Page 9 - ION Indie Magazine JULYAUG 2024

Marty Haviik: Hey Mark, let’s catch up. It’s been a couple of years since
I last saw you perform at the Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. Tell our
readers a little bit about who you are and how you got started in music.

Mark MacKay: Hey, Marty! Yeah, always good to hang with you again. We’ve
just been hammering the road since that show in Tucson and playing all over
the country. For those of you that don’t know me, I’ve been touring for the last
several years. We’ve released a bunch of EPs and singles since 2018 and I
live in Nashville. I started in Hollywood but ended up in Nash. My parents
made me take piano lessons when i was a little kid and the rest is history.

MH: What do you have going on now?

MM: We are about to embark on a pretty massive summer tour across the

country. We are opening for everyone from Everclear and Night Ranger to
Joe Nichols and Gary Allan -- rock and country. We just finished up a new
record that is a monster. I don’t know the release date, but it’s coming soon,1
and it is amazing. I think it’s the best representation of me and my music since
this journey began.

MH: Do you have a specific writing process? How do you decide to write

your music or cover another artist’s song?

MM: I have always written music my whole life. I still
write all the time. I was just in Chicago writing some

songs with Jim Peterik (‘Eye Of The Tiger’). I love
collaboration. That being said, I also love recording
songs that I didn’t write too. May the best song win!
Sometimes someone sends me something and I just
believe it needs to be in my universe.

MH: How have your music influences changed

from your start in music to the present? Who

would you say are your influencers today?

MM: That’s a great question, because that comes full
circle, when you do this for a while. I grew up asa
classic rock guitar player, and I loved watching the
blues guys -- like Stevie Ray and Eric Clapton, etc.
That was the music that was playing in the house when
I was a kid. That being said, I fell in love with country
music a decade ago. It was like rock with a banjo.
NOW as I’ve toured with so many people and written
with so many people, I think my music truly leans into
the stuff that I was so influenced by in the beginning -
- like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or Jackson
Brown, for example.

Photo credit: Marty Haviik