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 themselves to be a band searching for new possibilities and curious about other sounds, moving away from the post-punk that had made them famous. The logical consequence was a considerable decline in their success. In early 2018, Customs withdrew, in hindsight perhaps as a result of a kind of musical burnout.
In October 2024, the band resurfaced with the same sturm und drang as 15 years earlier. A tour of 25 concerts in Belgium and the Netherlands followed.
In February 2026, Customs released their fifth album, LOVE IS THE FUTURE. It is remarkable how closely the sound on that record resembles that of Enter The Characters, while the content focuses more than ever on current events and the future.
