Flathead Valley rock band sings about love, happiness and heartache

When Luke Lautaret and his wife got the final notice that their home was in foreclosure they were devastated. A notice filled with legal jargon was stapled to their door.

The couple had both lost their jobs and fallen behind on payments. The final notice wasn’t a surprise, but still they grieved for the home they had built together.

His wife Heather cried herself to sleep that night. Lautaret sat in the living room in pain and began to play his guitar and write.

The song “These Times” came from that night. The song is raw emotion put to music about the feelings of grief, but also happy memories that remain present even during a difficult time.

“I wanted to write a song that remembered the good times,” Lautaret said. “The parties and the friends we had over. You stock a house, you paint colors on the wall, you sit on couches and love each other. It becomes part of you and then it’s not.”

Lautaret’s band Marshall Catch recorded “These Times” in the basement of his home just weeks before the couple was forced to move out. The song is included in the band’s EP “Make Noise,” which releases March 23.

The other members of the band Aidan Foshay (bass), Aaron Danreuther (guitars and vocals) and Jared Denney (drums, keyboards and vocals) round out Marshall Catch, a rock band based in the Flathead Valley.

The four songs on the EP, all written by Lautaret, express personal feelings. The single from the album “More Than Myself” was written several years ago for Lautaret’s wife and speaks about love for another person being greater than anything else.

Lautaret said there has been sacrifice involved in the band and those feelings come out in his songs.

“I wanted my wife to know that I would quit the band if she wanted because she is more important,” he said. “The idea is that I love you more than myself. That we can survive anything as long as we don’t let it drive a wedge between us — as long as we are still holding hands we’ll be fine.”

Lautaret admits bearing his soul to the world is not an easy thing, but it’s important to his music and personally.

“There’s a lot that’s tough about being honest, but art is nothing if you’re not being honest,” he said. “It’s a way of understanding how I feel — of coping.”

He’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from “These Times.” People say that song has helped them grieve, and for Lautaret that makes sharing his personal feelings worthwhile.

“Music is the soundtrack to your life,” he said. “Every spectacular moment in our lives is attached to music. If I can write songs that are part of that it’s incredible.”

Marshall Catch is relatively new, although the band has been playing in the area extensively. Lautaret has a long history with music, but losing his job and house gave Lautaret the push to make the band a higher priority.

“We decided that we would see how it would go,” he said. “It was chasing a pipe dream that I didn’t know if it would work, but I had a desire to make it work.”

His day job is giving guitar lessons, but most weekends the band is playing at a local venue. Their wives run the merchandise table. Matt Huan and Mike Hull also assist the band.

Marshall Catch has been encouraged to relocate to a larger area where they might get more exposure and opportunities to play. But in addition to having day jobs here, the Flathead Valley is also home.

“We have a good support system here,” he said. “Everything we make right now is being reinvested into the band. We want to make it from here and show that we were able to make it.”

Marshall Catch released its first full-length album, “Alive” last spring. The song “The Ballad of the USS Arizona” on the album has earned them national attention.

The band was invited to play at the Pearl Harbor Day 70th Anniversary Commemoration last December in Hawaii.

Written from the perspective of the ship, Lautaret created the song as a way to honor the servicemen who died at Pearl Harbor and remind younger generations of that day.

Playing for 4,500 people at the event just a few feet from where the USS Arizona sank into the ocean and speaking with survivors of Pearl Harbor was a surreal experience, said Lautaret.

“It was a once in a lifetime experience,” he said. “The survivors had tears coming down their face saying thank you for writing this, but I wrote it out of gratitude for them.”

The EP “Make Some Noise” was released nationally earlier this year to radio stations. Now, the band continues to play local gigs and waits to see what will happen next.

“It’s a pretty big deal for us,” Lautaret said. “We want to be a band that makes it out of Montana. Our goal is to make it big.”