Aside from working on their fifth studio album, British India have been handpicked to support The Rolling Stones during their Australian tour this spring.
With this year marking a decade since the inception of the Melbourne garage rockers, guitarist Nic Wilson can hardly believe how far they’ve come. With four critically-acclaimed records to their name (they achieved their first gold record earlier in 2014), a string of singles and a fifth album in the works, Nic has just returned from laying down tracks with Simon Berckelman (of Philadelphia Grand Jury fame) in Berlin – conveniently trading the wet Melbourne winter for a productive European summer.
To add icing to the cake, The Rolling Stones came a-knocking, asking British India to support them at their Hope Estate and Hanging Rock concerts next month — Mick Jagger stating he wanted to see more footage of the band live. “It’s a bit of a pinch-yourself moment.” Nic says. “Parts of me are still wondering what’s going to go wrong. Is something going to happen where I’m not going to be able to do it, or is it going to fall through?”
British India cite The Stones as being a rare, shared influence on the lads as musicians. “They’re one of the very few bands all four of us truly love and their music has sound-tracked our career since we started,” says singer, Declan Melia.
"... we got offered P!nk once … which would’ve been incredible to do but I was a bit like, it wouldn’t have done anything for us and maybe not so much for P!nk either.”
The group’s decision to sign to a major label in 2012 has opened more doors than the band could have imagined. “It’s taken a bit of a load off ourselves … like [before] every decision was up to us and every opportunity we had to find. But now, I mean even with things like The Stones, I don’t think that would’ve been possible without having a bit more fingers in the pie – people working on our behalf.”
Of course, opportunities which may not seem so great in hindsight come with the territory; like the group’s appearance in ‘Neighbours’. “I think everyone in the band feels a little bit differently about that,” Nic explains. “When you’re in a band you get strange opportunities now and then and that’s a really good example of one. At the time, you worry about things like how it’s going to affect your credibility, everything we’ve worked for and stuff, and the other side of you is like, I dunno in 20 years when it’s all done and dusted I can say ‘Eh, I was on ‘Neighbours’’,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s weird being in a band because you get these weird little things that you wouldn’t do otherwise … we got offered P!nk once … which would’ve been incredible to do but I was a bit like, it wouldn’t have done anything for us and maybe not so much for P!nk either.”
Always onwards and upwards, their fifth full-length effort promises something a little different for British India fans. Noted for their almost perpetual touring schedule, the album incorporates themes of travel. “There are a lot of themes of distance and the feeling of airports and planes and things like that, that loneliness that comes along with that.”
As yet unnamed, the guys are currently in the mixing stages of the record which is expected for release in early 2015. But it almost never happened. “The last few years were one obstacle after another … just disaster after disaster. One year between albums turned into three years pretty quickly … it’s hard to keep going when that sort of stuff happens and when things are pretty shitty, but we’re like a shark, we like to keep moving forward. We’re always looking at the next big thing.”
British India Spring 2014 Tour Dates
Fri 17th Oct – Whalers, Warnambool (Vic)Sat 18th Oct – Caledonian Hotel, Hamilton (Vic)
Fri 24th Oct – Chelsea Heights Hotel (Vic)
Sat 25th Oct – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne (Vic)
Thu 30th Oct – The Ballina Hotel (NSW)
Fri 31st Oct – The Sound Lounge QLD)
Sat 1st Nov – The Zoo, Brisbane (QLD)
Sat 8th Nov – The Rolling Stones ’14 on Fire’ – Hanging Rock (Vic)
Fri 14th Nov – Oxford Arts Factory – Sydney (NSW)
Sat 15th Nov – The Rolling Stones ’14 on Fire’ – Hope Estate (NSW)
Sat 22nd Nov – The Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide (SA)
Sun 30th Nov – Scarborough Beach (Hoodoo Gurus) (WA)
Sat 6th Dec – Vanfest, Forbes (NSW)
