Custom (musician)


Duane Eric Lavold is a Canadian-born, New York-based rock musician and film maker best known for his song "Hey Mister", which peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and No. 20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Biography

Lavold began his career in film making, growing up in rural Canada. He directed the short film Loafing, which was the winner of the Audience Award at the 1997 Slamdance Film Festival, and the unrelated film "Limp" starring INXS singer Michael Hutchence. He later moved to New York City to start a musical career. living in a loft he dubbed "120", Lavold built his own studio with his father. He recorded his debut album "Fast" in said studio, performing most of the album by himself.

Fast

Fast an album written and produced by Custom. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik co-wrote the song "Like You" and contributed instrumentals and background vocals to some of the tracks. The album peaked at No. 124 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Heatseekers Albums chart.

Controversy

Minor controversy erupted when the music video for the song "Hey Mister" was banned from MTV. The video follows a young woman as she frolics on the beach, hangs out with the singer, and goes shopping. The music video featured the song's sexually suggestive lyrics being written on the woman's skin as well as upskirt shots exposing her underwear. The video was banned, as the MTV Standards and Practices division felt that the entirety of the video and song were "pedophilic and offensive to women". The "daughter" starring in the video was interviewed. Her name is Caitlin and she thought it was absurd that the video was banned noting that she was a 22 year old college graduate at the time of filming and the video was hardly the most provocative one on MTV at the time.