Mit ihrem neuen Album „Fallen Star“ zeigen sich Employed To Serve vielseitiger und gleichzeitig kompromissloser denn je. Frontfrau Justine Jones spricht im Interview mit uns über musikalische Weiterentwicklung, persönliche Reife und die Bedeutung von Dynamik im Songwriting. Außerdem erzählt sie, wie ihre Arbeit am bandeigenen Label Church Road Records neue Perspektiven eröffnet hat – und warum „Fallen Star“ ausgerechnet der Soundtrack zu einem Pixar-Film sein könnte.
Frontstage Magazine: Your new album Fallen Star brings together many different influences from across the metal world. What inspired you to broaden your stylistic range even further this time?
Justine/Employed To Serve: We’re constantly listening to metal, both old and new. This always inspires us creatively. We also never like to make the same album twice, so for this record we tried to make the songs more dynamic.
Frontstage Magazine: You’ve been active in the scene for over a decade. How does Fallen Star reflect your growth as a band – both musically and personally?
Justine/Employed To Serve: This album feels a lot more “grown up”, I feel that we’re more confident as a band as well as people. We’ve also worked with this line up for 5 years now, it feels like we’ve gotten into the groove of working with each other.
Frontstage Magazine: Metal is more than just music for you; it’s a way of life. What message does Fallen Star carry, and what do you want to convey to the metal community with it?
Justine/Employed To Serve: Fallen Star represents the struggles and triumphs of life, I think it’s important to always strive to enjoy life and never take anything for granted.
Frontstage Magazine: With Church Road Records, you actively support the scene. How has running your own label influenced the new album – in terms of themes, production, or your overall approach?
Justine/Employed To Serve: A lot of our bands are very early on in their careers, or just starting. I find their enthusiasm infectious and helps me not take any of our success for granted.
Frontstage Magazine: You’ve already played on big stages with bands like Gojira. Has that experience changed your perspective on songwriting, production, or your sound?
Justine/Employed To Serve: It has in the sense that we think of things like set order more. We also realised that we enjoy playing the more dynamic songs the most, so we tried to make sure we have a healthy mix of dynamic tracks as well as straight up heavy tracks on this album,
Frontstage Magazine: Your music has always been uncompromising, but Fallen Star takes it to a new level. What motivated you to push even harder, be more emotional, or more intense this time?
Justine/Employed To Serve: We had a whirlwind of a couple of years, both personally and as a band and I think naturally that has reflected in this album. It was very cathartic to record this album and it’s my favourite to date.
Frontstage Magazine: Our last question is always a bit unconventional! If Fallen Star were the soundtrack to a Disney movie, which one would it be and why?
Justine/Employed To Serve: It would be the soundtrack to my favourite Pixar film, UP 🙂
Fotocredit: Bethan Millar
