The members of Parkway Drive have embodied a staunchly DIY ethic since the band’s inception more than 15 years ago, and over the course of six studio albums and relentless worldwide touring, the band has amassed a loyal and ever-growing fan base with its blend of metal-tinged hardcore.

Last year, the band took the biggest gamble of its career, booking venues such as London’s 10,000-capacity Ally Pally in the lead-up to the European festival season, culminating in a headline appearance at one of the world’s biggest heavy metal festivals, Wacken Open Air, which draws crowds of 85,000.

The journey was filmed for the music documentary Viva the Underdogs, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year before screening in cinemas worldwide.

Parkway Drive have secured international distribution with the likes of Amazon, iTunes and Google Play and iTunes for Viva the Underdogs, with the film available to rent or stream from Friday.

Parkway Drive frontman Winston McCall said the band had spared no expense in ensuring Viva the Underdogs was produced to the highest standards possible.

“We wanted it to be of the same standard musical release that anyone else – in terms of like pop music, or country music or rap or anything like that – would put out,” he said.

Parkway Drive in action at Wacken Open Air music festival in Germany last year. (Photo: Lucas Englund)

When asked how difficult it was for an independent, self-managed band to negotiate distribution, McCall was forthright with his response.

“I’m sure it was shit but I haven’t had a part in that of it,” he laughed. “[Rhythm guitarist] Luke [Kilpatrick] has been doing all of that, and from what he told me it’s been a nightmare, it’s been a hell of a lot of work.

“But getting it getting released in that way, like in a relevant way that interacts with it, and having as much permeation outside of our stream of culture was very, very important.

“We wanted it released in a way that wasn’t just like ‘here it is on an obsolete format, and it’ll be shared on a file-sharing site and you can watch a pirated copy on YouTube’.

“There’s a reason that the entire thing was shot to cinema quality and it was mixed in Dolby Surround, the poster design was done by the people who did the last three Star Wars posters. We wanted this film to represent modern rock music and metal music in a way that is not seen as scrappy so there was no hole to punch in the professionalism or the merit of it.”

The band undoubtedly achieved their objective, with the film premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in January and currently rated at 9.1 on imdb.com.  McCall attended the premiere, which was held at an IMAX cinema, and admitted the experience was surreal.

“It was my first time seeing the final cut because I never got to see the last edit of it,” he said. “I got to see the 250 cuts before, but I hadn’t heard the sound design or anything like that because I didn’t get to go to the mixing session but yeah, I was stoked.

“It was a trip to watch it and just go, ‘oh my God, this is working, this is holding up, this doesn’t look dodgy’, and then hearing people laugh at the parts we wanted them to laugh about and getting the disappointments and the triumphs – it looks cool and it works exactly how we wanted it to work. I was shocked to know that we could put something on the big screen and have it go so well but full credit to [director] Allan [Hardy] and those guys.”

When InQueensland caught up with McCall over the phone from his home at Byron, Parkway Drive were supposed to have been kicking off a headlining tour of Europe and the US, playing the biggest venues of the band’s career, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the singer was remaining philosophical.

“I’m not going to whinge about being in Byron, ever,” he said. “There’s a reason we haven’t moved to LA – Byron’s really nice, but it’s very odd at the moment. My wife lost her job … but other than that we’re doing very well, so, there’s not much to complain about.”

McCall said he was more concerned about the stage crews and contractors the band was due to work with on the European and US tours.

“Our crew and everyone that works for us, they are copping it, so, we’re just trying to make sure we look after them and still pay them for the tours they’re supposed to be on this year even though we don’t have income coming in because they’re losing Parkway tours, but they’re also going to be losing tours from other bands that aren’t in a position to pay them, so we just want to try to be as responsible as we can to all of them.”