Vika & Linda get candid about the stories behind every song on their new album

Vika’s initial preview performances for At Last: The Etta James Story went down at the Clocktower Centre in 2013, just days before the official world premiere, so the venue holds a special place in her heart.

“It’s a great little theatre,” she extols. “It’s a lovely room, just a great vibe.”

Where Do You Come From? is Vika & Linda’s first collection of predominantly original material since Princess Tabu, their second studio album, in 1996.

Inspired by writing their 2022 memoir No Bull, the beloved duo tell their own story throughout this album, sharing lived experiences and stepping into their truth.

Little Baby

VIKA: “The songwriting session was the interesting part of that record, ’cause we wrote it with Toni Childs. We didn’t know one another. So we sang a gospel song for her and she said, ‘No, I don’t think that’s what you’re about’. So it forced us to look a bit deeper.

“Then Linda started playing her guitar, and Toni liked what she played. Linda started singing ‘Mālō e Lelei’ in Tongan – which means hello – and [Toni] went, ‘Yeah, I really like that’. We realised very quickly that maybe the song would be a lullaby. It was a bit higgledy-piggledy after we left the session, so we worked hard with Cameron Bruce, our producer, to whip it into shape.

“We thought, ‘It needs heavy guitars and ukulele and that rhythm – the lali, the drum.'”

Waiting On The Kid

Fun fact: Waiting On The Kid, which Linda co-wrote with Mark Seymour, also appears on Mark Seymour & The Undertow’s album, The Boxer (2024). It’s Linda’s heartfelt reflection on solo motherhood, exploring the difficulties of being a touring muso mum and leaving your children behind. Her daughter Kiki, about whom it was written, even appears in that version’s music video.

LINDA: “When [Kiki] first heard it, she loved that song, she really did… She’s like, ‘Oh, what are you guys doing?’ And we’re like, ‘We’re writing songs, and this one happens to be about you’ [laughs]. She was a little bit confronted, but I think she got that it was really a ‘letting her go’ song.”

I Hit Pause

Vika candidly recounts “navigating menopause and early sobriety” in I Hit Pause. How have audiences responded to that one?

V: “Yeah, interesting [laughs]. It’s mixed. Women my age are going, ‘Yes-yes-yes!’ [punches the air] and nudging their husbands going, ‘See, see, see!’ It’s also about taking a moment to stop and think, what the heck’s going on.

“I wish I’d known. I wish I was better prepared for what was coming; when it hit me, I was not prepared at all. The song was written when I was going through all that, and I’m on the other side now and it’s actually much better. I started feeling very down and blue and depressed – something I’d never experienced before. Then I realised what was happening and wrote that song while it was happening.

“I’m a little bit conflicted about singing it now, because I’m on the other side. Maybe I need to write a song about being on the other side.”

What will that one be called? ‘Less Fucks’, maybe?

V: “That’s it! I don’t give a fuck, life is great!”

Where Do You Come From?

Vika & Linda’s current show includes eight songs from Where Do You Come From? – “half the show is the album,” Vika observes. But both sisters agree the title track is their favourite to perform live.

L: “There’s some buzz about it when we sing it – in the audience, but also from our point of view. It is kind of therapeutic to sing, and spit out, ‘Where do you come from?’ It runs deep within us. And the audience reaction – you can really feel it.”

ARIA Hall of Fame

The Bulls performed a spectacular medley at this year’s ARIA Hall of Fame induction, alongside fellow inductees Gurrumul, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, Spiderbait and The Living End.

Commencing with Chained To The Wheel a cappella, their nod to the Black Sorrows era continued with Never Let Me Go, then the joyous When Will You Fall For Me – their Mark Seymour-penned breakout hit. The sisters closed with the title track from their latest album.

V: “It was great to do a new song, amongst all the old ones, and make it part of the medley. It was like looking back, but looking forward as well.”

Verse 1: “I remember the time, I remember the place/ I’ll remember ’til the day I die/ Kids in the street, playin’ hide and seek/ At 51 Botanic Drive/ Running in the heat, ’til we were dead on our feet/ Laughing ’til the sun went down/ It was too dark to see, when you pointed at me and said, ‘How come your skin’s so brown?'”

L: “It was a really weird room, ’cause there were a lot of politicians as well as industry heavyweights. There were a couple of our Polynesian friends there, and it was a moving moment for me.”

V: “[The song] was just written from a childhood memory of being picked on and getting nicknamed ‘Coke’, ‘Coca Cola’ when I was a kid. The memory came flooding back, ’cause lots of things were happening on the news – like displacement of people. Linda, me and Mark sat down and made the song, wanting it to be strong and not pointing the finger so much, but asking the question: ‘Where do we come from?'”

Chorus: “She called me Coca Cola/ My little sister, too/ ‘You’re not from around here, are ya? Nobody looks like you’… ‘Where do you come from? Where do you come from? Where do you really come from?’…”

L: “When we released the song, things hadn’t moved on – Pauline Hanson’s hate speech and all that monoculture bullshit. It is about our cultural identity and where we feel we belong.

“People aren’t just coming up to tell us the song is resonating with them with their dark skin; they can be queer, they can be kids that got made fun of because their father dropped them off in his Monaro. I’m really happy about that.”

What A Beautiful Thing

V: “That’s written by Helen Shanahan, from Perth. Bill Page, our A&R guy at Mushroom, has helped us find songs over the years, and he introduced us to Helen.”

L: “Helen had this song written about domestic bliss, more of a loving relationship. It was called Beautiful Ring, and we said, ‘Look, it’s nearly there, but we don’t know whether that is something we both identify with.’ ‘So can you generalise it a bit more?’ And so she did.

“It took a bit of wrangling. We tried it as a duet, in unison – then I ended up singing it, just because it’s the way it worked on the day. Vika worked hard on it, too. It’s our song.”

That’s How I Pray

V: “We wrote that up in the Whitsundays at a writing weekend with three other songwriters: Mark Schultes, Francesca de Valance and Karen Jacobson. I’d taken up swimming again because of menopause. I just mentioned one night, ‘I really love swimming, let’s write a song about swimming,’ and that’s what happened.”

The sisters always try to find a body of water for a dip wherever they are while on tour: “We are always like, ‘Where’s the local?’ And then in the car and off we go.”

L: “Swimming groups are turning up to our shows in packs, because they love that song. It’s a world I didn’t really understand, and it’s been great to get to know them.”

V: “We’ve been getting messages – before their early morning dip, they play [That’s How I Pray]! Choirs, too, are starting to learn it. It’s the biggest compliment you can get.”

Bliss

L: “Written by Ben Salter. We went to see him play and he played that song. It only went for one minute, and we went, ‘It’s only one-minute long, but that’s a great song!’ We asked him if we could do it and he goes, ‘Do whatever you want!’ We went, ‘Can we loop it three times to make it like a prayer, like a mantra?’ And he goes, ‘Sure’. We knew we wanted it to build – to be lush and huge.”

V: “[Salter] really loved the clip that went with it – I think he reposted it on his Instagram. I don’t think he would’ve if he hated it [laughs].”

The Boy With The Broken Wing

L: “That was a hard one. Written by Mark Seymour, initially we thought it was about a toxic relationship. We were talking about a close personal friend going through it, and he heard that and thought, ‘Everyone always refers to the girl with the broken wing.’ And he goes, ‘Let’s flip it,’ ’cause you can be a rescuer as well.”

V: “We tried everything – who was gonna sing it? We changed the time signature, did everything. In the end it became what it is, and it’s really beautiful, a nod to our country roots. It was the hardest song on the album to get right. You think, ‘This song’s a ball-ache, let’s drop it.’ But when you don’t give up, something beautiful comes.”

L: “I tend to wanna scratch every itch, and Vika’s much more impetuous. So we come to loggerheads – ‘Just let it go,’ and I’ll go, ‘No, this could be better.’ You need someone else to go, ‘Let it go, it’s okay.'”

V: “We can be a little bit overly picky with pitch, and that comes from our Black Sorrows days. But you learn to let go and trust the harmonies.”

The Imp Of The Perverse

This song shares its title with a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, the 19th-century American author and critic.

L: “We weren’t aware of that when [Glenn Richards] sent that song five, six years ago. It got lost in the mix for the previous record [2021’s The Wait]. But we liked it, because it’s about addiction.”

V: “Yeah, partying. Vika fought hard for this song. When I heard the lyrics, I went, ‘Was Glenn the lady on my shoulder when I was going through all this?’ – that’s the first line, ‘There’s a lady on my shoulder’. The record’s about life and all its ups and downs.”

L: “We’d met Glenn over the years, but Bill’s the one who connected us. He sent five songs, and we’ve got a couple tucked away from that batch. He’s very trusting of our ability, and that’s touching, ’cause we could stuff it up.”

Return To The Sea

L: “We wrote it for our mum, ’cause she was having a hard time not being able to travel back home because of her age. But the lyrics are also about immigration.”

Lyrics: “Did you see people walking like a long winding river/ Following a highway/ And did you ever wonder why?”

“That’s particularly about what was happening in Gaza, and that was what triggered it. But it also resonated for Mum. She came here with pretty much nothing, and it’s really a story about how our lives are enriched by people who’ve come here from other countries.”

V: “She was only back there a couple of years ago, just after her sister passed away. She really wanted to go home, so Vika took her back. She wants to go back again now – she’s giving away all her jewellery, look, Linda’s got it all on! I’m like, ‘Oh, Mum’s given all her pearls away!’ [laughs].”

The Boats

V: “Cameron Bruce, the producer, wrote that.”

L: “He’s written a few songs for us, but that one made it. It’s about keeping your people close, finding your people.”

V: “Being at peace – it’s kinda sad. We wanted him to have a song on the album – he’s a songwriter, too! It’s a mysterious song, ’cause I don’t think he could pinpoint it himself.”

L: “We always lean towards songs of yearning, and that comes from our Tongan background – they’re great songwriters, for songs like that.”

Vika & Linda play the Clocktower on Friday 4 September, 7.30pm. 

This article was made in partnership with Moonee Valley City Council’s Clocktower Centre.