Anton Newcombe chats to Beat ahead of The Brian Jonestown Massacre's 2026 Australian tour.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre did not release an album in 2025. This is significant. There are 20 studio albums in the band’s back catalogue, and ever since 2008’s My Bloody Underground, Anton Newcombe’s psych rock project has released at least one album every two years.
It’s now three years since the band’s latest album, The Future Is Your Past. But, speaking to Beat ahead of the BJM’s looming national tour, Newcombe assures us new material isn’t far off.
“I’m in the studio,” he says. “I’ve been going six days a week. So I’m working on stuff. My plan was to take basically this year off and rectify that album thing. I just know what I would like to do, which is create new music.”
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
- Fri 27 & Sat 28 March
- Northcote Theatre
- Tickets via DRW Entertainment
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Newcombe formed The Brian Jonestown Massacre in San Francisco in the early 1990s. Co-founding guitarist Ricky Maymi still tours with the band, as does tambourinist Joel Gion, who featured prominently in the 2004 documentary Dig!
But the BJM has always had something of a revolving door lineup, due in part to the band’s relentless schedule.
“There’s no more of that,” Newcombe says of the band’s famously punishing tour itinerary.
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The Brian Jonestown Massacre play everywhere: last year alone they played shows in the UK, Europe, the USA, Canada and across Latin America. They’ve been coming to Australia for over 20 years, and their visits tend to take in more locations than the average touring rock band.
But the usefulness of their tireless, no-breaks tour schedule has run out, says Newcombe.
“Last time I was coming through Australia was the end of 60 shows in a row. And for everybody playing in the group, I think it led to a lot of problems. So we do things a lot differently now. We take more days off. We don’t treat ourselves any differently than a person in another profession.”
“A lot of times you get locked into things,” Newcombe adds. “You kind of just go down a path and you start working a certain way. And then it becomes the norm – even the dysfunction part of it.”
The band’s recent tour setlists have included songs from across their three-and-a-half-decade career. This year marks the 30th anniversary of two of the BJM’s most beloved albums: Take It From the Man! and Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request. Next year it’ll be 30 years since they released Give It Back!
Songs such as Give It Back!’s Servo, Take It From the Man!’s Vacuum Boots and Satanic Majesties’ Anemone remain live staples, but Newcombe isn’t planning any classic album-style tours.
“I mean, I don’t want to diss them, but how many fucking times is Flaming Lips going to play Yoshimi and the Robots?” he says. “There’s plenty of people that I’ve crossed paths with in the past who are like, ‘Why don’t you go on tour and do your landmark 1996 album?’ or some shit. But I’m like, no, I don’t want to become that person.”
Newcombe insists that his reluctance to do a tour dedicated to a major anniversary is not rooted in contrarianism.
“I just personally don’t want to rest on my laurels and say, look, here’s my 21 records, or whatever,” he says. “I can come through every year or two. I really am interested in making records, you know? Driven to try and push forward.”
Newcombe hasn’t lost any fondness for his earlier material, mind you. Nor does he struggle to find the enthusiasm to perform songs that are now three decades old.
“It’s not hard for me, but it’s hard for people that I play with and them understanding the microtonal or the rhythmic requirement of these weird egg-shaped rhythms that gives it its feel and swing,” he says.
“I really like that song, Take It From the Man. I also like that song Cold to the Touch from Satanic Majesties’, which is the second song. It’s just straight-up rock and roll. I remember it all like it was yesterday.”
In addition to a new album, Newcombe teases that a new compilation record could be on its way, a follow-up to 2004’s two-disc retrospective Tepid Peppermint Wonderland.
“I was getting ready for Dig! to come out and I made the two compilation records just so people would have a chance to grab something,” Newcombe says of Tepid Peppermint Wonderland. “I knew that people would go, ‘What do I pick?’ So I made it easy. But now it’s been so long, there’s so many more records, like 12 other records, and I figured I should make another two.”
In the meantime, The Brian Jonestown Massacre will be back in Australia for a nine-show tour, including two nights at Northcote Theatre.
“Australia, it’s a massive pain in my arse getting down there, I have to tell you,” says Newcombe. “But it’s something that’s 100% worth it.”
The Brian Jonestown Massacre will tour Australia from 19-31 March. More details here.
This article was made in partnership with Brian Jonestown Massacre.
