Vika and Linda – Where do you come from?

Australia has spawned some rare talents over the decades, and every story is the same, but different. Humble beginnings, hard work and maybe a spot of good fortune. One of the country’s truly iconic vocal duos has to be sister act, Vika and Linda Bull.

Born and raised in Melbourne, Vika and Linda grew up with music being a daily and very prominent feature of their lives. Children of an Australian father and a Tongan mother, the styles of music they were exposed to was vast and varied.

(Vika) “We grew up in the Tongan church, there was always music playing at home. Dad had his favourite artists like Willy Nelson and Linda Ronstadt, Mum had her Tongan music, , the Tongans would come over after church and bring their guitars and Ukuleles, so yeah, there was always music playing. It was wholesome. That’s what music does. It makes people happy. It makes you feel a whole range of emotions.. I’m sad for people that don’t have that in their lives growing up. It does so much to enrich your life.”

Initially, the girls didn’t start out singing together. Linda wanted to be an artist, and studied visual arts at uni for a time. However, fate had other ideas.

(Linda) “What happened was, we just grew up learning how to sing We had no formal training. Mum taught us how to sing with the Tongan choirs. Vik was the one that broke into the industry first. She went to the nightclubs and met all these cool people, …you, know, ya have to put yourself in the room to get into bands”

(Vika) “Yeah, I just started singing around the clubs and singing with bands. Linda was at Uni at the time, and I knew she wasn’t having a great time, and we could sing well in harmony, so I said ‘Come on, lets just have a go’, so we got some people together that could play drums and bass, guitar, all of that, and we just started having a go. We formed a band called ‘The Honeymooners’, and just got known around Melbourne.
“That’s when we got asked to audition for ‘The Black Sorrows’. We were fans of that band. We used to watch them on ‘Countdown’ back when they were ‘Jo Jo Zepp and The Falcons, so we knew who he was.
We kind of sidestepped being in our own band to being backup singers for The Falcons. It was a different hat. They taught us on the fly. We learned by doing it. Immersion is the best way to learn. Just get in there and do it.”

One of the artists I spoke to previously, and someone with a long and impressive career is Brian Cadd. I asked the sisters what it was like to work with someone like him.

(Vika)” We love Caddy. We are fans of his songwriting. ‘Little ray of sunshine’ was the first thing we ever heard , and we loved it. We saw him on ‘Countdown’ as well. We love his voice. Then we got to work with him on that tour, and we became friends. We love him because he’s just such an easy going guy.”

Easy going and easy to talk to would be an apt description of Vika and Linda. I asked how they thought their upbringing contributed to that outlook on life.

(Linda)”I think if you are raised in a way that keeps you grounded, its hard to be anything but humble. We would get back from tour and our Dad would say ‘Oh well, that’s good, now come and help me with the garden.’, so we never really got a chance to get big headed. It’s just a job. You have to get back to reality.”

Some artists have a favourite song, a favourite album or a highlight. For Vika and Linda, it;s the latest thing.

(Vika)”Its like That one’s finished. What’s next? I like the vein we hit with the new album. ‘Where do you come from?’ is our 9th studio album. I cant put a finger on which one is my favourite, but this one is there at the moment.”

The concept of the album is a reflection on a question that has been a constant throughout the girls’ career. ‘Where do you come from? ‘

(Vika) “I think the music industry tried to pigeon-hole us at the beginning. You know, because we had brown skin, they thought ‘They’ll want to be soul artists. We didn’t want to be soul artists.We had a real love of Rock n Roll music and country music . We didn’t want to be pushed into a box. Fortunately, our record company let us do pretty much what we liked, so we experimented a lot. The other problem we had was, we have very different tastes. I think that we woke up to the fact that our looks could be an advantage, but the record companies initially wanted the blonde bombshell type, so we were a hard sell. The upside was, there weren’t many Pacific Islanders up on stage back then, so that kind of gave us an advantage.

(Linda)”You’re selling a product, and you have to be aware of that, but if you don’t want to do something, you just stick to your guns and don’t do it. Television was also a challenge. We didn’t have the typical look.
What is so great now is the internet. It’s opened up a whole world of new experiences for audiences.”

I asked what their thoughts were on A.I.

(Vika) “Yeah , it;s shit. I don’t like the farming of our digital footprint for mass appeal where there is no actual person involved. I’m glad that A.P.R.A. is trying to do something about all that. I guess it has advantages but I don’t know what they are.”

Vika and Linda will be visiting Cairns on Friday, September 18, complete with full band., so support live Australian music and treat yourself to a very special musical experience

Tickets are available at the door if not sold out or via Ticketlink.