It seems as if there are frequently new and upcoming Australian rock bands, however, it also sadly seems like a lot don’t last. One of the biggest bands to distinguish themselves and defy this is definitely Melbourne four-piece British India; who since their inception in 2004 have demolished the Australian festival circuit and released five full length LPs only gathering a larger fan base after each one.
According to guitarist Nic Wilson, since the release of their fifth LP Nothing Touches Me the response has been humbly appreciated.
“It’s been fantastic. Last year we did the biggest shows we have ever done on our own solo tour, it was really encouraging to see that after the fifth album things can still be growing and not shrinking. So we are really enthused to keep taking it forward into a sixth album.”
The album, which debuted at #5 on the ARIA charts and features hit singles ‘Wrong Direction’ and ‘Suddenly’ (which made it into last year’s Hottest 100) helped sky-rocket the band to their biggest head line tour while also giving them a spot as The Rolling Stones support act.
“The opportunity came up and it seemed like a very romantic idea, a lot of great musicians have gone over and done ‘that’ Berlin album. It was a good opportunity to go over there and work on some music and then we came back here to finish it off,” Wilson says of the album being recorded in Berlin.
On the cover there’s some very interesting album artwork featuring a desolated wasteland with a space man floating in the middle. “The album cover was incredibly 11th hour – literally the day before we had to sign off on it we were still tinkering with it,” Wilson laughs.
“Originally it was the same sort of landscape but there was a crashed plane in the middle of it, but it was around the time when planes where going down like crazy and we thought it would be asking for trouble. We thought we would see what other image we could add into it and someone at the label came up with a space man and we all just really thought it worked. It conjures the real feeling of loneliness and I feel it ties into that feeling of the ‘Nothing Touches Me’ album title: floating out in an untouched landscape.”
Looking towards the future, British India were announced to be on this year’s stellar Groovin’ The Moo line up and the lads couldn’t be more keen: “We are so excited about [it]. We were talking the other day and it’s kind of become THE festival for touring bands in Australia, because Big Day Out is sadly gone as well as a lot of other smaller festivals. There was a big season of festivals that sort of imploded so we are really excited about doing that.”
As well as Groovin’, British India will also be making the trek down to Geelong to play at The Workers Club, where they were scheduled to play last year but had a last minute venue change. When asked about playing at a new venue, Wilson was very excited.
“We always love breaking new grounds and this will be no different,” he says.
“The gamut of shows you can play from big stage shows, festival shows and regional shows all offer something different and the smaller ones tend to be a bit more loose – which is more so what we cut our teeth on and I think we are good at that.”
Written by Alex Callan
When & Where: Workers Club, Geelong – March 23 & Groovin’ the Moo, Bendigo – April 30
