It feels amazing to share music that is loved. To take what makes people happy and share it with others. Music can be shared through videos, recordings, and albums. It can be shared in the performances of the original artist. People can also share music by creating it for others. Sharing what they love by doing what they love. That is how the band Misstep Forward started. A group of friends who want to share what they truly love.

“Mr. Lowe just liked me doing it cause it was different. It was just me playing guitar… pretty easy to set up… And then we started the band… we were able to just bring the band instead of just me playing guitar,” Jake Lange, the drummer for Misstep Forward, said. 

Lange started doing Late Start Live as a sophomore and soon started the band with Ryan McQueen, the current vocalist, and guitarist, and Noah Evert, their old bassist. They had competed in a Battle Of The Bands and continued making music. Now Lange and McQueen, 20, and Adam Linder have taken over as the bassist for them.

“It’s scary but it’s probably the most exhilarating thing you will ever do,” McQueen said. “Setting up for playing live is pure chaos. Cause literally, we are getting told everything right as we are setting up and stuff,”

You find out if set times have changed, sets are shorter or longer and if every band member is there at that time. You will have schedules but sometimes things will pop up at the venue or members drop. No matter what happens before, the excitement of being on stage and doing what you love is always amazing.

“We were like, oh, why don’t we go on try playing shows and playing songs that we like, make some fun out of it, and then it kind of took off. Now we’re writing songs are starting to deal with all that whole thing,” Lange said.

Misstep Forward started as a cover band. They played songs by artists like Greenday, Blink-182, and Slipknot. The members took what they loved and turned that love into their passion. They shared their love of specific bands, specific songs, and performing. Every song was a new lesson and a new experience.

Misstep Forward is now working on writing original songs. They have written an original song in the past. Playing it at one show only. They decided that the song was not ready yet.

“When Noah left, what we did was we tried to start something new. So we took that song and cut it into three different songs,” McQueen said. 

Recreating and rewriting is all part of the process of getting where you want. You have to learn how to play those notes to learn solos. Through playing covers and writing originals you can learn different styles, techniques, and general lessons. Going from playing covers to writing your own songs is all a part of the fun.

Creating a band can start from anywhere. A band can start from years of dreaming and planning, or simply deciding that it was fun and you want to do it more. Misstep Forward made a huge impact on Huntley High School when they were students. Performing at Late Start Live and helping push guitar club into existence. So thank you Misstep Forward for a place to learn music. Thank you for the rocking shows. Thank you for the music.