Metal Anarchy

Time for the next edition of Metal Anarchy’s “new music showcase,” the feature where I introduce you to bands that readers of this site may find interesting. This time I have a Q&A with Lake Mar/e.

METAL ANARCHY: Tell me a little about your band:

LAKE MAR/E: The origin story of Lake Mar/e starts with 4 musicians with a passion for playing music who struggled over the years to find the right people to play with. Because we all believe in the music we can write together, we navigate the difficulties of being a band with members in three different states; what we get in return—the joy of creating emotionally beautiful ugly music—is impossible to find anywhere with anybody!

Lake Mar/e started as the recording project of Stephen Bialkowski (guitar) and Eric Howerton (vocals) after they began playing guitar together in Stephen’s living room around 2015. In 2021, they released their first single “The Blurred Lens,” hiring Muscle Shoals, AL drummer Nick Sibley to record drums for the track. After struggling to find a name with a meaning they liked, Eric and Stephen agreed that a moniker with a more symbolic or even unknowable meaning (and pronunciation? How do you say “mar/e”?!”) embraced a lot of playfulness and surrealistic qualities that they appreciated in all art. In one interpretation, the band name can be about the place each song takes you, a place you don’t know and can’t quite picture. In another, it’s the name of a strange, aquatic horse-like beast.

With Stephen’s wide-ranging compositional abilities and Eric’s experience as a writer and lyricist, the brutal instrumental experimentalism of “The Blurred Lens” was worded not as anger or rage at the frustrations of misconception/misperception, but as a loud and unpleasant sense of astonishment that the senses are wholly unreliable. Eric and Stephen would likely have put together a live act and developed more material after the song’s release, but unfortunately by this time Eric had moved to Stillwater, OK due to a change in employment. For a short time, Lake Mar/e went into a lull.

But when Kris Bashaw (bass player of Sand, a disbanded west-coast hard alternative act) and Stephen’s Logan-based project fell afoul due to conflicts with their local singer, they decided to approach Eric with the idea of reviving Lake Mar/e and turning the recording project into a performing act despite the geographic hurdles. Because of Eric’s flexible schedule, he was able to fly into town to practice and perform during the winter and summer breaks, (and he was happy to do so to get in some skiing!) and the band played their first show together in December of 2023, flying in Nick Sibley to bash it out on the drums. After the performances, the band convinced Nick to join full time. Since then, we’ve gigged every summer and winter, playing shows in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada. We’ve demoed all the tracks for our album, and have been taking our time with the final recordings, letting the songs emerge and change if necessary. We’re hoping to make a music video soon, release more tracks, and “The Blurred Lens” was also recently featured in the short film “Go Down, Diller,” which Eric co-wrote with director Andrew Bateman.

Shorter answer:

We’re a loud, proggy, psychedelic metal band that likes to make music you can scream and sing along to. Ripping solos, thoughtful lyrics, and drums you can’t ignore.

Eric (vocals) and Stephen (guitars) met weekly for a year or so to write a songs, but then Eric accepted a new position several states away. The project went on hold for years but was officially revived in 2023 when Kris (bass) and Nick (drums) joined Lake Mar/e.

Stephen Bialkowski (UT) – Shredding guitars since 92′, in various local jazz/blues/metal/classical/(experi)mental bands…but mostly metal
Eric Howerton (OK) – Sang in several metal bands in UT and TX prior to LM; professor and writer
Kris Bashaw (UT) – Previously played bass for Sand; unofficial manager and mediator

Nicholas Sibley (AL) – Obsessively dedicated drummer with over 30,000 hours of practice under his belt

METAL ANARCHY: Who are your main influences?

LAKE MAR/E: There’s so many known and unknown influences. For Eric and Stephen, Between the Buried and Me and progressive rock is definitely something we pay attention to, as is the work of Mike Patton. We like to think of loud music as music that can push at the extremes of what heaviness or volume or intensity can accomplish, and artists that help expand how loudness is used is something we’re drawn to. Eric goes gaga for the Dillinger Escape Plan and Tesseract. Kris loves Iron Maiden, and he and Stephen also share a love for Megadeth. Everyone in the band is a fan of grunge giants like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. Nick is really into a huge range of music, from alternative rock to metal to jazz—he’s probably qualified to be a music historian and has studied with some truly phenomenal drummers!

Art and literature also influence us. Things that are unsettling but thoughtful. The work of David Lynch for example. Eric and Kris love the novel “Frankenstein.” More on that below.

METAL ANARCHY: What is your latest release and why should readers of this site check it out?

LAKE MAR/E: Our latest release is “Reanimatrix” and at least one reading is that it’s a song for anyone who’s ever been fortunate (wink) enough to experience the horrific pleasures of an on again/off again relationship. It’s also just a brutal song and Stephen rips it on the solo! Lyrically, the song is told from the perspective of a sort of Frankenstein-esque wretch who is coming to realize that being put to death and then revived again and again and again may not be the most pleasant experience. It’s a gruesome, song about love as a gothic monster.

METAL ANARCHY: What can people expect when they go to your live shows?

LAKE MAR/E: We pride ourselves on our performances. Even though we don’t get to jam together as much as most other bands, performance-wise this means that when we do play live we have a lot of pent up energy and passion that we release on stage. We want to have fun, and we want you to have fun and feel something. We like to interact with the audience and let them know that we’re not there to scream at them, we’re there to scream with them!

METAL ANARCHY: Where do you see your band heading in 5 years?

LAKE MAR/E: We want to be writing more music, releasing more music, supporting other artists and local scenes, coming up with cool imagery, and feeling fulfilled physically and mentally. And we hope that means we’re producing content you guys will like.

We would love to be playing festivals in the next couple years too, and we would love to gig more outside of Utah and the Northwest. We have shows coming up in Nashville, Memphis, and Tuscumbia, AL in December of 2025, so check those out. And if you want to schedule a regional tour with us this summer or winter 2026, get in touch!