WATCH: Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall does his best Darth Vader impression

Self-confessed Star Wars nerd Winston McCall has re-enacted a famous scene from The Empire Strikes Back in his best Darth Vader voice.

The ever-affable vocalist caught up with Kerrang! Radio’s Jack Wood ahead of Parkway Drive’s headline slot on the Zippo Encore Stage and during the wide-ranging chat they touched upon current album ‘Reverence’ being released on May the 4th.

Jack then asked Winston to sing an excerpt from a scene in The Empire Strikes Back as Darth Vader where the villain confesses to being Luke Skywalker’s father. Check it out below.

Elsewhere in the interview, Winston was asked about a previous interview that he’d grown out of metalcore.

“I just mean that if you listen to the album there’s a lot of stuff on there that you would not say ‘that sounds like metalcore’. That’s it,” Winston said.

“It’s not like we’ve ever sat down and gone ‘you know what we’re a metalcore band, we need to create metalcore music’. This band started before that term even existed so we’ve always just written music we want to write and this was the same thing again.

“I just got asked in the interview ‘have you outgrown metalcore?’ and I’m like ‘well if you listen to the record and you listen to everything we do there’s definitely sounds on there I wouldn’t consider just to be metalcore’. There’s plenty of stuff that is.”

Admitting that his family now love hearing his singing voice, Winston continued: “They love it. My dad’s favourite album up until this point was (2007’s) ‘Horizons’ and this one ‘Reverence’ is his favourite now. (He says) ‘you sound so good, I love it, I can understand everything you say’.

“To be honest, the Parkway test for my family is my dad does the ironing for the family, my mum’s a nurse and she goes out and works and my dad does the ironing and if it’s a record he can iron to, it’s a winner. ‘Horizons’ was always the best ironing music and now ‘Reverence’ means he does the ironing and mows the lawn. Parkway Drive – ‘Chorecore’.”

Jack also asked Winston whether Parkway Drive have ambitions to leap from Zippo Encore Stage headliners at Download Festival to Main Stage bill-toppers.

“To be honest, we have no desire to stop,” Winston said. “Every opportunity we’ve been given, we’ll maximise that opportunity. At this point in the time the limit is our imagination and we do what we can do on that stage (Zippo Encore Stage), which is a hell of lot. But in my mind, I look at the big stage and think ‘man, what we could do to that thing’.

“I have no doubt that you can put Parkway Drive on the Main Stage at Download in as long a time slot as you want and we’ll make sure you remember that and enjoy what they’re seeing.”

Watch the full interview below where Winston reveals whether he’s ever punched a shark and speaks about drummer Ben Gordon almost being eaten by a whale.

• Download Festival
• Parkway Drive