Fresh off years of growth, resilience and global touring, Polaris step into Froth & Fury this weekend as true festival closers. Long recognised for their emotional intensity and crushing live shows, the band now carry a new weight on stage – shaped by personal hardship, international experience and a renewed perspective on what their music means.
With a huge year ahead, including the launch of their own curated Life’s A Beach festival and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support Linkin Park on their Australian tour, Polaris aren’t just closing out Froth & Fury… they’re standing firmly in the next chapter of their evolution.
The Rockpit: You’re headlining Froth & Fury 2026 – what does it mean for you as an Australian band to top the bill at such a heavy local festival?
Jamie: It’s nice to be recognised as a band that can close out a festival, close out a night. I think that we’ve been building up to this for a while now, and this is one of those opportunities that I hope is not the last. I mean, we’ve done it before with Knight And Day Festival. That was our first time. And I think since then, we’re very much in a position where we can put on the show that is expected of a closer for a festival.
The Rockpit: You’ve been through some incredibly heavy moments personally and as a group. How has that shaped the way you approach live shows now, especially something this big?
Jamie: We kind of view the live shows in a different light now. The meaning of what we do as a band has changed.
The Rockpit: With a few years of change & growth behind you, how has your perspective on touring and performing evolved heading into this run?
Jamie: For me, it’s changed a lot over the years since we first started touring overseas. That experience was a real wake-up call about what works and what doesn’t. Now more than ever, it’s about pacing yourself so you can deliver the show we want to put on night after night. The perspective has definitely changed in terms of what it means to us as a band. We’ve solidified ourselves not just as an Australian band, but as an international band. The shows we put on now carry a new weight. With every album and tour, we’re pushing ourselves further by evolving, and striving for something bigger and better each time.
The Rockpit: When you’re building a festival setlist, do you cater to longtime fans, newer followers, or is it a balance?
Jamie: This is a hard one because you always want to please your fans, please everyone, but you’re never going to do that. No matter what set list that we create, you’re always going to have someone saying, “Oh, you should have played this song. Oh man, I wish they played this instead of that. I couldn’t give a shit about that song.” It’s always hard to pick, especially with as time goes on with more albums and more songs to choose from to play, you want to play the faves, but you also want to throw in some songs that maybe haven’t been played for a minute, or also songs that people may have never heard.
The Rockpit: Polaris shows are known for their emotional weight. Is there a song that hits you harder now on stage than when it was written?
Jamie: Yes, Overflow.
The Rockpit: You’ve toured globally – what’s something uniquely ‘Aussie’ about a festival like Froth & Fury from the artist’s point of view?
Jamie: People chanting shoey. *thumbs down*
The Rockpit: What’s one moment in your Froth & Fury set that you already know will be a highlight?
Jamie: The singalongs for ‘The Remedy.’ We’ve had the sing-along since the song was released, but it’s really become a highlight since we added the extended intro to the song into the set.
The Rockpit: What bands on the line-up are you personally excited to catch, or share a stage with?
Jamie: Definitely Fit For An Autopsy and Patient 67. I’ve been keen to see that band as well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Comeback Kid.
The Rockpit: Beyond the show itself – what’s something fans might not see about the preparation or mindset that goes into a headline festival performance?
Jamie: All of it really. There’s more to the preparation than just the songs that you play or us getting up on stage. There’s a whole lot more to the Polaris machine than just us five dudes playing the music. To put on the show that we want to deliver, it takes a lot of time, a lot of preparation and a lot of heads coming together to make our vision come to life. You have the band, but the band isn’t just the five of us. It’s our team behind the scenes that aren’t just there on the day that help us pull together our show.
The Rockpit: 2026 is promising to be a huge year for Polaris with performances at Froth & Fury Festival, Linkin Park Australian tour, Electric Callboy’s North America tour, I Prevail’s European tour and at the inaugural Hellbound Cruise.
Jamie: Looking forward to seeing the idea of Life’s A Beach come to life and to see how the day goes. We’ve had the idea for a while, and I hope it goes as well as we’re expecting it to. We wanted to give the bands that we love and we think everybody else should back and support a platform to showcase what they’ve got, and we think they deserve it.
The Rockpit: You have Life’s a Beach; your curated festival is taking place next month in Melbourne and the Riviera Club. Tell us a bit about it.
Jamie: When we were a little band, we always wanted that kind of opportunity, and we’re in a position where we can do that now, and I’d like to keep doing that where we can. As a side note, when it comes to doing Australian tours, if not even overseas tours, I feel like we should always be bringing out a band that’s new and upcoming and giving them a chance overseas, giving them that shot like Parkway Drive did on us our first ever American tour. It goes a long way and helps set up their careers.
The Rockpit: You are also supporting Linkin Park in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in March. What does this tour mean to you?
Jamie: If you were to tell young Jamie, little emo Jamie in his bedroom playing his guitar, learning ‘One Step Closer’ that one day his band is going to be opening for Linkin Park, I would’ve told you no way that that’s true. But that’s what it means to us. To all of us, this is a band that is a legendary iconic band that means a lot to us. It’s part of our DNA. They are such an important band that has influenced a lot of bands that wouldn’t exist without them.
The Rockpit: You can invite 3 musicians dead or alive to join you for dinner. Who would you invite?
Jamie:
Chester Bennington
Sam Carter from Architects
Corey Taylor from Slipknot
The Rockpit: If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Jamie: Green Day – Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
CONNECT WITH POLARIS ONLINE:
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CHECK OUT LIFE’s A BEACH
Supporting Linkin Park
From Zero World Tour
Australian Tour Dates:
3 March – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
5 March – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
8 March – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
10 March – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
14 March – Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
15 March – Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
