Introducing: Akira Slide! Slicing Into The Scene with Single 'Incisor'
Adelaide has always been a hotbed for some of Australia’s homegrown pioneering talent, so when a new band reveals itself, it always deserves our attention. That’s why when Akira Slide started to introduce themselves, it caught our eye straight away.
A dramatic post-hardcore band hellbent on standing out with not just their music, but their dark and larger-than-life aesthetic, Akira Slide are ensuring that their debut does not go unnoticed. Dropping some curious teasers and now, unleashing their first single ‘INCISOR’- complete with a cinematic music video, the Adelaide rockers are starting out strong.
The track was produced in collaboration with alt. guitarist Simon Aistrope, and is infectiously catchy with an almost disco beat inspired groove, an immediately iconic main guitar riff, and aptly serpentine vocal acrobatics. It is an instant earworm.
The band has also landed themselves in their first ever show a support slot on the Adelaide leg of the upcoming Hands Like Houses tour - showing that we aren’t the only ones who have their eye on Akira Slide. In order to find out more about them, we caught up with frontman Josh Julian to get acquainted with the band.
So how did Akira Slide come together?
Maverick [Guitar] and I were introduced to each other by a mutual friend and we clicked straight away. We found we had a lot of the same interests and influences, and had just somehow been ships in the night in the scene for a long time. We also shared a lot of similar frustrating experiences with other bands and projects in the past, not working out despite our own best efforts.
We started sharing riffs for personal projects we were working on with each other, which gradually turned into a tentative “hey can I try adding something to this?”, which became a “what if we wrote something together?”, which became a hearty “hell yeah brother let's GO”.
Mav came as a package deal with Tom, our drummer. I came as a package deal with Scott, our bassist. Mav then said he wanted Aaron (guitar) to be a part of it, but I had gone into this thinking I was going to be the other guitarist! Suddenly I was the lead singer without a guitar in front of me, even though I definitely considered myself a guitarist first and singer second. That took some getting used to, but I’ve tried to tackle it as head-on as I can and have really enjoyed the challenge.
I’m always in awe of the calibre of talent of this band. It’s such an incredible group of musicians, I feel so privileged to be a part of it.
Can you tell us about the writing of the first single?
I had initially come up with the main riff as part of a different song that I had been working on, and then Mav took it out, gave it some shine, and turned it into a completely different song! It's got this groovy, peacocky, obnoxious swagger to it that I just adore. Sinister AND slutty - the way it should be! It definitely sells us in the world of our concept as the villains of our own story.
Thematically, the song is about depersonalisation and dissociation within a hostile environment as "necessary evil" defence mechanisms. It's not about being a good person, but rather that it's difficult to calibrate your moral compass if you have only ever known a dog-eat-dog world. What room is there for kindness when you can only think of survival?
The serpent is Absence. It celebrates isolation and solitude. It is self-reliant, but it means an inherent distrust of all others and a lack of empathy. It is survival of the fittest as a selfish, devil-on-the-shoulder impulse.
Dysmorphia and dysphoria are also themes explored with this INCISOR character, and the inability to connect with others resulting in an inability to connect with the self.
There is also a larger narrative at play as well… but you'll have to tune in to our socials and our next releases to see how that all unfolds.
Who would you say are your biggest influences?
God, how do I keep this to any reasonable length? We all love so many different bands and take influences from so many varied sources.
My favourite band of all time is a Japanese band called Girugamesh - most infamous for a now ancient meme. They have since disbanded, but they were so ahead of their time and there will always be some of their DNA in the way I write, I think. We're really influenced by a lot of Japanese acts - The GazettE, Abingdon Boys School, Coldrain, Crossfaith, Dir En Grey, Maximum The Hormone, and One Ok Rock are some other big ones, in no particular order. The Visual Kei scene [a subculture in Japan where bands are known for their aesthetics and stage performance] in particular definitely gave us a lot of aesthetic inspiration, like the idea to present each band member as distinct “characters”.
Bands like Coheed and Cambria, My Chemical Romance, and The Dear Hunter are also super influential for me in writing with larger connected narrative concepts in mind.
It's truly so varied for each member, too: Tom was in tech death band Ecdysis until recently, Aaron has cut his teeth in a Pink Floyd cover band, I know Scott takes a lot of influence from progressive instrumental work like Intervals and The Omnific, I know Mav really loves heavy hitters like Loathe, Static Dress, and Alpha Wolf… the gestalt melting pot of it all is the joy of a band like this. Oh, and we all love city pop!
What's on the cards for the rest of 2025?
We have our debut show coming up in July supporting Hands Like Houses along with Lumens, Flow Kobra, and Connections. I truly do not think we could have asked for a more insanely stacked line-up for our first show.
There will be much more music to come very soon, some more exciting shows we can't wait to announce, and much more of the story behind the sinister AKSD Corporation yet to be revealed…
To keep up with the story, follow Akira Slide on Facebook | Instagram
Words by Kayla Hamilton @kaylazomboid
Make sure you check out ‘INCISOR’ here.
