Simple Life “don’t have a band identify or a band, however we’re nonetheless right here”
Simple Life frontman Murray Matravers has spoken to NME in regards to the upside of their authorized battle with EasyGroup, present scenario and plans for the longer term.
Final 12 months noticed noticed Simple Life play their ultimate present underneath that identify, having conceded defeat in a authorized battle over the moniker towards easyGroup (the model proprietor of easyJet airways) and that “sadly, evidently justice is barely accessible to those that can afford it” with out “the funds to entry a good trial within the Excessive Court docket.”
Regardless of this, frontman Murray Matravers mentioned that 2023 was “ 12 months usually” – as he instructed us on the latest Featured Artists Coalition AGM, supported by NME.
“We had our first ever worthwhile pageant season after six years of doing it, so we labored that out,” he instructed the NME-chaired panel. “We’re nonetheless right here. We don’t have a band identify or a band, however we’re nonetheless doing it.”
He continued: “To be trustworthy, [the EasyJet legal battle] has really been factor. We’ve reached individuals that might by no means have heard of our band earlier than. We reached older folks that learn broadsheet newspapers nonetheless. It’s not a foul factor. I’m attempting to see it like that, in any other case I’d break down and cry.”
The frontman defined how the band had loved “plenty of good will [from] your on a regular basis newsreader” in addition to “the music group” and the show of “a present of energy from artists too”, however revealed that one end result from the authorized battle was that “legally I can’t use our social media any extra”.
“Nevertheless, he detailed how that had confirmed “fairly good after years of constructing horrible, horrible content material and posting it on the market with a gun to my head”.
Since their final London present, the band have been having fun with a break with Matravers “getting again into why I obtained into this within the first place with writing, recording and reconnecting with the stuff that I like doing”.
“I’m in place and I’m trying ahead to subsequent 12 months,” he mentioned. “We’re not going to play any festivals and I doubt we’re going to do a lot touring. That sounds adverse, however it’s a welcome break from the chaos of relentless touring.”
Within the FAC AGM panel – which additionally featured Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Put on Cape. Fly, together with rising and acclaimed singer-songwriters LVRA and Cherise – Matravers spoke out about the prohibitive and rising prices of touring for artists, having cancelled their North American tour final 12 months together with European dates. With this in thoughts, he mentioned that the band have been a model new outlooking on taking part in reside.
“I’m really speaking with the band and administration about our subsequent tour, and we’re having to consider it in an entire new method as a result of touring simply isn’t financially sustainable in any respect,” he defined.
Test what else Matravers and the remainder of the panel needed to say in regards to the challenges artists confronted in 2023 and what they need to see change within the 12 months forward right here.
Whereas the band initially hit again at EasyGroup, who decscribed them as “model thieves”, October noticed them announce that they’d be surrendering their band identify because of a scarcity of funds to pursue it in court docket.
The NME Award-winning Leicester band have been lively since 2017, and launched two acclaimed albums – 2022’s ‘Possibly In One other Life‘ and 2021 debut ‘Life’s A Seashore‘.
Forward of the band’s London farewell gig, which additionally noticed the sold-out KOKO crowd lead chants of “fuck EasyJet“, Simple Life additionally launched their ultimate single underneath the moniker with ‘Belief Workout routines’.