In the 11 years British India have been a band, their career has seen a lot of ups and downs.
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"We kind of have to remind ourselves that we've been here for this long," lead guitarist and vocalist Declan Melia says. "We certainly don't feel like a legacy act. But it's something that I kind of reflect on, that I'm proud of this record and I recognise that we're lucky to have had so many good years."
The band put out their fifth album, Nothing Touches Me, this year. Work on the album started in Berlin, and, Melia says, the writing and recording of it, "was really the joyous process, probably the most self-assured we've ever felt when making a record".
"I think if you listen to those first records, there's quite a dynamic shift between [fourth album] Controller and the record that came out before it. I think I group this new one and Controller together in the same way that I group those first three together."
Controller came out just after a particularly dark time in the band's history, after their label, Shock went bust and their studio flooded.
"It brought us to our knees, for sure," Melia says.
"But it did kind of galvanise us in the end because we kind of just got together and reassured ourselves that we still wanted to do this thing and if we were going to do it we were going to do it full-on.
"So the moment we made that decision it all became clear. And I think the Controller record really marked the second incarnation or the second phase of our career. And after that record came out there was a real feeling of triumph that carried over to the most recent record."
Then there was the time they appeared on Neighbours.
"Probably the four of us view that differently," Melia says. "But I think that what I might have said and probably what I still would believe is that British India I like to think has been fighting against that Australian mediocrity that makes Neighbours possible. And then, to be on it was associating ourselves with something we didn't want to be associating ourselves. For better or worse, things like integrity do matter."
British India formed in high school, while all four members were in year 12 together, so now, at the age of 30 they are heading into their second decade together.
"It's strange," Melia muses. "There's this mentality in this industry and I'm guilty of it as well, that you get a few years and then you should consider yourself lucky for being there at all. But I have to challenge it. I can't really picture a future where I'm not making music with the other three guys from British India until one of us pushes off this mortal coil, really.
"I think as far as writing songs together and hanging out and recording music, I would really like to do that long into the rest of my life. So whether or not it's our primary source of income that might be a different question, but it'd be really interesting to see what would happen if we just didn't stop. There's no real reason to. I think definitely there's songs we haven't yet written that we really want to write."
British India
Supported by: Duck Duck Ghost
When: Saturday, November 28, 8pm
Where: ANU Bar
Tickets: $33.70 from moshtix.com.au.
