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Apr 23, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Yoonha Park / Marlaena Moore / Jon Sherman

Canadian post-punks Preoccupations are releasing a new album, Ill at Ease, on May 9 via Born Loser. Now they have shared its third single, title track “Ill at Ease,” via a music video. Watch it below.

Frontman Matt Flegel had this to say about the song in a press release: “I was trying to convey the feeling of waking up, but not being able to shake the uncomfortable suspicion that you might still be dreaming. It’s also about making amends with the fact that you might never feel comfortable in your own skin, and finding solace in the fact that some things can’t be changed.”

Previously Preoccupations shared the album’s first single, “Focus,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. They also announced some tour dates. “Bastards” was the album’s second single and it was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Ill at Ease is the band’s fifth album and the follow-up to 2022’s Arrangements and 2018’s amusingly titled New Material.

Preoccupations is Matt Flegel (vocals, bass), Scott Munro (guitar, synth), Daniel Christiansen (guitar), and Mike Wallace (drums).

Flegel had this to say about the new album in a previous press release: “The well of dark things to write about seemingly has not dried up, and lyrically, it’s where I still tend to draw from. Draining all my anxieties into a song is often the only way I can get through a day. Some songs exist in a world with barren plains of burnt earth, covered in a dust of shame, dread, death, where all the things I love are things that kill me. Some come from the perspective of another distant world, looking skyward into a science fiction ocean of space, solitude, slight hope. Sometimes I’m looking around at the world that we live in now with incredulity, hilariously dissatisfied with how it’s all turned out, and assuming that it can’t be long before it’s all over. Some songs are just a reflection of me looking down at my feet while I trudge along wondering what I’m doing with myself, and if the ground is going to fall out from underneath me at any given moment.”

Read our 2016 interview with Preoccupations.

Read our 2018 interview with Preoccupations on New Material.

Preoccupations Tour Dates:

UK Dates:

05/11/25 - Birmingham, UK - Hare & Hound
05/13/25 - London, UK - The Garage
05/14/25 - Bristol, UK - Strange Brew
05/16/25 - Manchester, UK - YES
05/15/25 - Brighton, UK - The Hope & Ruin
05/17/25 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
05/18/25 - Glasgow, UK - Room 2

North American Dates:

05/22/25 Montréal, QC - Bar Le Ritz PDB
05/23/25 Ottawa, ON - The 27 Club
05/24/25 Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace
05/27/25 Detroit, MI - Lager House
05/31/25 Chicago, IL - The Empty Bottle
06/01/25 Minneapolis, - MN 7th St Entry
06/04/25 Calgary, AB - Commonwealth
06/06/25 Vancouver, BC - Wise Hall
06/07/25 Seattle, WA - Madame Lou’s
06/08/25 Portland, OR - Polaris Hall
06/10/25 San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Stop
06/12/25 Los Angeles, CA - Lodge Room
06/13/25 San Diego, CA - Casbah
06/17/25 Austin, TX - Parish
06/18/25 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
06/20/25 Nashville, TN - The Blue Room-Third Man Records
06/21/25 Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade(Purgatory)
06/22/25 Raleigh, NC - Kings
06/24/25 Washington, DC - Songbyrd Record Cafe
06/25/25 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
06/27/25 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
06/29/25 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Upstairs

European Dates:

09/14/25 Amsterdam, NL - Tolhuistuin
09/15/25 Lille, FR - L’Aeroneff
09/16/25 Le Havre, FR - Le Tetris
09/17/25 Paris, FR - Petit Bain
09/18/25 Antwerp, BE - TRIX
09/19/25 Nijmegen, NL -Doornroosje
09/21 Rotterdam, NL - Rotown
09/23/25 Cologne, DE - Blue Shell
09/24/25 Hamburg, DE - Hafenklang
09/25/25 Berlin, DE - Neue Zukunft
09/26 Prague, CZ - Palác Akropolis
09/27/25 Munich, DE - Strom
09/28/25 Vienna, AT - B72
09/30/25 Sofia, BG - Stroeja
10/01/25 - Athens, GR - AUX
10/02/25 Bucharest, ROM - Control Club

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