Customs formed in early 2008. Everything they knew about making music, touring and “being in a band' the 4 musicians had learned in the punk/hardcore scene that flourished in the years just before and after Y2K.
In early 2009, the band immediately became the very first winner of “vi.be on air,” the precursor to The New Lighting. After that it went fast:
- Rex became a hit: number 1 in De Eindafrekening of 2009, nominated for the MIA Hit Of The Year. When Studio Brussels made The Ultimate Final Bill in 2020, Rex was number 24. Rex was at number 24.
- The singles Justine, The Matador and Shut up, Narcissus also found their way to the audience.
- Debut album Enter The Characters reached gold.
- In 2010, Customs performed on the Main Stage of Rock Werchter.
Successor Harlequins Of Love also did extremely well. In 2011, the band was programmed Main Stage of Pukkelpop, but the Storm put a stop to that. That same weekend Customs was one of the headliners at Lowlands.
On the albums that followed, The Market and Magik, Customs showed itself as a band that was looking for new possibilities and curious about other sounds, away from the postpunk that the band had grown up with. The logical consequence was that success a lot less. In early 2018, Customs pulled out, in retrospect perhaps as a result of some kind of burnout.
In 2023, however, they picked up where they left off, under the radar. Now the band is resurfacing, with two new singles and the promise to release new music every month from now on.
