British India

Thu 30th Jul, 2009 in Features

After making a sold-out debut in 2008, Gosford’s Coaster Festival returns in September. Its diverse line-up is sure to raise the eyebrow of more than a few along the Central Coast and surrounds. One act on that line-up is Melbourne’s British India, who will head to Coaster fresh from some time off their usually frantic touring calendar.

“Nic, have we played in Gosford before?” asks frontman Declan Melia, his question directed at guitarist Nic Wilson as they take time out from a long day in the studio. “Yeah, we’ve done that area – three times! But Coaster has some great bands. It’s a weird eclectic line-up. I mean, they’ve got GZA/Genius on there, which is a favourite of mine so it’s definitely one we’re looking forward to.”

British India and Gza/Genius will be joined at the Gosford Showgrounds by Eskimo Joe, Does It Offend You Yeah? and many more – but there’s one particular timetabling scenario that has Melia feeling a little uneasy. “For this particular festival I’ve seen that we’re billed above The Bronx, which I find very worrying. And this isn’t indie music humbleness that you read on Pitchfork, this is genuine concern! You know, that band is certainly a band we’ve paid a lot of attention to when those records came out in 2001 and 2003 and probably someone that we’ve taken live clues from as well.

“But as ever I think we will try to rise to the occasion as best we can,” Melia says. He assumes the festival “is trying to allude to rollercoasters and thrill rides, as opposed to something as boring as keeping your glass off a table!” It’s an astute observation from the pint-sized vocalist, having recently returned from a second venture into the unknown of the UK. After an ill-fated maiden journey which included a skewered foot for Wilson and a 24-hour wait in UK customs, only to be sent home to try again, the latest attempt proved far more worthwhile.

“The last time we had disasters where we had to miss gigs but this time we went over and actually picked up gigs,” Melia reminisced. “It’s one of these things in British India. I often think when we first came out like I was 18 and *Will [ Drummond, bass player] was 17, we were just out of school and we couldn’t really play! I mean, I couldn’t sing, we didn’t have any good songs and we got a lot of attention from the street press in inner city Melbourne because we were pretty young and had a cool sound but we really couldn’t deliver on that hype.

“But the thing about London is, I feel like we’re actually starting out there but we’re already a pretty fucking rad band, so it’s like this opportunity we were never given in Melbourne to kind of play well and make a good first impression.”

This excitement already has the band plotting another UK visit in early 2010, although Melia admits the expense that comes with financing such trips plays a big part in their large number of gigs.

“I think if the record industry continues as it will – and let’s not kid ourselves, it’s going to get worse before it gets better – I think bands have to look into other ways of interacting with their audiences [rather] than putting out a single, putting out a record and maybe doing two tours a year. I think those days are well past. Which is kind of fucking exciting if you think about it. Imagine your favourite bands in the world being dirt fucking poor? How would that be? It’d really change music a lot.”

In saying that, work is well and truly underway for British India’s third long-player, with large chunks of the past few weeks being devoted to studio time at Sing Sing in Richmond. This marks a change up from previous offerings Guillotine and Thieves, which were recorded under Harry Vanda in Sydney.

“We’re recording this record ourselves, so we feel like we’ve got all the time in the world. I mean this recording experience so far is like, chalk and cheese compared to what we were doing in Sydney where we all had our very defined roles. Now it’s like, – œOh, well who’s sober enough to play bass on this track?’ and someone will put up their hand.”

At a push, Melia muses on the likelihood of any new influences to be seen on album three. “We’ve been getting into that American college rock pop stuff from the – œ90s. You know, a lot of these bands were really overlooked like Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, Pavement. Guillotine and Thieves, are your pretty simple verse-chorus pop records, which we like, but we’re trying to do that in more clever ways now.

“We’re trying to make a J Award type album,” Melia continues. “But we’re unashamedly ambitious – we’re up for the gusto and we’re gonna keep it raw.” And should they not be able to keep it raw? “Should we fail – well, we’ll fuckin’ quit! And uh, we’ll go do something else!”

Be sure to catch British India at the Coaster Festival on September 12 at Gosford Showgrounds.