Anna Smyrk unveils powerful new single ‘This Is a Drill’ and announces debut album Spectacular Denial + 2026 launch shows

Following from her regional touring and the success of her recent single 'Garden-Variety Grief', acclaimed Naarm/Melbourne songstress Anna Smyrk returns with her powerful new single, 'This is a Drill', out Friday 5 December and announces her anticipated debut album Spectacular Denial via Community Music and announces album launch shows in Eora/Sydney, Meajin/Brisbane and Naarm/Melbourne in the first half of 2026.

'This Is a Drill' is a striking indie folk slow-burner that moves from a quiet ache to a raw emotional unravelling, echoing the unpredictable ways grief crashes and recedes. The track continues the next chapter from Spectacular Denial, due for release on Friday 20 March. An album shaped by her deeply personal journey with grief and her exploration of the many forms denial can take, the new album sonically sits in a rich space between indie, alt-pop, and folk, drawing inspiration from Blondie, Phoebe Bridgers, Garbage, Angie McMahon and Hozier.

Written in the wake of her father’s passing, the song explores the foggy, disorienting state of denial. Smyrk describes the track as: “A song about not being ready to feel my feelings. It’s about the strange, foggy state of denial, where everything feels a little unreal, like normal life is happening on the other side of a heavy curtain, like each day is a drill for the real thing.”

Produced and mixed by Anna Laverty (Courtney Barnett, Nick Cave), 'This Is a Drill' captures the suspended, dreamlike space between shock and acceptance. Anna's unmistakably powerful vocal and lyrics are paired with intimate, restrained instrumentation that gradually cracks open into something cathartic before returning to a hush, mirroring the waves of grief that peak and subside.

Already road tested during the recent Community Garden Tour, the song has been quietly resonating with audiences, “People have come to talk after the shows about their own losses,” says Smyrk. “It’s like we can share a little moment of solidarity. Funnily enough, for a song about denial, people seem to feel a sense of release through it, which I really love.”

Bandcamp: annasmyrk.bandcamp.com/track/this-is-a-drill

With a voice described by Rolling Stone as “truly astonishing,” Anna Smyrk has rapidly become one of Australia’s most compelling emerging artists. Her songs are replete with emotionally vulnerable lyrics,  dynamic arrangements and undeniable hooks.

The past two years have seen Anna tour across North America, Europe and Australia, with official showcases at SXSW, Folk Alliance International and NXNE She has toured non-stop, sharing stages with the likes of Birds of Tokyo, Strands of Oak, Tim Rogers and Bachelor Girl, performing at some of Australia’s finest festivals, Woodford Folk Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival and more. Her 2023 EP Cortisol and Blue Light (recorded in Nashville with Jake Finch and Collin Pastore of boygenius/Lucy Dacus) received worldwide acclaim, charted on US college radio and earned playlisting on MTV.

As she prepares to release her album, 'This Is a Drill' stands as a potent, tender reminder of the ways we cope or don’t when life cracks open. It’s both a whisper and a wail, a confession and a release.

Join Anna Smyrk and her full band as she launches Spectacular Denial in 2026.

Spectacular Denial Album Launch Shows 2026
Friday 10 April - Red Rattler Marrickville, Eora/Sydney

Saturday 11 April - Mirrorball Ministries, West End, Meanjin/Brisbane 

Saturday 2 May - Northcote Social Club, Northcote, Naarm/Melbourne

Early bird tickets on sale now until Wednesday 24 December at www.annasmyrk.com/tour

Anna Smyrk’s new single, 'This Is a Drill', is out Friday 5 December via Community Music.

Spectacular Denial is out on Friday 20 March via Community Music.