Words: Milica Marić
Coming, seemingly out of nowhere, Employed To Serve took the world by surprise. However, what’s not so easily seen is all the hard work they did in the last six years since they started, from playing shows for twenty people to be one of the hottest metal bands in the UK. Earlier this month, they released their new album ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ via Spinefarm Records, and it was the right time to catch up with singer Justine Jones for an interview.
Who are the people behind the name Employed to Serve? How would you describe yourselves apart from being musicians?
Justine: We are Justine (Vocals), Sammy (guitar/vocals), Robbie (frums), Rich (guitar), and Marcus (bass). We’re big fans of music, film, and cartoons. Our favourite films are ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Jaws,’ and ‘Alien’ and our favourite TV shows are (English) ‘The Office’ and ‘Peep Show.’ We enjoy touring as it’s a chance to see the world and play the music we love.
Your new album ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ came out in May. How would you like people to listen to it and understand it? Justine: We’d like people who listen to the album to fire them up and feel inspired to do something that they’ve always wanted to do, whether it be starting their own band or even go traveling. Life is too short to be doing things you don’t want to do all the time. ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ as a whole represents the fact that time is constantly moving forward, so there’s no time to dwell on the past and to keep pushing forward and striving to be a better person.
In what ways have Employed to Serve developed their sound from ‘The Warmth of a Dying Sun’ to ‘Eternal Forward Motion’?
Justine: We’ve become more confident as songwriters, and I think we’ve finally found our sound and what we’re comfortable with. With ‘Warmth,’ we realized we really enjoyed writing and performing the groovier side of metal, so we wrote more songs like that for this album.
How does the feedback from the listeners and critics affect you, and what kind of feedback affects you?
Justine: Obviously, we’d love everyone to like our record, and good feedback makes us feel great, but at the end of the day, people who listen to our band won’t dictate the songs we write. I think it’s important as a band to only create things we’re happy with putting our name to, otherwise what’s the point?
Could you choose your best live show so far and describe the feeling of getting on the stage, playing, and going off the stage?
Justine: Our best live show would have to be our release show for this record at The Garage in London, it was our biggest headline show to date. We couldn’t believe how many people were there, considering we started off by playing in front of 20 people per show when we started the band. We were nervously excited, and when we got off stage, we felt validated for all of our hard work for the past six years.
You will soon play All Point East festival where you were invited by Bring Me The Horizon. How would you describe your relationship with them, and what do you expect from the show?
Justine: Bring Me The Horizon started when we were all in school, and myself and a few other members have been listening to them since then. So, we’re of course honoured to be asked to play by them! We’ve never actually spoken to them so hopefully, we’ll meet them. We expect to play in front of a lot of new people, and for a chance to advertise our band, I love playing in front of new crowds as it makes us play harder as we have to win them over.
What makes, in your opinion, being a metal band hard, and what makes it easy nowadays?
Justine: Lack of money makes it hard and limits things. The internet makes it easy! You can now reach people all over the world just by uploading your album to the internet, and you can have thousands of fans somewhere you’ve never played.
Follow Employed To Serve:
Website:employedtoserve.com
Facebook: facebook.com/employedtoserve
Instagram: instagram.com/employedtoserve
Twitter: twitter.com/employedtoserve
