Flash forward ten years and I’m meeting up British India again for an interview with guitarist Wilson and vocalist/guitarist Melia. Wilson walks in slightly exacerbated and pink-cheeked as it’s a hot day. Melia is running late, so Wilson and I sit down and begin running through the songs from their newly-released fifth album, Nothing Touches Me.
Track one is the ostensibly tender yet ultimately rollicking song, Spider Chords.
“The guitar for that song has been around for ages,” explains Wilson. “Doug [O’Gorman’s nickname] sent me a YouTube video of Dave Mustaine doing a guitar-playing technique called ‘spider chords’… After seeing it I was like, ‘Let’s write a song using spider chords,’ so hence the name, although from using that technique, we got quite a sweet pop sound rather than a metal riff.”
Track two is titled Angela,and it follows the similarly melodic path established by Spider Chords. This song also enabled Wilson to satisfy a lifelong songwriting goal of naming a song after a girl.
“It’s something that I have always tried to do, I have thought there are so many hits like Eleanor Rigby… Until now, I have never been able to come up with a girl’s name to write a song about,” states Wilson proudly. One question remains: who is Angela?
“Angela happened in the last few days of recording,” explains Wilson. “We were working in the front of our studio in Preston and Dec was in the living room where he wrote that song, from start to end, lyrics and all. He said he didn’t know where the name came from but I think I know. I’ve got heaps of DVDs in that room and I think he saw a movie called Angel A and, subliminally, that’s where the name came from.”
British India’s softer instrumental elements and adherence to the verse/chorus structure on the first two songs on Nothing Touches Me is a continuous thread throughout the album. A philosophical Wilson admits British India’s signing to Liberation Records – part of Mushroom Group – in 2012 played an important role in British India’s sound chilling out.
“They encouraged us to see what else we can do,” says Wilson before adding, “I feel like Controller was like dipping the toe in the water with that style, whereas Nothing Touches Me is jumping in. We were starting to go that way and a lot of that has come from working with [Liberation].”
Wilson explains and deconstructs each song from Nothing Touches Me. He discusses such things as having to reign in O’Gorman’s desire to add a dance drum beat to every song – the beat that features on Suddenly and Come Home.
As we get to talk about track 11, This Is How It Feels, a very apologetic Melia walks in. This song has the hallmarks of a break-up song with the lyrics “There’s a part of you in me that I can’t erase.”
“They are all break songs,” says Melia. “This song was one of those ones where we didn’t really think it was that great, but everyone else seems to love it. Will was trying to do David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes on the bass line, so if you listen closely you can probably make that out.” Somewhat fittingly, just as we get to chatting about the final song on the album, Departure Lounge, the interview is wrapped up by the publicist.
BY DAN WATT
