'Deeply Embedded Oral Tradition Is In Our DNA': Vika & Linda Are Stronger Than Ever On 'Where Do You Come From?'

We’ve always been in awe of Vika & Linda Bull’s peerless sibling harmonies, but watching them strut into the spotlight with purpose after honing their chops as background singers of choice for legendary Australian acts (Paul Kelly, The Black Sorrows) over the years has been gratifying. 

Nearly four decades into their illustrious career, Vika & Linda were finally announced amongst this year’s ARIA Hall Of Fame inductees. The Bull sisters have an unfair blood harmony advantage, sure: Linda’s soulful-sweet quality wonderfully complementing Vika’s more gutsy, powerful delivery. 

When Kate Ceberano – another 2026 ARIA Hall Of Fame inductee – inducted Vika & Linda into the 2019 Music Victoria Hall Of Fame, she rightfully rhapsodised about “our Tongan queens” during her speech. 

If you’ve been fortunate enough to behold Vika & Linda gracing a stage since their recent career triumphs – topping the ARIA Albums Chart for the first time ever with 2020’s Akilotoa anthology, following this up with a gospel collection, Sunday (The Gospel According To Iso), which peaked at #2, later that year and then releasing The Wait, which also hit #2 – you would’ve noticed they just keep getting better even though we couldn't have imagined this was possible. 

The much-loved vocal duo are finally enjoying the level of success they so richly deserve and we’re totally here for it.

When Zoom connects us, we notice Linda has chosen to blur her background while Vika sits in a room where a Gold record and another certification hang in frames on the wall behind her. They’re both dressed in black and Linda’s rocking a baseball cap.

As warm and welcoming as you’d expect, Vika & Linda are also fierce truthtellers. They check in with one another a couple of times throughout our chat (eg. “How do you put it, Linda?”). Although a creative partnership, they are sisters first and foremost. Capturing and preserving feelings on record is what they’re chasing these days.

Long may Vika & Linda show the future generations of aspiring artists how it’s done.  

Vika & Linda’s ARIA Hall Of Fame Induction: “We Weren't Expecting It At All”  

Linda: “What happened?” 

Vika: “You say, Linda.”

L: “We were together. Vika and I were called together by our record company and our manager, and we thought, ‘Oh my God, something really bad's happened!’ We were at Phillip Island and we had to drive up and we thought, ‘Something really bad's going on and we don't know what it is’ – I dunno why we thought it was bad; we just weren't sure.

“So then we thought maybe someone was leaving. Or the manager was gonna say, ‘Listen, you guys are a nightmare – I just wanna move on.’ But they told us together that we had been inducted into the Hall Of Fame and we were – I mean, I was not expecting that. Neither was Vik, I don't think.” 

V: “No, we weren't expecting it at all. I was like, ‘Nah, really? Why?’ was my thing. That was my first question, ‘Why?’ There are other people more deserving than us that should be inducted, that have been in the game longer, that have passed away, you know?” 

Flashback: Recording With Iggy Pop 

After performing at WOMAD in the UK in the mid-‘90s, Vika & Linda were invited to participate in festival founder Peter Gabriel’s Real World Recording Week, during which artists from all around the world were offered recording opportunities at his studio in Bath. As part of this initiative, Gabriel encouraged participating artists to invite a collaborator into the process. 

Vika & Linda performed at Reading Festival just prior to their allocated Real World Studios time. During their set, Linda ducked into their backstage tent for a quick breather, only to discover Iggy Pop and Johnny Depp were now occupying the tiny area. The legendary pair were immediately apologetic and Linda assured them they were welcome to hang out.   

Post-set, Vika & Linda got chatting with Iggy and Johnny and mentioned they were running out of time to find a Real World Recording Week collaborator (their recording session was scheduled for 3pm the following day). Iggy volunteered, showed up on time – together with an A-List entourage – and supplied guest vocals on I Know Where To Go To Feel Good.

This song – sans Iggy’s contribution – appears on Vika & Linda’s 1994 self-titled record. But is the Iggy-enhanced version available for our ears anywhere? 

L: “No. You know what? We lost the tape. There's only one tape and we can't find it. But, I mean, we'll dig it out one day. Even if we did, I don't think we'd be allowed to release it. Unless we ask Iggy, now: ‘We're in the ARIA Hall Of Fame, can you…?’” 

V&L: “Hahahaha.” 

V: “It's pretty funny. We did a Paul Kelly song called I Know Where To Go To Feel Good and it's a really great song. And all Iggy had to do was go, ‘[imitates Iggy’s distinctive sandpapery baritone] I know where to go to feel good’ – he’s got the perfect voice, yeah.” 

L: “Oh yeah, it was amazing. He said, ‘I only ever do two takes,’ and we asked him very politely to do three. And all he had to do was just keep saying that [‘I know where to go to feel good’] over and over again.

“The thing about that was, it wasn't just Iggy – he came with all these really famous people and it was just like [leans back and covers her face with both hands], ‘Oh, what the hell? Now we have to sing in front of Vernon Reid from Living Colour. And there's Johnny Depp and Kate Moss, and what the heck? We just thought it would be you, Iggy!’ But, you know, that's the way he rolls.”

V: “We rocked up in our daggy jeans and our ‘Protect The Pacific’ T-shirts, you know?” 

L: “Oh, he liked that.” 

“Not Holding Back Was Good For Our Songwriting” 

Where Do You Come From? is an unflinching, tender, poignant and important work. Vika & Linda have said the process of writing their no-holds-barred memoir, 2022’s No Bull, rekindled a desire to tell their own story through song. We can’t help but wonder how they found the experience of writing No Bull.

V: “Hard. I didn't enjoy it. Linda's different.”

L: “Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I liked the discipline of trying to give an editor a thousand words a week; that's just the way I am, and I liked to do that. I mean, in retrospect I wish I had thought about the shape of what I was writing about a little bit more.

“I read it and I go, ‘Oh God, I could’ve written about that.’ But they [the editors] said, ‘Don't worry about it, just write it.’ And that's exactly what we did; we just didn't know we were doing the same thing at the same time. 

“Because we've had a life together, we just thought about the same things in a similar way. And they just put them together and went, ‘You wrote about that. Oh, and then you wrote about that.’ But the deep dive into certain things the public never knew about, that was hard. That was like, ‘Do I say this? Is this gonna hurt people?’”

V: “Do we want to expose ourselves so much?’ you know? Excuse my cat.”

Vika’s video tile is suddenly invaded by a swishing tail as a chonky white cat with tabby splotches – later introduced as Hank – demands attention. Vika pats Hank. Then he wanders in and out of shot throughout our chat, sometimes sitting with his back to the camera, staring intently at her. 

V: “I do tend to overfeed him a little [laughs], anyway…”  

L: “I think that soul searching thing about not holding back was good for our songwriting, in the long run. We had to get the lawyers in to look over a chapter of mine.” 

V: “Yeah, and I was probably a bit blunt about certain things that had to be softened a bit. Our mission wasn't to set out to really hurt anyone, it was to tell the truth in a sort of – how do you put it, Linda?” 

L: “We didn't wanna be sensationalist. We wanted to tell the honest truth from our eyes, but unfortunately some things might've been taken by the other party to be something that they could sue us over, so we had to take it out.” 

“She called me coca cola / My little sister, too…”

L: “I wrote Waiting On The Kid [Linda’s heartfelt reflection on solo motherhood as a touring muso] with Mark Seymour. And then Vika went, ‘I want a piece of that action; I wanna write a song with Mark Seymour, too,’ I think. But that [Waiting On The Kid] was the first one [written for the album] and then Vika wrote the lyrics for Where Do You Come From?”

“She called me coca cola/My little sister, too/You’re not from around here, are ya?/Nobody looks like you..…” 

Vika’s belting – echoed by guitar – at the end of this latest record’s title track, cuts deep. We can feel her younger self’s humiliation and sadness – still potent after all these years. Is that an accurate assessment?    

V: “[Nodding emphatically] That's very, very accurate – that's what it's about… School wasn't great, but the thing I thought about – when we recorded that and I decided to do that vocal take – was like, ‘Okay, I've done it now. But how am I gonna do this night after night when we play live?’ you know? ‘Cause it was tough. It was a very high, full-voice belt.

“You've gotta sing [for] an hour and a half, and then do that song? You can pretty much blow your voice out so, yeah! I dunno, I haven't thought about how I'm gonna attack that yet. Maybe the guitar line'll have to do it twice, because, you know, it's all about voice preservation when you're on the road.” 

L: “But I was there in the room when Vika sang that, and only she could sing that. It's like you say: what you hear is the way she sang that – oh, it was gut wrenching, really. 

“[Addresses Vika] I don't really care if you can't do it live. I just think that feeling is forever preserved on record, you know? That's important; that's the song.” 

V: “Yeah, I guess so. But that's the thing: that's always been something in the back of my mind from when I was very young, from joining The Black Sorrows. I think maybe ‘cause Joe [Camilleri] used to question that all the time, you know? ‘How are we gonna reproduce this?’ So that was a bit in my training, I guess.

“Being in The Sorrows and bands like that – and with Paul – that was always in the back of our minds when we recorded, ‘How's it gonna go when we sing it live?’” 

Fun fact: One of Vika & Linda’s childhood homes in Doncaster, 51 Botanic Drive, is immortalised in Where Do You Come From?.

Being “Cornered In A ‘Bull Sandwich’”

Vika & Linda fell in love with Bliss the moment they heard Ben Salter perform it during one of his gigs at George Lane in St Kilda. Post-show, the sisters “cornered Ben in a ‘Bull sandwich’ to ask if [they] could record it” and, voila! Their instincts were spot-on, as per.

We’re curious to hear how Vika & Linda’s own organ-backed, unison-sung take on Bliss – which augments into a rocking mantra and sounds like it was written just for them – compares with Salter’s original version.

L: “You could blink and miss it. And we were together, ‘cause Vika said, ‘Hey, Ben's playing in St Kilda, let's go!’ And we ran down there. But as soon as he started playing it, Vik and I looked at each other and just went, ‘Oh, this has got something.’ And then it was over. And we're like, ‘What?’”

V: “It was one minute long.” 

L: “Straight away we knew, ‘Okay, the way to make this song work is just do it again and again.’ And we just asked Ben, then and there – said, ‘Look, we really like that song, Bliss. Can we do it?’ – and he went, ‘You can do anything you want,’ haha. And so we went, ‘Okay’.” 

None could resist the ‘Bull sandwich’!

V: “It was a little bit, hahaha.”

L: “Yeah, he couldn't get away.” 

Have many other songwriters been cornered in a Bull sandwich over the years? 

L: “Yes, heaps, hahaha. Paul Kelly was in a Bull sandwich for many years.” 

V: “Hahaha. Every Thursday, he was in the Bull sandwich, yeah. [Paul was] coming around trying to help us write songs; that was something I think I took for granted a little bit.” 

Did songwriting come easily from the get-go or was it a bit intimidating? 

V: “I'm different from Linda, so Linda has to answer this question her way. But mine was like, ‘Why the hell am I here? This is hard work and I hate it’.”

L: “[Laughs heartily] That was definitely what she was like. She'd just disappear when it got difficult – to make cups of tea. But she was listening. Vika always had an ear on the melody – very, very good with melody – and as it turns out now, with this record, very, very good with lyrics. 

“I didn't have the problem with sitting there and trying to figure out the nuts and bolts; that's just my personality: detailed and focused. But we're a good songwriting team, I think, because we're very different. And at the end, Vika would sort of go, ‘I don't get what you're trying to say. It's too flowery, make it simple.’

“I’d simplify it so it's more normal language and then we'd come together for that harmony. It's good, I've enjoyed that – learning each other's way of writing – it's been really enjoyable. It's probably come together most effectively, so far, on this record.”

Visualising Bliss 

L: “[The Bliss video] was directed by Kii Belling, and we've always loved his work – we've known him since he was a kid. But he was always obsessed with film-making, so we knew that he wasn't just sort of going, ‘I can make a clip’ – we knew he lives and breathes film-making. Also, he is very fun and we wanted it to be fun. 

“We wanted it to be, like – it's a hard one, because it's a repeated one-minute song; it's looped three times. So Kii came up with the concept: basically, ‘I just want you guys to be doing things that make you happy – or things that make people feel happy – like rough and tumble, blowing bubbles and jumping, skating.’

“And he put us in crazy parrot and fish uniforms, so we loved the concept straight away. It wasn't even like, ‘Oh, I'm not sure about that.’ We were like, ‘Yes, that sounds great! We don't have to do anything’ – I mean, we do, [places hands on either side of her mouth like a megaphone] we have to do all these stunts, hahaha.”

V: “But I think the thing about Kii is that he also got the song, for some reason – because Ben Salter wrote the song, right? Now he's one of our favourite songwriters, one of our favourite singers, and he's a little bit quirky. And I think somehow Kii got that and knew that he had to make a fun, interesting clip. It was kinda like the two are related, but they've never met, you know?” 

L: “Oh, that's so true!”

V: “Yeah, it’s like he understood what Ben was like just by listening to the song. So that was very interesting: to see what he came up with. And I think Ben really likes the clip.”

I Hit Pause: “It Was A Cry For Help, Really” 

Vika candidly recounts “navigating menopause and early sobriety” in another album highlight, I Hit Pause. 

V: “I'd written that song at the end of a long Red Hot Summer tour and I'd given up drinking. I didn't go to the end-of-tour party because I was feeling pretty shit about myself, and I thought, ‘I’ve given up drinking, I'm exercising, why aren't I feeling healthy? What is wrong with me? What else is wrong with me?’ I couldn't figure it out. 

“I was depressed – never been depressed in my life, you know? – really blue, just really bad to be around; bad energy. It was to the point where I just sort of thought, ‘Well, I wanna quit singing. I think it'd be better if I just fucking killed myself,’ you know? Because that's how shit I felt about myself, not realising it was menopause.

“So I wrote it down. And it sort of started as a song about drinking, then it turned into a song about menopause – I Hit Pause, I'm gonna have a break. Then it was like – and this became the buzzword for menopause – you know, [draws inverted commas either side of her head] ‘the pause life’ and all that sort of stuff – and I thought, ‘Oh God, is that? No. This is what it is!’ 

“The song was written about four years ago and it was a cry for help, really. And, luckily, I've come through it and I'm great. I'm probably the healthiest and the best I've ever been, now. I think it's for women to know that [punches both fists forwards] you'll get through it, you know? You get through it and on the other side, it's better. 

“You know what I did? I went to four doctors and I tried to get HRT – all that sorta stuff – and they all told me, ‘No’. So then I went online and I found people like Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Mindy Pelz, Dr. Vonda Wright, Dr. Stacy Sims – all these people. I bought their books, I read them, I did my own research. Lisa Mosconi – people like that – who was starting to talk about it and research it and going, ‘Okay, nuh’.

“And everything they were telling me was what I was feeling. I went, ‘Ah, okay! So this is what I've gotta do.’ So I got the language, went to the doctor and said, ‘Okay, this-this-this-this-this and I want you to put me on hormones.’ And the minute I did that, my life changed, yeah.

“So thank God for the internet! It saved my life.”  

Does Vika give less fucks now? 

V: “Hahaha, yeah, actually, I don't care anymore. It’s just like, ‘Whatever’. I care about my family and I care about the state of the world [rocks back and forth in her seat, rhythmically] and what's happening and how we're all pretty much fucked, and how much houses cost, and those sorta things really concern me. But really little things, it's like, ‘I'm just not even gonna deal with that,’ you know? So, I hope I haven't said too much…”

L: [Screws face up a bit, tilts head to one side and shrugs supportively] “Nuh!”

V: “Then I got Karen Jacobson to help me [complete I Hit Pause] at a songwriting workshop up in the Whitsundays. I said, ‘Karen, I've started this song. I really wanna finish it.’ And she did! We worked together and that's what happened.” 

L: “You know, the funny thing about that song is: I was in the next room, writing with somebody else, and I could hear Vika let loose on that bridge – I should’ve been concentrating on what I was doing, haha – but I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds really good. Okay, this is a good one!’ you know? I could hear, like – I knew that something was goin’ on in that room. I was like, ‘Yes!’”

Did that particular Whitsundays songwriting stint spawn any more album tracks? 

V: “Yes, Little Baby.”

L: “Little Baby, with [co-writer] Toni Childs.” 

V: “That's How I Pray. What else was on there, Lulu? You got a song list?” 

L: “[consults song list] I Hit Pause, That's How I Pray, Little Baby.” 

V: “I think that was it!” 

L: “That's it, three.”

How long was that songwriting camp? 

V: “Two days.”

L: “I think we wrote eight songs.” 

V: “We wrote eight! [Scoops Hank up from the desk, places him on her lap and kisses him on the head] Yeah, we were writing pretty much day and night. It was very productive. Yeah, it was really great.” 

“I've Never Known A Smile As Sad As That…”

Another gorgeous album track, The Boats, contains a standout lyrical phrase: “I've never known a smile as sad as that…” – and we must know more! 

V: “I've never known a smile as sad as that – yeah, I found that line quite moving to sing, I guess. And also still kind of trying to understand what he was trying to say.

“Cameron Bruce wrote that song. Cameron produced the record with us. He was really fantastic – a very musical person – and he sent us that song he'd written and we loved it instantly. We just thought, ‘Oh, it’s beautiful, this one.’

“And I did ask him, I said, ‘What exactly are you talking about in that song, Cameron?’ I said, ‘Are you lonely? What are you feeling?’ ‘Cause when you're trying to sing someone else's song, you have to understand where their head's at. 

“I think he said to me, ‘It's about finding your people and the people that you wanna surround yourself with.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it is a little bit about loneliness, too, I guess.’ But he said, ‘I think it was sort of open for me to interpret’.”

Smiles typically communicate happiness. That line's really multi-layered, it makes you think.

V: “Yeah, hahaha. Well, Cameron is like that. Yeah, he's complicated. So I think that song kinda sums it up. Wouldn't you say, Linda?” 

L: “That definitely sums him up, yeah. As I think about the songwriters that we've approached in Bull sandwiches, haha – over the years they can send us many songs that do not always get over the line, and it's really hard to be honest with why. It's like, ‘I'm sorry, I just don't get that,’ or, ‘It's not right for us,’ or whatever. Vik and I know straight away. 

“And so that was number four, I think – Cameron had sent [us] four songs over the years – but that one was immediately like, ‘Yep!’ And I think it's because we can feel that that's Cameron, or that's something that we related to in that lonely feeling when you're on the road, or when you return home – whatever it was. There's a yearning about that song that, yeah! It's a hard thing to nail down.

“But lots of songwriters over the years have persevered with Vika and I – thank GOD [she flings one arm skyward] – because they trust that when we really believe it, we're really gonna sell it.”

The World Champions Of Unison Singing

When told we reckon they’re the undisputed world champions of unison singing. Vika & Linda beam, laugh and look chuffed.  

V: “Yes! Thank you.” 

L: “Thank you. We've worked so hard!”

Reading No Bull, we discovered that Vika & Linda’s childhood singalongs in the back seat of the car would receive immediate feedback from Mum.

V: “Mum's a great teacher. She's a very strong, powerful singer, and, yes, she was constantly telling us what to do. When we'd sing along to Split Enz or something, she'd be like, ‘You know you don't need to hold that note for so long. You could cut it off.’ And, yeah, always critiquing from the front seat of the car, she was.”

“When We Were Growing Up, We Tried To Be The Finn Brothers”

Vika & Linda recently blew their younger selves away when they supported Split Enz on their Forever Enz tour, accompanied by The Bullettes: guitarist Ben Edgar, bassist Richard Bradbeer and drummer Lachlan O’Kane, all of whom also sing beautifully.

We were lucky enough to be in attendance at their first Melbourne arena show, during which Vika & Linda acknowledged: “When we were growing up, we tried to be the Finn brothers. We’re still trying…” The sisters also teased, “We know all the songs. If they need a cover, we’re ready.” 

Vika & Linda’s excitement upon warming up the stage for their musical heroes was palpable throughout their stunning (albeit way-too-short!) set.

They performed Bliss in public for the very first time during this show, too. While introducing this mantra-in-song, they admitted to giving it their best “ABBA treatment”. To achieve the Swedish sensations’ signature lush sound on this one, we’ve since discovered Vika & Linda laid down eight separate vocal tracks!  

Vika: “I Was Always Frida, And I Wanted To Be Frida” 

So did Vika & Linda ever fight over who would sing which ABBA part? 

L: “Yes, yes.” 

V: “I was always Frida, and I wanted to be Frida.” 

Did Vika’s voice suit Frida more? 

L: “My voice is more like Frida's and Vika's is more like Agnetha's.” 

What was the first ABBA song you ever heard? 

L: “Oh, boy.” 

V: “Was it Mamma Mia?” 

L: “Maybe.” 

V: “It was probably Mamma Mia.”

L: “Yeah. And I just remember, even though our passion for ABBA was deep – like, deep – when Fernando was in the charts for 54 weeks or whatever, I was like, ‘Okay, I've had enough. I've had enough now!’ Hahaha.”

V: “I even liked it when Björn sang! I loved Rock Me. It was a great song, you know?”

Any ABBA-inspired outfits?

L: “Our whole wardrobe was full of outfits that matched, yes. So we had the whole – we had everything.” 

V: “That was Linda's department. She’s the fashion designer. She'd go, ‘I want this one, Mum. Can you make this?’ So they'd go to material shops and buy the fabric and Mum would sew them up.” 

L: “Yeah, we had the whole gamut. I could talk a whole other hour about our outfits.”

“We Were Schooled by Venetta Fields”

If you’ve caught the Bull sisters live of late, you already know that their years of dedicated practice and meticulous attention to detail has paid off. Without even glancing each other’s way, ‘t’ sounds land in perfect unison – it's quite miraculous to watch. Vika & Linda make it all look and sound so effortless that the majority of audience members probably don't even realise the degree of difficulty.

L: “[Sips from a white mug] That's exactly right. You know, we were schooled – in the early days, when we were in The Black Sorrows – by Venetta Fields. And Venetta Fields is the reason why Vika and I are so on top of that stuff, because she was in The Ikettes – oh God, I don't even know how to describe what she's done.

“But her experience as a singer was on supercharge when we were in the studio, because she had to teach us how to do stuff really quickly. And she taught us all those little tricks: ‘You do the ‘t’, you don't do the ‘t’; you do the ‘s’, you don't do the ‘s’. When you sing that, time it properly. Vibrato has to go like this…’ – all these things, she taught us, and that's how we really got to hone the intricate nature of singing with each other; not just backing singing, singing along with each other, was spurred on by her. It was like the most incredible singing lesson for weeks on end.”

Oral Tradition Is “Deeply Embedded” In Vika & Linda’s DNA

Alongside their singing virtuosity, both Vika & Linda are really beautiful storytellers. Throughout their lives, Vika & Linda’s dad told them ghost stories. When the sisters spent time in Tonga, reconnecting with family and culture, relatives would bang on all night. 

Did hearing family members yarning contribute to their own interest, and confidence, in storytelling? 

L: “Oh, yeah.”

V: “Definitely the Tongan side. The Tongans are great storytellers, they really are. And great talkers. You know, they'll sit up all night and just – I dunno what they talk about, they just talk about lots of things. But, you know, always – that's how things have been passed down, through storytelling, you know? 

“And our father has a great imagination, too. So he would make up fantastic bedtime stories for us – still does. He loves to read, he loves to tell us stories, he loves to tell us things that happen in the news: ‘Did you know this?’ Yesterday he pointed out an article in the paper about a Tongan opera singer and he's telling me all about him. And so Dad's been a big, big influence in our life.

“He's very quiet, very laidback, but very important – because of his nature, I think. He's very gentle and he's very creative, as well.” 

L: “I never really drew that line until you just mentioned it, Bryget and Vik, between how deeply embedded oral tradition is in our DNA and what we do. I think it's communication, exactly right: the need to communicate. I've never really thought about it until now. I'm just, like – my head's exploding. Thank you.

“I've really never made the connection, but that's the reason – probably – why we do what we do. We were raised like that, it’s in our DNA.” 

Vika & Linda’s Where Do You Come From? arrives via Mushroom Music on June 5th.

This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body