JYSK colleagues rock out in their free time

A quick meeting on a roof terrace in Denmark and a brief chat about music resulted in three JYSK colleagues forming their own band. Some 18 months later, they have now released their own single.

Their day jobs involve managing the technical side of JYSK and working with codes, software and hardware. Every Monday night, however, the three JYSK colleagues from the head office in Brabrand meet in the practice room, where IT equipment and technical tasks are swopped for drumsticks, guitar riffs and rock music.

“We have really gone to town and invested in some good gear. We can’t miss out on equipment, not a bunch of IT folk like us,” says Christian Holm, SAP Basis Senior Consultant at JYSK.

It is about 18 months since Christian Holm and Jacob Vandborg met on the roof terrace of the head office in Brabrand, where they got chatting about music. Christian has always played guitar, and Jacob had just started practicing on his bass at home. Both of them worked in the SAP department without knowing that they shared a common interest.

Michael Gorm Jensen from IT Server Operations, who plays drums, heard about the two other IT musicians at JYSK, and the band was formed shortly after. Now they were just missing a singer.

“The intention when we started was for it to be a purely JYSK band, but we were missing a singer and couldn’t find anyone at JYSK,” recalls Michael Gorm Jensen, who has worked in the IT department at JYSK for almost four years.

LEGO MAN AS LEAD VOCALIST

After the three IT guys began rehearsing and playing cover versions together, Michael remembered about a former colleague who had tried singing in a band before, and got in touch.

Today however it is only half of the band who still work at JYSK. The bassist, Jacob Vandborg, switched jobs a short time after the band was formed, while the new lead vocalist, Lars Flensborg, has a day job at LEGO.

With the LEGO man up front it was decided that the band would write their own music in the hope that there would one day come a recording out of it.

“We have all played in different bands over the years, but we have never got a product out of it. So the ambition from the start was to make a recording, and it took less than a year for us to get into the studio and lay down the first two tracks for our single,” says Christian Holm, was has worked in the SAP department at JYSK for nine years.

FACE MONDAY

The JYSK musicians’ ambitions to release their own music brought with them the need for a band name. And it was the cover of the band’s new single, which came originally from a picture on the wall at home with Michael Gorm Jensen, which was the source of inspiration.

“I was sitting one day and looking at the picture, and then Face Monday just came to me suddenly. They look so downcast, and if there’s something you are on Monday morning, then it’s downcast,” says Michael with a laugh.

Fortunately Mondays are a lot more pleasant when you can play music with your colleagues in the evening. According to the two JYSK employees, they have no problems in working together and playing in the same band.

“It’s cool, and it works really well for us,” says Christian Holm.

“So we can always just make the rock signal to each other when we walk past each other in the hall. And chat a bit if we have anything new to try out in the practice room when we meet on Mondays,” adds Michael.

READY FOR A NEW WEEK AT JYSK

Music on Mondays also gives fresh energy for the working week at JYSK for the two colleagues in Face Monday. And if you ask them, they will maintain the importance of being able to focus on something completely separate from work in your free time.

“It’s great to play music because I completely disconnect the technical side of my brain. There is no IT technical stuff when we are rehearsing. It’s all about the music. We get completely reset every Monday, and then we are ready for a new week at JYSK,” says Michael.

His colleague Christian Holm agrees with this viewpoint.

“When we play then we let all our creative side loose, and then it is especially fun because it’s our own music. When we are making music, we start at one place, and then it is hard to predict where we will end up. It’s a really fun process,” says Christian.

The dream became a reality in May, when the band released their first CD and vinyl record with two of their own numbers. This was celebrated with a release party in Aarhus in Denmark. Now the band is hoping that at some point, they can get out and play their music live: possibly for other colleagues at JYSK.

“It could be huge and super fun if we could play live for all of them one day. If they ask, then we’ll do it,” says Michael Gorm Jensen.