Parkway Drive

PARKWAY DRIVE are fast becoming one of Australia's most beloved metal-core bands; since the 2007 release of their second album, Horizons, the band have shot straight to the top, with legions of devoted fans all over the world. And I was lucky enough to have a chat with Parkway frontman, Winston McCall.

Australia is not widely known overseas for our metal exports, but Parkway Drive are a taste of our best. With the upcoming release of their DVD, these non-stop touring machines will hit the road once again to bring us a taste of their intricate riffs, bone-crushing beats and bloodcurdling screams.

Parkway Drive have well and truly made their mark on the metal-core map, having moshed their way from Byron Bay to take over the world. "[The crowds are] really, really good, especially in Europe... it's kind of like Australia was three years ago," explains McCall. "It just seems to grow every time we go back, it's really cool." And although the band love taking the show overseas, there's no place like home. "It's just insane, no matter how crazy crowds get overseas, you come back and you play and you go 'oh my god!'"

The band are influenced by a huge range of artists. McCall says his biggest inspiration is "absolutely everything. Bad Religion's my all time favourite band; punk rock bands to start with and these days I gain inspiration from everywhere - Nick Cave, The Killers, Social Distortion, Kanye West... everything."

For McCall, the music and the message have always been simple - "treat everyone the same way that you'd like to be treated. We live in this amazing world and if you want to see the one thing that's wrong with it, it's the way that humans treat their surroundings and the people that live in them. The biggest difference that can be made in the world always starts with one person."

 On the subject of the DVD set for release on August 7 McCall says "there's a hell of a lot of footage on there from all over the world, it's a pretty mixed affair." He's pretty passionate when it comes to his favourite song, Boneyards. "Ever since we wrote it, it pretty much captured everything I liked about the band and everything I like about our type of music."

Last time the lads were in Canberra, Winston had an unfortunate incident where "I pretty much almost broke my back halfway through the set. I felt all the muscles tear from one side to the other and just collapsed and had to spend the rest of the set holding my back and standing still. I don't know if anyone noticed."

Parkway Drive will hopefully avoid serious injury when they take the stage on Sunday August 16 at the Southern Cross Woden Basketball Stadium, along with August Burns Red (US) and Architects (UK). Tickets through Moshtix.