British India’s much anticipated fourth LP Controller is due for release on March 22 through Liberation. The band are hitting the road in celebration with a national headline tour throughout April, stopping off in capitol cities and regional areas. The album includes Triple J’s hottest 100 hit ‘I Can Make You Love Me’ and the explosive new single ‘Summer Forgive Me’.
We caught up with drummer Will Drummond to find out what he likes to eat on tour, his biggest cooking diaster and what he would like to eat if it was his last day on earth.
What were your food influences when you were growing up and what kind of food did you eat at home or with your family?
My Mum was a fantastic cook but also a very resourceful one. We had 5 kids a border and several hangers on whenever it was time to eat. Whether it was corned beef with amazing white sauce, melting in your mouth chicken wings, perfect homestyle bolognese or just a selection of “nibbles” (as my Dad would call them much to my Mum’s chagrin) Mum was always able to make meals that satisfied everyone with great taste and sheer volume!.
Sam my brother is also an amazing cook. He was an apprentice Chef for a long time before the job got in the way of his party lifestyle. Whenever he cooks you don’t miss it. He takes all he learnt from our Mum’s great cooking and added his own, bull in a china shop, flair. For my Mum’s birthday one year he cooked a bouillabaisse for fifty people that is still talked about to this day. He never does things by halves and every meal is an event, and event that makes its attendants very very happy. Moral of the story if Sam’s cooking be there….Now he is a draftsman in Port Douglas, FNQ designing resorts for us to sip Pina Coladas, painting amazing giant canvases and raising two great little rascals.
What dish or cuisine do you most like to eat on tour and why?
We always try to find great places to eat in every city, whether it is the new high end flavour of the month or the great hole in the wall that you can walk away with change from a $10 note we will give it a try. Two highlights on both ends are Gumshara Raman in the Eating World Food Court at Haymarket, Sydney which is cheap, delicious and filling. The owner and head chef, Chef Mori, mastered his trade in Japan, has only one day off a week and it is said he still goes to work that day to stir his stock. It is the best Ramen you will have….good luck finishing one.
The other is named after us!…..kind of…..British India in Adelaide is a Modern Indian restaurant that has supreme flavours. This is not the run down local Indian with the pink walls. This is a restaurant that has meticulously designed the decor and its menu so that the moment you step in the restaurant all preconceived ideas of an Indian restaurant have left your mind.
What type of food do you hate, and what is the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten?
There is no real food I hate. I have eaten everything from whale to pig’s tongues. Give me anything I’ll try it once.
What type of food do you make sure to avoid before a gig or going on stage?
I know I mentioned it before but and Curry should never be eaten before going on stage. You never leave an Indian restaurant thinking to yourself “That was the perfect amount of food I just ate then, who wants to go have some beers!?” It’s generally a slow waddle to your place of rest to hibernate until the world needs your assistance again.
Imagine for a second you can request anything on your rider at a gig. What food do you put on it?
I try and separate gigs and food because they never go well together. However i would have to say that I would go for the “Smash Burger” from GoBurger in LA and New York. It is easily the best burger i have had and I feel that its convenient handheld shape would suit an after show treat….mind you I might start looking more like Meat Loaf if that was around on a rider every night so I think I’ll stick with the fruit, tequila and beer.
What has been your biggest cooking disaster to date?
When I was 16 I thought I would be the saviour of the family and cook the steaks while Dad was away. After seeing a Jamie Oliver episode I thought I could step things up a notch. The recipe called for a rub of basically every type of spice you could name. I rubbed the mixture of cayenne, hot chilli powder, slap your mama, paprika and other spices, vigorously into well marbled scotch fillets and let it to sit while i heated the pan. The smoke rose from the pan indicating the optimum time for cooking and I proceeded to slap a scotch fillet onto the pan.
Within seconds a noxious smoke filled the room and everyone screamed in agony as the chilli smoke filled their eyes. Like a wounded soldier I fell to the ground unable to hear or see around me, only the searing pain in my eyes was noticeable Eventually someone screamed for everyone to get down and make haste for the back door. We tumbled out like clowns from a tiny car and writhed on the ground. Anyone looking down from above would have been sure we were just hit with napalm. Who knows, they may have been the ingredients for napalm. It took at least an hour for the smoke to dissipate and for us to sit around the table and eat the salad that Mum had prepared earlier, no body spoke, we just exchanged glances through blood red eyes.
When you tour overseas, what food from home do you miss the most?
Vegemite
This is your last day on earth, what is your final meal?
Surely my friends will pitch in for me to go to Vue De Monde won’t they?
