Australian metallers PARKWAY DRIVE are using the coronavirus downtime to work on material for the follow-up to 2018's "Reverence" album. Vocalist Winston McCall told Rock Sound in a new interview (see video below): "We've started writing, which is awesome. It's not something that happens fast for us. Basically, our calendar is messed up. We were gonna take a whole bunch of time off next year to start writing anyway, and now our [touring plans for] this year [have] been wiped out. So, let's just flip the years around — that kind of thing — so we've started writing now. And I'm not sure that's gonna mean that anything will be out sooner — I probably doubt it — but it definitely makes it where we're [able to stay] active. Which is really, really cool — it's a challenge, but it's fun. It's nice to know that there's a lot of gas in the tank, which is really, really cool. At this initial stage, you always hope the passion is still there. You just never know. "When we write an album and we record an album, we really do put everything we have into one [project until there is] nothing left," he explained. "We just hope it comes back. Because we always walk out, and it's, like, 'I can't imagine ever writing another song [like that]. That's all the ideas we have at this point in time.' And you hope the spark comes back. And it's been fun. It's been fun because — lots of sparks." According to McCall, it has been nice to be able to focus on the songwriting process this time around without having to juggle several things simultaneously. "Generally, even when we do have time off to write music, we still have — especially with the way we operate — yeah, it's writing time, but we're also planning for the next three tours and we're also working on production and we're also working on management, and this and that, so there's always another wheel turning," he said. "This is literally a situation where it's just, like, fucking clamps put on everything — we can't move. The only thing you can move is your mind and creating music, and it's been liberating to not have that other parts of your mind occupied. So it's fun." PARKWAY DRIVE's "Viva The Underdogs", the soundtrack to the band's documentary film by the same name, was released in March. Featuring 11 live tracks from the band's 2019 headlining set at German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air, the soundtrack also includes three studio tracks recorded in German; "Würgegriff (Vice Grip)", "Die Leere (The Void)" and "Schattenboxen (Shadow Boxing)", which features German rapper Casper. Today, the band shares both the live version and the German version ("Die Leere") of "The Void", previously off the band's sixth studio album, "Reverence". The documentary "Viva The Underdogs" features over a decade of behind-the-scenes personal footage, coupled with unprecedented access to the band's most explosive live tours and world's biggest music festivals. The film gives an incredibly honest and candid look at PARKWAY DRIVE's 15-year underdog journey; the good times, battles, triumphs, and sacrifices. PARKWAY DRIVE is a five-piece metal band from Byron Bay, Australia formed in 2002. The band features McCall, guitarists Luke Kilpatrick and Jeff Ling, bassist Jia O'Connor, and drummer Ben Gordon. Photo credit: Dave Lepage
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