One of the East Midlands’ finest bands, Leicester lot easy life are about to embark on a grand arena tour, bringing them to their dream local venue - Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena. We chat to lead singer Murray Matravers as they rehearse for that very show…
How are rehearsals going for the show as you adapt your production to the bigger venues?
It's going really well. It’s a bit daunting starting rehearsals; we have three weeks of them and today is day one, so we’ve got time and we’ve got the setlist down. It’s not like it used to be, and it’s scary doing anything for the first time, and we’ve just got a bigger PA. There’s lots more lights, a lot more people in the crew, and we’ve got a brass section now. We even have an arctic truck - which we never had when we played The Bodega! A lot has changed, but it's still pretty much the same show, just with lots more lights.
With yourselves being from Leicester, how does it feel to play like one of the East Midlands’ biggest venues? I'm sure that you probably grew up going to gigs at the Arena…
I know, right? It's mental. I mean, we can't quite believe it. Sam, who actually lives in Clifton, sent us a photo the other day outside Motorpoint, and it had a big poster of us. It's literally what I think is the biggest venue we could play. And this will be local, obviously - so many friends and family will be there. It’s going to be a really special night for us.
Will it be the most nerve-wracking one of the tour for you?
100%. I'm always nervous playing in front of friends. So, yeah, we'll be petrified! And the hardcore Leicester fans, they're actually really annoyed that we're playing Nottingham and not Leicester, so there’s also that to deal with!
You're touring your most recent record, Maybe In Another Life, which is quite personal and vulnerable. How did the records come about? Did the pandemic influence the lyricism?
Yeah, I think so. It's been such a crazy journey being in easy life that we took the time to reflect. I think the album, because of that, was a lot more introverted than our previous music. It was really important and cathartic, and a lovely experience to actually work out how we all feel. We were so busy, I never really got the chance to think about any of those things. I don't know what we're going to do with the third one. I don't know if that'll be even more introverted, and even more depressing. Maybe not. Who knows? You can only write what you feel.
We've never played big enough stages to warrant bringing in a set. It's exciting but a bit of a stress; you can't just turn up with your amp and a microphone anymore
It's quite a visual album, so how do you plan to translate the messages of the songs on tour and bring them to life?
We have our lighting designer who is an absolute genius. He's actually been at the studio all day with loads of LED strips, sellotaping them to various bits of the set. I don't know what he's designing, but it looks complicated, and I think it's going to be fun. The set that we've built is based around being in your grandma's living room. Inside of the vinyl package of the second record, we had this wallpaper print, and this little mantelpiece motif, with little pictures of us hanging up. And we've taken that and built a house out of it. The set design is wicked, and it's all new for us.
We've never played big enough stages to warrant bringing in a set. So, it’s something new and it's really exciting. It's a bit of a stress, though; you can't just turn up with your amp and a microphone anymore! It's a totally different thing, but playing at bigger venues is actually easier, because you don’t have the bells and the whistles to hide behind at Rough Trade. If one of us makes a bum note then no one really cares, because at least the lights look good!
Are there any surprises fans can expect on tour who - maybe artists who guested on the album, like Kevin Abstract?
I don't think Kevin Abstract is going to be coming. He's a very busy man. I begged him, but he's got cooler people to hang out with. But I don't think people would have seen an easy life show like this before. It feels a little more accomplished than what we've done before. Usually, we just all jump around in our boxers and run around the stage.
There'll still be that energy, but I think with it being a slightly bigger show, there will be things you'll be seeing for the first time even if you've been to a bunch of easy life shows. I think this will be the best one. I'm also going to try to jump off really high things. The last tour, I was climbing on balconies and jumping off them, and that was really terrifying. But it was a lot of fun. So I'm going to try and do more of that. And I'm trying to break the world record for the highest stage dive.
What do you think is next for easy life?
To be honest, Motorpoint was a dream venue for us - that's obviously the local big arena. There's also Ally Pally that we're playing on this tour. After that, I don't really know. We obviously want to do a lot of festivals in the summer. And we're going to America in April, which will be fun. But in terms of the UK, I really don't know. I suppose we'll just keep playing the Motorpoint Arena until we're grey and old!
easy life play at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena on 17 February
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