Easy Life have unveiled the video for latest single ‘Nightmares’, which is available now on Island Records. The idiosyncratic Leicester five-piece recently made their TV debut on ‘Later…with Jools Holland’, and continue their sold-out UK tour – featuring an intimate date at London’s Moth Club on November 21st – this week.
Directed by Greg Barth (Blink Productions), ’Nightmares’ perfectly captures the confidence, charm and charisma of Easy Life (with the track also receiving a surprise shout-out from Emma Thompson when she was made a Dame this week). Blending hip-hop swing, jazzy horns and the band’s innate ear for pop hooks, ‘Nightmares’ itself originated– says lead-singer, Murray – “with a trumpet sample that we loved from Dionne Warwick’s version of Burt Bacharach’s ‘Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets’. This instantly gave us the feels, and the rest just kind of fell into place.” The result is a positive, uplifting take on a young generation – as the lyrics to ‘Nightmares’ put it – with “everybody on the late night shift / everybody on the brink of crisis.”
Few new acts announced their arrival quite like Easy Life, yet Easy Life are in many ways like few other new bands: a group of multi-instrumental, multi-tasking and multi-talented young men who appear as at home with their free-wheeling sound as they are baring their soul. With just a handful of early material – breakout single ‘Pockets’, debut mixtape ‘Creature Habits’, and the sun-kissed grooves of ‘Frank’ – here is a band whose sound seeks to join the dots between the optimistic gospel-rap of Chance The Rapper, the scattergun storytelling of Arctic Monkeys, and the velvety vibes of vintage Dilla (all through the lens of “rainy middle England”).
Beneath the musical bravado, then, things clearly haven’t come easily for Easy Life – which is precisely the point. Murray was raised and has worked all his life on the Leicesteshire farm run by his parents, selling potatoes, plucking turkeys, and learning from an early age the value of getting your hands dirty to get where you want to be. He formed the band on a whim in late 2017 with bassist, saxophonist, singer and school friend Sam, after bonding over classic hip-hop as kids in the Midlands. Also in their ranks are Afrobeat-obsessed drummer Cass, guitarist Louis and Jordan, on percussion, keys and backing vocals. What’s emerged – albeit by accident – is a manifesto to truly live by. “Easy Life is a form of escapism,” says Murray. “Living is proving to be increasingly difficult with all the pressures that modern life brings, and easy life rejects this materialistic philosophy; easy life is a hedonistic vision. When we coined the name there was a lot less thinking involved, but it feels like we have embodied the name over time rather than setting out from day one knowing exactly what it is we were looking for.”
With ‘Nightmares’, their TV debut and sold-out nationwide tour capping off a breakout year, Easy Life’s candid, occasionally-tongue-in-cheek but always-honest songwriting looks set to evolve further still in the year ahead. Thrillingly, Easy Life also appear the type of ambitious young band who will grab with both hands the surprise break they’ve grafted for.
07/11 Oporto, Leeds **sold out**
08/11 Deaf Institute, Manchester **sold out**
09/11 Broadcast, Glasgow **sold out**
10/11 Bodega, Nottingham **sold out**
14/11 Green Door Store, Brighton **sold out**
15/11 Hare & Hounds 2, Birmingham **sold out**
17/11 Think Tank, Newcastle **sold out**
21/11 Moth Club, London **sold out**
22/11 Dryden Street Social, Leicester **sold out**
23/11 Louisiana, Bristol **sold out**
24/11 Cellar, Oxford **sold out**