find a new voice after four decades

AUSTRALIAN vocal duo Vika and Linda are bringing their biggest national tour yet to Geelong this month, giving audiences a deeply personal look at the stories behind their latest album.

The tour features a mix of original works alongside songs from the sisters’ ninth album, Where Do You Come From.

For the first time in their recording career, the album tells their own story rather than reimagining someone else’s.

After almost four decades performing together, the Melbourne sisters have become one of Australia’s most enduring vocal duos and built a loyal following across the country.

Linda Bull said audiences had connected with the personal nature of the record.

“It’s quite emotional,” she said.

“Different things are grabbing people in different ways, and that is really what we made the record for.”

Drawing on their own lives has also changed the way the sisters perform the songs.

“It is so personal, you are very attached to it, and sometimes you are a little vulnerable,” Vika said.

The album includes a song co-written by Linda and longtime collaborator Mark Seymour about her experience raising her children as a single mother.

Seymour also helped write the titular song, Where Do You Come From, which explores identity.

“[The album] seems to be birth, death and everything in between. Let’s start with a lullaby and end with a song about our mother,” Linda said.

T he album represents a new chapter in the sisters’ career.

“I’m really happy about that because I feel like finally we are not afraid to sing what we want to sing,” Vika said.

“I think age has a lot to do with that – we’ve grown up.”

Alongside the new material, audiences can also expect many of the duo’s best-known songs, reimagined with fresh arrangements from the band.

“We haven’t done [these songs] for years, so it is really good to sing them again, and the band play in a different way,” Linda said.

Despite almost four decades on the road, touring remains one of the sisters’ favourite parts of the job.

“Touring is in our DNA,” Vika said.

After spending seven years touring with the Black Sorrows early in their careers, the pair still relish the opportunity to travel the country and meet audiences after each show.

Vika and Linda will perform on 11 July at Geelong Arts Centre before returning to Queenscliff Town Hall on 6 September.

Tickets available at geelongartscentre.org.au