Customs

Customs (° 2008) is a combo of four retrofuturists, known for melody, atmosphere and mathematical edge. Influences detected by several journalists include: The House of Love, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Sound, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Cocteau Twins.   Customs is known as well for making fame in a rather swift fashion:   End 2008, the band was elected 'Vi.be On Air Band of the Year 2009-2010’ by Studio Brussel.   In April 2009 Customs became the first ever ‘Artist in Residence’ at Het Depot (Leuven). Around the same time Customs' first single, entitled "Rex", was released. It stayed at the n°1 spot of De Afrekening (Studio Brussel) for 4 weeks and popped up in the Official Ultratop Singles-chart as well.   July of that same year marks the recording of their first album ‘Enter The Characters’ and the mastering at the legendary Abbey Road Studios by the even more legendary Geoff Pesche (Gorillaz, Basement Jaxx, LCD Soundsystem, Arctic Monkeys, Athlete, Coldplay and Dizzee Rascal).   Pukkelpop-festival 2009 welcomed Customs and the band received raving reviews in ‘Oor’ (Dutch music magazine) as well as in the Flemish weekly ‘Focus Knack’.   One week later "Justine" was released as the second single of the forthcoming debutalbum. The band played a concert to remember at the Leffingeleuren Festival and proudly presented a music video for "Justine", shot in Berlin by Brecht Goyvaerts and directed by Joris Rabijns.   On October 26th 2009 'Enter The Characters’ found its way to every recordstore. De Morgen (daily newspaper) celebrated the release with a four star review “Best Belgian Album Of The Year”. ‘Focus Knack’ put the four retrofuturists on their cover “Belgian Revelation Of The Year” and also ‘Humo’ (Belgian weekly) hails them in their pages.   CUSTOMS is:   Kristof Marie August Albert Uittebroek (vocals, guitar) Joan Willy August Govaerts (bass) Jelle Florentius Mark Janse (guitar) Ace Mirko Zec (drums)