Easy Life frontman Murray Matravers was “nervous” to rename the band Hard Life.
The indie group – which consists of Sam Hewitt, Jordan Birtles, Oliver Cassidy, Lewis Alexander Berry and Murray – faced legal action from the airline group EasyJet in October, forcing the band to change their name.
However, the 28-year-old singer has now admitted he was anxious about rebranding the group due to his social background.
He told NME: “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.
“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.”
Initially, Murray admitted the band didn’t take the new name “that seriously”, but eventually settled on Hard Life because “[they] found it funny”.
He explained: “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.”
The band have shared their new single ,‘Tears’, which marks the first release under the new moniker.
Reflecting on the track, the ‘Skeletons’ singer admitted he felt “quite uninspired” to pen new music because of the legal dispute.
He said: “For a while, I wasn’t really going to the studio because we were in this legal thing and writing music wasn’t really getting me out of it because it wasn’t an emotional issue that I could explore and try to put into music.
“So for a while I was feeling quite uninspired. Then Rob [Norton, producer and writer] and I went away for the weekend to hang out, to make pressure with low pressure.
“We made ‘Tears’ that weekend, and it was the first time I’d made music in what seemed like a very long time.
“I loved it and connected with it. I got into this flow state, like when you’re sat in a sofa at a house party at 3am just chatting absolute s***. I had that same energy making this.
“I knew it was good and that it meant something to me. As soon as I’d made it, I knew I wanted it to be the first thing I put out.”