Issue 503

Parkway Drive Psychologically one of the highest forms of intelligence is creativity. By definition it is the ability to produce something original of high quality and to recognise and develop a novel approach. When analysing 'Deep Blue' the third album from the Byron Bay Metalcore juggernaut that is Parkway Drive, it's abundantly clear that the band has expanded their abilities, especially in terms of the song writing process. Constructing a narrative first, the quintet adopted the challenge of writing the music around the aforementioned concept and from that mission, produced in all probability the record of their career so far. This provides true testament that Parkway Drive can define their own creativity. "The concept for the record runs as a narrative the whole way through, it's not so much chapter based but it does follow a story from start to the end," vocalist Winston McCall explains. "Instead of doing an album that revolved around topics and everything twirling around that, I wanted to have an album that was a story with a beginning, middle and an end. If you read the whole thing through you can follow it through the music and the feel of it and the words all work in order, it was quite a challenge to do in that sense because we had to write it in a different way and we had to have all the songs in order when we first came to do it and it was a task but that was the idea, to make it a task instead of just following the same old formula." 'Deep Blue' follows a story through the eyes of a man who wakes up and realises that his life is a lie and nothing he believes in is real. As a result, his journey takes him to the bottom of the ocean and back again in a bid to try to find the truth within him. Although an abstract tale of sorts, the vision was very transparent to lyricist and vocalist McCall, so much so that he undertook the complicated task of directing the first film clip from the album, the track Sleepwalker. "Directing isn't really something I have always aspired to do, although it was awesome to do. It more came around out of necessity; I generally have pretty bizarre visions of things when it comes to this band, luckily when it comes to writing lyrics and doing vocal stuff I am in complete control of that. But when it comes to the visual side of things it's kind of hard to tell someone what we have in mind. So instead of allowing someone to film it for us and us constantly observing and telling them what we want, we thought why not do it ourselves. "So we did all the filming and editing and learned a hell of a lot, but it was cool to express ourselves in another medium but at the same time it was very stressful. The whole story for the clip came from me and that's why we couldn't give it to anyone else because I have trouble explaining everything about it. I had a vision in mind for it, but the clip or imagery revolves around the first three songs on the record in a more literal sense than lyrically. Basically, it was a project designed for difference; we didn't want another film clip of a band playing with a crappy storyline. I'm definitely no Scorsese though, I think I'll stick to yelling at people, I seem to be pretty good at that," he laughs. After completing a full stint on the infamous Vans Warped Tour in America this year, the five-piece have finally returned home and are about to embark on yet another mammoth tour of their home nation. There is no doubting that the group's rise to prominence has been exponential since their humble beginnings, but with the ascension also comes rumours which needed to be clarified. One being that Keith and Jordan Buckley, vocalist and guitarist for Buffalo based Southern Metalcore outfit Every Time I Die are in fact Winston's cousins. And secondly that at a recent show in Russia, one crazed audience member set himself on fire. "I'm not confirming or denying the cousins one (laughs), just so I can keep that going. But yes in Russia one guy in the crowd deliberately set himself on fire! It was so insane, I'm not sure if it was a good thing or bad, but suddenly there was this guy on fire in the middle of the pit. We just kept playing obviously but we looked at each other like in complete confusion and shock. He came up to us after the show and asked us if we saw him and we were like: 'Yeah it was kind of hard to miss dude'. Parkway Drive will be performing at the Adelaide Uni Cloisters on Sat 2 Oct. 'Deep Blue' is out now through Resist Records. By Will Oakeshott