The band formerly known as easy life have reintroduced themselves as hard life, with debut single “tears” representing a heartfelt, impassioned, and triumphant return.
Stream: “tears” – hard life
The band formerly known as easy life returned this month as hard life, and boy, if that doesn’t make you stop and think.
Released June 11th via their longtime label home of Island Records, the heartfelt, impassioned, and aptly-titled “tears” arrives eight months after easy life’s final single (“trust exercises”) and the announcement that they were being sued by (infamously litigious) multinational conglomerate easyGroup – owner of easyJet and other easyBlank companies – over their name.
Apparently, nothing can be easy anymore, and now we’re all living in a hard life era. At least the music’s flawless.
“It’s a hard life, I can’t lie it’s been a rush, in the hard times, lucky I got friends that I trust,” frontman Murray Matravers declares in the song’s opening verse, singing over a sped-up sample of singer/songwriter Natalie Bergman’s 2021 single “Keep Those Teardrops From Falling” (featured on an EP of the same name). Matravers lends the lawsuit one bar, addressing the situation before taking the high road and moving on.
“It was easy in my 20s now I gotta lawyer up, gimme air miles or a fair trial [bleep].” (Note: The bleep used to say “Stelios,” referencing easyGroup’s owner, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who accused easylife of being “brand thieves” in his litigation against them. The group claimed this bar was “disparaging and defamatory” upon the track’s release, and now it’s been censored on streaming services. No hard feelings; only hard life.)
it’s a hard life, i can’t lie, it’s been a rush,
in the hard times, luck i got friends that i trust,
it was easy in my twenties, now i got to lawyer up,
give me air-miles or a fair trial ____.
i’m fragile, i can’t drink like i used to,
i got homies back home that can still act nuke-proof,
now they only ever see me on youtube.
For Matravers and crew, “tears” isn’t just about returning triumphantly and unapologetically, or letting fans know they’re back under a new name.
It’s about perseverance in spite of the odds and continuing to pursue their passions, no matter who gets in their way or tries to stop them. Coming in at just two minutes and change, it’s a song of staying power and unbridled, unfiltered, uncompromising self-expression. The Bergman sample, which already lends itself a certain Motown-like nostalgia, adds a further sense of heart-on-sleeve tenderness to the air, making this moment feel especially meaningful in Matravers’ and hard life’s lives.
To my absent friends who never stay in touch
And when we send DMs they only gather dust
Say my accent’s changed from my native tongue
I drink plant-based milk, it’s a gateway drug
But there’s no use crying over oat milk
Seen artists come and go, I’ve got survivor’s guilt
But I’ll (keep those teardrops from falling)
“I really don’t want people to read too much into the name. 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, Matravers recently told NME. “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.”
“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.”
Matravers and bandmates Samuel Hewitt (guitar), Oliver Cassidy (guitar), Lewis Berry (bass), and Jordan Birtles (drums) are known for their good sense of humor; the band even incorporate jokes into their lyrics, and Matravers is appreciated by fans for his witty, tongue-in-cheek style of songwriting. To band and audience alike, easy life’s rebirth as hard life is certainly bittersweet, but the name change works.
Will the new music have that much more of an edge? Only time will tell; for now, “tears” is recognition that the band hard life, formerly known as easy life, are here to stay, come hell or high water, and they won’t let anyone – or anything – get in their way.
And that’s a pretty powerful sentiment to hear, any day of the week.
If I ever get to see you again
I would never let you go my friend
I would take away the rain
And put a smile upon your face
And I’ll keep those teardrops from falling
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Stream: “tears” – hard life
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© Isaac Lamb
© Isaac Lamb
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