EMQ’s With AKLIAS
EMQ’s With AKLIAS
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Scottish Metalcore/ Nu Metal/ Groove/ Thrash band, Aklias. Huge thanks to their Vocalist, Steven Hossack, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
My name is Steven Hossack and I am the lead vocalist and ex-bassist of the band. Aklias started in early 2019 when my previous band had broken up and I began looking for new musicians in the area to work with on a new project. After a few weeks of searching I came across Nathan Mackie and Ryan Davidson on Facebook looking to start a new band with similar ambitions and musical taste. We had a few jams and hit it off really quickly and from then we got busy writing and started looking for a drummer to finish the line up.
How did you come up with your band name?
So we get asked this quite a lot as we know the name is quite odd and it doesn’t really mean anything other than just a name we ended up choosing. From what I can remember, it was primarily Ryan and I bouncing about ideas from looking at Greek and Egyptian Mythology. We came across the goddess Achlys, the Primordial goddess of the death-mist, and ended up doing variations of the name which ended up landing on “Aklias”. We liked the fact it was just a short word that didn’t really have any meaning and have just stuck with it since.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We’re based in Inverness, Scotland. The music scene in the Highlands has had a lot of ups and downs over the past decade but still remains relatively strong for any Rock, Metal, Punk or Indie band looking to get a show and a crowd. However, it is still primarily dominated by more traditional Scottish music but that’s just to be expected in the Highlands of Scotland.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We just released our latest single “Last Stand” on the 15th of August. We’re really proud of this release as it’s been almost entirely done in-house for us besides the artwork and music video.
Who have been your greatest influences?
All of us have varied music tastes, ranging from the cheesiest 80s synth-pop to Grindcore/Slam which is just great overall for mixing different styles and influences together. For myself, my greatest influences have been bands such as In Flames, Korn, Metallica and Trivium. But there’s also so many other bands that I may not listen to much any more, but helped push and inspire me to start playing music 15 odd years ago.
What first got you into music?
For myself I remember it’s something that just always spoke to me and wanted to do since I was about 5-6 years old. Listening to music in the car with my parents and just wanting to do what the people I was listening to could do. But it wasn’t until I was about 12-13 when I first started trying to actually learn to play music. I was primarily inspired by just the bands I was listening to at the time (Three Days Grace, Rise Against, Chevelle, BFMV, to name a few) and watching covers on Youtube and again getting that spark to get a guitar and start learning.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
There’s so many great bands I’d love to collaborate with but I think I’d have to go with a classic band such as Metallica or Black Sabbath.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Download or the main stage at Bloodstock would be amazing. If we could use a time travel machine I’d love for us to have played one of the classic OzzFest or Woodstock shows.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
To date we’ve actually not really had anything that crazy been given to us by a fan, still waiting on the day we get something weird!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Thank you all so much for supporting us over these past few years, without the love and support we get from people telling us they enjoy our music we wouldn’t be doing this. Making music for yourself is great but nothing beats hearing your music has helped someone through a bad period in their life and/or even just knowing one of our songs is their go-to for something like the gym. It all means so much to us and we’re glad they’re here with us for the ride.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
For me personally it would probably be a difficult choice between David Bowie and Ozzy Osbourne just due to the fact I’m such a huge fan of both artists.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
One of the best things about being a musician is when you’re playing live and just seeing the crowd really enjoy themselves and giving it their all. There’s just something about that energy a room gives when everyone is just enjoying themselves and in a way you really do feed off it when you’re on stage.
Things I hate about being a musician is unless you’re lucky, you’re likely spending 5-6 hours at a venue to play a 30 minute set and get paid £50-100, which when split 4/5 ways doesn’t really result to much. It’s not something you should ever go into thinking you’ll make money out of it. I’d dread to think how much time and money I’ve spent on practices, fuel, practising etc but at the end of the day, nothing really beats this and it’s what we love to do so we keep going.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
More opportunities given to smaller bands. Thankfully in Scotland we do have a great underground scene where a lot of bands will help each other out with gig swaps and there’s a lot of great promoters out there doing their part as well, but it’s still a bit dire in some regards.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
In Flames – “Sounds Of A Playground Fading”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
They’re all great but we’ve all got a sweet spot for the physical media. Nick especially will still listen to physical media while the rest of us are probably more digital these days purely for convenience just like most folk. It’s just great to have options.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
That’s quite a difficult one, we’re still at the stage where every gig still feels new, fresh and exciting. It’s hard to pinpoint one particular date!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Well outside of being musicians we all (unfortunately) still have regular jobs that we have to work in order to pay the band bills. I personally can’t imagine myself really doing anything else non-music related.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
This is another difficult one, but for me I’d have to go with Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Jimi Hendrix. I’d just love to hear all their stories and experiences.
What’s next for the band?
We’ve got a few gigs lined up to finish off 2025 along with continuing work for some more releases we’re hoping to get out there for early 2026.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AkliasOfficial
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7JPcbYaFmlThu27N37NwAJ?si=DXwVLNjyQM6IbbB_RotKIg
There’s a long-standing food-based debate here in the UK. And we’d like your help. So… A Jaffa cake – is it a cake or a biscuit? Discuss!
Will be getting flak for my answer regardless but I’m going to go with a cake!
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