Custie is an emerging alternative pop artist hailing from London, Ontario. His distinct sound explores pop music as it intersects with singer-songwriter, R&B and alternative music.

His song, “ON E, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN,” deals with themes related to addiction. Although Custie hasn’t personally struggled with addiction, it has affected the lives of people close to him. E stands for ecstasy in the broadest sense, and also energy. There’s been this uptick in songs about energy, the cosmic pull of stars and planets, and attributing behaviours and interactions to continuums beyond our capability of understanding. Though Custie doesn’t believe in astrology, he always seems to write romantic things that bring the possibility of it to light.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

Every song I write has a specific visual identity by the time it’s done, and a lot of what you hear sonically is trying to plot the texture and topography of that space/place (that the story of the song decides) and map it on a record when the record gets to its second or third pass. It’s often the hardest part trying to understand the locale of the song and then allowing some sort of partnership between a song and its video. Trying to understand how to present where you imagine a song’s story playing out in the real world has to convey believability but suspend disbelief, yet have some pretense at realism… that’s my style, at least. Basically if you ignore everything else I just said and just focus on one thing, it would be that the partnership is paramount.

2.What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)? 

This video has a longer cut that I might release at some point, but the short one I released basically distills a longer story about what it would be like to live and eventually die in a car with a ghost as the driver, driving you nowhere. The story actually comes from an old friendship where I used to ask someone to give me a ride home a lot, and what feelings came from that. I guess the video concept is rooted in the ghost thing as some allegorical reach to depict what really happened. But I also find myself compelled by the magnetism of real, troubled people and their freewheeling energy.

3.What was the process of making this video?

The process was rooted in a lot of experimentation as an editor. I’m not a video editor by any means, but I like to approach the editing suite like I do a digital audio workstation. Most things I do musically are patchwork experiments and I like to apply the same technique to filmmaking. I don’t think I could ever work with an editor, but the guy who shot it–a friend named Benjamin Collins–knew what I was going for and gave me the tools I needed.

‘E’ is an attempt to stylize and leave much of the song up to listener interpretation. By giving things concrete names, it makes everything very topical. I always like to find a way to have my listeners move with me by presenting a song with a certain kind of allure in mystery. Hence the ‘E’ – it stands for anything you’d like. – Custie