EASY LIFE

ON DREAM FEATURES, TOUR LIFE AND THE EVOLUTION OF THEIR SOUND

Shortly after the beginning of their biggest tour yet, Jake spoke to Murray Matravers of the Leicester-based band easy life.

On a slightly overcast February afternoon I rang Murray to find him sitting in Nando’s with the rest of the band grabbing some food ahead of playing that evening. They’d played in Bristol the night before, and were playing in Newcastle on the day of the call. We exchanged pleasantries, and then got into conversation about the band’s new album ‘Maybe In Another Life’. Their sophomore album is more mature, jazzier, and introspective than their conceptual debut album ‘life’s a beach’. The jazzy sound of the album was apparently largely situational, certainly according to Murray “it wasn’t at all a conscious decision”, but rather something that evolved naturally with the band listening to lots of jazz over lockdown and incorporating more of that sound into their writing, making for a very soulful sound across the entire play time. The playlist also included The Bee Gees, and apparently there has been a little bit of chord stealing from them!

Murray seems committed to the band changing its sound over time whilst staying recognisable as easy life. He impresses with a keen interest in differentiating the band’s sound from what else is out there. The idea is to have a unique musicality, in order to keep the ball rolling and stop them stagnating. To quote: “I don’t know what the next album’s gonna sound like either, who knows”.

My true musical love is metal, so naturally I had to slip a cheeky ask as to whether he might consider a little metal on the playlist whilst they write the next album, and to his credit he didn’t completely rule it out - “Well who knows, stranger things have happened!”.

Speaking briefly about the non-musical inspiration, Murray discussed ‘70s album and band visual styles, and how much he loves older methods of recording. Using old microphones and tape recorders was on his mind, this led to the band working on different songs in different ways. The album also had some great features as part of the release, with my personal favourite song DEAR MISS HOLLOWAY featuring Kevin Abstract, and Benee taking a spot on a later song. Gus Anderson is the third and final featuring artist, joining Murray and co on track 14 ANTIFREEZE. Having talked a little about features, I asked Murray what his dream feature spot would be, and pretty quickly he came back with the legendary Stevie Wonder, saying that a guest spot on a Stevie Wonder song would be “a dream, if only just to see him playing piano in person”. to help make the dressing room a lit tle more comfortable. Plenty of bands have made the rider into a joke, or into a test to see if the security or staging will be done properly, but easy life made their rider into a bit of a Bargain Booze equivalent! The O2 City Hall in Newcastle was apparently the first ever venue to get it completely right, and when a group has asked for a nice rum, a nice tequila, some whiskey and gin, red wine, four different types of beer, premium tonic water, chambord, champagne, and loads of food, you can see why! But when you’re bringing the kind of money that easy life will bring to a venue, I can imagine the payoff is more than worth it. I can only wonder how much of their impressive collection the band got through before going on stage. I’d be surprised if the tour bus doesn’t become some sort of bar, or even a club! Speaking of the tour bus, I asked Murray if there were any bands he had his ear on that he thought were really worth listening to, and his answer was the band sharing their tour bus! Sad Night Dynamite were the support for the tour, and Murray seems to absolutely love them, so if you want to get the lowdown on his listening list then start there!

We also discussed the tour, the band played in Bristol the night before our interview in an intimate show supporting the charity War Child UK at the Trinity Centre. They took over the main room of the venue, for a 600-person capacity event that apparently had the whole room bouncing! For the rest of the tour, easy life hit up much larger venues, from the 2,200 capacity O2 City Hall in Newcastle to arenas in the vein of 10,000 capacity, such as London’s magnificent Alexandra Palace and Nottingham’s very own Motorpoint Arena. With multiple sell outs before the tour had even begun, the band is clearly on a run of form that is well displayed by their popularity!

Their local status is also helpful for their Motorpoint show, as the Leicester-based group have rapidly become one of the most popular new artists in the Midlands. I asked how excited he was to get back to Nottingham, for what was essentially this tour’s hometown show, and he couldn’t have been much more up for it! Having seen the Arctic Monkeys on their AM tour at the same venue, he seemed slightly lost for words as to how much he was looking forward to it. The band’s first gig had been at the Bodega, and they’ve also played at Rescue Rooms and Rock City, so their history with Nottingham runs deep - it’s almost their home away from home now. Having worked their way up to the Motorpoint, it is a true testament to the love they have fostered in the Midlands, and it shouldn’t be ignored - they are a well-loved band for very good reason.

Part of the conversation devolved to the rider, which for those who don’t know is what a band sends to a venue

Winding down the conversation, I had some more chill questions lined up for Murray. I asked who would be in his dream supergroup, out of anybody alive or dead. Right out of the gates he jumped in with Stevie Wonder again, slotting nicely onto keys, and immediately afterwards he put Bob Marley on lead vocals. Taking a moment to think, he then went the complete opposite direction and put the original Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison behind the kit of what had been quite a chill band! Rounding out the band is Joe Satriani on guitar, and then easy life filled inMurray on trumpet, Oliver Cassidy on percussion, Sam Hewitt on sax, Lewis Berry on backing guitar and Jordan Birtles on synths and backing vocals. I can imagine this would be one hell of a group!

I then decided to go for quite an open-ended duo of questions to finish the interview, starting with “if you could change one thing, what would it be?”. At first confused, Murray realised I was being slightly moronic and leaving it open to literally anything, at which point he said that he would change the spread of wealth through the world and even it out. This is inarguably a very noble and selfless idea, and would no doubt go some distance to radically reorganise society. The final question, I asked Murray to give a piece of advice for Impact readers, and the humble frontman asks only for everyone to “read more books, and be kind”.

Jake Longhurst