Radio Free Alice: Ready for Release

Australia isn’t the easiest place for a hot new band to break out of, and yet it doesn’t seem to have slowed down Radio Free Alice at all.

The Melbourne-based indie band channels the post-punk of yesteryear with modern pop melodies and a witty sense of humor that would work in any decade, and they have rightfully earned a buzz around the world as one of 2026’s bands to watch regardless of genre or continent.

Frontman Noah Learmonth, guitarist Jules Paradiso, bassist Michael Phillips and drummer Lochie Dowd have seen their collective stock skyrocket throughout the year, and that’s before their first album even hit the (digital) shelves.

Ahead of their debut album, What’s In Between, releasing this Friday, we caught up with the guys to chat about their rise, their future and their homeland. Our conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

Tar: You’ve toured with some great bands recently and have grown a following of your own without much music out. What’s it like to see that rise in the band's popularity before your debut album? 

Jules Paradiso: It's really cool because obviously we've got an album coming out finally, but we've had the last three years to nurture our sound and prepare for this long-awaited first album. It's been really amazing to be able to put out a few EPs and already have such a good response to it. I feel like it's enabled us to create a really good relationship with our fan base without having all that much music out. It feels really special.

Coming from Australia, there's the logistical barrier of it being more expensive and difficult to tour in a lot of places. What's that been like having to overcome those challenges to get exposure around the world? 

Noah Learmonth: Obviously it's difficult, but we were really fortunate early on to receive these government grants which gave us enough money to tour overseas at a stage where we couldn't have done it on our own. Generally, it's really difficult to tour overseas as an Australian band, and a lot of Australian bands end up just touring Australia and never really escaping out, which is unfortunate. But yeah, we were really lucky that we had a manager who was great at writing grant applications. 

You touched on this earlier, but what's it like to have the album finally coming out?

Michael Phillips: It feels great. It's very rewarding and we're very satisfied and grateful to be able to put it out. We love the format of an LP. The only reason we've really released EPs up until this point was due to constraints — whether that's financial or time-based. We were so hungry to release music, but we only had little snippets and bits we could put out. Now, having signed to a label and all that, we suddenly have the opportunity to make a proper album. We're really stoked about it. We just want people to hear it. They can listen to it or not — like you don't have to if you don't want to, but we think it's good.

How different is it playing giant festivals like Riot Fest as opposed to a tour where it's you and one or two other bands for an extended period of time? 

Lochie Dowd: I do love playing these sorts of festivals. They're a hell of a lot more comfortable than some of the touring you'll do with that one other band, where you're all getting sick together and so sleep deprived midway through. So it's quite refreshing when you get to it. There's pros and cons of both, but it's really nice when you get to a stage like this and you get lots of stagehands that are willing to help you. I'm feeling a little under the weather today, so that helped.

Paradiso: And also to be a part of such an amazing lineup today alone with Iggy Pop and Pixies is pretty amazing. We’re playing on the same stage as Pixies, and it's pretty wild that we're gonna share the same ground. We came off the stage and we saw the Pixies’ guitars in their case, and we're like “What the fuck? This is insane!” Right next to us are their guitars. You definitely definitely don't get that on a headline tour, unless you're opening for the Pixies, of course.

Radio Free Alice’s debut album, What’s In Between, is out on Atlantic Records this Friday, October 30.