The Vamps Issue 9

I’ve probably caught easy life’s Murray Matravers
at the worst possible time. It’s 17:30 pm in Japan,
where the band was performing at Tokyo’s
Summer Sonic Festival the night before. What
followed was a seemingly mega night out, a highspeed
bullet train to the next stop with a heavy
hangover and a failed hunt for some greasy comfort
food. “All I could find to eat was mackerel sushi,”
he tells me over a very shaky connection, “so
it’s not treated me very kindly today. I’m feeling a
bit worse for wear.”
The band is currently festival hopping around
the world, treating fans to some old favourites
and fresh new bangers from the second album,
Maybe In Another Life, which comes out next
month. The immersive and ambitious project in
sound and storytelling takes the one-of-a-kind
British band to a whole new level. Introduced by
a stellar run of singles, it includes features from
Brockhampton’s Kevin Abstract and Kiwi alt-pop
superstar BENEE. Influenced in equal measure
by the manic, hip-hop energy of Odd Future all
the way through to the 70s nostalgia of Elton
John. With a colourful visual palette inspired by
the wonderful worlds of Disney and Wes Anderson
alike, the album is one of silver linings and
making sense of the world in both its chaotic and
melancholic moments, which takes the band to
new creative heights.
If debut album life’s a beach was easy life’s most
sunny side up, optimistic study of Middle England,
then lockdown really did a number on Matravers,
whose shank sharp observations on
modern British life really cut through hard the
second time around. What’s emerged is an expertly
realised vision of masculinity, which encourages
us – via straight-talking or exuberant
world-building – to find joy in the journey, not just
the destination.