Hononegah and RVC students form band that can't "be pushed into a box"

Local Hononegah students Charlie Agustsson (bass guitar) and Julian Carranza (guitar) have formed a band with Rock Valley College students Josh Dunbar (piano/keyboard and vocals) and Jake Andino (guitar).

The currently unnamed band was started by Josh and Jake when they had a class together and needed a creative outlet.

Not long after, they decided they needed another layer to their musicianship and invited Charlie to play bass alongside their respective keyboard and guitar. Charlie then took a step forward and invited Julian to play with them as he felt his taste and style would be an asset to their goal.

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The band has remained unnamed in the months in which they have been practicing, as "the only goal was to not be pushed into a box," in order to preserve their creative motives.

The four musicians hope to keep themselves away from any specific genre in order to open the most creative doorways for their music and performances in the future.

"The vision was to have the most diverse track list possible," Charlie commented on the goals of the band.

In their practices, the band displayed a high amount of potential for a stage presence as well as an incredible amount of musical talent.

"People get so caught up in the idea of being a rock star. We just want to make music," Josh added.

The first song in the group's lineup, aptly named "Drowning," has just recently received a new intro that leads into the song with a striking bass line played by Charlie and lighthearted keyboard headed by Josh.  The track builds up to a soft, relaxing guitar solo by Jake with interjections from Charlie, Julian and Josh.

Throughout the song Josh delivers hard hitting and fleshed-out lyrics surrounding the struggles of addiction.

In spite of the serious theme of the song, the band manages to incorporate a lighthearted feeling that allows the song to bounce between a poetic piece about human struggle and a poppy song that you can't get out of your head.

The band hopes to professionally deliver four songs over the coming months; however, they are entirely in the production stages of their music.

"We're in the writing stage for like three out of five songs and they are coming along probably by the end of this month," Charlie shared on the bands progress moving forward.

Charlie, Julian, Josh and Jake are working hard to make their musical vision a reality with a diverse track list and local performances in the works. The band's upcoming songs will be released on both Spotify and Apple Music.