British India mean business.
An unyielding enterprise in Australian rock, from day one they’ve worked, played, written and won at everything they’ve taken on. Four of their five albums have placed in the top ten of the ARIA charts, and last year’s tour for Nothing Touches Me comprised sold-out shows nationwide. For most of 2016 they’ve been bunkered down in the studio working on new material, but they’ve just set off around the country on a tour of more than 20 dates at both regional and capital city venues.
The Melburnians now have a myriad of awards, tours and albums under their belts, and yet vocalist and lyricist Declan Melia still feels like they haven’t accomplished all that much. “It’s kind of hard to talk about [the tour] because it feels like we haven’t done much this year,” he says. “I was corrected earlier; we’ve done one tour already and a smaller one inside a year – I think by normal bands’ standards, we’ve done maybe too much, but by our standards, we’ve not done enough.”
The current tour coincides with the release of the single ‘I Thought We Knew Each Other’, a razor-sharp track that’s not without some deep and purposeful origins, as is the norm with Melia’s lyrics.
“I was reading an interview with Grimes, talking about her new album,” Melia explains. “She said she’s never gonna write another love song, only [songs] about friendships. I thought it was a really original stance, so I thought I should address this song to be about a friendship decaying. You get to a point in your late 20s when the friendships you made in your teens, though you try and reattach them at the spine, they become unglued.”
The more pensive sentiments of ‘I Thought We Knew Each Other’, however, gave rise to interpretations of more volatile meanings outside of Meila’s intentions. “A few people have thought it was about relationships within the band,” says Melia. “I almost wish it were, because it’s a good story, it’s a good angle – but we’re getting on as well as ever.”
Melia says the new single has no specific background story – or at least not one he’s willing to share – so he prefers to discuss the emotive drive behind British India’s writing process. “With the lyrics, it’s still the same as ever,” he says. “We write the music first and I listen to it and think, ‘What is the music trying to tell me? How do I articulate what the song is trying to say?’ You get it wrong as often as you get it right.”
And get it right they surely do – 20 shows on a national tour would be an ambitious feat for most other bands, but not British India. Touring for them is almost an unquenchable thirst, and it’s something Melia says they feel on many levels.
“I think if we’re not touring we don’t feel like we’re operating at full capacity, in both a subconscious way and a direct way,” he says. “Subconsciously, we feel like we need to get out and play shows to refresh our palette, and in a direct way, we feel lucky and honoured that we’re still able to do this.
“When we’re 60 and we’re looking back on our time, we’ll regret it if we don’t do more. We’ll say to ourselves, ‘We should have sucked the marrow out of the experience, played as hard as we can, as many places as we could.’ So let’s do it while we’re young and have the energy and still have our hair.”
Despite British India’s enthusiasm, however, their relative youth doesn’t prevent them from feeling the grind. “We feel lethargic, certainly,” says Melia. “It’s not the tour – it’s the drinking and late nights. If you strip away the excess, it’d be the easiest job in the world – you have to fly for hours, stand onstage and sing, but that’s an absolute pleasure.
“It’s the way we punish ourselves that’s exhausting, and every band is the same – [but] short of being a massive band touring internationally, it’s not as draining as you might think. We’ve been doing this for most of our adult lives and it feels very natural to us. I love the whole process, getting on the plane, meeting the fans, the support bands, playing.”
Relentless, aren’t they? And it’s a good thing too, because without this inhuman drive and sense of ambition, British India fans wouldn’t have such a catalogue of great music to enjoy. Better yet, Melia has no plans to ease up and catch his breath after the tour ends.
“We’re gonna finish the record,” he says. “The last few have been made in such a rush, so it’d be nice to get it finished and packaged, get a bit of shelf life before it hits the world.”
Crucially, there won’t be any talk of pursuing other projects while British India are a going concern. “There’s really nothing else for us,” says Melia. “We’re conscious of the fact there’s life outside of BI, but this is really all we know – it’s been the better part of our lives. I think if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it full-on and keep doing it.
“We’re really in a good, meditative headspace with British India. We know how lucky we are and we’re embracing that.”
Nothing Touches Me is out now through Liberation. British India appear at Metro Theatre on Saturday November 26; and alongside Ball Park Music, Urthboy, Bec Sandridge and more at Ozfest 2017, Miami Tavern, Gold Coast, Saturday January 28.
