The band formerly known as Easy Life have emerged from their legal battle with easyGroup under the new name of Hard Life with their comeback single ‘Tears’. Check it out below along with our interview with frontman Murray Matravers.
Last year saw Easy Life play their final show under that name, having conceded defeat in a legal battle over the moniker against easyGroup (the brand owner of easyJet airlines) and that “sadly, it seems that justice is only available to those who can afford it” without “the funds to access a fair trial in the High Court”. easyGroup had engaged in a very public spat with the band, labelling them as “brand thieves“.
They announced that they would be surrendering their band name due to a lack of finances to pursue it in court, before playing a London farewell gig (which saw the sold-out KOKO crowd lead chants of “fuck EasyJet“) and releasing their final single under the moniker with ‘Trust Exercises’.
Now, the NME Award-winning Leicester band are back and recharged under the name Hard Life.
“I really don’t want people to read too much into the name,” frontman Murray Matravers told NME. “I was nervous, because as a white, middle-class man, I haven’t exactly had a hard life. It needs to be appreciated in context.
“The first day that our manager sat us down and said, ‘Guys, there’s some legal action coming and you’re going to have to change your name’, everyone in the band unambiguously and straight away said, ‘It’s gotta be Hard Life’. That was our initial gut instinct.”
He continued: “We were laughing about it and I don’t think any of us were taking it that seriously, but as time progressed we went through a million of other options and we always came back to Hard Life because we thought it was funny. Everyone seemed to resonate with that, and it was the most stereotypical Easy Life thing to do.”
The band have also shared their debut single under their new banner, which sees Matravers candidly face up to the struggles of the past year. “It’s a hard life, I can’t lie,” he sings, “it’s been a rush, in the hard times, lucky I got friends that I trust. It was easy in my 20s now I gotta lawyer up, gimme air miles or a fair trial.”
“For a while, I wasn’t really going to the studio because we were in this legal thing and writing music wasn’t really getting me out of it because it wasn’t an emotional issue that I could explore and try to put into music,” Matravers told NME about life before the song. “So for a while I was feeling quite uninspired. Then Rob [Norton, producer and writer] and I went away for the weekend to hang out, to make pressure with low pressure.
“We made ‘Tears’ that weekend, and it was the first time I’d made music in what seemed like a very long time. I loved it and connected with it. I got into this flow state, like when you’re sat in a sofa at a house party at 3am just chatting absolute shit. I had that same energy making this. I knew it was good and that it meant something to me. As soon as I’d made it, I knew I wanted it to be the first thing I put out.”
He added: “It sums up a lot of the stuff I was going through, but in a positive way. For a while I felt powerless and upset and the music I was writing was quite emo, then ‘Tears’ came and I just thought, ‘This is how I feel about this situation; this is the energy I want to put out into the world’.”
Check out the rest of our interview below, as the singer tells NME about what’s to come, the state of the industry, and if he’ll be boycotting a certain orange airline…
NME: Hello Murray. We last spoke at the end of last year where you told us that you were without a name but vowing to carry on. How have you been since then?
Matravers: “I’ve spent the last six months not doing a great deal, in terms of music. Most of that was spent reaching some sort of agreement with easyGroup – going backwards and forwards on working on what we were going to do – but in that I’ve also had a really nice break from touring and being a famous person (or a Z-list celebrity I should say; ‘famous’ is a stretch). There’s been no social media, no touring, no releases.
“After doing that for six years straight, I’ve had a lot of time to work on me. It’s actually been quite nice. That’s not to say I’m not absolutely buzzing to be back, but it hasn’t been bad in the long-run. For a lot of the time, I was struggling to see the silver lining. It’s actually been a welcome break and now I’m feeling really inspired and ready to go again.”
So Hard Life – is this you stepping into the dark side? Will it be the flip of what you were and all Trent Reznor vibes and leather trousers?
“Oh wow! Do you know what? Absolutely nothing has changed, other than the name. I did envisage for a while that this could be a huge change in terms of the art direction and the music. I thought I could change my look and everything; why not? But I realised that I like what I do and didn’t want to change. The name change was obviously forced upon us for legal reasons, but other than that, that’s it.
“Our attitudes have changed internally, though. We’re all just more grateful for this. When you interviewed me at the FAC AGM, you may have realised I am actually a miserable person. This thing that I do is such a blessing and a privilege and it could end at any moment. It could be over in the blink of an eye; one minute we were putting out music and the next all that had to stop overnight. That’s the takeaway for me: now I’m so grateful to still be doing this.”
So you’re not going goth?
“I’ve been exploring a lot with the music, originally in the hope that the music would take an obvious turn from Easy Life stuff, but I like the music I make and that’s why I do it. I didn’t want to change for the sake of it. I can’t make anything else.”
You didn’t fancy ‘Easy Death’ as a name, through fear of easyGroup launching a funeral service?
“It’s just ridiculous, isn’t it? What is this story we’re trying to tell? It’s completely nuts. It’s been nine months and I still get struck with disbelief. We’ve settled with easyGroup now, but I can’t believe I’m in this situation where I have to be careful about the words I choose when my whole thing in the first place was about communication.”
Will you guys be boycotting easyJet? They’re still one of the cheapest ways to travel…
“Oh, mate. So many fans were like, ‘In solidarity, we’re never going to use easyJet’. I was like, ‘Guys, just use the cheapest option’. I’m not angry. I don’t have a problem with easyGroup and we never did – that’s what’s so bizarre about it all.”
Will there be live shows on the way?
“All of us in the band are desperate to play shows again; that’s for sure. It’s festival season now, and we’ve missed that boat. Although we’ve had so long to get this ready, more time than anyone could ever need to release one song, we don’t really have anything planned. It feels like the first time we’ve ever done this and that’s really exciting for me. There definitely will be shows. Seeing people play festivals right now is giving us all mad FOMO.”
You’ve been very vocal about the financial issues facing artists. When you do get back on the road, do you anticipate a different industry to the one you’ve left behind – especially with a General Election looming?
“Music is such a massive industry, but we’re all just treated like wastemen sat in our rooms smoking weed. No one takes it seriously. Whether or not we’ll see any change, I lost faith in this bipartisan electoral system a long time ago. Sure, Labour are going to come into power – but are they going to have a drastic effect on the way the music industry is run? I very much doubt that. Of course, it would be nice. The music industry is quite broken and doesn’t work in a way that it could. It could be so much better, but let’s see.”
“We’re going to lose a whole echelon of people because they can’t even afford to make music in the first place. The way it is just isn’t sustainable, but positive things are occurring and voices are being heard. It’s challenging. Younger artists ask me how we did it and things have changed so much. TikTok hasn’t been around that long and we did it by playing local pubs and getting a following in quite an old-school way. That isn’t possible now, because to play your local pub you’re going to be out of pocket.
After ‘Tears’, can we expect an album soon?
“Do you know what? I’ve learned not to look so far into the future, because it never turns out the way you plan it. I have more songs, don’t get me wrong, and it could be an album. Let’s just see. That’s not me being coy – I just don’t think that any of us in our team are planning anything really long-term. This is the first song as Hard Life, so let’s see how we go.”
Until Hard-Fi sue you?
“Oh god. Maybe I’ll sue them for a laugh! Rest assured I do have the trademark for Hard Life.”
‘Tears’ by Hard Life is out now. The band released two acclaimed albums under their previous name – 2022’s ‘Maybe In Another Life‘ and 2021 debut ‘Life’s A Beach‘.
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