NEO One or Eight Speaks ‘Kawasaki,’ Says J.Cole Lyrics ‘Save'” Him

One or eight have had a breakthrough year.

In August, the eight-member Japanese boy band released their first track, “Don’t Tell Nobody,” – along with the music video – which was written and produced by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder. However, the group first launched in June with a performance video of “Kawasaki.” The video got up to 6 million views in five days. And early this month, a remix for the song and its music video, included Big Seanlet go The Bounce Back singer discovered One or Eight by watching them perform. NEO opened up to us about what it was like to work with top musicians, his biggest influences and the type of artist he strives to be.

We had the opportunity to perform in front of Big Sean … we gave it a shot,” said NEO Us Weekly in an exclusive interview. “We proposed to him if he could have a verse on our revamped version, and he gave us a generous ‘yes’ and that’s how it all happened.”

While shooting the music video in Los Angeles and Japan, when Big Sean noticed the group nervously, he would tell him, “’Guys, let’s have fun.’ And that energy really helped us enjoy the shoot, which turned out to be a great result as was the music video,” NEO said. “The huge lesson he taught us how he carried it out was staying humble.”

NEO also shared a core memory from the set: “There’s a scene where Big Sean is right in the middle, and the rest of the eight of us were banging our heads with helmets on, but the helmets were so heavy, our necks started hurting after three seconds, and we had to beat through the whole song. So it’s two straight minutes of banging with a giant swoosh on your head,” he said. “That was quite difficult for us, but it was fun.”

In addition to NEO, the other members include MIZUKI, REIA, RYOTA, SOUMA, TAKERU, TSUBASA and YUGA.

NEO described the success of the song as “confounding” and said Us how he and the members of One or Eight want to keep the momentum going.

“There is a lot of pressure on us because we are leaning on the ferocity that the ‘Kawasaki’ had, but we have to keep putting out good music,” he said. “So all the members were always in the studio. We are always practicing, and we are always ready for a better performance.”

Their sound is a mix of hip-hop and pop, and NEO said Us that the inspiration comes from those he looks up to in the industry.

“Me, personally, I really look up to J. Cole,” he said. “His lyrics literally saved my life and words like thought provoking. It is not easy to write. And being able to be a great songwriter at the same time as a great performer is what I really want to achieve … He’s my role model.”

He continued to explain how the rapper is 2014 Forest Hills Drive was a “life saver” for him: “I had very dark times in my life and listening to that lifted my head up a lot.”

NEO now wants to pay it forward with One or Eight’s fan base, stating that he hopes the band can be a “safe space for the listeners.”