Formed in 2003, Parkway Drive are from Byron Bay, New South Wales. Their early albums featured much heavier vocals and sounds inspired by deathcore, but more recently, the band has switched to a more traditional heavy metal sound incorporating more clean vocals and breakdowns. The band is composed of lead vocalist Winston McCall, lead guitarist Jeff Ling, rhythm guitarist Luke “Pig” Kilpatrick, drummer Ben “Gaz” Gordon, and bassist Jia “Pie” O’Connor.
Parkway Drive have released seven studio albums as well as other side projects. Their last three albums: Ire (2015), Reverence (2018), and most recent release Darker Still (2022) have all reached number 1 of the Australian ARIA charts and won them music awards for Best Heavy Metal Album. Their music has reached all corners of the world and has found appreciation from a dedicated fanbase.
Parkway Drive headlined the music festival on the sea, ShipRocked 2025, where they performed alongside other rock artists and enjoyed their time at sea. Now, the group is gearing up to tour alongside Beartooth, I Prevail, and Killswitch Engage, serving as rotating headliners on the 2025 Summer of Loud tour around the US. They will also be touring around Europe for their 20th Anniversary Tour.
We met up with lead vocalist Winston McCall and talked about his jet lag tips, wild places he wishes he could sing at, and his favorite musical artist.
Has a location ever inspired a song for you?
I mean, where we live inspires us. I’m not going to say anywhere specific, but I am inspired a lot by the ocean in general, and a lot of my travel has revolved around the ocean. Growing up as a surfer kid, you spend a lot of time chasing waves and traveling either above the ocean or on the ocean. The entire album of Deep Blue is a concept album about literally going to the bottom of the ocean looking for truth.
If you could perform anywhere in the world, even a weird location, where would it be?
I kind of want to have a crack at Antarctica just because of the Metallica gig. It looked wild and I just want to go to Antarctica. Seems like a good excuse to get me to Antarctica, please. I would also enjoy playing in space if anyone wants to take us to space.
You and your fans came all the way from Australia to be here. Do you have any jet lag tips?
Don’t get jet lagged. It sucks. My tip so far is to drink some coffee. I mean, that’s the only thing that got me through yesterday, because jet lag has been kicking my ass. Normally on tour, I don’t even bother with the jet lag. I just go to sleep whenever. This time I had to be up so I had to have some coffee before we played. Maybe that was the key to last night’s set, that extra cup.
Any bucket list places left on your list to visit?
Antarctica again. Alaska. I want to go to the extreme ends of the planet. I also really want to go and watch the great Migration in Africa.
You just celebrated the 20th Anniversary Tour. What were some of the highlights?
The entire tour. It’s nuts to be a band for 20 years. The show that we’ve been able to put together is — I can’t really describe it in an interview. Even when people are like, ‘man, that looks wild,’ I’m like, unless you’re there, you have no idea how insane this show is. We plan on doing it a bunch more around the world. If you do get a chance to go and see this show, f*cking go and see it. It will be the best thing you’ve ever seen. Lots of fire. There’s lots going on.
I was watching these old video videos of you guys performing in Europe in the early days. What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever stayed on the road?
We tried to sleep in a swamp once. I can’t remember if it was outside of Belgium or the Czech Republic. We just had sleeping bags. This was early on; way back in the days when we couldn’t afford hotels. We slept in a truck stop one night on the ground and the trucks were too loud so we just walked off into the swamp until there was a patch where there were no trees. There were a lot of mosquitoes. I also once slept under the van on the side of a golf course. It started raining so we crawled under the van. We didn’t realize that water can also go sideways once it hits the road and all of our shit got wet.
Favorite part of ShipRocked 2025?
Favorite part of Shiprocked other than the set and the fans would be the frozen yogurt machine. I got a special relationship with that going on. It’s quite nice.
Who are your top five favorite artists?
The number one artist I like is Nick Cave. Australian. Amazing. Mysterious. Ethereal. Dark as hell. If you were to ask ‘what are your top five albums,’ they would just be Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Last time I talked to you I asked about your must-pack items. You said all you brought were two T-shirts and sunglasses.
I brought three t-shirts this time, which is great.
Every time you’re on ShipRocked, I’ll have to ask how many t-shirts you brought.
That’s basically it. My wife helped me with packing this time. She’s like, ‘You need more, you need more.’ I’m like, ‘There’s a laundromat down there.’
Do you actually do laundry on the boat?
Yeah, we do. We’re clean boys. It’s nice also, mainly because our drummer, Ben, brought some snacks on the boat. As soon as he hopped on, he realized they exploded all through his bag. All his clothes are dirty. Good times!