Band Spotlight: Kicking out the jams with MISSING!
- Andersen Beck
- May 6, 2025
- 6 min read
This past Sunday, I hiked my way to uptown Pittsburgh from Mellon Square. The city was alive – every street was bustling. There's an old Bobby Charles track I was reminded of, "I Must Be in a Good Place Now," pretty self-explanatory. On that mile-long walk, I was stuck on the idea that things are beginning to shift for the better; I guess that's what a little bit of sunlight does to a Pittsburgher's brain chemistry.
That shift is real though, and if you need a sign, look no further than MISSING!, a tight-knit grunge-fusion group hailing from Duquesne. Their neo-classical midwest emo sound rings out well-and-true, and their technical proficiency makes them an undeniable gem of the local scene.
MISSING! invited me up to their apartment in Duquesne for an interview and a sit-in on a jam sesh. They gave me the lowdown on their history, what they've got going on now, and what they plan to do in the future.
The group's first iteration, under the name We Love Secrets, began in their freshman year at Duquesne University.
"We got together because I was writing songs, and we're all recording majors, and I was like, "let's try to record one of my songs," so I got Evan, Dan, and Eve and we played I think like two or three songs," recalls Fletcher, "We recorded one of them, so it started off sort of like a test recording project."
Brandon Jukes, who would become drummer when the group became MISSING!, helped out during that recording process; cleverly bending the rules of Duquesne's music practice policies.
"What happened was you (Fletcher) had a show at Roboto, and you were like, "we're not allowed to practice in here, but if it's a recording session, we can just play" … and they were just like, "Wanna just set up some mics and then we'll just practice?" so they rehearsed and I pretended to record," Brandon added.
The band has been playing the Pittsburgh live circuit for nearly two years, with the farthest they've traveled being Grove City. They would like to go on tour but 3 of the members are still seniors in Duquesne, and Brandon has one more year to go. Larger scale plans have been shelved for now.
As far as influences go, the band is united in pan-genre inspirations; ranging from Oso Oso, Green Day, Alice in Chains, and The Replacements to blues and folk sounds like J.J. Cale and Mark Knopfler.
Bassist Evan Weston describes the band, "We're like if shoegaze and midwest emo had a grungy child that studied jazz."
The band has just finished mixing and mastering their first full album. The recording process took 6 months but the writing has been in the works for 4 years.
"Over the last 4 years I've been working on my songwriting, and we've been working on how we make them as a group together. At one point we're like "This is a good idea, let's develop it and make it go farther," but once we get that and we all play it comfortably, we play them at a show or two," Fletcher explains, "When we felt like we had a good enough collection of songs, and with our access to the school's studio wrapping up, we kind of just pulled the trigger."
The biggest obstacle of the album's recording was unanimously reported as scheduling and getting everyone where they need to be. Fletcher and Brandon recall spending 10-12 hours per song on the mixing and mastering. Another issue was that in using the school's studios, they had to schedule around all the other students as well.
"But when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mics and equipment and you have the access, you can't not use them," Brandon justifies.
"For your (Evan) parts and Dan's parts we sat down for like 8 hour days, like several days in a row. Marathon fucking days. Just like we gotta get all these done right now or we're fucked," Fletcher adds.
The band says they're in a bit of an experimentation phase right now, hoping to delve into more interesting sounds with synth and percussion.
"I'm trying to get a synthesizer, I'm thinking a lot about incorporating different textures into the performance, different vibes, different dynamics. So if you see me playing the synthesizer while having my guitar strapped on, that's the goal," Dan elaborates.
"We started off two guitars, a bass," he continues, "Even just the guitars and bass, they're all tonally very similar. You know, it's a lot of the same kind of timbres, same tuning, stringed instruments. I think just adding different elements, different textures to keep it interesting and engaging is the next goal."
Fletcher shares some of their short-term future plans in the buildup to releasing their album.
"Right now we're working on our live set, then we're booking some shows for June and July. Hopefully album release in August once we have a really solid live set that we feel good about," says Fletcher.
MISSING! has been reached out to by some studios and labels but signing hasn't been the move yet, as they've been in school. However, if the situation is viable, they would like to pursue their music careers further.
"The problem with labels now is like, it's not always the most financially viable option," Evan explains, "Touring is expensive, recording is expensive, and a lot of labels don't want to like fully back that anymore. I've seen a lot of labels that have done like "We'll pay half if you pay half," but if you're paying half for a $10,000 tour, you're still paying $5,000 out of pocket."
That, coupled with student loans hanging over their heads, might take the reckless, road-going rock band lifestyle off the table until for a while. As tough as the game seems right now, MISSING! loves the support of the local scene and their fans.
"I interact with a lot of bands because of my job and it's super nice to see everybody doing well. People are happy to play and a lot of people come out to shows. I know *Roboto does well every single night. *Bottle Rocket does well really often, people in Pittsburgh love live music and there's bands that are ready to play," says Fletcher.
*Mr. Roboto and Bottle Rocket are local venues in the Lawrenceville and Allentown neighborhoods respectively
As far as songwriting goes, Evan quips, "Fletcher brings us a song and we make it good."
"Fletcher writes a lot of the lyrics, the structure and chord progressions, and some foundational riffs. Then I feel like we all kind of work around that," adds Dan.
"I've always seen it like Fletcher will bring us a song with a riff and lyrics, like 75% of the way. And then I'll throw in some like countermelody, and then Dan makes the chords sound good, then Jukes makes it loud," Evan further explains.
The band is very cohesive in the creative process, which is an important asset when being musicians has become such an investment for them. Between playing lots of live shows, spending days in the recording booth, and pushing creative limits, communication and teamwork are the name of the game.
"We've all been friends since freshman year. Dan and I have lived together three out of the four years of college. I guess the next logical step was "We're all music guys, let's play music," Evan says.
MISSING! continues to play throughout the Pittsburgh area, you can find out where they're playing by following their Instagram: @missing.pgh. In the meantime before their album drops, make sure to check out their two singles currently streaming.
I'd like to thank the boys from MISSING! for inviting me into their home and being very cooperative and outgoing for this interview. They're a hardworking, talented, and dedicated group of young musicians and I am very interested in seeing where they go in the future.
As always, thank you for reading and if you or someone you know makes cool art, don't hesitate to reach out to me on twitter, instagram, or email at bloodhound.mag@gmail.com. Cheers lads.
-Andersen Beck Founder, Reporter
So cool Andy!