Rising Music Star Mark Prendergast of Man Alive On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

An Interview With Elana Cohen

Diversity in music has been gradually improving over the last few years, but it still has a long way to go yet. If you look at festival posters from 15 years ago it was predominantly a male line up. That’s finally changing, some festivals are opting for a more diverse lineup and I think it’s essential.

As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Man Alive — Mark Prendergast.

As co-founder, guitarist and co-songwriter for Kodaline, Mark Prendergast has achieved over a billion streams, three #1 albums in Ireland, two Top 5 records in the UK and played shows all over the world. Now he introduces a new side to his creativity as he shares his new solo project Man Alive.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Thanks for the interview,

So I grew up in Dublin and started playing music around age 15. I got into a band almost immediately after and it’s the same band I’m in today, Kodaline. We played around Dublin for a couple years.. the usual thing, playing to empty rooms etc. Then we decided to go full time after school and we made our first album. And the rest is geography.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

There’s a thing in Ireland called the Gaeltacht. It’s where you live down the country for 3 weeks while on your school holidays and speak Irish with other students. Its a bit of a right of passage for some Irish folk. Myself and Steve (singer Kodaline) went away together and we started writing songs in Irish, and we performed them in front of everybody. That’s where the intial spark for performing live came from. When we got home we started a band.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

There’s been a couple of mad moments alright. We were invited to go see U2 rehearse in LA and they played an entire set just for us. It was crazy, no production, no frills, just a band in a room playing together and it was magic. Then halfway through Steven Gerrard came in to watch and sat down beside us. I’m a huge Liverpool and U2 fan so to have these 2 worlds coming together at the same time was weird but wonderful.

It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My sister had a guitar before I did. First time I picked up her guitar I dropped it and cracked it. That didn’t go down very well, and so I wasn’t allowed to go near the guitar. I used to have to wait until everybody was out of the house and then I’d play it.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Yes absolutely. One of my best friends Philip Magee has been a mentor since day one. He’s the first person I’ve ever been a studio with and I even worked with him a few days ago. He’s an excellent producer from Dublin. More than that he’s like a superhero in every sense of the word. Anytime I’m feeling lost I go to him for advice. He’s worked with me on this new Man Alive project and I still learn from him every time I see him. Also my friend Ciaran Warren is worth mentioning. He pushed me to do this Man Alive project in the first place,

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Well right now I’m at the very beginning of my new solo project called Man Alive. Im also helping to develop and new Irish act who I can’t mention just yet. And then writing songs for other artists too which I fell into accidentally.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Diversity in music has been gradually improving over the last few years, but it still has a long way to go yet. If you look at festival posters from 15 years ago it was predominantly a male line up. That’s finally changing, some festivals are opting for a more diverse lineup and I think it’s essential.

A part of me also feels like guys are given more of a leg up in the early stages of pursuing music, especially a career playing in a band or as a songwriter. I have female friends in the music industry and they have had a lot more negative experience than I have.

Not fully sure if this is happening already but if radio stations and playlist opted for a 50/50 diversity split that would make a difference.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?

Don’t grow a moustache — Grew a moustache for a tour and those photo still come back to haunt me.

Ring your Ma more — I do it now, its easy to disappear sometimes.

Exercise on tour — only started doing this in the last few years. Jaysus what a game Changer.

Don’t pack so much clothes — I always bring too much clothes and end up wearing the same 3 things on rotation.

Take holidays — Sometimes I’ve gone years without taking a holiday. You don’t notice but it creeps up you.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

This is advice I give to other people but forget to take onboard myself. Taking breaks when you’re stuck writing a song is the most beneficial thing to the process in my opinion. Burn out can happen to anybody in any industry, when it happens creatively the hardest thing to do can be to walk away from it for a while. For me that helps.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

World peace, free coffee and more leg space on airplanes :-)

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’d say having brunch with Jack White would be a trip. He’s been my favourite musician since day one and he’s got something say about everything. If you could make that happen id really appreciate it.

How can our readers follow you online?

Yes of course, here’s my links…..

And thank you very much for the interview. I really enjoyed answering your questions.

Mark x

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!