to make everything as exciting as possible for the rest of my life."



WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO RELEASE THE SONG AS A STANDALONE SINGLE?

"It’s actually for a Honda car commercial and I had to make a song for that so that’s why, they wanted one of our songs so I made a song. That’s it!"



WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR THE DOME TOUR? IT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

"Thank you! Yeah it’s going to be a fucking great tour! We’ve never played a tour like that. I’m going to figure out the setlist and the production and stuff when I go back to Japan so we’ll see… It’s going to be fucking great though!"



HOW WERE THE SHOWS IN EUROPE AND THE UK IN DECEMBER FOR YOU? THEY WERE OFF THE CHAIN…

"They were great, there were places that were sold out and we were freaking out! People in different countries were singing songs from ‘Ambitions’ and they love it and also we were touring with Crown The Empire from America and we had a great time. I feel like we’re bigger than when we were touring in Europe before, I was so focused."



DOES THAT MAKE YOU WANT TO COME BACK TO EUROPE MORE?

"Yeah definitely, I’d love to. If I could be, I’d be in Europe right now!"



SO IS 2018 ALL ABOUT TOURING AND WRITING EXCITING NEW ONE OK ROCK SONGS?

"Yeah, exactly. We don’t have any other tours other than the Dome Tour in 2018 though, but I just want to focus on our new album, new stuff. I’m super excited to do it."



DO YOU THINK THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST ONE OK ROCK ALBUM YET?

"I’m not sure I could say because every album we’ve done is very different. We’ve never done the same album twice so I just think the next is going to be a really big change, like when you listen you’ll go, ‘Okay, okay this is ONE OK ROCK but it’s a little different’ but ONE OK ROCK is ONE OK ROCK, the singer is the same, the players are the same. It’s like chapter two. Like when you make a movie, like if you watch Rocky and then you watch Rocky 2, it’s a progression that continuously changes but you can also go back to the first one so we’re coming from the same angle as we continue to make new music. There’s pressure to constantly change but we’re not really afraid of that! Because every time, we make something new with our albums."



"So we’re making the sequel, the atmosphere and credits of the movie change and the actors change physically but you’re not actually judging the actors, you’re judging the way they act. Like even if some parts in the movie aren’t good, if the acting is good, you’ll still like the movie. As long as it’s real and it’s honest. So we’re trying to do that, bringing what we really feel to what we’re trying to do. But the difference between music and movies is that you can listen to music many times over but we’re not just trying to go for shock value, we’ve been there and we’ve done that, we’re trying to make an album that you can listen to continuously."



This is 'Change':







Check out the advert that Taka mentioned right here.







The dates of ONE OK ROCK's huge Dome Tour are:



