Award-winning Buffalo rock artist akloh. playing first full-band set in 8 years, talks new album

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Jorian Holka, known to those in the Buffalo music scene by his stage name, akloh., released his debut album, "Anthology," on July 3. He will be playing a full-band set on Sept. 12 at Buffalo Iron Works, opening for Vertigo Child.

Holka said his decision to flip his last name to create his stage name was borne from the idea that he is still the same person as he was when he started making music nine years ago, but he wanted to reverse the trajectory of his life. He also wanted to have a pseudonym that can only be associated with one thing: his art.

"I'm flipping the focus to something else, but it's still me, it's still the same person," he said. "So I wanted to keep the name there, right? And then the period at the end — which, that's been the most frustrating part of this whole project, is every time someone puts like my name on a poster or something, the period's not there because it's hard to tell that as part of the name -- but that's supposed to be there to indicate that I'm flipping things around, I'm still the same person, but I'm moving forward toward like this new end goal of taking this project as far as possible."

akloh., who was recently named the winner of two 2025 Buffalo Spree awards, including best original music act, said the recognition was a really cool honor, validating his decision to quit his full-time job to focus more on music.

"It's just kind of like cool confirmation that I'm on the right track, I guess," he said. "Being, essentially, a supporter-driven award, people going and voting and whatnot, it means a lot that the people that have been coming to shows and listening to the music and stuff are willing to like take a second to go like toss my name in the hat for something that can in the long term make somewhat of a difference in terms of PR and just get my name out there."

In addition to the good PR akloh. received from the award, he's also been marketing his music on his own, taking out multiple billboards to promote the release of "Anthology."

"In order to give yourself the best shot at generating any kind of success, you have to run every play at 100%," he said. "If you get to the end and it didn't work out the way you wanted it to or you didn't gain the traction that you wanted it to, at least you can look back and say like, OK, I put 100% into that and now I know it did or didn't work."

He said that despite his tendency to not give into social media ads, he did get one ad for a service running billboards, which caught his eye.

"I normally just say, 'Don't show me this ever again, go away,' but it happened to be [interesting] and I was like, 'Oh, I haven't seen any other artists in the area doing anything like that,'" akloh. recalled. "I have the graphic design know-how to at least put something together that can that can work with that, so I started to take the shot. It it was an Australian company and I didn't know if I was about to blow $500 and never have it come back around to me, but it ended up working out in a really cool way."

akloh. had previously released music under his name, Jorian Holka, but wanted to polish them up and re-release them under his stage name.

"I knew there were songs that I wanted to take with me; I didn't want to just leave them behind forever," he said. "So I dipped into that existing library and pulled out the nine songs that I wanted to bring forward, and then connected with [producer] RJ DeMarco, who is a Buffalo native but lives out in California now... 80 to 90% of the album was recorded remotely. There's a lot of wildly ridiculous technology now that let me essentially sit right here and record my guitar onto his computer in California."

akloh. ventured out to California to record vocals, and then began releasing singles last August. He said because the album is a compilation of all his old work, he wanted to release and promote each song as a single. He hadn't planned on a near-11 month release cycle, but is satisfied with how everything turned out.

He currently has plans to release a three-song project later this year and a five-song project in 2026.

"I know I can handle those at this point," he said. "'Anthology' brought people into my circle and also showed me who's down to help and who's down to be a part of the project and everything like that, so I also know going into the next thing that I have people to lean on."

He said a lot of his inspiration comes from stadium rock and pop rock acts, as he likes how big it sounds and how hard it hits.

As far as subject matter, he said "Anthology" "kind of run[s] the gamut" because the songs span so many years and experiences of his life. As for next year's project, he teased that it will revolve around his 2023 experience, when he was deciding to change the course of what he wanted to do with his life. He also teased a deluxe edition of "Anthology" and a Christmas project.

akloh. and his band recently started full-band practices in preparation for the upcoming show.

"For as much fun as I have on acoustic guitar, being able to really let loose with like a full band is — that's where I love to be," he said. "So I guarantee I'll shed some tears on the 12th. It's going to be a fun night."

Tickets to Vertigo Child at Buffalo Iron Works, with akloh., Cheap Peach, and At the Helm playing support can be found here. The full interview can be watched in the video player at the top of the page, or streamed on Spotify and Apple Podcasts on Aug. 29.