Frontman Murray chats to NME about their upcoming material, hitting the smaller venues and their rapid rise through the ranks
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00:00 (audience cheering)
00:03 - Hello, you're watching NME.
00:07 We're here at Reading Festival with Murray from Easy Life.
00:11 Just been on the main stage, how was it?
00:13 - Yeah, it's good to see you again.
00:15 Yeah, doing good, it was great.
00:17 Kids are crazy.
00:20 - I know, and you've got a bad back,
00:22 so you got dropped in the mosh pit the other day.
00:25 - Yes, sympathy for me, please.
00:28 Bundles of it.
00:29 Yeah, so we did a warmup show,
00:31 like a Reading and Leeds warmup.
00:33 It was supposed to be, you know, get us hyped and ready,
00:36 and stupidly, I decided to crowd surf,
00:41 or attempt to crowd surf,
00:42 and I got dropped in the front row.
00:44 Didn't even, I just jumped off and landed flat on my back,
00:48 and it was okay at the time, but yeah,
00:50 next morning I was in A&E feeling very sorry for myself.
00:54 - I remember, like, the gigs you were doing,
00:57 the stage dives were getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:01 And like, sadly, it's caught up with you.
01:04 - I think this might be the end of an era.
01:07 Yeah, this was one of my smallest ever dives,
01:09 and it's the little ones that will get you, man.
01:12 - They all add up, don't they?
01:13 - Yeah, exactly, exactly.
01:14 - But it must be fun to see, like you say,
01:17 the kids were going wild,
01:18 and they're still coming back every time, you know?
01:20 Like, you played the main stage last time as well,
01:22 and the crowd gets bigger and bigger.
01:24 Like, that must be so rewarding to see,
01:26 like, new people come along, new people discover you.
01:29 - It's really nice.
01:30 I think we have, like, something that I recognise
01:33 when I look out, there's like a real sense of community.
01:35 I don't know, like, people bring their friends,
01:37 like, "Oh, come along, this is gonna be fun."
01:39 And I don't know, it just feels like,
01:41 we're like a really wholesome, like, the wholesome act.
01:45 You know, we're like the family act.
01:46 It's like, bring your kids, bring your friends,
01:48 like, it's gonna be chill.
01:50 - But that's kind of, you know,
01:52 testament to what you guys have been doing.
01:53 You've cultivated that. - Thank you, Tom.
01:54 - 'Cause you, you know, quite recently,
01:57 doing, like, pop-ups in Viki Park and stuff like that.
01:59 You want people to come down and bring their friends
02:02 and engage, and that's really important.
02:03 - Yeah, I think that's important for us, like, yeah.
02:06 It's, you know, we didn't expect any of this to happen,
02:10 and, you know, it sounds very cliche,
02:12 and it is, even just hearing myself say it,
02:14 I'm like, "Edit that out, cut that out."
02:15 But, like, you know, we wanna just give something back,
02:17 and we haven't been touring that much this year,
02:19 so it was important for us to, like, show up in Leicester
02:21 and different cities and sort of just show some love
02:24 and say, "Hey, guys, come hang out."
02:25 We, like, had a barbecue and threw a couple pop-up events
02:29 and stuff, and it's kind of fun, you know?
02:32 It keeps us busy. - That's what it's about,
02:33 you know, like, you don't want that barrier
02:34 to get too big, like. - Yeah, like,
02:37 I find that part of it really strange, you know?
02:40 Like, some people, we did a meet and greet
02:43 or, like, a photo booth thing earlier with Radio 1,
02:46 and people, like, people cry.
02:48 They will unmute you and start crying, and it's like,
02:53 I don't know. - It's interesting, though.
02:55 - It's like, don't cry, it's fine.
02:57 - Sam Fender last night, he was talking about
03:00 imposter syndrome and, like, he can't believe his other,
03:02 I mean, I feel like that's everyone.
03:03 They're just like, we're just like you.
03:06 - Yeah, exactly, exactly.
03:08 It's really nice, don't get me wrong,
03:10 it does great things for the ego, but,
03:12 yeah, we're just happy to be here, man.
03:16 Super grateful, back at Redden in Leeds.
03:18 - You've been busy, like you say,
03:20 you've been releasing some new music,
03:21 you've got some new singles out.
03:23 - Yeah. - Mixtape, maybe.
03:24 What's going on in Easy Life World in that sense?
03:27 - It was basically, we're writing a new album,
03:31 and we figured that it's gonna take a little while,
03:33 and we didn't wanna just go completely silent
03:37 for a year or two years, and we had loads of old tracks.
03:41 We have so much, like, hundreds of songs unreleased
03:44 that are just on hard drives, as I'm sure any artist does,
03:48 and we figured we just went through them
03:50 and chose a few that we liked,
03:51 and we're just putting them out.
03:53 We don't really have a, we don't know why, really,
03:57 or just to give something, keep people engaged.
04:00 Yeah, give something back to the audience.
04:04 They're all just daft, a lot of them are really stupid,
04:06 like we released a song the other day
04:07 called Ultimate Jutsu, and, you know,
04:12 I guess, kinda taking the pressure off it.
04:15 I think when you go through the major label system,
04:18 there's quite a lot of pressure,
04:20 or certainly I put a lot of pressure on myself
04:22 when writing and making the albums,
04:24 and being like, oh, it has to be this, it has to be huge,
04:26 it has to sell a million copies, otherwise it's shit,
04:29 you know, and this was like, no, fuck that,
04:32 we'll just put music out 'cause it's funny and it's fun.
04:35 So it feels nice, I think we're in a really good place,
04:37 actually, as a band.
04:38 - How do you find that kind of, like, what is success?
04:43 You know, like, you get bigger sets, you know,
04:46 bigger stages, you get, you know, major labels,
04:49 but, like, how do you quantify success now?
04:52 Like, is it a few people turning up to that pop-up
04:54 at Vicky Park, is that, for you, success, you know?
04:56 - It's an interesting question, I think it's something
04:58 that we've all been asking ourselves recently,
05:00 because I think if you had of asked me
05:02 two or three years ago, I would have said, like,
05:05 oh, huge gigs and international critical acclaim,
05:08 and, you know, being famous, but I think now,
05:13 it's definitely not that, in fact, I don't want that,
05:15 you know, so, yeah, I think success is just trying to,
05:20 if you're happy in what you do, then you've smashed it,
05:24 you know, like, we were just talking off camera
05:26 about where you're at in your life, and, like,
05:29 that's sick, congratulations, that's wicked,
05:31 do you know what I mean?
05:32 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:33 - Yeah, if you can, in whatever it is you do,
05:36 if you're enjoying it and you're healthy
05:39 and you're healthy in your mind as well,
05:40 then that, for me, is success,
05:42 'cause that's not always been the case.
05:43 I've been doing a lot of, yeah, I've been doing a lot
05:46 of working on myself and trying to figure out
05:49 that exact question, and I think I've realised, like,
05:52 yeah, health and happiness are the most important things.
05:57 - What was that process like, going back through
06:00 some of these old songs?
06:01 How do you, how do you look back on, like,
06:03 the work that you do from, like, a few years ago?
06:05 Are you someone who's just like, ah, it's so embarrassing,
06:07 and you're like, no, actually, I love this?
06:10 - I think it's both, don't get me wrong,
06:12 99% of it's very embarrassing,
06:15 but we chose the 1% that wasn't.
06:17 Yeah, I don't know.
06:20 It's, all music, it's all very embarrassing,
06:25 even the stuff I've just written.
06:26 I'm always terribly embarrassed.
06:28 It's really strange, you know, you kind of, like,
06:30 talking about your feelings and stuff like that,
06:33 it's never the easiest thing to do,
06:34 so there's always definitely a big element of, like,
06:39 yeah, I'm always a bit scared in general,
06:40 but, I don't know, I get less embarrassed now, you know?
06:45 I just don't really care anymore.
06:47 If you dig it, cool, if you don't, then that's fine.
06:49 - That's it. - So, yeah.
06:51 - It doesn't matter, and you're gonna be playing,
06:53 you know, a little secret set, something a bit smaller.
06:56 - Yes, this is our favorite part of Redding and Leeds,
06:58 actually, we've did it before, I think it was in Leeds.
07:01 Yeah, we're gonna be, like, doing a secret show
07:04 on the BBC Introducer, and it's just mental.
07:09 It's just insane, 'cause nobody knows it's happening,
07:11 we don't announce or anything,
07:12 and people just stumble across it.
07:13 - How do you find doing those big sets,
07:17 and then those little ones straight away?
07:19 You must love it, the juxtaposition.
07:21 - I mean, the big set's great,
07:22 like I touched on the ego thing already, like, great,
07:25 there's thousands of people singing at you, amazing,
07:27 congratulations, high five, but the small ones are,
07:31 for me, like, that's where it's at.
07:33 That's how we started, hilarious, you know?
07:35 There's eye contact, and they're all the same people
07:38 that come to all the small gigs,
07:39 they're just full of the same people,
07:40 they're all mental, they love it,
07:42 you know, they throw shit at you,
07:44 and it's just great, man.
07:45 I'm all about the small gigs,
07:47 we were actually talking about what our next tour
07:50 might look like, and we were thinking, like,
07:52 wouldn't it be nice to do smaller gigs,
07:53 'cause, you know, we've done the big gig thing,
07:56 and it's cool, but something about the sweaty,
08:00 horrible ones, you know?
08:01 - People throwing lemons, people with the inflatables.
08:04 - Exactly, I like that, man, it's just stupid,
08:06 it's daft, and it feels like,
08:08 feels way more authentic than a huge show
08:10 with, like, smoke and lights, and, you know,
08:13 all of that shit. - That pressure to, like,
08:15 oh, we've gotta put on a performance, you know?
08:17 Just a song. - Yeah, exactly,
08:19 and, like, I don't think people want that.
08:21 We're all just searching for some kind of connection
08:25 or something that actually feels tangible,
08:27 and all that, like, huge show always just feels
08:29 a bit gimmicky to me now, so.
08:31 - Yeah, well, have a great time.
08:33 Best of luck with the mixtape,
08:34 and the small, intimate tour that maybe may come up.
08:38 Thank you very much for watching.
08:39 - Thanks, guys.
08:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]