FEATURED INTERVIEWS                          

Parkway Drive

If you don't like Foster's Australian Beer, You're sure going to love Australia's Parkway Drive.
By: Gian Erguiza - - April 29th, 2008 - 3:48 pm PST



These boys are on a tear. with their latest release, 'Horizons,' eating up the competition, Parkway Drive is doing it big. With a hardworking ethic to back up their monster sound, these guys are taking no prisoners. We got a chance to screw in a few questions to frontman Winston Mccall and got some interesting answers and here they are.

What’s up Winston! Can you guys please give our readers a quick history lesson on the band and how it all began?

In short, we've been doing this band thing for 5 years now. It started out as friends playing together in a small town and has somehow turned into friends traveling the world. We all wanted to make the same kind of music and just thought we'd have some fun. I'm not sure how it came to this but here we are.

Now you guys are about to jump on the road with a bunch of great bands starting in April up until June. How excited are you guys to be hitting the road and what’s new in the world of Parkway Drive?

Excited. Always excited, especially to tour. It's our lives. We get to hang out, play with bands we love and meet new friends. There's nothing you could possibly not like about that. As far as new things go we get to tour with some bands that we haven't played with before and get to play in some places we've always wanted to go.

‘Horizons’ was an absolute face melter and it’s great! What is the song writing process like for you guys and are you guys planning to go back in the lab any time soon to whip up some new material?

The song writing process is strange. Sometimes it works, sometimes its a killer. We basically start off with a riff, generally written by Jeff, and just go from there. Everyone has input and ideas so it just kind of grows. We've tried sitting down and saying "alright we need a song that sounds like this, let's write it", but it doesn't work. We have to start with no real idea and just see the ideas flow i guess. We've started writing again already, and we have some new ideas so it's good to see we haven't run ourselves empty.

Has 'Horizons' done what you guys expected it to do and has this album’s expectations been met in you guys’ opinion?

Yes of course. It's done way more than we ever could have thought possible. Every time we write music we write it for ourselves. We just want to be happy with what we have done. Thats always going to be enough for us, so for so many people to like our music it is amazing for us. It's just a bonus i guess.

The metal landscape is pretty broad with all sorts of genres and styles ranging from Christian Metal to Death Metal to Trash. Where do you guys fit into this equation and what are you guys’ thoughts on the current metal scene?

I guess we're surf metal?! maybe? i don't know, haha. It's all just labels. We don't really care. We're just kids doing what we like. We don't aim to sound like anything other than heaviness so people can call us what they want if it

"As far as I'm concerned I think the "industry" side of things is shit anyway. How the fuck can you place a value on a sound or a frequency? Think about it like that and the whole idea of selling music is ridiculous."

will make their lives easier. As far as I'm concerned people should just pay more attention to what they like to listen to as opposed to what style or genre or classification a band is labeled with. Fuck it, it's all just music.

Do you guys ever pay attention to the charts or the radio?

Yeah, I listen to the radio heaps. I'm not so interested in the charts or pop music or whatever, but I listen to the radio. My i-trip in my car is shit so i have to listen to something, haha.

Has there been any artist or band lately that have flared a competitive fire in you guys?

Not really. We don't really have a competitive nature as a band. That's not what it's about. It is always nice to play with a band that makes you want to play as hard as you can. For me that's 50 Lions. Playing after them is mental because they make me want to crush shit.

You guys have some pretty die hard fans. How much do you guys owe to the fans and do you guys have any weird tales with fans you guys would like to fill us in on?

We owe them everything we have. If it wasn't for people supporting us we wouldn't be touring, we wouldn't be making records, we wouldn't have jobs at all. Seriously, we owe them everything. Weird tales.. well one guy in Perth, Australia has our signatures tattooed (badly) on his arm. Very very funny.

The music industry is experiencing a shift in the system and how music is now presented and sold. What are you guys’ thoughts on the digital downloading revolution and do you guys agree with the experts that say that the internet is ‘killing music’ instead of ‘helping music?’

Not sure. The way I see it, people will always support something that has heart. Kids can see through bullshit. If someone downloads your record but doesn't buy it, then they probably wouldn't have taken the risk and bought it without listening to it anyway. Most kids that download your shit end up buying merch or helping out in some way anyway. I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned i think the "industry" side of things is shit anyway. How the fuck can you place a value on a sound or a frequency? Think about it like that and the whole idea of selling music is ridiculous.

Let’s take a detour here. With the world looking grim such as the Iraq war still unsolved, Celebs running around rampant and wasted, No answer for Autism, and the sudden drop of CD sales, allow me if you will, what would make the world “A better place?”

If humans didn't exist

So far, what is the formula for success for Parkway Drive?

Have fun and be ourselves. That's all we've done so far so i guess kids like us.

Looks like 2008 is going to be another busy year for you guys. Any hints or sneak peak as to what we can expect from you guys in 08?

Tour. Everywhere. Some places we have never been, some places we have. Plus we're trying to compile the footage we've shot over the years into some kid of multimedia release. We're not sure what yet but we have some pretty mental shit on film so we'll see how that goes.

Any additional comments or shout-outs?

More stage dives, faster circle pits. Bigger, more, louder sing alongs. Do it, its fun!

Thanks Winston!



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