Halifax Pop-Punk Outfit Customer Service Confront Growing Pains

Customer Service. Photo courtesy of the artist.

When Halifax four-piece Customer Service first formed, it wasn’t in a basement or studio, it was behind the returns counter at a Canadian Tire. Guitarist Max Hayden and drummer Owen Harris were both working the front desk during high school, bonding over emo revival playlists. “Customer Service just felt like a band name that was kind of in line with Modern Baseball or Mom Jeans,” Harris laughs. “It’s something very un-music-related, almost uncool on purpose.”

Now joined by Matt Cheverie (vocals, guitar) and Nick Adams (bass), the band has built a reputation in the East Coast scene for their sharp wit and emotional transparency that makes you want to shout along in a packed, grungey venue. Their latest EP, If You’re Here, You Must Be Fine, released October 31 via Royal Mountain Records, finds the band refining their sound while wrestling with growing up and looking inward.

“We wanted to get away from every song being a ‘down-bad’ song,” Cheverie admits, reflecting on their first two EPs. “Those were all pining songs. This time, we wanted to talk more about identity, anger, friendships and relationships that aren’t just romantic.”

The new collection balances that self-awareness with a scrappy, melodic honesty that sits somewhere between the anxiety of Modern Baseball and the slow-burn tenderness of American Football. Their song “Never Meant To” — a tongue-in-cheek nod to American Football’s seminal “Never Meant” — carries that same sincerity and self-awareness. “It started as a joke,” Harris laughs. “There’s a lyric that just says ‘never meant,’ so we called it ‘Never Meant To’ — kind of a sequel, kind of not.” The EP’s title, like their previous releases Live More Forever and to you, after 2000 years, was pulled from a TV show the band was bingeing as a house. “We were watching The Rehearsal by Nathan Fielder,” Harris says. “The second season is called If You’re Here, You Must Be Fine and we thought it was so emo, but also kind of optimistic. It fit perfectly.”

That balance between humour and heartache seems to define Customer Service. They’re a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously — joking about Canadian Tire money, DIY spray-painted logos, and TV references — yet their songs ache with sincerity. “We both write lyrics pretty evenly,” says Hayden. “I’ll come with a verse and Matt runs with it, or vice versa. It’s collaborative — it’s nice to have someone else see something in your writing that you didn’t.”

For Cheverie, that openness is key. “I tend to get too nervous to share songs until they feel done,” he admits. “But then it’s hard to keep them malleable once they’re at that point. Working with Owen helps me loosen up — it keeps things real and human.”

Musically, the band pulls from across the emo and indie-punk spectrum. While Harris and Hayden lean into the classic emo and hardcore influences, Cheverie and Adams bring in left-field inspiration like Black Country, New Road. “When Nick was playing the saxophone part on “Picture This,” we were thinking of that sparse, improvised feeling they do so well,” Cheverie explains. “It gives the song this openness that we hadn’t really explored before.”

Their willingness to experiment has paid off and so has their persistence. The partnership with Royal Mountain Records came after years of DIY shows around Halifax and regular trips to Toronto’s indie circuit. “We’d been playing Toronto all the time,” Harris says. “A friend who used to tour manage Walrus passed our music along to a few people, and eventually Royal Mountain came out to a couple of our shows.”

The label’s support helped streamline their process, but didn’t change their ethos. “We’d be putting out music anyway,” Harris says. “But having someone to text when you’re trying to find a promoter in Hamilton, or to help keep deadlines realistic — that kind of structure just helps us focus.”

That structure has paid off: If You’re in Trouble, You Must Be Fine marks their second EP with Royal Mountain this year, a testament to their growing momentum. “It’s probably enough songs for an album,” Hayden admits. “But we like EPs. It gives people something they can sit down and listen to front to back. The next thing, though, will likely be an album.”

For a band that started at a customer service counter, their trajectory has been anything but ordinary. Still, the humility remains. “It’s funny,” Cheverie laughs. “We called ourselves Customer Service as a joke, but now we’re kind of living it — trying to keep everyone happy while keeping ourselves sane.”

In Halifax, they’re part of a thriving DIY ecosystem alongside bands like Botfly, earth moon transit, and idialedyournumber. “There’s always a new generation coming up,” Harris says. “We’ve got this great music college and venues that keep things alive for all-ages shows. It’s a really special scene.”

At its core, If You’re in Trouble, You Must Be Fine isn’t just an album title. “It’s kind of our way of saying: hey, you made it this far,” Owen says with a smile. “If you’re here, you must be fine.”