Interview with War Within Vocalist Mark McKinley

By Mick Michaels

COSMICK VIEW: Hello, Mark! Welcome to The Cosmick View. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to chat with me, it is greatly appreciated.

CV: How would you describe the type of working partnership War Within co-founders Louis and Jeff have? Is there a certain synergy they share?
MARK McKinley: Louis and Jeff have been friends for many years. They kind of came up together and there’s definitely some history with them. I know they’ve been playing in bands together for a minute, so they are familiar with each other’s styles and habit’s.

CV: How would you describe the band's unique writing style? There is definitely a bucket load of influences that come to mind, but yet a very distinct style at the forefront.
MK: Wow, where to start. So, initially when Craig and I came into the band there were like 3 or 4 tunes already written complete with lyrics and melody. I learned them as they were at the time to see if it was even going to work with me on vocals. Once we all felt pretty good about it, I felt like I needed to make the songs a little more personal, so I re-wrote the lyrics and added my take on the melodies. Everyone appeared to like what I did so I think that gave us confidence moving forward that we could write well together. Craig and I also brought a couple songs with us that the guys wanted to incorporate into the set, so they learned the parts and we made it uniquely War Within. With the addition of Lloyd, and I think with Lloyd being much younger, the sound has started to evolve into maybe a little more of a “modern” vibe?, to me anyways, and to some of our fan base as well, as I’ve been told.

CV: Is songwriting and composing a joint effort among all the members of War Within or does everyone work independently to bring specific musical and lyrical ideas to the table?
MK: Great question. It’s really all over the place if I’m being honest. It might start with a riff that someone brings to rehearsal and we start working on a rough arrangement, or someone might be inspired over the weekend and demo a whole song and send it out to see if anyone’s vibing on it. If I’m feeling something, I might mumble a melody or something I’m hearing in my head, but I almost always spend time with a rough copy at my studio and struggle through it until it sounds like something I’d stop the radio to listen to, then it gets shipped to the guys for their thumbs up or thumbs down.

CV: Because of such an eclectic and rich range of influences and backgrounds among the band members, the mixture has given War Within a distinct musical voice.  How do you see what you do musically compares to or contrasts with other band and' styles from the LA scene?

MK: I don’t know really, never given it much thought. I don’t really follow the LA scene personally. I don’t think it’s a conscience thing, I mean I grew up in it, but now that I’m thinking about it, the bands that I gravitate towards, at our level, are bands like FLAW and Saturate, both from Kentucky, HIM from Finland, Mastodon from Atlanta, Clutch from Maryland, Red Fang from Seattle. Of course some of those bands have seen some success in recent years, but I have been following / listening to them since they were playing their “local” scenes. The bands that we’ve been fortunate enough to play with in the LA area are solid; they’re doing what they do very well.  But to me, if you’re not careful, it’s very easy to get stuck in the “LA scene” and never really get out of it. And again, if that’s your thing, God bless you, kill it. Speaking for myself, there’s so much more musically if you take the time to search for it. 

CV: If you had to give an example of who War Within most sounded like, which band would it be?

MK: Oh boy, LOL. Well, one comparison that we’ve heard a lot would be a combination of Godsmack and Queensryche? LOL, I guess. With every group of songs we have there would probably be different comparisons I would think. Anywhere from 80’s metal to maybe some garage / doom stuff and the brand new stuff that Lloyd is bringing has a hint of Alter Bridge to it cause’ that’s probably what he’s listening to right now. And the great thing is that you take all those ingredients and mix ‘em together and you get War Within.

CV: Does War Within identify itself with a particular genre type or style? How would you define the group’s musical texture?

MK: Haha, we have this conversation a lot as a band. You know, I really hate being associated with a genre but I get the need for people to do that. So, probably some 80’s metal influence in the earlier stuff that I tried very hard to cut with some modern vocals, there’s some weird garage / doom stuff in some of the songs, rock and roll, heavy rock for sure, there’s a ton of blues in some of the songs. I love melody and movement, so I try very hard to include those elements whenever and wherever I can. If I hear that a section is going to the obvious place or starting to sound like a particular style, I’m very cognoscente of it and will do my best to take it to the not so obvious place. That’s what creating something new is all about. Most people don’t want to go to an amusement park and ride the same ride over and over. Every ride should be new and exciting and keep the listener excited about what’s about to happen next.

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CV: Mark, who are some of your personal musical influences? Who would you say really inspired you?

MK: I’m originally a guitarist, been playing my whole life. I’ve always loved listening to great vocalists as well but never thought I’d ever be a vocalist. I grew up listening to Motown, R&B, Funk, Disco, New-Wave. It wasn’t until I was around 12 that I heard Queensryche and said WTF? That was a game changer for me. I was a music video kid growing up so when I saw and heard “Queen of the Ryche” for the first time in 82’, yeah, that was it for me, Tate and DeGarmo forever, LOL. At least until about 92’ when I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan and the video for “Cold Shot”, that was pretty life changing for me. Changed my whole thought process and introduced me to Blues and ultimately Jazz. All of these elements are in everything I do, there’s no getting around it. That’s why I always tell people that they’ve got to expand their library and listen to everything at least once. There’s so much information out there for musicians and you start to realize very quickly how similar these genres really are and what makes them different. 

CV: The band is currently in the studio working on a new release. When can fans expect it to drop?

MK: We’re trying to finish up tracking for a couple songs. It’s hard with everyone’s schedule, but once those are finalized, it’s onto the mixing process. I think we’re all hoping to have something finalized by this summer.

CV: What can listeners expect from this new release? Any material being included that fans haven't yet heard?

MK: Absolutely! We’ve got 4 new songs that we’ve only played a couple times live and we just wrote a 5^th one over the weekend that brought a smile to everyone’s face so I’m almost positive it will make onto the CD.

CV: When working in the studio, how does the band translate that live intensity, which War Within is known to deliver, to the controlled environment of a recorded medium? Have you experienced any limitations?

MK: It’s very difficult. Our tracking process is very limited on this CD in that we’re not able to track live as a full band. We’re having to track individually and try and still capture that intensity. It’s hard

CV: The acoustic guitar work and melodies on both "Sleepless Dreams" and "Shores of Jupiter" are dynamic.  In recent years, many Metal bands have shied away from using acoustic interludes and over-layering in their music. Why do you think that is the case and was having acoustic guitars included a conscious decision on the band's part?

MK: I think the “Metal” scene went through a phase where adding an acoustic guitar automatically meant you were trying to write another “Every Rose” or “Dead or Alive” type power balled or you got lumped into the old 70’s 12-string sound like Triumph or Zebra, not that there’s anything wrong with that per se, but nobody was using the acoustic, IMHO, to create anything new and exciting. It wasn’t until like 94’ when bands like Nirvana and Queensryche (both from Seattle BTW) stripped their songs down and performed them on MTV’s “Unplugged” that I think bands were like, hey this is pretty damn cool, you know. Then you have a band like Days of the New come out with an edgy, hip kind of acoustic thing and then Tantric in 97’ had tons of acoustic as part of their sound and things started to change a lot. Then fast forward to 04’ and you have a VERY heavy band like Seven Dust come out with “South Side Double Wide” and all bets were off at that point. Everybody and their mother was stripping down their sound. It was very much around that time that I started playing A LOT of acoustic guitar. Everything I wrote and write to this day starts with acoustic and then translated onto electric but sometimes the parts don’t always translate very well onto electric so those parts would get tracked acoustically. But ultimately the stamp of a great song, again IMHO, is if you can strip it down and get the same chills when playing it acoustically. Acoustics are surprising very “Metal”, LOL, listen to a band like Mastodon and pay attention to how they use their acoustics, it’s everywhere and if a heavy strung detuned guitar is Metal enough for Mastodon, it’s Metal enough for me, haha.  

CV: What can fans expect to experience when coming to see War Within live?

MK: It’s simple, I want to write solid, “hooky” songs that aren’t too long or boring and that aren’t over anybody’s head. I want people to feel like they’re a part of this thing, that’s it right there. I want people to be a part of what we’re doing. I’m doing it for them; I don’t need to do this for my ego. I don’t want people to think we’re yelling at them, LOL. I want and need people to come to the stage and interact with us and us with them. I always tell the crowd: the more energy you give us the more we can give you. And when the crowd gets involved is usually when we have our best and most intense shows. There is NOTHING cooler than a group of people you’ve never met reacting positively to something you and your buddies created. And so far people seem to really enjoy what we’re trying to contribute to the scene.

CV: Mark, how would you describe the typical War Within fan?

MK: Loyal! I mean, that’s it in a nutshell. We expect our fans to be brutally honest with us and let us know if something we’re doing sounds pretentious or lame and believe me, they do! LOL, and that’s totally cool cause’ guess what? Ultimately, they’re the ones you’re trying to impress if you want an audience. If you want to play to an empty room to feed your ego, knock yourself out, it’s not for me! I want War Within fans to feel like they can come talk to us, hang out, give us their opinion and help us grow as a band and maybe one day they can say, hey I noticed you did that thing I told that one time. How cool is that?!

CV: What's next for War Within?

MK: Try and get this CD finished and work out a new set for a House of Metal show we’re doing at Malone’s in May, I believe it is. Continue to write new material, nothing worse than playing the same songs at every show, boring. And just continue to grow as musicians and hopefully as a band. 

CV: Thank you again Mark for spending some time talking and sharing with our readers. I wish you all the best and continued success.

MK: Thank you so much for even being interested enough to ask me. It means a lot to me and the guys that anyone would even take the time and ask us about this little thing we’ve got going on up here in the HD. To all our fans and prospective fans, come check us out when you get a chance and I promise we’ll give you one heck of a show! PEACE!!

Check out Mark and War Within at:
Official: http://warwithinhd.weebly.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/warwithinmusic/
MBM Music LLC: https://www.mbmmusicllc.com/the-mbm-musician-network/war-within

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My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word.  Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.

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