Looking Up

In 1994 four young skateboarders from Brussels decided that they wanted to get even more kicks out of life than hitting the curves with their kickflips and 360's. So naturally they formed their own punk band?

JF, Get, Ian and Julian called themselves Looking Up and wanted to play and sound just like their idols the legendary Operation Ivy. Easier said than done, but have you ever tried to tell a skateboarder to quit? So they practised their asses off and started playing in every squat and community centre. But they had the odd feeling that something was missing so they brought in their second guitarist Alex. With one singer, a bass-player, a drummer and two guitarists the band seemed ready to kick some serious ass.

But a ska-punk band ain't no ska-punk band until some swirling horns blow you away. Luckily for Looking Up they had a friend Cedric who happened to play the saxophone. NOW they were really ready to kick some ass. Which is exactly what they did.

Looking Up recorded their first demo in 1995 which has led them to play shows with the likes of The Voodoo Glow Skulls, Warzone, SNFU and Strung Out. And as is usually the case with demo's it eventually ended up on the desk of Laurens Kusters, of Indie label I Scream. He put the band in a studio to record their second demo. Kusters sent off the demo to Epitaph Europe,

and that's where Epitaph came in.

Looking Up's debut album, Got Another Answer, contains sixteen skanking songs. Sounding like a jam session between Mano Negra and the Voodoo Glow Skulls, Got Another Answer is a mix of up tempo ska and adrenaline pumpin? punkrock!

The track As One is a cover version of a Tim Armstrong (Rancid) song he wrote for his first band Down Fall. So Looking Up did come very close in playing just like their idols Operation Ivy.