Ealing post-punk band White Lies have announced details of their forthcoming sixth album, As I Try Not To Fall Apart, which is released on [PIAS] on February 18th, 2022.

Also sharing the accompanying video for the title track, the trio are slated to perform in Vicar Street Dublin on March 21st next year. The band - formerly known as Fear of Flying - is composed of Harry McVeigh on vocals and guitar, bassist Charles Cave and drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown.

€30 tickets for the Vicar Street show go on sale this Thursday, 30th September at 10am from Ticketmaster.

Speaking about title track 'As I Try Not To Fall Apart', the band explain the decision to tackle male mental health lyrically and sonically:

"We wrote this song quickly, late one night, and often the songs which come quickest are written from the gut and the heart, not with the head. We wanted the melody to feel like a hymn, to give the confessional lyrics weight despite being wrapped up as a pop song. It’s about accepting vulnerability as a man, and knowing it’s ok to be broken. There’s never been a more pressing time to spread the message that it’s ok to not be ok."

The track is accompanied by a video directed by James Arden, aka The Trash Factory.

Talking about the video, Arden said: "The track made me think of people trying to lift themselves out of emotional spirals - navigating feelings of fragility and fighting everyday pressures just so they can keep it together - and it made me think about how we can be buried and overwhelmed by our feelings and emotions, and how we could explore that, visually."

"Being buried in sand was too mad to pass up," Harry McVeigh commented. "The sensation was really chilling and I was picking sand out of my ears for days, but I'm thrilled with the video, it really carries the message of the song and it looks beautiful."

Recorded at Sleeper and Assault & Battery studios in West London, the album sees long-term collaborator Ed Buller, who has worked on many of their albums including their debut To Lose My Life…, return to produce several tracks along with Claudius Mittendorfer (Weezer, Panic! At The Disco) also producing and mixing the entire album.

Arguably one of the biggest guitar bands in the UK, White Lies' last album, Five, garnered much acclaim in 2019 with a sold out UK tour - including multiple Brixton Academy shows.

Having also released Ritual in 2011, BIG TV in 2013 and Friends in 2016, the past decade has also seen the band establish themselves globally with sold out tours in Europe and beyond, and today they announced details of an extensive run of shows in the spring of next year.

Pre-sale tickets are exclusively available from 10am BST on Tuesday, 28th September here.

Recorded over two studio sessions, As I Try Not To Fall Apart is their most expansive record to date, taking in explosive rock, electro-pop bangers, prog-inspired invention, funk-tinged grooves and some of their most indelible hooks yet.

It’s well over a decade since the band’s breakthrough single 'Death' introduced a group for whom the fragility of human existence has been a constant touchstone. Now in his 30s, chief lyricist Cave’s outlook on the great unknown has evolved. “I think the side of death or mortality that I always find interesting is the fact we all know it’s going to happen,” he says, “and how different people navigate that.”

“We’ll probably never make an album in the way we made this one again,” says Cave. “I think this could be one of our best,” says McVeigh. White Lies have hopefully emerged with their most vital collection of songs in years.

Pre-order the forthcoming album here.

Revisit the February 2017 Hot Press interview with White Lies here.

Listen to 'As I Try Not To Fall Apart' below:

As I Try Not To Fall Apart tracklist:

1. Am I Really Going To Die
2. As I Try Not To Fall Apart
3. Breathe
4. I Don’t Want To Go To Mars
5. Step Outside
6. Roll December
7. Ragworm
8. Blue Drift
9. The End
10. There Is No Cure For It

Photo credit: Charles Cave