Vika and Linda became the first female duo to top the charts in 2020 when they released their compilation album ‘Akilotoa.
The old clear cassette with the faded words Vika and Linda Bull atop accompanied us on many family holidays, part of the soundtrack of our youth.
We set off, the radio going as we traced the familiar roads out of town, yet as the holiday began, the scenery started to change. So did the atmosphere as the tape clicked in and the silky-smooth river of a voice, Linda, flowed in and around the powerful, electric territory of Vika, shifting into the foreground.
Vika and Linda have island roots that branch out, music harvested in the upper limbs. A childhood home alive with music, a church choir, backyard sing-alongs, lullabies sung by their dad. Music arched over the early lives of the sisters and together they innately felt the pull and power of standalone vocal sound.
Their first band, The HoneyMooners, held VCA trained musicians. Self-taught, a bit green, Vika and Linda Bull followed their instincts. They felt their way through. They said it was a natural seeking of joy, of what it means to sing.
With time, that joy matured and while not receding, welcomed seasonal variety to their vocal terrain.
Early on, they recognised that when they came together in harmony, they could lift, and like a gust of wind, they could feel the audience swept up with them, transported elsewhere.
“We just knew the sound and what we wanted to hear. The main thing was our harmony, singing together. That was the focus,” said Vika.
“I think she is the best singer in the whole wide world and I love singing with her. That’s my favourite sound, ever,” Linda said of Vika.
After a recommendation from drummer Peter Luscombe, the sisters joined The Black Sorrows. They set off on a six-month tour. It lasted six years.
“We came from a very protected, very strict home and then all of a sudden we joined a band and we’re touring the world. We were singing in pubs six nights a week. We grew up very fast,” said Vika.
“Coming from a very stable, structured upbringing to then just going to music which was kind of chaotic,” said Linda.
Their eyes were opened. So too were their ears and they paid heed to the rhythms, melodies and stories of their surrounds, preparing to transform them into particular sounds.
Supporting an abundance of fellow Australian musicians, the sultry, soulful sisters have flanked all sorts of talent over the years, foremostly the Paul Kelly Band and as part of the long-running ensemble who came together to create RocKwiz.
Based in the iconic Gershwin Room at the Espy in St Kilda, Vika and Linda loved the bringing together of local music diehards, songwriters, singers and stalwarts, with up-and-comers for live performances and an always-eclectic quiz lead by the charismatic Julia Zemiro and ever-knowledgeable music aficionado, Brian Nankervis.
They relished singing with lots of different people, young new artists, alongside the experienced, the older guard – people who cared about music in a way they understood.
When everyone comes together to sing, Vika thinks that is the cream of the crop, something pure and an intrinsic part of pleasure.
“When you get to sing with a group of people like that and you get to sing together and it works, that is the sound, that is what I want to hear and it is taking you to heaven or somewhere like that.”
New Zealand musician Marlon Williams speaks of a change in temperature when the Bull sisters take to the stage: “There’s just so much heat.”
Part of that is the physicality, their voices hurting and healing, youthful and womanly, sensual and in command, gossamer and strong. “I personally think that our differences, is our strength,” said Linda. Vika agrees, their own musical tastes and experiences tussle into the folds and that is what makes the great sound.
There is quiet and they withdraw before a show. Vika describes it as nervousness – nervousness about their ability to perform and hit the notes of any given night. Linda describes it as deep focus.
They shift quickly between ballads, to belting it out, to blues, soul and rock.
“That’s why we love doing it I think. It’s fun and it’s hard and it’s everything. It’s all those different things mixed into that one thing,” said Vika.
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“Sometimes, I often think before I go up on stage, why do I do this thing? Because my insides are just turned upside down. Why do I put myself through this every night and feel like this because I don’t feel too good in the moment?
“But the moment you walk out on stage that completely shifts. It changes and then it becomes fun and we think, ‘Whoa, aren’t we lucky we get to do this?’ And then we become grateful and then it’s, shit this is so much fun.”
Something euphoric. Something the audience shares in. Such is the connection between the audience and the singers, they have performed for Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and The King of Tonga.
Meeting the King of Tonga, the leader of their mother’s country, was a return to a part of their history and their culture. Knowing that through music and songs, their heritage that runs deep lives on. The stories live on.
“Grandpa’s Song” is always sung when they return to Tonga. It is the first song they ever wrote together and remains a steady favourite after 26 years since its release.
They have looked back and doubted it. Cringed at parts of it. Yet, with wisdom, as EM Forster said: “A work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.” Left in its capturing of a moment, that is what “Grandpa’s Song” is.
Linda said that it can be hard to get through that song sometimes, looking out into the audience and sharing in the memories that the song brings forth. Tears do creep to the rims, threating a hot descent. Sometimes it can come as a shock, this emotion buried deep within. Yet Linda knows that it is life and family and as such, deeply familiar. That is why the song is loved by so many. The hurt and heart and harmony live in parts of us. And that is why they always sing it when they go to Tonga at their grandpa’s house.
“House of Love”; “We’ve Started a Fire”; “When Will You Fall For Me?”; “Hard Love”; “The Parting Song”. In these songs, Vika and Linda have the ability to sing what we can’t, they articulate and say what we can’t, because some things in life are beyond our articulation, there is something beyond that. It is something we can only feel – and that comes through music.
That’s what Vika and Linda do best. Transport us places, and beyond.
Their compilation, an anthology, released in 2020 reached No.1 – the first female duo to top the charts. The title of the album, ‘Akilotoa, translates as ‘cascading’. Their songs flow on and through lives.
During one of the longest lockdowns in the world, as the pandemic threw a pall over Melbourne, the sisters sang online, not knowing what it would be or become. It was a challenge, something they don’t shy away from. They sang old songs, gospel songs, familiar songs, reacquainting themselves with songs of their past.
People were looking for reprieve, for hope, for beauty. The increasing number of people tuning in each week proved that it was a vital thing to hang onto, this form of community, art and emotion.
As people embraced simple pleasures out of sheer necessity during the pandemic, like many others, Linda found a certain realness emerged. They had rekindled a pureness from their past, akin to singing along to their old transistor radio.
“I found it really enlightening because that is how we started singing, that’s what we used to do as kids, sing, with very little instrumentation, sometimes none, and sing,” said Linda.
They were getting back to their roots.
I pick up the old tape that first introduced me to these songs. No longer can I play it in the car, but on a drive, an old familiar track comes on and the memories are renewed. I can still see my dad all those years ago, window down, tapping the steering wheel and singing along with Vika and Linda Bull – and as the first chorus kicks in, take flight, free from it all.
Become acquainted with their Vika and Linda’s new albums Sunday (The Gospel According to Iso) and their first new album in 19 years entitled The Wait. It’s been worth it: https://vikaandlindabull.com/music/
