Tokyo Rose – Never Say Die: A Conversation with Ryan Dominguez

Tokyo Rose – Never Say Die: A Conversation with Ryan Dominguez

For more than two decades, Tokyo Rose has been one of those bands whose music never quite left the hearts of the people who found it. Emerging during the MySpace era and carving out a space in the emo‑pop‑punk landscape, the New Jersey outfit built a devoted following through relentless touring, earnest songwriting, and a willingness to evolve.

Now, nearly twenty years since their last release, Tokyo Rose has returned with Never Say Die, a five‑song EP that feels both nostalgic and newly energized. Lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter Ryan Dominguez sat down with Highwire Daze to talk about the band’s reunion, the spark that brought them back, the stories behind each track, and the anniversaries that remind them just how far they’ve come.

Introduce yourself. Tell me what you do in Tokyo Rose.
My name’s Ryan Dominguez. I’m the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for Tokyo Rose — and I’ve been doing that, on and off, for the last twenty, twenty‑five years.

It’s been nearly 20 years since the last Tokyo Rose release. What made you decide it was finally time to put out new music?
We got a call from a buddy asking if we’d do a reunion show. A bunch of bands from our era — that MySpace generation — were getting back together, and John Damiano from Emo Night Karaoke convinced us to jump in.

During practices for that reunion show, we started jamming on new ideas and even pulled out some things from the vault. One thing led to another. We were having so much fun playing together again that writing new music felt natural and right. That’s really what pushed us to finally release something after all this time.

Let’s talk about the new EP Never Say Die. First, the title — is there an overall story or concept behind it?
It’s kind of an homage to our nostalgic upbringing. We’re the MTV generation, the MySpace era, but we were also huge fans of The Goonies — and “Goonies Never Say Die” stuck with us.

There’s a lyric on the EP that says, “Nobody ever asked us if we were done,” because honestly, we weren’t sure. We took a long break, but we didn’t know if we were truly finished or if we still had something left in us. When the new music started coming together, Never Say Die felt like our declaration that we weren’t ready to hang it up. We’re not the kind of guys who say die.

Phoenician Fire – Tell me about this one — and who in the band is the anthropology major?
We all kind of dabbled in history, anthropology, sociology — early civilizations we have records of. When we got together for practices, Matt brought in that main riff, the one that carries through the song and even into the bridge.

I started writing lyrics around the idea that we never really wanted to call it quits. The writing was on the wall at one point, so we stepped away. But there were still embers burning inside each of us, and those got fanned back into a flame during this season of reconnecting.

Something Sweeter – Give me a little background on this one.
This one was tucked away in the vault. After we recorded the 2007 album The Promise in Compromise, we were demoing new ideas while on tour with Bayside, Straylight Run, and Four Year Strong. That’s when I finally got a MacBook Pro and GarageBand, so I started demoing parts of the song.

When I brought it back to the guys in late 2024, Chris and Shawn were already jamming on that bass‑and‑drums groove that opens the track. When I overlaid the old vocal ideas from back then, everything clicked. It ended up becoming the first single we released from the EP back in January.

Better When (Fibonacci x Pascal) – Tell me about this one.
This one’s funny because it ended up sounding romantic, but it actually started as a mathematical approach to songwriting. I had this riff I’d been noodling with, and I overlaid it on a repeating chord pattern with a rhythmic cycle.

I was really into math growing up — algebra, geometry, calculus. I remember reading about Pythagoras and the Fibonacci sequence. When you overlay those theorems, they create these incredible repeating patterns that mirror what we see in nature.

That got me thinking about a codependent relationship I’d been in. The lyrics evolved from being about mathematical theorems working in tandem to how relationships can do the same — where it’s no longer attraction keeping you together, but dependency.

We leave it ambiguous whether the relationship comes back together. We just shot a music video for this one, and it leans into the romantic angle — kind of tongue‑in‑cheek, knowing the song originally started as an imaginative relationship between mathematical theorems.

Ugly Comes Out – Why did Ugly come out?
Something Sweeter and Ugly Comes Out were written around the same time, lyrically speaking. If you’re a BPM or tempo person — DJs pick up on this — both songs are in the exact same key and the exact same tempo. They were meant to be sister tracks.

I originally imagined them as two sides of a seven‑inch: Something Sweeter as Side A, about someone sweet and unassuming who doesn’t realize their inner and outer beauty; and Ugly Comes Out as Side B, showing the same relationship from a different lens — when the claws, the fangs, and the ugly eventually show themselves.

Maybe someday they’ll actually be pressed as a seven‑inch. But we definitely wanted both songs on the EP.

It’s All We Have and We Don’t Want It to End – Tell me about the final song on the EP.
The title comes directly from a quote in Season 2 of the Apple TV+ show Severance. There’s even a reference in the lyrics to a character named Helly R. The whole concept — separating your work life from your personal life — really struck me. Watching the end of Season 2 threw me for such a loop that I had to write a song about it.

It also felt fitting as the closer to a five‑song EP. It feels too short, but at the same time, we didn’t want it to end. Maybe that fire really hasn’t burned out in us. We’re excited to make more music.

And because we’re such ’80s and ’90s kids, we added a few Easter eggs — choose‑your‑own‑adventure vibes, audio storytelling nods, and even cassette‑style touches at the beginning and end of the EP.

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of The Promise in Compromise. Looking back now, what do you think of that album in retrospect?
It’s wild to think anything we made twenty years ago still has legs today. That era was amazing — we were coming down from the high of touring with Taking Back Sunday, doing another Warped Tour, and we were eager to get back into the studio to experiment again.

But we also wanted to return to our emo and pop‑punk roots. We were huge Jimmy Eat World fans early on, but we also loved Green Day, MxPx, and Chris and I grew up playing in ska bands. We wanted to integrate all of that — uptempo energy, simplified arrangements, and songs built around memorable hooks.

We’re still proud of that record. The only shame is that it leaked before it came out — peak Napster/Limewire era. Selling records became nearly impossible. Fast‑forward to now, and physical media barely exists. We’re really trying to bring it back.

In 2001 you released the Chasing Fireflies EP — which makes this the 25th anniversary. What do you think of that EP now, looking back?
Thanks for remembering that one. We recently played shows with Diesel Boy and Fenix TX — bands we remember from the Fat Wreck and Drive‑Thru comps.

We played a show in western Massachusetts near Taunton, where All About Records and our friend Russ Orcott released Chasing Fireflies. It feels like a bookend to our career: we introduced ourselves with a five‑song EP, and now we’re reintroducing ourselves with another five‑song EP. It brings everything full circle.

We played “Breath of Your Teeth” at that show as an homage to Russ and to western Mass, where we always found shows and connected with bands back then. Twenty‑five years — it’s crazy. But thanks to digital media, those songs still live. We’re proud of them.

What are you looking forward to most about your upcoming tour with Punchline?
Those guys have been friends — and absolute characters — for so long. Some of our best tour memories are with Punchline: early in our career, right in the middle, and again toward the end of the first Tokyo Rose era.

We played with them all across the States, and even in Japan. It’s been amazing reconnecting with them, especially now that they’ve reunited their original lineup for the 20th anniversary of 37 Everywhere. It all feels serendipitous, like there’s a synchronicity to it.

We’re really looking forward to hanging out, playing shows, and hearing those old songs again.

Do you have any messages for Tokyo Rose fans — longtime or brand new?
First and foremost: thank you. Thank you for making us part of your life. There’s so much you can fill your time, ears, eyes, mind, and heart with — and we’re grateful people have chosen Tokyo Rose over the years, and are discovering us now.

We love meeting people at shows and connecting online. We’re IRL people at heart, so we’d love to see you at the next show. Thank you for welcoming us into your lives, for buying a shirt, streaming a song — anything.

We don’t do this for money anymore. We do it for the interactions. Meeting people from all walks of life, the same way we did when we were on the road 200 dates a year. Life is more complicated now, but when we go out, we love catching up with people we haven’t seen in a while — and meeting the kids of fans who became friends twenty years ago.

In Conclusion

Tokyo Rose’s return isn’t just a reunion — it’s a rekindling. Never Say Die feels like a band rediscovering its spark, reconnecting with its roots, and embracing the joy of creating again. Whether you’ve been following them since Chasing Fireflies or you’re discovering them for the first time, the new EP is a reminder of why their music mattered then — and why it still matters now.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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