You know your fans are hardcore when they break their neck and still think your show is the best. When the music is loved to the point where its creators are permanently inked on ones skin. When the pet dog or bird are christened in your name.

Parkway Drive achieves all of the above. Oh, and the title of one of the most successful Australians bands, not just in their genre – playing venues across the country that predominately host acts from afar. They’re definitely hardcore in terms of success.

It’s a polite Winston McCall that calls for a chat. He’s flattered, even a little shocked to hear there’s little canine Winstons barking to his tune. “They are actually named after me? Oh my God!’ he reacts with a laugh. “That’s pretty nice, but also pretty funny. I hope they’re good looking pets. [and] Anyone that gets a Parkway tattoo is insane.”

It can be a little scary at a Parkway Drive show – with punters grinning despite heat exhaustion, bloody noses and cut lips. “They’ll stop smiling the next day at the dentist!” McCall laughs.

“I’ve seen a guy break his neck in Leeds in England,” the singer recalls. “He stage dived and went straight down to the floor. No one caught him. I was like ‘I hope this guy isn’t dead!’ He got up and was like ‘This is the best!’ What are you talking about? You can’t feel your neck! That was bizarre.”

The band’s adrenaline pumping style of music is bound to lead to questions about the well-being of those so engaged, especially at live shows. “There’s a fine line to be walked between crowd safety and a show that’s just ridiculously awesome,” says McCall. “It can turn so, so quickly.”

“I think these days we’ve played and been responsible for so many shows that we know how to walk that line pretty well. We’ve had some really close calls. Luckily no one’s died and serious injuries haven’t been frequent. We really don’t want to cross over to the darker side.”

When the shows do turn, sometimes there’s not much that can be controlled. “We had a barrier collapse on us in Perth half way through the first song. The band had to literally rip the security guards out of the gap, because they were trying to hold up the thousands themselves.”

Although a somewhat aggressive form of music, hurting one another is not the desired outcome. “Sometimes they’re wild up to the point where you say something and they go ‘Yeah!!’ [You say] ‘Stop moving’ and they go ‘Yeah!!!’ You’re like, ‘fuck!’ That’s what happened in Perth.”

Though the band is still centred in Byron Bay, “It’s the one place where I do feel completely at home”, McCall and his band have toured the entire country, as well as successfully pulling crowds overseas on numerous occasions. As depicted in their DVD, a motivation to tour hard saw a crowd of a dozen friends become thousands of passionate fans across the world.

“[You think] Wow, this is as good as it’s going to get…and then something else tops it. And to be honest, the best thing about it is it hasn’t been driven by us. It’s be driven by people supporting us. We’re still doing now what we set out to do when we started the band, which was just to write heavy music and music for our friends. The thing that really resonates with me is the fact that this really is a band that’s been built by the people that listen to it.”

Continuing on their way, the crazy surfie dudes from Byron are set to release their third long play album, Deep Blue. Then, as they do, they will hit the surf for a national tour.

“The album does have a large reference to the bottom of the ocean,” McCall explains. The story that follows is something you think only happens in the movies. “Our guitarist Luke owns a little boat we try and catch waves on,” he begins. “One day it flipped us out of the boat and kept driving by itself. So we had to get another boat and chase this boat out into the middle of the ocean. We didn’t find it. It vanished. But we drove so far out in this tiny little boat that we could only just see the land we came from.

“It was like a perfectly calm day. The colour of the water was…it’s almost the indescribable. The actual feeling and colour of the water was so dark and deep. At the same time it had this amazing blue quality to it. I was literally, absolutely terrified. I’ve been in the ocean as long as I can remember and have felt one hundred percent at home. I had the feeling and sense that if I stepped in that water, I’d be left there by myself. Even though I know the land was nearby, I would die. It just makes you realise how minute you are on the scale of things.”

On land and out on tour, they are anything but minute. But it will be as simple as just bringing the music, which is not only what it will always be about for Parkway Drive, but well and truly enough to get fans tails waging. “It’s not like we have pyrotechnics or anything. We might bring beach balls,” he laughs. “Music overcomes any language barrier. We’re just going to play!”

Read the review of Parkway Drive’s new album