“We did a gig once which was sort of a protest about children in refugee camps in Australia,” James O’Brien tells me. “It was a 24 hour lock-in in Brisbane in a big cage in the middle of the city square. There were bands playing non-stop for 24 hours, and we ate, slept and played gigs in there. So that was kind of like a detention centre, but fun.” What else would you expect from a band called The Boat People.

Having returned from performing at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, England, James (bass, vocals) is still buzzing from the experience. “The Great Escape is an amazing festival. It’s sort of a half industry conference and half music festival. They basically take over the whole town and they use every little venue in the place, which is about thirty and they’re all pretty great. It’s an incredibly vibrant city for the size of it.

“There were plenty of crazy antics, none that I want my mum to read about though. We didn’t get to try any of their famous herbal drugs. They had plenty of real drugs though. We’ll have to check the herbals out next time, they’re probably better for you,” he laughs.

“We played two shows there, one with the Teenagers and one with a band called Alpha Beat. We did a bunch of shows in London as well. All the venues and the line-ups were perfect. We got a lot of support before we went over there from people getting us into the right shows, it was amazing. We’d been overseas once before, to LA, and it was good but kind of overwhelming. This time we really felt like we fit in and we were well and truly up to scratch with the standard there.”

I ask about the band recently being picked up by major US promoter Live Nation. “Live Nation are fantastic, and we’re very lucky to have them involved. We’re going back to the US later on this year and the UK, so we’ll strengthen those contacts and hopefully something will come out of it.”

The band has just released its sophomore album Chandeliers, after an arduous recording process. “It’s been a long time coming. We got off a bit slowly on the first album because, as I mentioned before, we had taken a trip to the US which took some time and energy and finances. We were also sort of negotiating with a label for a long time, doing a demo they helped pay for that ended up securing us a publishing deal with Ivy League, which in turn helped sort of fund the album. So that took up a lot of time.

“Then we had some hilarious technical difficulties, as our mixing desk literally exploded and caught on fire. So we’ve spent a lot of time finishing it. I think in doing so we’ve had a huge number of songs to choose from, so we could really construct the album in a direction that we really wanted to – namely pretty ‘up’, poppy and positive. It’s a very clean record and that was what we were aiming for. I’m really pleased the we achieved that aim so thoroughly.”

The band, who started playing music together in high school, have been kicking around the Brisbane music scene since 2000, and have earned themselves a reputation by working like one-legged bastards. “We worked very hard on the band from the get go, and we made a lot of good contacts very, very quickly. So we got off to a bit of a flying start in our hometown and never really struggled that much. I’ve always worked very hard to understand the industry. I think we’ve been blessed as we’ve had a steady increase of good things happening which kept us motivated and excited.

“You see a lot of bands lose momentum and then that affects their morale and they break up,” he muses. “But we’ve been lucky in that sense; it’s always been a steady upward curve. It’s really important to keep up momentum and to balance that with not overexposing yourself. I think what a lot of bands struggle with is momentum and having the energy to keep putting things out and staying organised – looking one step ahead of the process every time.”

While the name The Boat People immediately brings to mind the political furore of the Tampa crisis and little Johnnie’s Benny Hill-esque speeches, James assures me that the name’s inspiration is more whimsical than political. “It’s a name that we came up with a long time ago, because to be honest we were young and naïve. But at the time it didn’t have any of the political ‘hot-potato’ elements that it does now.

“We felt it was a name that conjured up more romantic images. You know, people setting off to find a new life, leaving behind a place where they weren’t welcome. I guess we have sort of felt, especially in the past, that we lacked a home musically. We didn’t feel like we fitted in to a scene so the name felt very fitting. Since then it’s obviously gained a lot of baggage but we still hold on to that more romantic image.”

Chandeliers is out now. The band is winding up its Australian tour over coming weeks, before heading off for a US jaunt. Here’s where you can still catch them.

Wednesday 20 August – Armidale Club, Armidale
Friday 22 August – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday 23 August – Cooloongatta Hotel (supporting Hoodoo Gurus)
Saturday 30 August – East Brunswick Club, Melbourne