The year is 1988. Kids across America are watching Saturday morning cartoons, playing with toys and begging their parents to take them to Chuck E. Cheese.

Meanwhile, young Matt Dake is sitting alone in his closet, listening to the Velvet Underground and alphabetizing his book collection. In a house not far away, Brighton Engeman is doing almost the same thing.

“I was a really weird kid — very antisocial,” says Dake, bassist for Ames duo Steps. “Some things just don’t change.”

Dake sits in the basement of drummer and longtime friend Engeman’s parents’ house with Ween playing in the background and recalls his abnormal youth.

“I found alternative rock a long time before most people, which affected how I saw music,” Dake says.

From birth, Steps, which takes cues from post-rock, metal and jazz, has been anything but a typical Ames band. For starters, their music is nothing but drums, bass, and an occasional scream from Dake.

“It’s like a regular band without the bells and whistles of a guitars and a singer,” Engeman says.

In order to compensate for elements some listeners might think to be “missing,” Dake and Engeman do everything to avoid redundancy and keep their crowds engaged.

“The music is a really complex thing in a simplistic way,” Dake says.

Steps’ sound has been described as “very trance-inducing,” as listeners are often found bobbing their heads with eyes closed.

“It has a very climactic aesthetic which sort of meanders and builds until it reaches the ideal it was meant to portray,” Dake says. “And we do it without words.”

Both members are very conscious of the obscurity of their sound and acknowledge that the Midwest is lacking a scene for their style.

“It isn’t really like anything around here,” Dake says.

Engeman is a whirlwind of drumsticks spiraling in all directions when he performs his complicated percussion role. At the same time, Dake makes his bass into a versatile musical weapon, playing guitar-like highs as well as more typical, low bass lines.

“We’re moving toward a lot of music theory kind of stuff,” Engeman says.

Theories of music aren’t the only thing Dake and Engeman are interested in. A conversation with the two might begin on any topic and easily transition into philosophical territory. Even the name “Steps” originates from a discussion that was anything but mundane.

While most rock bands pick a name arbitrarily because they think it sounds cool, “Steps” is a reminder of a dream of sorts Dake remembers having.

“Matt had a vision of two staircases — one black and one white,” Engeman says. “It represented our society and spawned a debate between us that lasted like three weeks.”

Dake says he came from the vision with many ideas.

“It was a very enlightening experience,” Dake says.

“It made me realize that we are all one.”

Exactly what that statement means to Dake or Engeman is far too deep for them to go into in entirety. Besides, they have their music to promote.

Despite having only been playing as Steps since May, the band has already been signed to local label No Coast Records. Those bragging rights apparently haven’t gone to the men’s heads.

“We’re not allowed to have egos,” Dake says. “Both of us live with our families. I work at a fast food place.”

“And I’m unemployed,” Engeman says.