Meet Mark Mckowen

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mark Mckowen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mark, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.

This is a really good question (no one has asked me this before).

My mindset is one of continued curiosity, as well as “constant-improvement”. A large part of this is “learning by failure.” In A good acronym that we use in the Quality world is “FAIL = First Attempt In Learning.” If I fail, then I’ve learned something about my environment (something didn’t work in the present environment).

In terms of music, I look at it the same way. Personally, I’ve written 30-40+ song ideas for Divine Martyr. 20 have made it for consideration. 7 made it to the record. 3 actually made any kind of indie chart upon release. If I looked at success rates, I’m <10%. Atop that, many of the recorded 'failures' were (in my mind) a personal success (I completely achieved the goal that I, personally, was looking for in the writing). If I were to take the example of above and say "I only succeed <10% of the time", most would say that I need to do something else. However, a well-known anecdote was shared early on from a well-known classic rock artist who topped the charts...and is still being played after 50+ years. The artist wrote 900-1000 song ideas at a time. He took the top 10 and recorded them. On the failures, he reworked them until they were the next top 10. He has sold over 80 Million records. I use the same approach. Stay curious. Keep innovating. Don't get stagnant. Adopt a Growth Mindset.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I compose, perform, and promote for Symphonic Power Metal band Divine Martyr. We are a Symphonic Power Metal band with faith-based and/or positive lyrics. I teamed up with fellow gifted musicians who were inspired by many of the great Symphonic Rock/ Metal and Power/ Prog Metal master bands. In our case, we’re faith-based in Christianity and write often about Biblical topics, but we also write to encourage the marginalized (we’ve been there ourselves).

Currently we are working on our first full-length album. We’ve released compilations, singles, etc. but have never released a full album. As we write, the goal is to release a top-to-bottom album where the listener enjoys the music, but also receives encouragement as they listen to it.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The first quality: “Keep Learning.” The often used adage is “What you don’t know could fill a book.” It’s meant as an insult. To me, it’s exciting, because I won’t be bored. We are all constantly learning. when we stop learning, we become stagnant and boring, and fall into the triad of “ignorance, obstinance, and arrogance.”

The second quality: “Application.” Learning is one thing, but following through is another. Another adage says “The good student waits until after the exam to forget everything.” This implies that knowledge and skills are little more than intellectual exercises. By this mindset, the minute I ride a bike, I should win the Tour-de-France. Explicit knowledge shows up on tests as little more than a brain test. Tacit knowledge, however, shows in the details of craftsmanship. Practice, fail, learn, master. The great works of old weren’t based upon explicit knowledge. They were based off of application- and developing the skill.

The third quality: “Listening to understand, not just answer,” Key insights might be a conversation away if we just listen to understand. Many times, we can learn by another’s failures as well as their successes…if we learn to understand why both were the result.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

It honestly depends on end goal. In terms of music, do we simplify our writing to appeal to more people or do we write from the heart?

Does the Middle-Eastern master chef ignore his passion to sling hamburgers? Typically no, but he might offer them on the bottom of the menu.

Similarly, in music, if we write a prog odyssey, followed by a ‘I-V-vi-IV’ pop song, we’re essentially doing the same thing. The focus, however, is on passion. If the pop song is written with passion, it’s real. Similarly, if the Middle-Eastern master chef develops his hamburger with the same passion as his signature Kafta, he too has succeeded.

In the end, as Beethoven was accredited to saying: “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Lesley McKowen
Becca Hyde
Troy Lefevra

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