When Dennis and Jens were out skating in the beautiful summer of –89, they met me and Jonas who were skating as well. Dennis and Jens had been to a skateboard summer-camp so they ended up doing some tricks to impress me and Jonas. Later on we started talking about music (at this time I was playing trash metal, Dennis and Jonas had just split up their old punk/hardcore band Afro Jetz (from which Step Forward took the song 4U), and Jonas had also been playing heavy metal, mostly at home). After a couple of intense skating-listening to music-licking eachothers asses-days we started the band Step Forward (the name didn’t come along ‘til later, but anyway), and everything was great.

We rehearsed in Vännäs –35 km outside Umeå and the home of Dennis, who at that time lived with his parents. Usually we would go out to Vännäs on a Friday night and rehearse for 5 hours, go to Dennis place, sleep, eat, and then rehearse until 5pm and go back to Umeå and skate. Due to these intense rehearsal sessions of ours we soon recorded our first demo “I am me”, and shortly thereafter Jonas was sacked in favour of the old Afro Jetz guitarist Henrik. In the following months we rehearsed, played in Umeå, Finland and places like that, the audience grew from 10 to 100 people at the gigs, Jens smashed some drumkits, and we almost learned how to skate the mini-ramp. After a while we recorded another demo, “Does it make a difference?”, and it was good. Some songs from “Does it make a difference?” were released on a compilation album called “Really fast 4”, we got ourselves a rehearsal place in Umeå, Dennis and Jens got own apartments, and everything was jolly.

By this time we started to broaden our musical expression; from pure hardcore to ska, rock n’ roll and all kinds of strange music. Unfortunately none of these songs were recorded as a demo or record. Eventually we started getting different opinions on which kind of songs we wanted to play. This finally came to a point from which there was no return, so Step Forward eventually split up. We did our last gig in December –91.
- Toft Stade 96-09-10

There is so much I could write and say about the time in Step Forward. But I won’t bore you with tales of how it was and so on. We had a great time, but eventually it had to come to an end. By that time I was the only one that still wanted to do a HC band and the other guys were not into the sXe thing anymore, which was something I held dear, so we parted ways and I started a band called Refused and I've been doing it ever since. It’s cool cause the other guys didn’t sell music out as so many “scenesters” did. Toft still rocks out in Shredhead and Ray Wonder, Jens plays in punkbands Blender and the Vectors and Henrik… Well, Henrik joined Refused for a while but I guess he was not into it and honestly I don’t know what he is up to, but I know he is good at it.

Writing down the lyrics made me embarassed and nostalgic and happy. We were kids, angry, naive and psyched to go. When we first started we didn’t have anyone to play to and we didn’t have a scene and since then things have changed so much unbelievable. We decided to do this CD for us and the people that were there, cause I realize that no one wants to hear endless live songs and shit with a band that never meant anything to them. But to us it did, and that is why we are doing this. It did make a difference.
- Dennis Lyxzén 96-09-10

/ Liner notes from the Discography CD.