Mario Kart, pizza payments and questionable farts: Life on the road with Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall

Lifting the lid on the highs, lows, creature comforts and touring weirdness of a travelling band…

“A telephone to call my wife and see my cat! It used to be fucking horrible without phones, and that’s why it’s so valuable. I know what it’s like to not have one, I know what it’s like to go into an internet café and hope the connection’s correct. You really value what a phone can give you now – beyond just memes.”

“Our first tour to America because it involved what we’ve collectively deemed our worst show in history. It’s a place called Jerry’s Pizza, which is literally the basement of a pizza shop, and we did it on our first and second tour of America. We played to six people and we were paid with one cheese pizza. It was raw concrete on all sides of a room, a pillar in the middle, and a power outlet. That’s all there fucking was. It’s as far as you can get from Australia, but it’s also the basement of a pizza shop.”

“A festival in Finland about 10 years ago. It was on a beach, so Luke [Kilpatrick, guitar] went to start a circle-pit out in the ocean! He got the audience to walk 50 metres out into the ocean. It was like, ‘Right, now you’re circle-pitting around the guitarist. Let’s fucking do this.’ I just remember standing onstage, looking at the insanity that was one of our guitarists standing in the ocean while 100 people belted around him with water going everywhere. It was 100 per cent Parkway.”

“A good diet and good exercise. That’s it. Watching what you eat and hitting the gym, there’s no replacement for it. Mentally, winning a shit-ton of Mario Kart keeps you in a really great place. And as the band champion, I would know that. That can be printed: Winston McCall is the best person at Mario Kart in Parkway Drive, including all of the crew!”

“I remember one where it was just a hole. It’s one thing where it’s an outdoor venue and it’s a pit-toilet. But when it’s inside and you see a wall with no door attached, and a fuck-ton of graffiti, and some kind of grime that you don’t quite know if it was supposed to be grease or bodily grease, and there’s just a hole in the floor… None of this is legit.”

“In Germany, I think they’re called Marché. It’s buffet-style, really fucking good food. For some reason Germany has really high-class service stations with a buffet of amazing cheeses and a charcuterie spread and salads and pie and pasta. The only weird thing is then you need to get 50 cents to go and do a shit afterwards because you have to pay to use the toilet.”

“Surprisingly small, but with a stunning view and a Steinway piano backstage. Luckily Jia [O’Connor, bass] is really good on the piano these days, so it was a very surreal moment to be getting ready to play the show and having him just ripping the piano. We’re sitting there in the Opera House with this panoramic view of the harbour and the bridge and Jia is there in his black tie playing while we warm-up and I’m just like, ‘What the fuck has this become?’”

“There’s three. One: Looking around at my mates onstage and going, ‘Fucking hell, we’re still doing this and it’s so much fun.’ Two: Connecting with the audience, being able to look at someone’s eyes and see them smiling is just the fucking best, man. And the last one is the moment when my wife is on tour with us and I can find her in the audience. When I’m able to catch her eye or see her – especially during one of the songs inspired by her – it’s something that really means a lot to me.”

“I had coffee before a gig once, and in the last scream I did a really questionable fart, and that was my exit for leaving the stage. Literally, just letting them know that this had happened. ‘See you later guys, I think I just shat myself.’ It was to, like, 3,000 people in Montreal.”

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Parkway Drive return to the UK on October 4 – get your tickets now. This interview originally appeared in the autumn 2025 issue of the magazine.

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