Mind Equals Blown

Interview: Parkway Drive

After a mini-hurricane passed over Warped Tour during its stop in St Pete. I sat and enjoyed a brief (very…very brief) moment of sunlight with Parkway Drive vocalist Winston McCall to chat.

Mind Equals Blown: How has Warped Tour been so far?

Winston McCall: Really hot. Except  for today. We expected Florida to be a sweaty armpit. Yeah but its been nice today. We’ve got the beach and hurricanes.  Its cool.

MEB: You recently released Deep Blue. How has the reception to that been?

WM: Really good. You know, its strange to be on Warped Tour and have it released because we started playing songs before it was released here,  and to watch kids all of the sudden know songs that we were playing that no one knew originally. It was definitely an interesting way to release a record. But so far its been pretty well received, which is cool.

MEB: Are there any plans to release another DVD? As a fan of the band, and the DVD I have to say, I really enjoyed it and would love to see another one.

WM: We have plans for definitely something visual. Maybe not a DVD but…we haven’t stopped filming, lets put it that way. We have some pretty interesting ideas. You’ll definitely, hopefully be able to see more of us in the future, doing some more interesting stuff. Yeah, fingers crossed that people still like the band.

MEB: Was the writing process for Deep Blue any different than previous albums?

WM: Yeah, a little different this time around. We had a different producer so from the word “go” we knew it was gonna sound a little different, so we chose to write in a different way and basically it different. We didn’t want to just make Horizons Part 2 or Killing With A Smile Part 3. We tried to focus more on just having a natural feel, focusing more on the flow and the feel of things as opposed to jamming in as many things as we could, or making things as fast or as heavy as we could. We just wrote songs and if they came out and felt right we would just say “leave it, that songs done, lets not pick over it a million times”. So, there wasthat coupled with the fact that we tried to create an album as opposed to a handful of songs just thrown on a record. We wanted this album to have a flow the whole way through, we wanted it to start a certain way end a certain way and have a specific kind of feel the whole way through. So if we wrote a fast song, we would write the next song coming after it in a specific way, so it had a definite feel and flow to it, instead of just BAM BAM BAM BAM from start to finish. So that was the idea haha.

MEB: Whats your worst tour horror story?

WM: It wasn’t on this tour, although our bus [on this tour] does smell like absolute crap right now, but we were in Maine, the first time we ever played Maine, we played a really…interesting show, followed by our van motor, completely, literally exploding. And we just got stuck in the middle of the highway, then stuck for a whole ‘nother day and, this is Maine of all places as well haha. Then we had to spend $6800 to drop a whole new engine into our van and that was literally the only way we were getting out of there. It was just an absolute nightmare.

MEB: Who would you say is your favorite band here at Warped Tour?

WM: Umm…You Me & Six. They’re awesome. They’re really really good. There are a hell of a lot of bands on this tour. A lot of really heavy bands, really soft bands and whatever. It’s a hell of a lot heavier, but at the same time there is so much it just drums you into pieces. I think Josh has such an amazing voice. Like, really really good. There are a lot of pop bands and rock bands that sound pretty good on record, but don’t  quite live up to it live, and I think they’re definitely not one of those bands.

MEB: What album have you guys been listening to lately?

WM: I’ve been rocking the new Gorillaz album since it came out a couple of weeks ago to be honest. Just cause its awesome.

MEB: Biggest guilty pleasure band?

WM: Ah. I dunno that’s a really good question. This one always stumps me.

MEB: We’ve been getting a lot of Limp Bizkit.

WM: Screw that. I hate Nu-Metal

MEB: You can only choose between one of these: The perfect girl, or a Jet-pack.

WM: Ohhh….Well, I already have the perfect girl in my girlfriend so I’d take the jet-pack. Haha.

MEB: You’re stranded on a desert island. You have one book, one movie and one album. What are they?

WM: Oh shit. Um. The book? 1984 cause that’s my favorite book. Um, the movie? Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Its awesome. Absolutely love that movie. And album? Umm…my favorite album of all time is Bad Religion‘s Suffer but I don’t know if I’d want that on a desert island so I don’t really know the answer to that one. Mabye something by Bob Marley. Maybe Exodus or something cause that’s kind of an island vibe.

MEB: Out of all of the bands on Warped Tour who do you think Parkway Drive as a whole could beat in a fight?

WM: Ohhh…. Well none of us can fight in the first place and the only one of us who knows how to fight has never fought anyone in his life. I think the only guy who knows how to throw a punch has never thrown a punch. I’d say [we could beat] any of the English guys. Bring Me The Horizon or You Me at Six just because they’re English and they’re really pale.

MEB: What bands do you think could take you guys down?

WM: Anyone that really wanted to haha.  Definitely Every Time I Die.

MEB: That seems to be the main consensus here.

WM: Yeah, well we’ve toured with them a couple of times and Andy got the nickname “The Bear” from us because he just looks like a…he can either be a really cuddly teddy bear or I’m sure he could be a Grizzly.  So yeah haha, those guys for sure.

MEB: Ultimate Tour, 3 bands, living or dead.

WM: Oooh. You have to go with dead because you never get the opportunity to. So, Elvis, Johnny Cash and The Beatles.

MEB: If you could suggest one band for our readers to check out who would it be?

WM: 50 Lions. They are a hardcore band from our hometown, and they’re actually touring the states for the first time at the moment. They’re really good, and my little brother sings for them. But they are a really good band regardless of the family ties.

MEB: Any closing statements?

WM: Thanks. Anyone who’s ever checked our band out thanks, cause I don’t think anyone will understand how bizarre it is to be from Australia and be playing in Florida on Warped Tour. Its pretty insane so thanks!