BY LAURA BAIER — baierla@mnstate.edu

MSUM’s Center for the Arts isn’t just a place students come to learn and receive a degree. It’s also the birthplace of one of Fargo-Moorhead’s newest bands, Into the Lake.

An alternative folk band, the group includes Robert Biglow on vocals, guitar, and ukulele; Michael Carter on guitar; Lucas Rutten on bass and keyboard, and Chris Iverson on drums.

“We would all mess around with music and do little recording projects here and there for our classes until we just slapped a name on it, and that’s when we got serious,” Biglow said.

Rutten and his classmate Dan Rasmussen needed recording projects for one of their classes. They spent a lot of time performing and recording covers of songs which gave them the opportunity to do what they love — make music.

“It’s almost like music is in our blood,” Iverson said.

Although only Rutten and Iverson are music majors, they have all been involved in music for almost their entire lives. Biglow is a psychology major and Carter has a graphic design degree from M State.

“If I don’t write music after an amount of time I go crazy and it’s like it’s going to kill me if I don’t start,” Carter said.

Into the Lake recently released an EP containing five original tracks. Writing their song “The Pre-Flight” is what gave them the goal to make an EP. They brought their ideas together and recorded with Rasmussen for a class project. This pushed them to write more music, record more songs and become more complex in their idea of creating a band.

Each member had things they had written or previously worked on. They came to each other with ideas and worked on them together to record five songs that now make up their EP, Rutten said. The Pre-Flight EP has received over 2,000 listens and can be found on Spotify, iTunes and Band Camp. 

The band also performed at The Aquarium in Fargo this summer.

“Our current goal would be to play more shows, anywhere that we can just get out there and have our music be heard” Iverson said. “We love making music, and we love sharing it with other people.”

Along with playing more shows, they are interested in the long-term goal of touring.

“We would love to tour,” Rutten said. “It’s just a matter of time, commitment and booking shows which we are all willing to put in.”

People are listening to their music and want to hear more of what they have.

“I really like their music because it’s so chill, and they’re from MSUM and the area and that’s pretty sweet,” said Brittany Swenson, MSUM sophomore and Into the Lake fan.

Music student Jayce Wagner agrees.

“Those guys are so talented, and I want to be able to tell everyone that I actually know someone famous,” he said.

Fans of Into the Lake can get more information on Facebook.