British deliver at home
The last time The Wire checked in with British India leader Declan Melia, it sounded like he had had enough of finalising the Melbourne grunge band’s fifth album, Nothing Touches Me.
But now that it is finished and in the hands of their devoted fans, Melia says it was worth the struggle.
“The whole thing with the recording process is the closer you get to one idea the further away you get from another,” the singer/guitarist ponders over the phone from his Melbourne home.
“I’m always unsure about my own work, so on this record there were definitely a lot of opinions around but everyone could see how good it could be.”
Heralded as the band’s best effort to date, the four-piece originally headed to Berlin to write and record with expat Simon “Berkfinger” Berckelman of Sydney party rockers Philadelphia Grand Jury.
While the recording didn’t pan out as planned, British India returned to Australia with a clearer vision of how their record should sound.
“I think it was in no small part due to being away from our fan base and from the Australian music scene and our contemporaries,” Melia says. “We let the songs speak for themselves and were unembarrassed about how the songs should sound and how the record should sound.”
Berckelman also convinced the frontman to change his singing style to a cleaner sound as heard on the album’s lead single, Suddenly.
“It’s much more natural for me to kind of shout and bellow away but he pushed me to sing sweetly and it’s definitely not my comfort zone to be in the studio like that,” Melia says. “You really do feel like you’re under the microscope.”
Finally recorded back at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios with the band’s long-time producer and manager Glenn Goldsmith, Melia says British India felt right at home in the familiar setting.
“It seemed to go quite easy and quick, we realised what we needed to do, it was just a matter of doing it,” he says.
“It was just a matter of getting the parts right and playing them well which is very difficult for us because we’re not known for playing with a lot of finesse.”
[|Nothing Touches Me ] is out now.British India play Dunsborough Tavern on May 15, Capitol on May 16 and the Newport on May 17, with special guests [|Tired Lion ] and [|Grenadiers ] .
