British India On The Essentials To Take On The Road
Less than a year since the release of their latest album, the explosive Forgetting The Future, British India are thrilled to announce they’ll be returning to stages around the country in May and June on the Midnight Homie Tour that will kick off in Bendigo on May 11 and continue through regional and metropolitan cities in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, before finishing up at The Gov in Adelaide on July 6. Bassist William Drummond drops by at Hi Fi Way: The Pop Chronicles to talk about the essentials to take on the road.
There is a general panic each week when I take my Country Road bag out of the boot at the airport and I think to myself “Why does this feel so light?”. And it happens without fail every week we are on the road!!!
The essentials that I pack every week are…
UE Boom 2 speaker – This thing has changed the game for me. It is my vibe setter in my hotel room. If I am getting ready for the gig and have some party tunes playing, watching a movie on my laptop, or playing some Brian Eno, Music For Airports as i fall asleep, this thing has such a brilliant tone and heaps of power. Also if any of your mates have one you can link them just in case those few drinks in your hotel room after the gig turn into a few more.
Guitar – Now this may sound like a facetious but when we first played Meredith Music Festival we drove all the way there from Melbourne to open the boot and realise we left Nic’s guitar lying on the nature strip outside his house. As much as it might have been a great gimmick to have us play as a three piece and have Nic change his role to a Bez (Happy Mondays) type character, and he is a fantastic dancer, we thought it best to frantically ask every band possible if we could perhaps play one of their guitars. Eventually we found a guitar called a “Bunny” and the show when on.
Melways – When we first started touring a Nokia 3310 was the most technology you’d find in the tour van so we had to rely on an 6 year old Melways, which if you were lucky would still have most of it’s pages. Even then you’d find yourself asking some bloke walking down the street how to get to the University or The Spread Eagle. One guy once told us “I don’t think you can get there from here!”
Visa – On our first trip to England to play some shows we for some reason didn’t really think anything other than the fact we were going on a holiday, the thought of a visa never crossed our mind. So when we rolled up to immigration after a twenty four hour flight the rather officious border security officer was quick to peg us for who we were. A holding cell, bag search and twelve hours later we were back on the plane to Australia. Then two days later our visa was sorted and we were back on the plane to London. By the end of the trip I had watched Crackerjack at least six times.
A vibe – You have to remember it’s supposed to be fun and if it ain’t anymore then why are you doing it? It’s easy to complain, and we do, about the delays, the waiting, the long drives but at the end of the day you are travelling and playing music for a living. You meet new and interesting people and see parts of the world you would never see if you didn’t jump on that plane or in that van. As much as good vibes are infectious bad vibes can be terminal.
Special comments William Drummond
Catch British India on the following dates…
