Ramblin’ along with… Look Music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2022 (358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Look Music is a business I’m very familiar with, as I have known owner Doug Kool virtually my whole life. I even worked for him during my university days and beyond.

He has expanded his business to include a lot of things that weren’t offered when I was in his employee and being based in Brandon doesn’t restrict his operations to southwestern Manitoba. Doug will travel nearly anywhere to appease his customers, and has plenty of business in and around Winnipeg.

I started by asking Doug how many years he’s been entertaining the masses? What was your motivation to start a DJ service because that is how you first started, right?

“Since 1975, I believe,” he said. “I had a local guy play my wedding social. You know him, Brent Tough, and I thought to myself…‘Hey I really am into music, I could do this.’’

Look Music spent 32 years on campus at Brandon University (my alma mater) but moved in 2020.

“We spent 32 wonderful years at the Brandon University as the on-campus sound and DJ company,” Doug said. “We closed the shop there when we could no longer have clients come in because of COVID restrictions first imposed in 2020.”

Of all the different entertainment options you offer, which one generates most of your gigs?

“We do lots of weddings in the summer and lots of socials in winter and spring things sort of balance out number-wise.”

COVID’s 15 minutes has been exceeded, as we all are aware, so I asked Doug how it affected his business.

“Well, that’s a ball of wax rolling down the hill,” he said, with a laugh. “2020 summer was a complete write-off as we spent most of the summer cancelling and postponing events. In 2021 most of the year was a write-off, the same as 2020 but when restrictions were lifted in August we were able to function normally. I’m thinking we did 15 to 20 weddings — mostly outdoors in tents and such (until) Sept. 15 or thereabouts.

“We also opened for outdoor live events such as concerts, festivals and corporate events, which is a large part of our business,” Doug said. “So, there were several festivals that ran with restrictions and were very successful. We also expanded our service to outdoor drive-in movies; we purchased a large 24 x 24 inflatable movie screen and ran outdoor movies pretty much every weekend from July 1 until cold weather shut it all down.”

I had to ask Doug about the business name, Look Music — where it originated and who dreamed it up.

“My last name is Kool, so I just flipped it,” Doug said.

When I asked if he had anything to add, Doug said:

“It’s been a pretty great run from 1975 till now. There’s lot more technology involved now than back in the old days when we were using cassettes and tape decks. I have met and became friends with so many people it is impossible to remember them all. There have been literally hundreds of people who have worked with us, and some have been around for 10-plus years. Over the years we’ve done literally thousands of socials, weddings, and events.”

Look Music can be found online at www.lookmusic.ca