Easy Life to Headline Interactive Music Experience in Fortnite

British five piece, easy life have today announced a first-of-its-kind event. O2, working with Island Records and Epic Games, has revealed that London's The O2 is now available to explore in the world's biggest game, Fortnite, within Fortnite Creative. This week-long celebration of the world's most popular entertainment venue will culminate with a unique performance by easy life, who as the first band to play an exclusive set inside Fortnite Creative, will take fans on a journey through tracks from their debut album 'life's a beach', out now via Interscope Records in North America.

Following the release of 'life's a beach' last month, which entered the UK Album Chart at Number 2, and with the alt-pop quintet preparing for a UK tour of O2 Academy venues later this year, easy life were the perfect choice to headline this whimsical event. Inspired by the concept around the album, this virtual performance - which marks the first time O2 has ever worked with an artist outside the confines of its physical venues - goes far beyond the usual gig experience and fully embraces the wonderful world of Fortnite Creative.

With much of easy life's headline tour of O2 Academy and other UK venues this coming November already sold out, their performance at The O2 in Fortnite Creative presents music lovers with an early chance to enjoy an exclusive set from the UK's top up-and-coming band. Beyond their performance in-game, easy life and Fortnite have also created a brand new, in-game-only lobby track that anyone can listen to within Fortnite after attending the experience.

This is the first time that The O2 has ever appeared in a videogame and O2 customers have the chance to win exclusive rewards in the Priority app, including tickets to future easy life shows at O2 venues. Within Fortnite Creative, the O2 x easy life partnership will provide players and music lovers with a range of unique and interactive musical experiences.

Constructed entirely from scratch by an incredibly talented team of Fortnite creators - KKslider, DolphinDom and Team Cre8 - The O2 and musical experience has been brought to life inside Fortnite Creative. First is the recreation of The O2 and while from the outside the iconic London landmark is instantly recognizable, users will enjoy several exciting gameplay additions inside the virtual venue, including exploring a vast new space packed with hidden rooms, backstage areas and the O2 Blueroom.

The interactive music experience itself is much more than just a gig, with the band's music and lyrics influencing the world around players during the performance. During the show, attendees will be transported to six unique areas, each inspired by a different track from 'life's a beach', pulled straight from the imagination of easy life themselves.

The unmissable mainstage performance itself starts this Thursday, June 24th at 12:30 PM PST / 3:30 PM EST. Fortnite's global audience of millions will be able to access and enjoy the gig with friends, until 3:59 PM PST / 6:59 PM EST, this Sunday, June 27th, with the full performance posted exclusively to easy life's YouTube channel from Monday, June 28th too.

Murray Matravers, easy life frontman, said: "Being the first UK act to ever perform in Fortnite Creative, and for that performance to take place inside a venue as iconic as The O2, is truly humbling. 'life's a beach' is a deeply personal album that marks the culmination of our life's work and we can't wait to finally perform it for our fans. We're so excited for people to experience our music in the game - it promises to be a lot of fun and is just a taste of things to come ahead of our UK tour of O2 Academy venues later this year."

Simon Valcarcel, Head of Brand and Consumer Marcomms at O2, added: "We couldn't be prouder to work alongside both Island Records and Epic Games to bring such an incredible experience to O2 customers and music fans all over the world via Fortnite Creative. O2 has a rich heritage in music and we're committed to providing music fans with unique experiences so it's only fitting that we're bringing the world's most popular entertainment venue into the world's biggest game. We know how much everyone - us included - has missed going to gigs so we're excited to bring the UK's hottest up-and-coming band to music fans globally through Fortnite Creative."

Nate Nanzer, Head of Global Partnerships at Epic Games, said: "We were thrilled when we were approached with the idea to bring The O2, one of the most iconic entertainment venues on the planet, to Fortnite Creative. We're always looking for exciting and authentic experiences to bring to our players, and we can't wait for them to get hands-on with this interactive musical journey. We're excited to have the UK's breakout band easy life perform in the game and we think our players are really going to love exploring all that The O2 has to offer in Fortnite Creative over the next week."

The O2 London opened its doors in 2007, the result of a groundbreaking partnership between O2 and AEG, the world's leading sports and live entertainment company. Priority is exclusive to O2 customers and brings a collection of invite-only moments to help them do more of the things they love. From exclusive treats and experiences, to early access to the most sought-after tickets in entertainment.

Customers can download the Priority app via the app store, or by texting PRIORITY to 2020. For more information, search Priority on O2 or visit www.priority.o2.co.uk.

With the release of 'life's a beach', and this exciting new performance event, easy life continue to forge a new path for UK bands on the world's stage. A sun-kissed world of its own, it's a record where (like the band themselves) there is often more than meets the eye. Observational, universal and deeply personal, the concept of 'life's a beach' makes total sense, argues Murray, when you're "from slap bang in the middle of the country, geographically as far from the nearest seaside as possible." 'life's a beach' also shows how much more there is to the band than their apparent musical confidence. One of pop's more unsuspecting stars, front man Murray takes his observational and deeply personal songwriting to disarmingly candid heights, right from the album's chaotic opener, "a message to myself." A symphonic essay on depression and a rallying call for self-love, the track was produced alongside Grammy-nominated Bekon (known for his work on Kendrick Lamar's 'DAMN' and BJ The Chicago Kid's 'In My Mind') and arrives alongside a brilliant video directed and animated by Andy Baker (a collaborator on Adult Swim's 'Rick and Morty'). Watch the video for "a message to myself" HERE.

Other album highlights include the band's hit single "nightmares" (which was featured in Michaela Coel's critically acclaimed HBO drama, 'I May Destroy You'), the boredom-turned-blissful "daydreams", "ocean view", which combines easy life's effortless, hip-hop-inspired soundscape with some of Murray's more introspective, classic British storytelling, and high-energy/high-anxiety lead single "skeletons" - which, says Murray, "plays with the idea that everyone has baggage, and a slightly mysterious/potentially terrifying past." The band recently made their US Television debut performing the track on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live (WATCH). Watch the Greg Barth-directed music video for "ocean view" HERE.

What Murray wants people to take away from the record, essentially, is the strength from allowing others in. "We should speak about these things. My girlfriend is forever asking me to open up, and it's funny that I find it so easy when writing, but genuinely quite difficult in day to day situations. Sometimes I feel like it's not even me who is speaking, it's just some lonely dude who has too much time to think about the way he feels...but this headspace should be encouraged. I didn't even understand myself until I started being super open in my lyrics. Now I feel like I can say anything and someone somewhere will understand me. How lucky I am."

easy life's debut album, 'life's a beach' is out everywhere now.

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