Catch interviews with Shania Twain, David Byrne, Darren Hayes, Jacinda Ardern and more.<\/p>\n
Older sister Vika admits to being the wilder of the two growing up. But she was also a natural leader and trailblazer.<\/p>\n
“I have the guts to do that,” she says. “But business? It’s this one.<\/p>\n
“Linda’s very careful. Considers everything. Sometimes too much, and it drives me crazy.<\/p>\n
“She’s seen me just bumble through and make a wreck of things.”<\/p>\n
Linda adds: “I did watch that and go, ‘I don’t think mum would survive two of us like that.'”<\/p>\n
The pair’s differences are their strength, Linda reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Our voices, personalities [and] tastes are different. But we cover a lot of ground because we work as a team.”<\/p>\n
Across four decades as successful recording artists, the OAM recipients and recent ARIA Hall of Famers<\/a> have stuck to the same motto:<\/p>\n “Sisters first, singers second.”Finding their voice<\/p>\n The first person to notice how Vika and Linda’s dissimilarities complemented each other was their mother.<\/p>\n “She recognised Vika had a higher voice, and I naturally had a lower one. She would coach us with holding the note, how to sing in tune,” Linda says.<\/p>\n “Teach us different parts people were singing on the radio. We’d just go around the house practising.”<\/p>\n Raised in the conservative suburb of Doncaster in 1970s Melbourne, “we stood out,” says Linda.<\/p>\n Their mixed heritage and cultural practices set them apart at primary school. But they delighted in attending Tongan church each Sunday and the visceral experience of the choir.<\/p>\n “It’s frightening and exhilarating; just the best thing you’ll ever hear,” gushes Vika.<\/p>\n A young Vika and Linda Bull pose with their mother and father. (Supplied: Vika and Linda Bull)<\/p>\n Mama Bull was less than happy when Vika, who had left school early to pursue singing, convinced her little sister, a few years into a university degree, to do the same.<\/p>\n “That was a bad day in the Bull household,” Vika smirks.<\/p>\n “Mum goes, ‘Not you too!’ It’s your fault, you taught us!” Linda jokes.<\/p>\n “That was our pact with mum: we’ll stick together. ‘Don’t get the tattoos. Don’t take drugs.’ And so we didn’t.”<\/p>\n “Well, you didn’t!” Vika counters.<\/p>\n For Take 5, Vika & Linda selected songs by other famous vocal families, including Neil and Tim Finn and The Staple Singers. (ABC TV: Giulia Giannini McGauran)<\/p>\n In the late 1980s, Vika and Linda gained wider attention with The Black Sorrows, their intimate harmonies and soulful power the secret sauce on tunes like Chained To The Wheel<\/a> and Never Let Me Go<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I didn’t know what a gift Joe [Camilerri, band leader] was giving me at that time. It was a great band to be in [and] Joe just said, ‘Go for it.'”<\/p>\n Double J \u2014 a place for music lovers<\/a><\/p>\n Double J gives you the new music you’ll actually love, alongside the classic tracks you keep coming back to. Give your playlist a rest and join us here.<\/p>\n During this era, Vika and Linda moonlighted as celebrated singers-for-hire on albums from Hunters and Collectors, John Farnham, Deborah Conway and more.<\/p>\n “You don’t want to overshadow the singer,” explains Vika. “You’re kind of like the icing on the cake. You’re there to support and lift.”<\/p>\n By 1994, they departed The Black Sorrows to step out on their own.<\/p>\n “I remember the day. It was hard to leave that band. Being in the Sorrows, we would’ve remained backing singers. We just thought, ‘We want to start telling stories as well.'”<\/p>\n Linda adds: “In our own way. We’d been interpreters of [other people’s] music, but we felt if we don’t try \u2026 we’re wasting our time.”<\/p>\n Going solo together<\/p>\n When the Bull sisters were ready to leap, side by side, some Australian music royalty was ready to help give them a push.<\/p>\n Featuring on Archie Roach’s 1990 classic Charcoal Lane<\/a> introduced Vika and Linda to Paul Kelly.<\/p>\n “He said we should sit down and write songs; ‘Give it a crack!'” remembers Linda.\u00a0<\/p>\n “He was the first person to say that, even though we hadn’t written one song.”<\/p>\n Kelly devoted a “year of Thursday afternoon writing sessions” to the duo, coaxing them with yarns and musical sketches.<\/p>\n “He’d be so patient, just trying to draw us out of our shells. He realised the key to Vika and I would be conversation. ‘That’s a good story; that’s a good idea to write a song.'”<\/p>\n Hear extended episodes of Take 5 right here<\/a><\/p>\n Dive even deeper into the music that has inspired your favourite artists on the Take 5 podcast.<\/p>\n Vika confesses the Gravy Man<\/a> made her especially shy.<\/p>\n “I was always incredibly intimidated at those sessions. Too worried about [saying] something stupid. ‘He’s going to think it’s corny!’<\/p>\n “I’d hold back a lot. ‘I’ll go make a cup of tea.’ I wish I was more bold \u2026 I could’ve used the time better.”<\/p>\n Vika & Linda were long-term members of Paul Kelly’s live entourage and sang on several of his albums. (Stephen Booth)<\/p>\n Regardless, Kelly got results, kicking off a lifelong friendship and collaboration with Vika and Linda, including the early single We’ve Started A Fire.<\/p>\n “As soon as he busted out that, and it was a reggae feel, I’m like ‘Ooh, this is for us!'” recalls Linda.<\/p>\n The track featured on the duo’s 1994 self-titled album<\/a>, a platinum-selling release co-produced by Kelly and featuring breakout hit When Will You Fall For Me, written with Hunters & Collectors frontman Mark Seymour.<\/p>\n “[Kelly] had a lot of faith in Vika and I. Watching him in action really taught us a lot.”<\/p>\n Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n No bull<\/p>\n The aging combination of experience and wisdom means those butterflies have long been quelled. And Vika and Linda are more confident than ever.<\/p>\n Their career-spanning memoir, No Bull, inspired Where Do You Come From? the duo’s ninth album and among their best, including a title track exploring experiences of childhood racism.<\/p>\n “When you’re older females and been doing it for a long time, you have a duty to be honest,” says Linda.<\/p>\n “You hear women say it a lot at our age: I don’t give a shit anymore.<\/p>\n “Shake off all this stuff that’s happened and just be me. For Vika and I, we’ve done it together and at the same time.”<\/p>\n Vika adds: “It certainly gave me confidence. Linda has always had it, but I’ve been a bit shy to show my words or sing them.<\/p>\n “Most of my life I haven’t felt calm. I’ve [felt] reckless, wild, just want to punch everyone in my way.<\/p>\n “But I’m just not like that anymore. I’m at peace, I’m happy to just let things happen; if they do and if they don’t, I don’t care.”<\/p>\n Watch every episode of Take 5 with Zan Rowe<\/a> right now on ABC iview.<\/p>\n![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/8cc822533156e4a7db3d07b191a63f57.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Vika](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c019e59ed3408691bbbb680e3bdcdbcb.jpeg\")
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