Easy Jet’s lawyers call Hard Life’s new single “disparaging and defamatory”
As Easy Life return following their dispute with Easy Jet, their comeback single ‘Tears’ has been shared under the name of Hard Life. However, it’s now the lyrical content that the airline company are taking issue with, hitting out at the band once again.
The issues between the Leicestershire band and Easy Jet began in October 2023 when the group announced they were facing a lawsuit over naming rights by airline giants. Despite being together since 2017, they were forced to change their name as it was impossible to financially compete legally against a billion-pound corporation.
In conversation with Far Out, a trademark lawyer deemed the battle a “David v Goliath” case. The band themselves admitted to feeling “virtually powerless” in the situation. Nevertheless, Easy Jet made it clear they would not be dropping the dispute.
“With reference to the brand thief Mr Matravers and his fellow band members who have decided to use our brand, easyLife without permission. We have a long-established record of legally stopping thieves from using our brands, and I am confident we will stop Mr Matravers,” they said in a scathing statement.
Even now, as the group relaunched as Hard Life and released their first single under the moniker, the company are still unhappy.
‘Tears’ directly deals with the emotions caused by the legal battle. “It was easy in my twenties, now I got to lawyer up / Give me air-miles or a fair trial, Stellios,” frontman Murray Matravers sings, namechecking the Easy Jet owner Stellios Haji-Ioannou.
In a comment provided to the BBC, lawyers representing Easy Group, the parent company of Easy Jet, have hit out at the lyrics, calling them “disparaging and defamatory”. They claim that the song breaches the settlement they reached with the band, adding that they’re “dissapointed” that Hard Life have “chosen to needlessly refresh the dispute, which the band chose to settle several months ago”.
However, addressing the situation was the only way Matravers knew how to move forward with music. After months of struggling to write a song, it was only after writing ‘Tears’ and tackling it head-on that he’s been able to find his flow as a songwriter again. “We didn’t get into music to fight huge corporations in legal battles, obviously,” he told the same publication, adding, “Hopefully, we can put this chapter behind us and move on – and focus on the music again.”
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