Parkway Drive Frontman Says Heavy Music Is 'Belittled' In Australia

Parkway Drive are one of the biggest heavy bands to ever come out of Australia, but according to frontman Winston McCall that genre of music is still not appreciated locally. 

Appearing on the latest episode of The Green Room with Neil Griffiths podcast to promote Parkway Drive's new documentary Viva The Underdogs, McCall discussed why he thinks the Byron Bay outfit will always be seen as the underdogs in Australia.

"The thing that always pisses me off is how many people love this music. This isn't just Parkway, this is any kind of music that's seen as alternative or heavy or extreme - there's hundreds of thousands of people in Australia that listen to this kind of music and it is still belittled in a comedic way," McCall told host Neil Griffiths.

"It's always seen as, like, that weird thing and 'They make the screaming noises!' and it's like the caricature.

"That's the thing that annoys me because I think there is so much more substance in so much of this music than there is in most of the thing that is given credit as being artistic."

Parkway Drive have continued to go from strength to strength in recent years. As well as their last two records debuting at #1 on the ARIA Albums chart - 2015's Ire and 2018's Reverence - the group headlined the 2019 Good Things Festival last December and are scheduled to play some of their biggest shows in Australia to date later this year.

The five-piece have three ARIA nominations to their name and two wins ( the inaugural Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album in 2010 with Deep Blue and 2018 with Reverence).

"There's award shows dedicated to the artistry of music and when you see some of the things that are put up there as art, you're like 'This isn't art. This is commerce. This is literally made to make money and is devoid of human emotion,'" McCall continued.

"It comes down to commerce. It really does. This is a massive rant but at the end of the day I don't understand the idea of separating art into categories in terms of recognition in the first place. There's a best album of this and a best album of that... at the end of the day, it's all an expression of human emotion and they're all valid in their own way.

"I listen to plenty of pop music, I listen to plenty of dark music, happy music, weird music, dissonant music... it's all valid in different ways."

Check out the full The Green Room episode with McCall on Spotify, Apple Podcasts (below) or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.

Parkway Drive's new documentary, Viva The Underdogs, will be available for rent or purchase on Amazon, iTunes, Google or Vimeo from 24 April.