You know you’ve been to a good rock show when your leg wakes you up in the middle of the night, pissed. I could barely walk after a night of watching Parkway Drive’s sold out concert in Singapore. Despite being smothered in a mist of human sweat and temporarily handicapped from the waist down, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The show took place at an unlikely venue. The Singapore Arts Museum (SAM) features modern and contemporary visual art exhibits in an authentic atmosphere with snow white, English themed walls and golden chandeliers. Walking through a sea of hardcore and metal kids at a place such as this was, to say the least, different.

I caught up with the singer of Parkway Drive, Winston McCall, hours before the show. Although coming down with a common flu, Winston appeared genuinely enthusiastic about meeting his Asian fans and didn’t refuse any requests for photos and autographs. Two fans actually managed to sneak a photo with the Australian frontman right as when we were preparing to start the interview. I got to take two things from this interview. A hell of a good laugh and a flu from the lead singer.

SHOUT!: Your last record Horizon was released 2 years ago. When can the fans expect new stuff from you guys?

Winston: We’re starting to write at the moment. We have a couple of songs that are pretty much done. The band is expected to sit down and officially write the album in about 2 weeks. That’s when we’ll try and get something out of our brains and see if there are any songs left in there. We’ll see how it goes.

S!: Is there anything the fans can look forward to this year?

Winston: We’re doing a lot of tours and will also be putting out a dvd this year. It’s a dvd documentary that basically covers the entire history of the band. Every tour and pretty much every show we’ve done, including the one we’re doing now that is the South East Asian tour. It’ll also feature a live set we did in Sydney so maybe it’ll keep the kids happy and not wanna kill us. [laughs]

S!: You’ve done every single big ass tour in the book. What was the most memorable tour to date?

Winston: Uhm..I wouldn’t say a huge tour but to be honest, this tour that we’re doing right now. The asian tour has been amazing. We’ve been going to so many awesome places, meeting so many awesome people and to be honest, we had no idea what to expect. Every night, the shows just get better and better, and every night we find ourselves saying like “Holyshit, whats going on?!”. Europe, America and Australia have such similarities but being in Asia and experiencing the different cultures is just amazing. That’s what we love.

S!: There was a rumor that someone left the band. Any truths to that?

Winston: I was reading that! We actually got a comment on MySpace saying I left the band to sing for 50 lions or something, which is my little brother’s band, which he sings in. I’ve heard a few interesting rumors but that’s about the strangest one I’ve heard yet.

S!: So it’s definitely not true right? It was on your WikiPedia.

Winston: Yeah! Yeah, Wikipedia’s great. I go on there every couple of months just to see what shit people are writing. I don’t know where that came from but to be honest, we find rumors funny. We’re not able to correct it so we just laugh at it and see what happens.

S!: You’ve toured with all the great names in metal and hardcore. Is there anyone you have yet to tour with that you would like to?

Winston: Uhm..it’s hard to say. Like you said, we’ve covered so much. There’re bands I’d definitely like to tour with again. The Warriors, Comeback Kid and Misery Signals. But for us, it’s less about the sound of bands, as oppose to the people in the band, like being good people and good friends. Some of the bands we’ve toured with are some of the best friends we’ve made in the world. I’m so grateful to be able to listen to a band, everyday of my life, and get to hang out with them.

S!: Any up and coming bands you’d like to introduce to the readers of Shout?

Winston: I don’t know what the readers of Shout! have heard but Australian bands wise, I’d say 50 Lions, Break Even and Antagonist A.D from New Zealand. That’s just three from the top of my head but they’re all awesome awesome bands.

S!: What do you figure is the key to holding up a good relationship in a band?

Winston: We’re good friends and we all grew up together. We’ve never actually had a serious fight. No ones actually ever hit anyone in the band. It has never ever come to that. I think its because of the fact that we verbally abuse each other non-stop and that puts everyone at the same level so no ones better than anyone else. We’re all just shit so might as well just hang together. [laughs]

S!: Do you crave any kind of food on tour?

Winston: I crave cooking myself. I never get the chance to cook on the road so when I get home, I’m like “KITCHEN YAY!”. [laughs all around]

S!: If you could collaborate with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

Winston: Johnny Cash, Elvis, Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco. I like music you probably won’t expect I would like. I love a lot of stuff like country, hip hop, a lot of indie stuff. I’m probably the least metal person you’ll ever meet. I don’t listen to heavy metal at all.

S!: Not at all?!

Winston: Not at all! I listen to a lot of hardcore but Parkway Parade’s probably the most metal thing I’ve ever been involved in my life. [laughs]

S!: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever tasted in your life?

Winston: Uhm..ants. I was really hungry in school and I was sorta known as the guy who would do anything for either money or other people’s food. I’d eat whatever and say “ Oh, give me 50 cents if I eat those ants.” But ants taste fucked! It tastes like some kind of weird acid. [laughs]

S!: Whats the most embarrassing thing on your iPod or music you wouldn’t tell people you listen to?

Winston: None. To me, music is music. It all serves a purpose. It’s just sounds that make you feel a certain way.

S!: So you wouldn’t mind listening to.. let’s say, the Jonas Brothers?

Winston: Well, I don’t listen to it ‘cause it doesn’t do anything to me so you wouldn’t find that kinda stuff in my iPod. But if I did listen to them, I wouldn’t be ashamed. I have been asked that question before and I guess my answers not that interesting. [laughs] But there are some music I don’t like like manufactured music. Stuff where you can tell that the lyrics are just crap and there’s some manufactured beat and some person with a half good voice that’s just not hard to find.

S!: Out of everyone in the band, including yourself, would look best in a skirt?

Winston: Pie. Only because he’s the only one who’s actually worn a skirt. It’s probably somewhere on the DVD. You’ll understand when you see the documentary how pie got in the band and what he used to do before he was the guy playing bass. [laughs]

S!: We got 2 of your fans to ask you a question. The first one is by Nathaniel Darren who is from right here in Singapore. Which bands have the biggest influence on the development of your sound?

Winston: To be honest, the biggest influence we have is ourselves. The whole idea of the band in the first place was to challenge ourselves. It wasn’t to imitate any particular sound or try and push barriers in any direction. It was just more, us trying to do a style of music that we hadn’t done before and it challenged us. We’ve been in hardcore bands before. Jeff has never been in a band full-stop. We just thought, let’s just try and make the heaviest band we can but at the same time, for us, technical. This whole time, we’ve been focusing on trying to push ourselves in that way and become better musicians and remain interested in what we’re doing.

S!: Ashley from Massachusetts USA…

Winston: Holyshit! Mass?! Wow..

S!: Haha yes! She wants to know what your nastiest habit is.

Winston: I have no nasty habits. I’m just great but I’ll dish out nasty habits for other people. [laughs] Our drummer Ben has the worst personal hygiene in the world. The smelliest, just one of the most disgusting person you could meet. The last tour we did in the states, we had a loft where we sleep, in the van and the roof is not so high above it . We woke up one day and there were boogers, like BLOOD boogers wiped on the roof. We were like “who the fuck has done this?” and no one admitted to it. Then we saw Ben digging his nose and wiping it there and we were like “you did it, it was you” and he was like “I swear it wasn’t. I can’t remember it and I swear it wasn’t me”. We were all “Look, if you forgot about it, it’s fine but we know it was you.” So he picks his nose and wipes it on shit and leaves it there. They went black after a week cause no one else wanted to touch them and it was like snort just hanging of the roof. But I’m pretty good. I’m great! [laughs]

S!: I’m sure..! Well thanks for doing this interview!

Winston: Cool!….shit. [looks down at his feet and mumbles.] I just broke Jia’s thongs (Australian slang for sandals). He’s gonna be pissed. They’re not mine. I just borrowed them ‘cause I haven’t washed my socks in a week and my shoes smell like wet dogs. Oh yeah that’s my bad habit! I have bad smelling shoes. But that’s not my fault, that’s just tour.

S!: It’s just boys so..

Winston: Yeah there you go. It’s just boys. [laughs]

• MySpace URL: http://www.myspace.com/parkwaydrive