Winston McCall Dreams Of Heavy Music Being Considered In The ARIAs 'Album Of The Year' Category

There's no denying the fact that Parkway Drive are arguably the biggest band in Australia right now and evidence of this was shown with the number of people who turned up to catch their firey sets at Good Things Festival's east coast run last week (our coverage here). So why does a band of this calibre still get overlooked when it comes to mainstream media and our ONLY Australian Music Awards, the ARIAs, where they're delegated to the ad breaks and given a mere 6 seconds of airtime for their win? (Not to forget Northlane who scored their third ARIA a few weeks back only to receive the same treatment).

Parkway frontman Winston McCall stopped by Wall of Sound's booth at GTF Brisbane for a chat on our podcast about the subject to which he replied with:

"At the end of the day it's an awards ceremony and I appreciate the fact that that's even on and I appreciate the fact people do celebrate Australian music. My dream... in that regard would be when like 'Best Album in Australia' (category) comes around, something that sounds like we sound is now considered on equal platform to pop (and) that you don't even have to have a Hard Rock and Metal Category, it's just like 'this Australian band put out a great album and so did this country band and so did this folk band, so did this pop band..'."

"I've always found that funny with every Award Ceremony, it's like, there's music but there's lesser music" - Winston McCall talks category alienation at awards ceremonies

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CZERopl4go&w=640&h=360]

Interviewer Paul 'Browny' Brown pushed a little further on the subject with a statement that had a lot of you contributing on our Facebook Page a few weeks back about whether heavy music should stay underground OR if the ARIAs (and mainstream media) should give it more attention like they do with the latest pop sensation getting about at the moment. Turns out a staggering 86% of the votes went towards heavy music deserving more than what they've received in the past with plenty of comments on the matter expressing how you really feel and how this is something that is wanted/needed by our scene.

Winston McCall weighed in with his thoughts on the above-mentioned matter, revealing that if a band is doing well (like really well) then obviously they deserve recognition and their fans have the right to take a stance and fight for them, but at the end of the day, an award for their efforts isn't the be-all and end-all of their career:

"I don't really mind about kicking up a stink when there's 20,000 humans here today (laughs). But that's always been the thing, people will have their say and will support in whatever way they want and I didn't start doing this to be given an award, so that's fine."

So at the end of the day, Parkway Drive will continue to play shows (with amassive Arena Tour booked in next year) and record music without the help of mainstream media (something they've done so well without for the entirety of their careers) or the want for accolades and if fans want to defend and stand up for them (and other bands within the heavy music genre), then that's on us and you better believe we'll scream it loud and proud.

Viva the Underdogs...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7lpftvYDMA&w=853&h=480]