{"id":636963,"date":"2026-10-05T11:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/636963\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:16:14","slug":"polaris-on-without-you-ryan-siew-and-their-return-to-good-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/636963\/","title":{"rendered":"Polaris on \u2018Without You,\u2019 Ryan Siew and Their Return to Good Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPolaris<\/a>\u2018 first new song in three years confronts a question that has followed the Australian metalcore band since guitarist Ryan Siew\u2019s death in 2023: How do they make music together without him?<\/p>\n

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\n\tReleased Sept. 3, \u201cWithout You\u201d is the band\u2019s first new music made after Siew\u2019s death \u2014 and a marked contrast to 2023\u2019s Fatalism<\/a>, the final album the four remaining members recorded with him, which arrived just months after he died. <\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking with Billboard of the release and ahead of their appearance at Australia\u2019s Good Things Festival,<\/a> Rick Schneider said the band wanted its first step forward to acknowledge both Siew\u2019s place in Polaris and the impossibility of filling it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe is kind of, in many ways, irreplaceable,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cThere is no quick and easy fix to get someone in there to replace what his significance was.\u201d The years since his death, Schneider said, had given the band time \u201cto acknowledge and contextualize the significance that he had on us as not only a bandmate but also a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor drummer Daniel Furnari, putting the track into the world has been \u201cbittersweet\u201d and \u201ccathartic.\u201d He said the members had spent years thinking about what their first new release would need to convey, knowing one song could not contain the full experience of their loss. \u201cHow do you say enough?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow do you convey that loss and that pain and that grief and the weight of it all in the right way?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really us just beginning to learn how to speak about this, both publicly and through our music,\u201d Furnari said. He also described a sense of pride in the band\u2019s survival. \u201cThere\u2019s a sadness, and there\u2019s also a real pride in the fact that we can look at each other and say, like, we\u2019re still here, we\u2019re still standing as a band,\u201d he said. \u201cWe might not look the same, we\u2019re missing somebody really important, but we still know who we are as artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether Polaris would continue was never the central question, Furnari said. \u201cThis band is something we\u2019ve kind of committed our lives to and committed our hearts to,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a part of any of us that ever would have let this go.\u201d The uncertainty lay in how to care for themselves, honor that history and make space for a future. \u201cNot if, but how and when.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat resolve was tested almost immediately, as the band went ahead with the Fatalism tour after Siew\u2019s death. Schneider said the members gave themselves space, then checked whether everyone felt comfortable returning to the stage. They all said yes. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf we were to put the brakes on and put us on hold,\u201d he said, \u201cmaybe it would have just been harder to come back.\u201d The tour affirmed something they needed to know: \u201cWe are still here for each other, and we want to keep this going not only for each other but also for Ryan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFurnari said that in the years since, fans had often thanked the band for choosing to carry on \u2014 and that the phrasing gave him pause. \u201cThe strange thing is, I almost don\u2019t feel like we had a choice,\u201d he said. \u201cThis band is too much of a part of who we are as people. It\u2019s so tied to all of our identities.\u201d Stopping, he added, would have been unthinkable: \u201cI think we knew Ryan would never forgive us if we stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe experience did not make writing \u201cWithout You\u201d easy. Schneider said Siew\u2019s absence felt like \u201ca shadow in the room\u201d during writing sessions. \u201cYou want to turn to someone for their opinion or their guidance or their assistance or their contributions, and they\u2019re not there,\u201d he said. When the song began to take shape \u2014 a heavy riff from Schneider, lyrics Furnari had written in the period after the loss \u2014 the members felt it could carry their first message back.<\/p>\n

\n\tFurnari recalled that some of the song\u2019s early music and lyrics came together quickly, but writing words that could do justice to their experience was another matter. \u201cThere is so much to say here, and I want to say it the best I can,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever be able to say it enough.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tSinging its most direct expression of loss proved harder still. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t get through it without my voice cracking,\u201d he said of an early demo. \u201cI think I had to come back to it the next day because I just couldn\u2019t handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group has more music written and in progress, though they are resisting the expectation that a new album must follow immediately. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis song needs some time to sit with people,\u201d Schneider said. He wants its significance to settle before Polaris moves straight onto another release. Furnari said more music will come \u201cin the not too distant future,\u201d but the band does not want to rush the process. \u201cFor us to even be here in this moment and be finally releasing new music is such a significant thing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\tFormed in 2012, Polaris broke through with 2017\u2019s The Mortal Coil and 2020\u2019s The Death of Me, both of which debuted in the Australian Top 10 and earned ARIA nominations for best hard rock\/heavy metal album. Fatalism became the band\u2019s first No. 1 on Australia\u2019s ARIA Albums Chart in September 2023, and won best independent heavy album or EP at the 2024 AIR Awards. In the years since, Polaris made their Knotfest Australia debut in 2025, supported their self-described \u201clifelong heroes\u201d Linkin Park on an Australian arena run in March and toured North America with Electric Callboy.<\/p>\n

\n\tPolaris\u2019 next Australian festival appearance offers another measure of that journey. At Good Things in 2022, the band played one of the smaller stages to a crowd Furnari remembered stretching to the back of the space \u2014 \u201cone of the biggest crowds we\u2019d ever played to at that time.\u201d This December, Polaris is the highest-billed Australian act on the lineup.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve never actually played on a main stage for, you know, like a mainstay Australian festival,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cFor this opportunity to be finally put on the main stage \u2026 it kind of gives you a chance to take stock.\u201d The leap in four years from side stage to the highest-billed Australian band on the lineup, he added, is \u201cincredible.\u201d He credited the fans who packed that 2022 set and kept showing up since, thanking the wider Australian scene \u2014 especially the fans. \u201cThe punters rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGood Things, led by Limp Bizkit and also featuring Simple Plan and Spiritbox, visits Melbourne on Dec. 4, Sydney on Dec. 5 and Brisbane on Dec. 6. For Polaris, the bigger slot arrives alongside a new song made on its own terms \u2014 a first step rather than a final word. As for the Good Things crowd, Furnari said: \u201cHope we can bring them something that\u2019s just as special. We still know who we are as artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGood Things Festival 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tDec. 4 \u2014 Melbourne \u2014 Flemington Racecourse (16+)<\/p>\n

\n\tDec. 5 \u2014 Sydney \u2014 Sydney Showground (16+)<\/p>\n

\n\tDec. 6 \u2014 Brisbane \u2014 Brisbane Showgrounds (16+)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polaris\u2018 first new song in three years confronts a question that has followed the Australian metalcore band since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,12963,85,46,1098],"class_list":["post-636963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-rock","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}