WINSTON MCCALL On New PARKWAY DRIVE Material: I'm 'Trying To Find A More Primal Connection To The Actual Music'

Vocalist Winston McCall of Australian metallers PARKWAY DRIVE has confirmed to Terry "Beez" Bezer of Knotfest.com that he and his bandmates are using their coronavirus downtime to work on material for the follow-up to 2018's "Reverence" album. He said (see video below): "Right now, in terms of the creative side of things, I'm just trying to soak myself in influences from everywhere and seeing what starts coming out in terms of creation that doesn't have an end point. It's not, like, 'We've got a tour in six months. You've gotta create the stuff. And then, in nine months, you're gonna be in the studio.' Right now, we don't know when any of this stuff is kicking back off. We literally can't leave our country; our borders are shut. So if we wanted to go somewhere, we can't. I'm still creating, but it's not with the same constraints. It's been really weird watching how my brain switches with that."

Asked what specifically has been inspiring his vocal and lyrical approach for the new PARKWAY DRIVE music, McCall said: "Everything, to be honest. It's very interesting sitting back and allowing, I guess, random thought to drive the actual sound and following that thread. Because when you're constantly on the road, you're constantly in this media-driven… We're bombarded with sounds and everything going on within the world, I think it's taken something like this [coronavirus crisis] to realize the amount of stimulation we have. So when it's taken away, it gives you kind of an idea to be able to trace where thought patterns are coming from… It's literally just, 'Why is my brain attracted to this beat? Why is my brain attracted to this style of vocals? What sound is driving me with this?' and then following those patterns… I think it's trying to find a more primal connection to the actual music."

PARKWAY DRIVE's "Viva The Underdogs", the soundtrack to the band's documentary film by the same name, was released in March. Featuring 11 live tracks from the band's 2019 headlining set at German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air, the soundtrack also includes three studio tracks recorded in German; "Würgegriff (Vice Grip)", "Die Leere (The Void)" and "Schattenboxen (Shadow Boxing)", which features German rapper Casper.

The documentary "Viva The Underdogs" features over a decade of behind-the-scenes personal footage, coupled with unprecedented access to the band's most explosive live tours and world's biggest music festivals. The film gives an incredibly honest and candid look at PARKWAY DRIVE's 15-year underdog journey; the good times, battles, triumphs, and sacrifices.

PARKWAY DRIVE is a five-piece metal band from Byron Bay, Australia formed in 2002. The band features McCall, guitarists Luke Kilpatrick and Jeff Ling, bassist Jia O'Connor, and drummer Ben Gordon.

Photo credit: Dave Lepage