Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Appreciating Aussie Metal With WINSTON McCALL From PARKWAY DRIVE

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Appreciating Aussie Metal With WINSTON McCALL From PARKWAY DRIVE · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  So I'm wincing from Parkway Drive. This is my lego connection. This is
• 0:05
  a heavy bag. Yeah, thanks for sharing, but I feel so privileged.
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  Yeah, Hell's life brother, Yeah good good. Definitely can't complain at
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  this point in time. We've got big things going on. It's really cool,
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  you know. Speaking of big things, one of those is that Parkway
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  Driver, amongst five nominees that this year's APRA Music Awards for the most Performed
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  Hard Rock Heavy Metal category, which is also a brand new addition to the
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  annual awards made So firstly, just being nominated to represent Australian heavy metal must
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  be a great feeling and a huge honor. Yeah, man, it's sick.
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  It's awesome that they've added that category as well. Like, I mean,
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  awards are humbling in general. I'm really stoked that it's just like for
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  more recognition for our scene and community. Bullstop, because right now it just
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  seems like it's honestly bigger than it's ever been. And the more that we
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  can do to like to push that forwards and make people recognize it is the
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  better, the better for it. Like trust to get an award, sweet,
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  I'm stoked the award exists and that it's with a bunch of really really
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  cool bands. So that's sick. Got going off topic a little bit actually,
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  mate, Like you mentioned the fact that Australian music is getting bigger,
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  Like you guys are in a position where you are playing all around the world,
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  So is that ground throw something that you can feel overseas like people talking
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  more about not just yeah, yeah, in terms of like just heavy music
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  like from Australia. It's hard to come back home and tell people the perspective
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  that we are seeing as it's quality, Like people see Australia and heavy music
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  as quality, like there's literally this if it's from Australia, it is good.
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  That's what. That's what. That's literally there's a slag, it's so
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  yeah, yeah, it's it's really really cool. Like you interviews I do
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  where people are just like, what's in the water over there? And I'm
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  like, well, there's a hell of a lot of water between us and
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  you, and that's kind of where it starts. Like you do it because
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  you love it, and that's and that makes for something that's just not done
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  for anything other than passion, which is where the quality comes in. So
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  yeah, it's cool. It's it's really good and it's and it's just getting
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  bigger and better. Like you watch the bands just climbing, just climbing in
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  general, and yeah, it warms your heart sick. So back to the
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  AFROS mate, Like the other nominees are Polaris, Alpha Warf, The Amity
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  Affliction and King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard. Like it's a stiff competition there,
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  bro like it's going to be hard to sort of hard to see someone
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  get up. Yeah, it's sick, just full stop, Like look at
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  that, Like, I mean, it's so rad that we can have such
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  good bands doing such good stuff at this point in time. That's the thing
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  that's what makes me stoked. Like, yeah, stiff competition and that's the
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  way it should be. And yeah, when it's like that, it should
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  it should be an award for it. It's really really cool. Everyone's everyone's
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  crushing it right now, Like it's yeah, I mean you're talking to someone
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  who is obviously very excited just in general, but it's for good reason.
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  Like it's like there's a lot of really cool stuff going on in Australia with
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  heavy music at the moment. I really think it's just where it's like there's
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  there's a big ground swell. It's been building over the years and right now
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  it seems to be like as high as it's ever been. So yeah,
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  that ground swell is so big mate that it's like the good on Apple for
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  doing this, but it's pretty much force their head to do it. Then
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  the music has been that strong that they've had to do it, which is
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  and that's I mean, that's works. It shows that like at the at
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  the base of that, the really cool thing is being involved in a in
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  a scene where a situation like that comes about because of the community behind it.
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  It's like an engaged scene of people who it's it's everyone pays attention to
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  everything's going on. Everyone supports everything, Like not every every scene is doing
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  as well as ours at this point in time, like post COVID, it's
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  been difficult, but I look out there and I see people who still care
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  about this music that is their passion and still support one hundred and ten percent
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  and look at where it is now, Like that's the thing that's great,
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  isn't It makes you proud to be Australian, doesn't it? Hell yeah,
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  yeah, Now you were mates with all of those bands that have been nominated
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  as well made. So I guess is it hard in a way to sort
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  of put your game face on and all abo ut for the same award or
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  did the clause come out and the competitive street comes in with something like this.
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  I haven't seen any of them since it's been announced. So we'll see
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  on the night. We'll see how how sharp my nails are. Now,
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  you guys are a busy bandmate, but will you be there on the night,
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  like he's going to take you away carpin? Hell? Yeah, I'm
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  turning up were address yourself? I'm not sure, man, I've got some
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  ideas, but we'll see how we go. Like I enjoy like look and
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  sharp in some way, shape or form, whether it's something that's going to
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  poke your eyes out at something that's just like nice lines either way. I
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  was thinking about that before because like heavy, it's never been invited this before.
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  But I'm going this year, and I'm looking around my wardrobe and I'm
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  going like, can't wear that not on whatever's on the floor. But like
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  I won't be like here, I won't wash my hair and dress up for
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  it. Yeah, there you go. It's I mean, I very rarely
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  do music awards, and I like these days, I'm kind of taking taking
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  the chance to do it because it's a really fun thing, like just hanging
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  out and chatting with people. And every time now that I've been giving the
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  opportunity, I'm like, no, I'm going to do it nice. So
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  we'll see how we go. You sent me a photo what you're wearing so
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  I can make sure that yeah head T shirt that's got the I was gonna
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  wear that shirt. They've never got a speech prepared just in case Meade or
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  are you sort of going to wing it on the night of sid w I
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  wing every thing if it happens, it happens. Like I know, I
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  know the people that I want to think, I always know. I mean
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  you, I'm very rarely one that's like tongue tied. I've not always there's
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  always something to say and to think. Yeah, I mean that's what that's
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  what I do. Like it's it's at the very least there's some really nice
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  people who have helped us out and we have a great community. I always
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  want to say things to you, So yeah, mate, Well, moving
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  away from the Aprons a little bit, you will also be home in September
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  maybe you kick off your twentieth anniversary tour, which starts in Brisbane on September
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  twentieth, Verse Thy Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth mates. So let
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  that digest for a minute. Twenty years man, Like that's a fucking good
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  effort. They have been digesting it for twenty years. It takes a while.
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  Yeah, it's nuts, like it's it's really it's really mad, like
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  I don't know, like it's it's it's this strange time war moment where I
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  really do remember just starting and not doing it for anything other than just like,
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  oh, let's just have some fun with this thing. Like it's the
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  idea was was never to last. Like we never had bands that went more
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  than like two years before doing Parkway, so we never like honestly, there's
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  there's a tape of that we have which we videoed on our first tour of
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  going what are you doing in five years time? And everyone said the band
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  was going to be done yea yeah, So so to do twenty years of
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  it and still have it growing is so it's nuts. But at the same
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  point in time, like you look back at the entire thing and like when
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  we first started doing it. I'm like, man, three hundred people in
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  the geek was like the wildest thing you've ever seen, and now it sold
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  out entertainment centers in forty eight hours. So that's that's that's that's like it
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  really is, like Jesus Christ, it's still going up. Yeah, man,
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  it's cool along those lines, I guess prob like I went first started
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  like say, you didn't expect to be around that long, but you still
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  would have set yourself goals and targets, I guess. But after twenty years
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  and having so much happened that you didn't expect, Like, do you still
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  set yourself goals or do you just want taken as it comes? No,
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  No, there's there's definitely goals. That's the thing. And I started doing
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  that like around around ten years in. I had to like go, all
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  right, this isn't just luck. Like you've got to give yourself a little
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  credit for ten years of practicing your craft. And that's when it all kind
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  of shifted and the planning and the goals and everything kind of came in.
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  And it's not something where like you hold on to it for dear life kind
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  of thing. I'm not someone who will if if it all stops tomorrow,
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  I'll be I'll be a happy human. That's the thing. But at the
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  same point in time, I said I said a long time ago, like
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  I see no reason to aim for being the biggest pen on the planet.
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  And it's like it's it sounds like a ludicrous thing to say. But at
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  the same point in time, when you keep hitting these milestones and there's no
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  there's nothing going backwards, why wouldn't you aim for bigger every single time?
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  Like it's not every time it goes to we hit a new level. It's
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  not something that I want to settle on because the connection that we have with
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  the people within our audience doesn't shrink, like, it doesn't go backwards,
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  and the more people that keep coming in, it's not like people are just
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  connecting with one part of our twenty year catalog they're collecting. They're connecting with
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  an entire history of this band, which is something that has a very solid
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  foundation, and it continues to grow and it grows exponentially. Like I mean,
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  the reality of the numbers that we did on our previous headline tour were
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  literally half as much as what we're going to be doing on this tour.
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  And this tour sold fifty times faster than anything we've done before. And I'm
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  just like, well, why wouldn't you like give me a stadium? Man?
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  That's me, give me, like why not? And it's the rest
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  of the band kind of have a little giggle when I say it. And
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  then this tour went on sale, and then they were like, oh,
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  Okay, maybe maybe we should take this, Maybe we shouldn't have a limit
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  on more raving for you. And I've been saying that. I sound like
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  an idiot, but I've been saying it, so let's just go that's it
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  great. Rather, I fully agree with you to mate, Like, if
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  you're not setting goals for yourself, what what's like really driving you at your
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  call? Yeah, that's it. I mean, the reality of it is,
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  we do. We're driven in the goal of wanting to continue the creation.
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  Like at the base of all this the art of the music. And
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  every time we write a record, it's like we put everything we have into
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  it, and for a few weeks we're like, oh my god, I
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  can't imagine writing another song again, and then all of a sudden, the
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  well is full and I'm just like calling up Jeff, going, hey,
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  man, you want a jam. He's like, yeah, I kind of
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  want to want to write some more music. And every time happens, it
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  all just starts over again and the evolution continues, and that goes with every
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  other creative endeavor that we have. But like where we want to play,
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  how we want to do it, how we envisage everything to do with the
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  band, and that just kind of is the organic way that it kind of
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  continues. And at this point in time, none of us a bit a
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  point where we're like, I'm done no more ideas that just one idea feeds
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  into fifty more. So it's more like we've got to wrote more people and
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  to help us create, to build the potential. Man, that's it now,
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  speaking of history made and then so many albums, so much music that
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  you guys have done, Like I think probably one of the hardest parts for
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  you is going to be choosing a set list, like people have to responsible.
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  What do you do? He's throwing darts at the board, like how
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  are you doing it? It's so hard, man, is real, it's
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  so hard, Like it's I don't know, we're figuring that out at the
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  moment, Like it's a it's a big challenge. It's a really big challenge,
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  that's the thing. So I don't know, we'll figure it out.
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  It's we have plans. I mean, I mean I know it's going to
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  be epic no matter what. Like we have some some plans in general where
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  we're already like, oh ship, that's going to be a moment. So
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  yeah, that's less less dartboards and more sniper rifles. I think we're definitely
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  more precise with how we want this to go down. Let's see. The
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  press release also makes mention of a brand new production for the tour mate,
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  So could you elaborate on that or do you want to keep something in the
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  chamber? Nah? Man, like keep that under the wraps. You know
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  what things you spoil you get it? Like, I mean, the thing
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  that's going to happen is after the first show, you're gonna have a bunch
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  of people with phone clips going, I'm god, this thing happened. But
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  but I at least like the idea of there being some theater to it of
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  I mean, it's a moment, man, I want everyone to come in
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  and like not quite know what it's going to be, but be there.
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  I makes sense, Like you know how it is the preview is good,
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  but sometimes you don't want Sometimes you just want to rock up and fill the
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  twist. One thing I can say is that you guys have always managed to
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  chop yourself when it comes to live shows and then your theatrics and what you
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  do, So good luck fucking do it this time, mate. Trust it's
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  it's underway. We know, we know what we're doing. It's fine,
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  and it's good. It's good. I'm just going to say it's good.
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  It's going to be a really really cool night. Like in general, I
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  just I know, I know the moments, and I know what we're trying
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  to do, and I know what that's going to give to people and give
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  to us. And that's exactly what twenty years is worth. Yes, brother,
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  And because fans are just getting Parkway drive on this tour, mate,
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  you're also taking I Prevail the Ghost Inside from the us of A and a
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  strained legends, void of vision for the ride made like it's a pretty awesome,
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  right I did? Did you handpick it yourself? Yeah? Yeah?
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  Everything, Yeah, with helps with help with the people we have behind the
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  scenes facilitators facilitating all of this. But yeah, yeah, we were stoked
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  on it. We just we wanted it to just be ah, there's always
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  a spot for an Australian band on a parkway bend to start with, which
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  is great. Avoid a vision have been like they have a vision like as
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  funny as it sounds like it's in the name, like just but right in
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  there. I really appreciate the effort those guys have put into their art form
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  full stop over the over the years that have been past, it's been really
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  really cool. So having then opened, it's great ghost inside, really really
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  great friends of ours and we've been on a long journey together over the years,
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  so it's really great to have them back and I prevail, Like I've
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  watch them a bunch of times at festivals over the last couple of years,
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  absolutely murdering it and the vibe that they bring is so awesome to be able
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  to. I love having a band that go on just before us. Who
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  can raise that that bar to like fever pitch, so you know it's going
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  to just explode when you hit and keep you well, you know that's that's
• 15:22
  it. Like I know we operate best when I when I'm warming up and
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  I watched the band before us, and I'm like all right, one hundred
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  and ten percent tonight is that's what I got to do? So all these
• 15:35
  guys off. Yeah yeah, it man, that's it like like it's it's
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  always something where you're just like, you know, when you've got to lift,
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  you've got to lift your game. And I love being pushed. And
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  I think credits should go out to you guys too, man like, because
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  you just did assemble that lineup, and to be honest with you, you
• 15:52
  could have put a backyard band from Sydney on all shows and you still would
• 15:56
  have sold out most of them. But you spend the extra money, you've
• 15:58
  got the bigger bands coming out sport. You say you're actually delivering a full
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  show to people, you know, like it's not just doing the basics,
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  you know, like you're going over and above, which is it's like it's
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  like I said, like I would have left everything up. I want to,
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  like I want I want everyone going to these shows to realize how big
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  this can actually be because we have a bunch like you look at not fast,
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  you look at good things, Like there's there's a bunch of really massive
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  swells in this scene right now that are happening and it's happening for Yeah,
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  it's happening for bands just playing their headlining gigs. But everything right now is
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  at a level that, I mean, the rest of the music industry outside
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  of our culture's subgenre would be damned jealous of right now. And for us
• 16:48
  to be able to put on an event of like of us being a band
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  that have been around through so much of these up and downs and have it
• 16:55
  be at such a high peak, I'm like, nah, do it right,
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  give everyone like the est event possible and that that's your twenty year present
• 17:03
  to the fans as well. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. And last
• 17:08
  I saw like most of the shows were on that's close to selling out,
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  all sold out of it? Have they all sold out yet or can people
• 17:14
  still get tickets? I think there's tickets two possibly Sydney up in the rafters
• 17:22
  and maybe Adelaide. Like I'm talking, it was ten's last time I checked,
• 17:26
  because I went on ticket Tech and I'm like, what's actually left for
• 17:29
  these things? And I'm like, well, you can bet one over there
• 17:30
  and you can get two over there. It's not it's not much. We're
• 17:33
  working on on second shows for a couple of the places, but like it's
• 17:40
  not going to be across the board, Like it's not just like everyone gets
• 17:42
  a second show, Like it was like we didn't expect it to go down
• 17:47
  like this for real, Like it's it's nuts. Like when this went on
• 17:51
  sale the same day that Splendor in the Grass like canceled and we're like,
• 17:55
  oh shit, and then we got the ticket sales number back and we're like
• 17:59
  we sold out. That it was your fault that spending guy canceled. Everyone's
• 18:02
  done it to you instead, So yeah, like it really like we're really
• 18:07
  humbled by the response to it, but it was something where it's kind of
• 18:11
  left us. I mean, and I never thought I'd be scrambling to pull
• 18:15
  together second shows for like ten and fifteen thousand cap venues. That's just ludicrous.
• 18:22
  So yeah, we can get them happening, that's great. And if
• 18:25
  not great, you want to be part of this, like you're can have
• 18:26
  to grab a ticket because where they will be gone? What's after that for
• 18:33
  Parkway Drive? Bro, you're gonna be doing international tour a you're gonna start
• 18:36
  your new album cycle we got before that. We're actually in Europe for festivals,
• 18:41
  which is great, So like we're going to be coming into this Australian
• 18:45
  into a real hot in terms of like well practiced, which is really good,
• 18:51
  and then we've got a bunch of other stuff after it. But we'll
• 18:52
  see, well, like we've been, we've been playing around with new music
• 18:56
  and stuff like that, and there's definitely gonna be new stuff coming from it.
• 18:59
  I'm not sure what capacity, but there's definitely new new things going it
• 19:07
  sounds, the things that we have cooking sound rad I just don't know.
• 19:11
  I just don't know what we're gonna do with them yet, that's the thing,
• 19:15
  and we definitely have like we have, we have plans as well,
• 19:17
  like this is I mean in the in the release for this really it's been
• 19:21
  five years since since we've done a proper headlining run in Australia, and that's
• 19:25
  due to a lot of ship but it's it's not something which we want to
• 19:27
  continue like that space of time. We want to be here a bunch more.
• 19:30
  We're very aware that we've been away from Australia a fair chunk and we're
• 19:36
  trying to turn our sites back to like not only just us touring in Australia,
• 19:40
  but like continue this momentum up I don't want to see that pendulum swinging
• 19:45
  back. I want, like I want this to kick to keep to keep
• 19:48
  going up until it's something that's so undeniable that nothing can knock it down.
• 19:52
  So yeah, yes, I'm gotta put the pressure on you here, bro,
• 19:53
  do you reckon you're going to give us a new song as a present
• 19:56
  on this tour? I don't think so actually, like you're already like what
• 20:00
  do you what do you I want this? If I want this one?
• 20:04
  Yeah, we played around with it, to be fair, we did play
• 20:10
  around with the idea, and we're like, nah, Like let's just there's
• 20:14
  enough to pick from already, and there's going to be a couple like down
• 20:18
  the line to give people new things right now, Like I mean, if
• 20:22
  people bought tickets, they've already bought tickets, just going I like what they've
• 20:25
  already created. So let's give them stuff that we've already created. And then
• 20:29
  I don't know, next time around, give you something, give you something
• 20:32
  a little bit different. Honest, you just haven't got enough darts, have
• 20:34
  you. That's why you're all right, thanks very much for your time that
• 20:42
  I might be an absolutely pleasure talking with your best of luck at the appas.
• 20:45
  Hopefully our outfits don't clash, but we'll catch up and say down there,
• 20:49
  Yeah, sounds good. Cheers, Chris Legend