Interviews//
Find more interviews online at ripitup.com.au
British India lan Aird by Lach
Taking Control “In many ways this feels like our second album because everything on the previous albums was made in such a blur of partying and drinking,” Declan Melia of British India says. “With this one we really took stock and worked out what the band wants and what it needs.” his isn’t surprising considering Controller, British India’s fourth studio album, took three years to come to fruition, with the band losing their distributor and studio space when their former label Shock Records went into administration. Rip It Up finds out how British India rose above their adversity to create what may be their most accomplished work yet. “Things were looking pretty dark,” Melia admits. “I had horrible writer’s block to make things worse, which was something I’d never experienced before.” British India approached this potentially fatal situation methodically. “It was a problem and then that problem became a challenge. So far we’ve been pretty good with challenges. We were also pretty lucky, courting Liberation to get them on board, even though it took over 12 months, making it feel like the longest, most drawn out signing process in the history of the world.” Once they had snared Liberation things immediately kicked back into action. “Once we were signed the floodgates opened as far as writing goes. We made I Can Make You Love Me, which really set
T
10
RIPITUPMAGAZINE//RIPITUP.COM.AU
the bar for writing and gave us direction for the album. The rest was just trying to pull ourselves out of a tough situation. We were well aware that if we didn’t step up it would be goodbye British India.” I Can Make You Love Me is definitely a point of difference to the fodder that filled British India’s past three albums, marking a more poignant and emotional imprint. “We didn’t expect I Can Make You Love Me to have as strong of a reaction as what it has,” admits Melia. “It’s a strange one for us. It’s in B-minor and it’s sad and long. It’s not what you expect from a winning single.” Melia reveals that the decision to lead Controller with a sad, long single was the decision of their new label, Liberation. “It’s ironic that signing to a label has helped us to take more risks. It turned out to be just the right medicine.” However, Controller doesn’t stray too far away from the usual British India sound or traditions, having a one word title and 10 tracks just like its predecessors Guillotine, Thieves and Avalanche. “We were a bit keen to get away from the one word titles because we thought it was just getting a bit naff. It was Phil Jamieson from Grinspoon actually who convinced me that it was worth keeping these things up. He noted that there are these traditions and interesting sparks that tie a band to their past and that it’s worth it to hang on to them, for better or worse. It actually makes naming the album a lot harder.” Before Jamieson’s intervention, Controller was to be named Another Christmas In The Trenches, the title of one of the album’s key tracks. “It was our credo for the album,” Melia emphasises. “It’s about battening down the
hatches and getting shit done because it took nearly not having another album to realise just how much we wanted one.” Besides feelings of desperation, Controller’s emotional depth transcends British India’s entire journey over the past three years, Melia summing it up as a “greatest hits of the last few years”. “I think Controller is a bit more of a conquest and statement. With the first records we were a bit like ‘How about a bit of this? And what about a bit of this?’ This time we were just giving it to you. We had to be like ‘This is what it is. This is where our music is at. This is what you kids are going to love’ – well, we think.” It is clear that this confidence with Controller’s new perception to making music is shared by Melia’s view of the band, even if he is backhanded in the way he delivers it. “It was kind of like we gave up trying to be cool and just accepted that we are cool - or that we aren’t cool - whichever one it is. In that regard Controller is a lot more accomplished, confident and assured.” Cool or not, Controller benefits from this new direction, even if it wasn’t deliberate. “We never said that we would make a new direction for the band, it was just a creation of its geography and situation,” Melia assures. “Controller was born with our backs against the wall – we didn’t have time for posturing and second guessing, we just had to be as direct as we could. Its best songs are definitely borne out of the situation we were in which was one of hopelessness and desperation for a while.” While it may seem odd to dwell on the doom and gloom that was simply an unfortunate circumstance, given British India’s one album per year roll they had from 2007 to 2010, with all three performing steadily in the ARIA Album Charts, this gap saw a complete loss of momentum. Even though they’ve come out on the other side stronger for it, Melia still laments this loss of time considering speed was one of the band’s
“Send Us To The Guillotine!” Next year will mark the 10th year of British India functioning as a band. What does Declan Melia think of that? “It seems so fast and I’m not sure whether to be proud, ashamed, think ‘What have I done with my life?’ or reflect on how great it has been. On one hand I think we’re really proud to have been here for this long. Maybe we’re daring ourselves to think that there might be a reason why we’re still here and maybe that reason is because we’re bloody awesome. “Urgh! Ten years! I wish you didn’t say that! It’s true! It’s true! Send us to the guillotine!”
key strengths. “The momentum thing is a real bummer for me. I would have loved for people to have heard this album a little earlier. We always wanted to have an album out each year, which is the way that albums used to be released before life and machinations of the music industry got in the way.” Melia is keen to pick up the momentum again, now that British India’s troubles appear to be behind them. Is that their key to success? “It may be a part of our success in a way, as a matter of not letting the fish off the line and making music while everyone’s still interested, while I still have hair and while we’re all still relatively good looking.”
WHO: British India WHAT: Controller (Liberation) WHERE: Governor Hindmarsh WHEN: Wed Apr 24