Scottish alt-rock/post-hardcore quintet To Kill Achilles have just released their emotion-fuelled sophomore album, Something To Remember Me By. For the members that make up To Kill Achilles it’s more than just a project for musical output, it’s a support network and “a life force for us, it keeps us going and keeps us thinking.” We caught up with the five-piece to find out more…
Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself and your band.
We’re a five-piece alt-rock/post-hardcore band from Scotland. We’re five best friends, with each other through thick and thin and we make music together. Our music is a very honest and for the most part, an upsetting look at life, although our message we try to convey is one of hope. We don’t want people to feel the feelings we write about. Basically, we found each other and became an amazing support network for each other and we want to promote that you could have the same thing if you can be brave enough to open yourself up to others.
How did the band form and how long have you been together?
We formed in 2012, old right? When it first began there were different members, we just wrote metal songs for fun, but over time, as members came and went and we found our stable unit, we changed. It became about so much more, this band is a life force for us, it keeps us going and keeps us thinking. But yeah nine years, oh god, we’re ancient.
Can you remember the first time you realised you wanted to make music?
That’s a tough one. Of course every members answer would be different, I believe the average answer across the board would be something like “when I got a guitar for Christmas when I was 13″; but if we’re talking about the music we write now, well that’s different. We had a tour in the Balkans in Europe, it was the first tour we did with our final line-up and something just clicked. Everything went so smooth, we realised how in this together we were and from that day we decided, it’s time to make something we care about now.
Who and what are the band’s main influences?
Honestly, we’re so heavily influenced by life, by people and by the stories we hear. We don’t think there’s anything stronger than being in conversation with someone, you know that feeling when you’re at a party and someone’s telling a story and you’re hooked on every word? That, that’s what we find inspiring.
What do you aim to achieve as a band?
Honestly, nothing. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean we’ve already achieved so much more than we thought we would going into this. At the core, we’re five friends from Scotland, there’s nothing special about us and the fact that people have connected with our music and the words we come up with in our bedrooms in the middle of the night is insane. If we could make some people feel like they’re not in this alone, maybe give someone hope through a struggle then that would be a beautiful thing, but we’re just as “along for the ride” as everyone who listens to us, and we love that.
For those who are yet to see you live, what can they expect from a To Kill Achilles show?
We like to think it’s a proper show, we really dive into the stories we tell, we have moments of aggressive, fast-paced anger. We have moments of poetry set to ambient soundscapes, there are moments we take a minute to talk about what is happening right there in the moment with the people in the room. It’s basically a very in-depth look into us as people and a chance to share a moment together with people we may never meet again, we really try to focus on making that a special thing.
What’s next for To Kill Achilles?
We dropped our new record, Something To Remember Me By, on the 5th February this year. We’ve released six music videos from this release so far with more to come. Unfortunately, with the current state of the world we can’t play shows, but we’re planning a live streamed event to make that up to all the fans around the world we can’t go see. We’ve also started writing music for the next release. We feel like if we can’t tour and meet the people we want to meet, we’re just gonna focus on making music and putting out as much as we can.
To Kill Achilles‘ new album Something To Remember Me By is out now via Arising Empire, available to stream or purchase HERE.
