When it comes to music and songwriting, BRITISH INDIA vocalist DECLAN MELIA knows what he likes. CHRIS DRIVER catches up with the Melbournian rocker who’s probably written a chorus or a vocal hook that’s etched somewhere on the surface of your brain.

If you haven’t heard of British India then you’ve probably heard their latest single, Tie Up My Hands. If you haven’t heard of either of those, than you’re probably lying. Having worked with arguably the most successful songwriter in the history of the Australian music industry – Harry Vanda – for a while now, the lads from British India have learned the art of writing ear-catching, feet-tapping power pop from one of it’s most lauded pioneers, says Melia, and it’s going down a charm.

“We had Harry come down [to Melbourne] and tell us to shorten a couple of intros but, by that stage we’d already done the EP with him and he’d tweaked some of those songs quite a lot so we had a bit of an inkling about how to write Harry-pleasing pop songs,” says Melia.

Without getting too carried away, as a general rule of thumb, if you can write a Harry-pleasing songs than you’re not too far away from the big time and that’s exactly where Melia and his counterparts currently sit – on the edge of the big time. But the idealistic vocalist seems more concerned with maintaining his musical integrity – not that he can’t have both – with the first single from Guillotine, Black & White Radio a scathing commentary on the archetypal post-MTV music fan.

“That song is about a lot of the kids here in Melbourne where music – and there’s nothing wrong with it – is nothing more than something to sing along to in the car while you’re going to meet your friends for a chai latte, or whatever the fuck you’re doing,” says Melia, giving the distinct impression that, yes, in his opinion, there is something wrong with it.

But, says Melia, the fans aren't really to blame for the current state of things.

“What you write a song about is important, and I haven’t really heard a lot of songs that are really about something recently. Songs are sometimes just a collection of nice sentences that are just strung together kind of loosely, and it just doesn’t really hold any water singing about mirrors and boxes with spider webs in them.”

But it isn’t any overwhelming sense of lyrical profundity that has national radio flogging the hell out of their debut. A week’s rotation preceding the release as a Triple J feature record brought the songwriting miscellany of British India to the attention of the music press who’ve had Melia and the boys answering questions about influences ever since – and today is no exception.

“I really don’t get bands that take one sound and then model their songs on that. I just think there should be more to it,” says Melia, though it’s likely a sheer diversity of influence is the real reason for the enormous scope of the record. “Maybe [Nic Wilson and I] have been listening to completely different bands so we get this weird amalgamation of two completely different sounds, or maybe we have a clear vision of what the song’s going to be but it could be a completely different band every time.

“It could be Nirvana or it could be the Beatles.”

British India play the Zoo on Thursday August 9. Guillotine is out now through Flashpoint/Shock.

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