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Photo: Jack Bridgland 

A confrontation with one’s own psyche, Easy Life’s MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE… beautifully encapsulates the process of debilitating self-awareness leading to the relief of finally being in on the joke.

Hailing from Leicester, the anti-pop band has cultivated a warm following despite only being two albums deep, largely thanks to their approach to music that is honest, brash, and uniquely theirs. Whether it’s the nonchalance of their cadence or their lack of infatuation with impressing us, there’s something about Easy Life that feels both personable and intriguingly cool. Charting at number two and performing a run of sold-out shows, including London's O2 Brixton Academy, there is a fair share of hints that we may not be the only ones being charmed.

While their debut project Life's a Beach reflected the truth of living through lockdown, MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE… is the aftermath, the settling of the storm. As the rubble slows to a still and the street lights dim back on, what do we do with what we know now?

In our conversation with frontman Murray Matravers, we left no stone unturned as we journeyed through the album’s unbecoming.

Ones To Watch: My favorite part about MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE… is that its tone is both melancholic and euphoric. How do you think you mastered encapsulating both emotions?

Murray Matravers: You know what’s funny? I feel like I haven’t done it that well on this record. I feel like Easy Life has always been this blend of sad poetry mixed with euphoric songs, and don’t get me wrong, there’s a couple of moments like that on this record so it means a lot that you said that. But I was worried that this one was a bit more miserable than other Easy Life, a bit too emo. But I always want a glimmer of hope in what we do, even if it’s a melancholy song, I always try to write with a hint of optimism so it feels like things can at least get better. Some of my favorite songs are very uplifting but then if you read the lyrics in the back of the CD they’re actually just fucking depressing. That blend of happy and sad is a really interesting thing in music and something that’s always provoked a reaction from me. I try to mimic it in our music and I’m glad you picked up on it.

The whole project feels cinematic, like it’s the soundtrack to a coming-of-age film— did you find yourself on a hero's journey when making it?

I feel like this album was really written for myself, as I’ve been on a journey of self-discovery and self-care, trying to become a better person. I think to do that, you really gotta go within and look at yourself and be like “These are all the times you fucked up, why did you do that? What does that say about you? What areas do you need to improve on to better your relationships with others and with yourself?” I’ve never really had the chance to do that because we’ve always been busy and touring. All of a sudden there were these six months we weren’t doing anything. We released our album but we weren’t touring because the world had closed down. I think, even just in life in general, you go to school and college and straight into work and you’re so young and ambitious that you want to do all of these things and you never actually stop to think “How did I get here? Who am I?” You never deal with any of the things that happened to you, growing up is so tough. I think on this album I go back and relive those stories, so it very much feels like a journey of discovery to me, which I was kind of nervous about. I put so much of my own journey into it and it’s not been the most fascinating journey either. It’s the little things, the small insecurities we all have that actually build the character arc of growing up and maturing. This album is about that, and about what could have been had we been dealt different cards. It’s self-centered as I’ve written about myself, but I hope people walk their path with me.

That’s where life is lived, in the small nuances and intricacies, and it's a process to shift to hyper-self-awareness.

I think it takes a while to get to that point. When you’re young, you don’t actually achieve the self-awareness that you think you have, and I’m sure we haven’t still yet. I think that’s what getting older does to you, you become more and more aware of yourself and your position within the world. Even your insignificance within it. That whole journey to me is so fascinating and more songs need to be written about that. More people would humble themselves, there’s far too much arrogance and ego.

This album feels like it’s from the perspective of both the observer and the participant. Seeing through both lenses. What do you think we’re overcomplicating?

That’s a mad question! I’m an insecure dude who makes a lot of mistakes and lets my ego dictate how I behave in scenarios, so if I can speak about that, then I know for sure everyone else in the room can relate. We’re all just as insecure and useless as each other, so I always try to be like “Okay, what are my defense mechanisms?” Like when you go to a party and you just get fucked up because otherwise you’d just have to be your authentic self and that’s way more scary. I write songs about that. We have these little pieces of ourselves, we’re not just one thing. We’re made up of all these personalities that are very complex. So sometimes I play the wounded child in songs where I really bare my soul, like in “MEMORY LOSS” and “MORAL SUPPORT,” I recognize myself as quite a melancholy and sad, confused little child. There are other songs like “BASEMENT” where I’m a little bit more boisterous. “BEESWAX” is an example of where I become aware of my ego and how it suits the song. There’s an arrogance there that I enjoy playing into because in real life, that isn’t me. I’d never have that swagger. Sometimes it’s nice in the studio to just be like “You know what, I’m gonna play this character.”

Our fans respond well to it because they recognize themselves in it and in me and in the music. I know people think we have our shit together because we’re in a band and it’s really cool, but if anything, it just added to my social anxiety. Everyone’s looking at me and it’s terrifying. As long as we’re being real with how we feel, people will see themselves in the music and the best part about art in general is when you can relate to the protagonist, like “Ah, I would have totally done that same” or think to yourself like “How would I react?” I want to provoke people to think about how they’re made up, their behavioral composition. Nine times out of 10, when you ask yourself why you do something, it’s from some childhood trauma you’ve never even looked at, so I’m trying to pry that out so that we’re all slightly less controlled by ego.

How did surviving these last two years inform the art that you've created since? 

Our first album was written when everything was going to shit and it wasn’t about the lockdown but also couldn’t help but be heavily inspired by it. For this one, the situation dictated that there was a lot of time on our hands but it wasn’t about the world going to shit, but the truth of wanting to enjoy ourselves more because we realize time is actually quite valuable. I used to go on tour and miss being home so bad that I wouldn’t look forward to it, and now we’ve all said to each other “We need to enjoy this and be completely present.” Now I’m trying to meet up with friends more, do all the stuff that we always like to do but always complain about doing. If my mate’s having a party I’m like “Oh, for fucks sake, I’ve got to go to this party.” But that mentality has gone a little bit, I feel like people are really kind of gassed to be out the house a bit more and I think it changed everyone forever.

If a historian listened to this album to learn more about our generation and state of being with no outside context, what would they walk away thinking about us?

That’s mad, I love it. They’d probably just think we all spoke about ourselves a lot and were really self-absorbed. I’m constantly making myself the main character, but there’s so much more going on. This album feels like it lives outside of time, so I think historians would toss it and move on to the next thing.

I disagree! I think you cracking yourself open is really exemplifying what it looks like to be in your mid-20s in this day and age and admit to yourself that you don’t know where you’re going and maybe that’s okay.

It’s crazy because when you’re a kid you look up to people our age like “You’re actually a grown-up.” And now I look up to my parents and I’m like “You’re DEFINITELY actually grown-ups.” But my dad said this amazing thing to me during lockdown, he said “Just so you know, you never work it out and no one knows what they’re doing. Everyone’s just doing something,” and it was so poignant because you never really do work it out, regardless of how old you are. You always feel totally lost and that’s a little bit sad but also really liberating. We’re all just winging it and maybe that’s okay.

easy life's MAYBE IN ABOTHER LIFE... is available now.