Parkway Drive Interview Part 111

Parkway Drive has now turned into your job. When was it that you actually quit your job to be a fulltime "musician"? And what kind of a feeling was that? And on a side note, what are your thoughts on the flock of bands that now start off with the objective of being a "fulltime band" by decking out their myspace, doing promo pics and printing merch before they have even played a show?

It became our job when we first went over seas. At that point it basically became impossible to hold down a job in Byron as well as doing the band and going OS. It was a weird feeling. This has never felt like a job, but to have the band become our only source of income was both a bit crazy and at the same time a bit daunting. I'm not a musician. I'm just a kid who likes playing shows and is lucky enough to be in the position to play enough that i can travel and support myself and my family.

I guess shit has changed pretty quick in this "scene" but your right, there is definitely a growing flock of people trying to make a band with the primary goal of making money. For me it’s kind of like reading the Motley Crue book, "The Dirt". They started that band to be rock stars. That’s it. To me, rock stars and hardcore are at the two opposite ends of the scale. All the promo, all the bulletins, all the merch and all the hype can never replace true substance and heart and there are so many bands that still don't get it. The sad thing is everyone can see right thought that kind of shit and more often than not it just comes back around to kick them in the face.

For me this whole experience has never been about anything more than doing what i love and having fun. I play music that i enjoy. I have a goal to express myself though this medium and live my life. That’s’ it. That’s all this is. Everything else that has happened just happened. I’m not going to complain or say that its shit and i wish we still played to twenty kids a night, because honestly, i don’t really care, i still have the same feeling playing on stage and going to shows that i did when we first started. The day that feeling dies is the day i walk away from this band.



For a fulltime band that obviously has to spend lots of time around each other, you guys really do still get along well.
I know that it would change from day to day but do you ever feel like, "fuck this" and just don’t want to get on that stage.
Like guitarists can get up and play on a night they are not that excited, but for you as the "front man" and the singer, you have to remain (at least to others) upbeat and charismatic, and put on a show for the payers.
How do you do this day in day out? Or like you said in your previous answer do you genuinely enjoy what you do?


It's actually easy. I work pretty much in two ways. Playing on stage is my outlet. It’s the only way i get all my negative, pissed, fucked up shit out of my head. The person on stage is pretty much the only thing keeping the person off stage alive and sane. Anyone that knows me knows im totally different off stage. Basically i'm a shy, anti social, misanthropist in every day life. The only way i can keep my head in line is by let the other shit out, but like i've said before, that’s what hardcore has always been about for me.


So basically there is no real need to "perform" or whatever. I get as much out of playing as people do that are watching me. Still i can't say that there has never been a time i didn’t want to play and had to. It's fucked when it happens. If my head isn't in the right place then its sooooo awkward having to play songs that normally mean so much to me but for some reason or another don't apply at that point in time.


You guys are killing it worldwide at the moment and its only getting bigger and bigger, but there has to be a time when things start to drop off a bit and crowds get a little smaller. Have you guys talked about what to do when this does eventually happen? Like i know Graham probably has a business plan for you, haha, but what i love is that you guys just do what you do and don’t give a fuck about what anyone else is doing.

Yeah we've talked about it a bit. We have plenty of theories, but it’s kind of hard to even imagine. I mean not imagine parkway going down, but imagine what we'd fell like doing when it happens. It’s weird because every day that passes, every show you rock up at you’re just waiting for the fall, because to be honest i've been waiting for it for years, but for some reason we keep going up. Its great but kind of unnerving at the same time and i guess it makes everything all the more uncertain, because the longer we spend doing the band, the older we get and the more options get shut down to us due to age, education and circumstances. It’s weird.



Your right in saying we don't give a fuck, because we never have, so i'd love to say that we'll be doing this forever no matter what, but i think travelling and being in such close confines with the same group of minds and personalities changes your perspective pretty dramatically. What was great for you last year may not be so great the next. That being said we're lucky we are all still such good friends and are still stoked on life. I still love what i do, love hardcore, love records, love shows and love my friends, and for me that's never going to change.


What would Winston McCall be doing right now if the hardcore band he started with his mates to play shows at the local Youth Centre didn’t blow up and end up taking him all over the world touring and playing shows to thousands of poeple?
And, what do you see for yourself in the future after the band is said and done?

I’d be at uni, doing god knows what and getting barrelled at tallow’s i guess hahaha, but seriously i honestly couldn't say. I can remember being at a bit of a loose end before parkway came along. Touring just gave me something to do that i wouldn't have had otherwise, and then it slowly took over.




After the band im not sure. we're going to be seriously behind the eight ball when it comes to any kind of employment qualifications. I guess we could all be pretty fucked, especially being from Byron, but we'll see what happens. I’ll start another hardcore band. Not sure what anyone else will do.


Parkway Drive, the house, and the people behind it. How big a part of the band and Byron Bay Hardcore in general has the Parkway house and The Gordon Family been? From jamming there, to just hanging out there, to even having a couple of shows there. And also housing pretty much every touring band that has been through Bryon/Qld.(As well as your parents place!)


A huge part. like I’ve said in plenty of interviews before, there is a reason we named the band what we did. That place is our home, and has been the home of many BBHC bands before us. We hung out there, jammed there, helped build what we could of it and had the occasional show there. The Gordon family have done so much for this band and the Byron scene in general, i highly doubt anyone will ever be able to comprehend it. Between the Parkway house and my parent’s house, they pretty much enabled every band that has ever come to our small little town to be able to stop and play instead of just passing through to Brisbane or Sydney.



We had some great shows in that house. I’m not sure if Restraint ever played? I think you did, but Parkway, Think Straight, Shoot To Kill, Blueprint For A Nightmare, IKTPQ, Shot Point Blank, Comeback Kid and i think some other bands all smashed that room at one point or another during the years


Jed Gordon, the man, the myth, the legend, and for the past few years your Tour Manager/Lighting Guy.
How is the Chode? Is he still hanging in there or is he hating life? And how is it to travel through numerous countries with him? and when times are tough is it easy just to write him off and have a laugh again?




hahaha ummm, maybe not the best tour to ask me that question. He's done his part in the band over the years. He's fat, he's useless, bar lights and yes we laugh at him. He’s a good mate, but a shit worker. Travelling with him is stressful, funny, and smelly. He has some foul body odours. Still mates though.



Ok, word association time. Tell me the first things that come to mind when you read these words?

Sugar- Brain

San Diego- The fucking wave house!!!!!

Touring- Heaven and hell

Home- Jess and kitten

Desmond- Jeff

Graz- Newtown


Alright, let’s finish this up. I know your memory is about as good as mine, but what are some highlights from the last few years that you will never forget? And what does the future hold for Parkway Drive? New album? DVD? Limited edition 43 colour split 7"? haha


Everything is a highlight. I never could have imagined i would have seen so much of the world or experienced the things i have. I would never have thought that i would meet some of my closest friends on the other side of the planet. Being in this band, travelling with my friends, playing shows and doing shit from the ground up, our way, has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. Sleeping in car parks and in fields. Eating nothing but raw corn for four days straight. Getting caught in floods and tornados. Living life. It’s crazy.

The future is a hard one to predict. Everything changes so quickly. I’m surprised we've lasted this long let alone still having new kids listen to us. We're just going to keep what we're doing until we breakdown completely. Releases wise we're working on a DVD documentary thing. We have filmed EVERYTHING we have experienced in the bands existence and it's pretty interesting so we're going to try and make that ourselves. Another challenge I’m looking forward to. We're also starting to write again slowly, but we're going to try to make a couple of changes to the way we write, see if we can mix it up a bit this time. 43 colour split7" fuck yeah lad hahaha. Nah seriously I’d love to release something on Vinyl, but i doubt the other guys really care hahaha. Ah well.

On the whole i just want to keep playing shows. We played ieper fest in Belgium last night and it was one of the craziest things i've ever seen. basically it just made me smile and think, i love hardore, i love playing in this band with my friends and i'm going to do this until my voice is destroyed and i can't stage dive anymore.... then I’m going to learn bass hahaha.

U.S.A

(edit- Parkway Drive are out on tour right now in the states, so instead of trying to conclude part 111 of the interview with Winston i will wait till he is home)

2 days ago i returned home from my first trip to the United States of America.
It was a pretty crazy trip, but instead of trying to break it right down iam just going to post some random thoughts and pics.
Here goes;

-Burritos are great in California, i ate alot of them.













-The flowrider is also great, if i lived in San Diego i would go there every day.
(and then maybe i would be able to actually surf the fucking thing and not have to ride a bodyboard.




-We bodysurfed the Wedge at a solid 6 foot and it was great but we got fucked up.




-The weather too was also great. i was meant to get tattooed but barred it cause i wanted to go to the beach every day.




-Sound and Fury was a long fucking weekend but some great fucking sets went down (Trash Talk, Violation, Rise and Fall, Trapped Under Ice, Terror, Alpha & Omega, Bitter End, Blacklisted and Ceremony to name but a few GREAT ones)
We got a good response but played like fucking shit and iam still pissed off about it.



-Thanks to my brother Todd, for putting my band on his fest and making me after a solid 5 years of saying "ill be there this summer" actually be there this summer

-Santa Barbara/ Carpinteria was great. Going surfing with Derek and Chris Violation ruled, even though it was tiny.

-Corey Williams, Greg Bacon and Adam Riser are men amonst men. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.

-It was good to catch up with old friends or recently made ones

-I even met some new people who i actually got along with (Bo, Luis, Edgar, Joey, Josh, and iam sure iam missing some) which dosent happen often, if Bo Thomson and i lived on the same side of the world things would be wild.

-I enjoyed baseball alot more than i thought i would. However there was no fight or home runs hit at the game i went to. 2 things i would of liked to of seen(in that order).



-Tijuana was great. Carlos and Rene rule as do Forfeit and Foundation. I want to travel through ALL of mexico one day.



-I got my first ever razor blade shave in Tijuana and it was great!

Parkway Drive Interview Part 11

Ok, lets change pace a little here. Personally for you as a young kid growing up in the beautiful town of Byron Bay, what attracted you to hardcore? As in what bands, records, etc, and also what attracted you to the ideals behind hardcore, and further off shoots of that, straightedge and vegetarianism?

For me it came from punk, which came from surf video's and the radio. I can remember hearing these songs that were so fast and so intense that they just stood out from everything else. I started listening to the music i heard on certain surf vid's, bands like pennywise, front end loader and of course, throwdown. Then i heard bad religion. Basically i heard a band that sounded like these bands that had taken over my world, but the singer was throwing out these words and ideas and concepts that were so intelligent i just couldn't get my head around it. They made me actually want to pick up a book and have a look at the ideas they we're putting out there. I guess that's when i found the idea behind punk, and i went back and took the time to read the lyrics of these bands that i was listening to and find out what they were about. It was great to realise there was so much more than just a sound but someone that actually gave a fuck and encouraged open minded thought.

From punk my musical influence just spread and spread until it hit hardcore. Once again i started hearing these sounds that we're new to me, mainly being faster, rawer, and more intense. It was a challenge to get my head around, and i've always loved a challenge. Bands like throwdown lead to raised first, which lead to strife, which lead to new friends with a whole stack of shit i had never even heard of.

By this time i was in high school and some of life's reality’s were hitting home, especially regarding the beautiful town i lived in. Unemployment, lack of future options, racism, homelessness and street violence all of a sudden became a lot clearer to me, and i guess i found out it isn't the perfect place the tourist brochure's tell you about. I guess it lead me to ask the question, "how can this beautiful little town get so fucked up?" Basically the problem's i came up with were the same things these bands were confronting. I guess it just made me feel a little better to know that it wasn't just me that gave a fuck about a fucked up world.

Straight Edge for me came from Strife, Ten Yard Fight, Earth Crisis and Pitfall. It was something i had no idea about. How the fuck do you live without getting drunk? At the time i was 17 and i had just started drinking after years of telling my friends I'd rather be surfing. The new experience was amazing to me and i got fucked up as much as i could, which later lead to me fucking up my education and becoming very ill. I'll blame that one on my Irish heritage. Anyway i can remember laughing about it when i first heard what it stood for. Two years later, I was done with wasted nights. The idea of keeping my brain cells and memory seem too logical to deny.

I've been vegetarian since birth and i wouldn't have it any other way, except i hate veggies and they taste shit. But pasta and tofu are good.


Do you recall if it was a single show, or maybe a band's record that made you think to yourself, "hang on, i could do this, i want to be in a band"? Am i right in saying the first hardcore band in Byron was Think Straight? If not who was it? and iam sure they were friends which made the idea of being in a band of your own not seem like an impossibility, and also how supportive was the whole Byron Bay hardcore scene in these early stages?


It was a show. DOC and Mindsnare on the gold coast. I think it was 2001 but i may be wrong. Anyway, it was less of a , "hey i could do this" feeling, and more just me seeing how young DOC were and seeing how crazy Mindsnare went that made me actually "want" to do something.

Your right in Think Straight being the first hardcore band to come out of Byron, and seeing them play definitely influenced the way i saw hardcore on a whole as more accessible than any type of music i had ever heard before. The only down side to seeing my friends play was realising how shit i was at playing any kind of musical instrument (and i still am). I realised early on that all hope was lost in that department, no matter how simple the chords or beats where.
The Byron scene on a whole has always been supportive, although with all the write offs that go down i can see how people can think it appears otherwise. Back then it was very very small. One band. No venue. Halls or parties were the only places to play in Byron and not too many people cared outside of our very small community. For years it remained small, we went to whatever shows we could. Most of them Think Straight were playing. Most of them we had to sneak in somehow due to being under age. We got whatever lifts we could to get to the venues, which included Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Ipswich. It's all blown up pretty huge now. Lot's of faces i have never seen before and far less that strike me as familiar, but i've kind of noticed that nation wide.



You just touched on it, but how do you feel about the current popularity of hardcore in Australia at the moment? With bands selling out the roundhouse and other larger venues.
But with this rise in numbers, gone are the days of pulling up to a venue and playing to a room of familiar faces.
Obviously there are good and bad points from this, what are your thoughts?





I think the rise in popularity goes hand in hand with the rise of the internet and the availability of music. Before the net came along you couldn't find records anywhere other than a few select shops, therefore the amount of people listening and being exposed to hardcore outside the scene itself was tiny. Basically unless you stumbled into one of these stores or your friend showed you a band you had no exposure at all, where as nowday's records are everywhere, band video's are on TV and every man and his dog are wearing a shitty Ramones shirt. All you have to do to hear something new is browse though myspace or track down a band from a friends personal page. A bit different from mixed tapes and mail orders. To be perfectly honest i think it is only a very very small portion of kids at these giant shows that actually have a clue what hardcore is about, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure there are less familiar faces and the rooms are huge but it's like fun, and everyone knows that with the rise comes the fall. It's only a matter of time. I say enjoy something different while it lasts, cause you know when shows go back to being small rooms of friends, the kids that were complaining in the first place will be gone anyway. Plus it's only crazy for a few bands anyway. Hardcore shows still go on like usual. It's pretty simple. Parkway somehow has got to the stage where playing the arthouse just can't happen. We've thought about it and tried to work out a tour with small personal venues, but the thing is we'd have to play the same venue several nights in a row, we'd be fucked, and the shows would end up full of people saying "why is this venue so shit". So basically fuck it. We still try and play hardcore shows. We try and play the most personal venues possible for us, which these days means a barrier, which sucks, but what the fuck else are we supposed to do? And we still play with hardcore bands. In case people don't know or haven't realised yet, we are in the unique position of being able to bring bands form overseas to tour with us, which means we can bring friends and bands that kids in Australia might miss out on seeing, and for us it means bringing good hardcore bands. So there it is, there's a positive and a negative to every situation.


Thats awesome that you guys are in the position to do that, and i know that The Warriors and Have Heart have already benefited from it (as well as Her Nightmare, No Apologies, Antagonist and Break Even among alot of others). What other bands would you like to see make it to our great country. And what bands in general over the past 5 or so years have kept you siked on the core? Whether it be just by hearing their record, or seeing them play in some weird venue in Germany.




This is Hell and Rise and Fall for starters, but as you know i'm just a fifth of the band and there is a lot of difference in our musical taste. Both of the bands are really good friends and both are amazing hardcore bands so hopefully we can bring them out at some point in time, if they don't make it here by themselves firstly.

There has been too many bands keeping me sane over the years through both their music and their friendship so i'll role off a few. Internal Affairs, Down to Nothing, Have Heart, The Warriors, Rise and Fall, Knuckledust, Sick Of It All, Madball, Terror, This Is Hell, Comeback Kid, Most Precious Blood, Ringworm, 108, The Hope Conspiracy, Bury your Dead, Converge, Evergreen Terrace, 50 Lions, and god knows how many more.

Probably the best and most lasting live shows or bands i have seen have been from two bands.

No 1. RISE AND FALL

The first time I saw these guys was at Eiper Fest in Belgium a few years ago. Seriously, hearing these guys on record and seeing them live are two different things entirely. The loudest, the heaviest and the most intense band i have ever seen. We've played with them a fair bit since and they are great friends, but seriously, very time i see them it feels like my chest is about to explode. They are just so fucking hectic.

No. 2 HAVE HEART

We played with these guys in a tiny Club in Japan purely out of chance. To be honest I never saw what the hype was about with these guys. Then they played, and holy shit, what a fucking hardcore band. These guys are so young, so honest, and carry so much passion and integrity i feel very very bad for not taking the time to get into these guys earlier. Seriously good dudes and one of the best hardcore bands i have ever witnessed.

Ok, back to Parkway Drive. You guys have been out on the road for at least 3/4's out of the year for the past few years, How hard do you find it being away from your home and loved ones? I know that it must be tough, but does the one thing that helps you to get through it is knowing the fact of how fortunate you are to be in such a position to see the world for free, travel with your mates and play shows all over the place?

This year has been the easiest out of the last 3, simply because we worked so hard that we are now in the position to be able to plan our tours bit better as apposed to just jumping on whatever we can. We've tried the rough approach of month on, month off, and it seems to be working well. Up until then i was pretty much at the end of my rope. Tour is great but to be honest it was breaking me apart as a person. I love hardcore and being in this band so much, but at the same time I love my girlfriend and leaving her on the other side of the world for months on end while i go and travel just mad me feel ill. We all realise how lucky we are to be doing what we are doing, and we are all to aware that it wont last so that really does keep us running. I don't think any of us would have guessed our lives would turn out this way but it is one of those things that you have to take while the chance is there. Life is strange i guess.

Of all the places that you are lucky enough to have travelled, which are some favourites? and over the last few years what are some shows that stick out in your mind?
Also, tell the readers some things that Parkway get up to on off days.




Favourite places would be, in no particular order, Greece, Scotland, Russia, Venice, Rome, France, OC and Japan. Show wise, let me think. We've played so many its hard to pin point these days. Pretty much every show we've played in London has been ridiculous. The Underworld is probably the best venue in the world. The last show we played in Koln, Germany was completely mental. Kids jumping of the speaker stacks, a couple of girls flying into the drums and the whole kit exploding rolling stones style and kids swinging from the lighting rig. That was a good one. There was another stupidly crazy show on the last Never Say Die tour with comeback kid.we played in some little town in italy. The stage was tiled so it was like ice skating. The was about six or seven hundred kids in this tiny room and you could just roll around on top of them. Like i said it too hard to pick. Every show that kids rush the stage is crazy.We've tried to make a point of seeing as much of the world as we can through playing in the bands. The first year of touring in Europe we drove ourselves and saw and did some crazy shit. We crossed over the French alps, went thought the highlands in Scotland, hung out in Venice for a night, cruised around Rome and Athens and saw other crazy shit. Other than the standard sight seeing stuff we still try and hit the water as much as we can. We get to surf a bit with whatever boards we can. The first few times we surfed the wedge in California it was huge and we didn't have gear so we stole some food trays from Del Taco and surfed them. it worked pretty good. Oh yeah i jumped of a 40 metre bridge in the states somewhere. stoked i'm still alive. Oh yeah the other great thing is breaking into a water park in the states at midnight and turning all the rides on. That was some of the craziest shit we've ever done. We almost died.

Hoya Roc (Madball, Hazen St, Skarhead, Dmize, DMS)

1- Madball, never put out a bad record, in your own words "when everyone else started singing ohh ahh's we just wanted to be harder", thats fucking great! haha. Whats your favourite MB record? Favourite songs? and some shows that have stood out for you over the years?

WELL MY FAVE MADBALL REC IS DMS,,,HOLDIT DOWN ,,AND INFILTRATE THE SYSTEM,,,I THINK THOSE RECORDS REPRESENTED WERE NYHC WAS AT THE TIME YOU KNOW,,,SET IT OFF IS FIRST SONG I WROTE FOR MADBALL,,SO THATS MY FAV TRACK,,AND THE FUCK SLAPSHOT SONG TOO !! AHAH...THERE SO MANY GREAT SHOWS,,WE HAD ALOT CLASSIC SHOWS IN OZ...AND SOUTH AMERICA IS OFF THE HOOK...


2- NYHC, you grew up in the midst of it, who were some of your favourite bands at the time both on record and live? Who were the craziest fuckers in the pit? and did shit ever get scary?

MY FAV BANDS WERE AGNOSTIC FRONT,,RAW DEAL...LEEWAY ..CROMAGS...BREAKDOWN...REST IN PIECES..MY FAV ALLTIME FAV BAND IS BLACK SABBATH..!AS FAR AS THE PIT...SO MANY NUTS THEN..MINUS OLD SINGER FROM MARAUDER,,HE USE TO DANCE WITH A MONKEY WRENCH ON HIS HANDS AHAH..SHIT USE TO BE REAL CRAZYY,,AND SCARY,,BUT IT WAS FUN!

3- DMS Vs the Bra Boys, who would win in a no holds cage match? haha

DMS WINS...!!!!THEY GOT ABS...WE GOT KNOCK OUT POWER !!HAHA
I LIKE WHAT THOSE GUYS DO OUT THERE,,KINDA LIKE US,,,BUT NOT AS GOOD LOOKIN,,AND NO SPEEDOS HHAA

4- I am a movie star now, but when are you going to be in a film that dosent go straight to DVD? haha, But seriously is acting something you would like to do more of in the future?

AHAAH WELL FUCK U AND AHAHA...YEHH WERE ALL TRYING TO DO MOVIE THING,,,,ITS SOMETHING FOR FUN..AND WHO KNOWS I MIGHT BE THE NEXT ANTONIO BANDERAS !!

5- You have toured the world for years, what are some of your favourite destinations and why? and where will you retire?

ILL NEVER RETIRE,,ILL STOP WHEN PEOPLE SAY MY MUSIC IS WACK

YOU KNOW WE LOVE PLAYIN OZ...SOUTH AMERICA,,GERMANY..HOLLAAND ESP !! AHAA...ANYWERE WERE THE KIDS FEEL WHAT WE DO
LAST WORD FOR IS
PETE YOU SCUMBAG

Parkway Drive Interview Part 1

Ok, here goes. This is part 1 of what will be a 3 part interview with my good mate and Parkway Drive singer, Winston McCall. For future reference during this interview here are some abbreviations and alias's to help you understand what the hell we are talking about.
Pig= Luke
Gaz= Ben
Pie= Jia
Chode= Jed
Jbocc= an abbreviation for Jeff and Berwin's Original Call Crew ( a tough crew of ugly heads)
Youthy= The Byron Bay Youth Centre
Enjoy



Lets start right back at the beginning, who's idea was it to start the band?, i know that you were all in other bands at the time also, so how did the first line up come about? Who were your influences at this point? and what, if any goals did you set for yourselves?

I think it was a combination of myself and Gaz at the start. we'd both done hardcore bands before and just wanted to try something a little different. The idea at the time was just to try and be as heavy as we possibly could. We knew it would sound more metal but all we had as a reference for sound was the hardcore bands we knew. Neither of us listened to metal, (and we pretty much still don't), and the whole "metalcore" thing hadn't blown up yet so we just tried, and wanted it to be heavy, but still come from as much of a hardcore background as we could. The next step was finding a guitarist that could actually play the kind of shit we wanted to do, and coming from Byron our options we're very very slim, and by slim i mean there was only one.

Some kid called Jeff who Gaz kind of knew that could apparently play heavy shit, knew a bit about hardcore and wore tracksuit pants a lot. We jammed with him a couple of times. He was metal, real shit metal. Everything was drenched in reverb and was pretty tripped out. We thought it might not work out, but after we told him reverb on everything sound like an echoing shit, he played some mental riff and we freaked out. We jammed with him a bit and another guy who was even more tripped out than Jeff, until we decided to ask our old mate pig if he wanted to play guitar with us too, which worked out well because pig wrote some great hardcore riffs and Jeff wrote some great metal stuff so the both taught each other i guess. We had no real goals, its was just for fun, its always just been for fun. I mean what the hell does a band from Byron Bay have to aim for anyway. For us, hardcore meant playing at the local youth centre and hanging with our few friends who liked doing the same.



Do you remember much from the first few practices? They would of been at Parkway (the house) right? and what do you remember about the first show? Did you have enough songs for a setlist and who was it with? Iam presuming it was at the Youthy?

Yeah kinda. it was pretty weird and rough. i can just remember thinking how strange it all sounded. we just started playing shit. Jeff was playing actual riffs which freaked us out because basically all we ever heard was power chords, so this was something strange for us. Plus the fact we chose to tune the guitars lower than anything we'd heard before, meant we were all in over our heads when it came to any kind of experience producing the sounds we wanted. I think shit actually came together pretty quickly because we ended up playing a show after only a few weeks but i may be wrong, i cant remember that well.

Our first show was at the youth centre with charred remains, shoot to kill and from these wounds. At the time Gaz was still drumming in STK (Shoot To Kill) so he played two sets, which was a charge. I can't remember much other than crafter being present, jeff wearing a huge Nike shirt and filthy tennis shoes, and me moshing out to my own band on stage. We played about 6 songs. It was pretty mental. Our mates moshed, chode ran through the pit and fly kicked the roller door. Meatdog was going crazy. All in all it was great. I can remember finishing and thinking how fucking fun it was playing a type of music that kids can just lose there shit to for an entire set, and not just certain parts. From these wounds headlined and showed everyone how to play real metal. Fuck they used to be good.


When was your first out of town show? Iam guessing it would of been in Brisbane during the peak of the infamous "NCHC", haha. I can imagine you all jumping into the piece of shit JBOCC van (like we did last week) and making the drive up to Brisbane. Did it feel like you had made it, or did you just take it as another show?


Not sure on the date but it was the famous Mary Street venue in Brissy. To be honest i Can't remember much about the entire show other than I was wearing a shitty Your Night Sky T-shirt (pigs old pop punk band). I don't think Jeff even owned his shit house van yet it was that long ago. I have no idea how we got up there. I think a whole crew of Byron kids scammed rides with everyone and we just did a big convoy of cars. It didn't really feel like we'd "made it". To be honest there has never been a time when it's felt like that. Show's are just shows. I don't think the idea of hardcore and "making it" really. We never had a goal to get anywhere, but i guess we were stoked to play a show out of our home town. I think it was only our third show at that point so it was pretty cool.


At this point did you guys make a point to play as often as you possibly could wherever you could? Was there any sort of plan at all? Or were you just happy to play any show you could get on? Do you remember any shockers or good shows from this early stage?


We definitely made the point to play whenever we could we could but there was never any plan behind it all, we just like playing shows. It's all we had. When we started the band it was very very rare for Australian hardcore bands tour, let alone frequently, so the idea of doing the band as anything less than just something fun to do wasn't even bought into the equation. Every show back then was great (we still have only played a handful of shows the we actually didn't enjoy). The fact that we got to travel and go to shows was amazing. Every show our mates came to and destroyed everyone. I'm sure anyone that saw us in the first couple of years of our existence would have been smashed by at least one of them. It was great.

The first tour we ever did was with IKTPQ and we took a convoy of 2 vans, one being the newly purchased shitbox, the JBOCC mobile, and Paul Birds equally shit van. It was great. It took us three days to drive to Melbourne thanks to some shocking navigation. We played at the arthouse and in Melbourne and freaked out because mindsnare had played there. Strange fact about our show other Melbourne show, Kiss Chasey played between us and Prom Queen. The only kind of shocking show we played was in some dodgey club in brisbane to a handful of people. Kids sitting down and drunks trying to start fights. It was pretty shit other than our then 13 yeah old mate Haz( who now does our merch) cart wheeling into some dude holding a beer and almost cutting the dudes finger off. I think that was the first ever ambulance at a parkway show.


You touched on that your first tour was with IKTPQ, was this before or after the split with them was released? Did Parkway Drive ever record a demo? or were the songs on the IKTPQ split or the "What We've Built" Comp your first recorded songs? and which came first? What do you remember about entering a recording studio for the first time?

Yeah the tour with IKTPQ was just after the split cd came out, but we had a demo before that. It was a tape with a hand written lyric sheet jammed in the case and no cover. classy. This was before the days of mass cd burning and myspace. I think we only made about 20 copies. Some went to mates in Adelaide and Melbourne, the rest just circulated Byron. I think I still have one.

It had six songs on it I think. We recorded it on Jeff's shitty 4 track in the Parkway House. One take, everything all played at once. I think it sounded ok, but i can't remember that well. The songs later went on to be on both the Split and the "what we've built" comp, re recorded of course. The first time we ever went into the studio was for the split, but we recorded 7 songs and used them on both the Split and the Byron Comp. It was mental. We recorded in a town called Austonville (i think thats how you spell it), about half an hour west of Byron. The first day we drove there in Jeff's new van he freaked out and thought we we're lost and we're all going to die. Being in the studio was crazy. We had no idea what we we're doing and the guy recording had no idea what we wanted sound wise. He had only done some shitty new metal and Hippy stuff before so it was hard to explain that the vocals we're supposed to sound heavy and the guitars needed to just chug in certain bits. All in all it came out pretty well. It was a defining learning experience. The funniest thing i can still remember to this day is Jeff handing the engineer Hatebreed's "Perseverance", and saying i want it to sound like that hahaha.

My true friends, you mean the world to me, Your friendship means everything.

I spent the last week or so hanging with my mates in a band called Parkway Drive and it has got me to thinking. You would be hard pressed to find better people anywhere on this planet, and you would be hard pressed to find a better band.

They deserve every little bit of success that they are currently enjoying and the haters can say what they will, but Parkway Drive are the real deal.

I have begun work on an extensive interview with my good friend Winston who sings in the band, but his is not going to be another 5q's (the one he has previously done is already up, but there will be more NEW 5q's up soon i promise), i am going to try and start from the very beginning and cover everything the band has done and been through, so it may take a while, but it will be worth the wait.

Hardcore All Stars

My last post got me to thinking, what if you could pick a band made up of your favourite players, to all join forces and write and play music together.

How awesome would that be?

Todd, Nick and Scott would all be my first pick's from the 2000's thats for sure, but thinking more about it, its too fucking hard to try and pick 1 band.

Comment me who would make up your band, but here is a list of dude's that can get you started to choose from.

FRONT MEN

John Joseph

HR

Ian MacKaye

John Brannon

Mike Judge

Ray Cappo

Chaka Malik

Anthony Comunale

Jeff Perlin

Roger Miret

Freddy Madball

Civ

Diwd

Human Furnace

Scott Vogel

GUITARISTS

Dr Know

Paris

AJ Novello

Matt Henderson

Porcell

Gavin Van Vlack

Vic Dicara

Walter

Frank Novinec

Mike Dijian

Todd Jones

Pete Bursky(no shit)

BASS PLAYERS

Craig Setari

Hoya Roc

(its only out of these two so pick one!)

DRUMMERS

Mackie

Earl Hudson

Armand Majidi

Alan Cage

Nick Jett

Even just making this list was hard.

I know i have missed people, so let me know who i did miss, and who would make up your band.