Inside the Vika and Linda Bull's album The Wait, the release that was 19 years in the making

While not something every parent does, it perhaps comes naturally to most of them.

And as the saying goes, most deserve a medal every day just for getting up. That said, some medals, like an Order Of Australia, are not bestowed to all of them.

But if you are parents like music icons Vika and Linda Bull, you get to wear a few of them, including their OAM.

As for albums of fresh original music, they have waited a while - 19 years in fact.

So when you have the kind of feathers that tickle your back and make you glad you were alive each time you stand on stage, you may find a few reasons to make sure you left a new imprint for your legacy. The Wait, is such an album.

"It's been a long journey," Vika Bull says. "We started in the industry when I was 18 years old."

They had the sort of apprenticeship that gets your already existing, major league vocal talent into the arenas.

"When we step on stage and do what we do ... Our thing is our harmony. And we fall back on that every time," Bull says.

"I wanted to be singing my whole life, but really sort of started singing at parties and things when I was about 17.

"And then when I was old enough to sing in a pub, which was 18, that's when I started my career. And I'm 56 now, so I've pretty much been in the industry since then."

Not much can phase these ladies musically.

They have sung with some of the biggest names around, when it comes to the entertainment business.

And made their harmonies shine out, the two of them - standing up to everything the world has to offer them, captivating audiences with every breath.

"We became tough very quickly, because we were singing in a rock band, six nights a week, for two years, pretty much non-stop. So that really toughened us up," Bull says.

"And then you know, becoming mothers, that completely changed us again.

"Just thinking about our own kind of mortality and things like that, because we had these little ones we had to look after."

Whisper names like Peter Gabriel, Iggy Pop, Billy Joel, Paul Kelly, James Reyne, Jimmy Barnes, and Joe Camilleri from their break out Black Sorrows days, and the Bulls will probably just nod, and say - "Yes, that was a good session". Or, "I think we might have sung well that day".

It may seem like humble reflections and a distant sense of achievement when hearing them speak, but to those listening to them sing, they are memories audiences never forget.

Hard for non-performance artists to understand how hard it is to generate the level of control and awareness needed to do what they do.

"Linda and I have worked hard at our sound for a long time. Getting up, singing little songs in church and stuff like that. And mum would teach us how to harmonise and what to do," Bull says.

"So we were working on our sound way back then, we didn't know that we were going to, you know, end up in the Australian rock and roll kind of industry.

"And that all kind of helped."

The question of course is, how does this manifest into an album of songs, with their unique finger print on it?

That is a more difficult question to answer than you would realise.

Firstly, the songs needed to be written. And then - the selection process took place.

With more than 50 songs going into the mix of tracks Vika and Linda had for The Wait, the hardest part was finding the 12 best.

Some might call it the Vika and Linda Song Contest. Going out to market to find ones that represented them the best.

And as each track needed to be worth the wait - or just worth their weight in gold - it was a process that took some time.

"I was away touring in the UK," Bull says.

"Linda started getting the songs together ... So she approached a lot of Australian singer songwriters.

"She rang different people, so people started submitting their songs and sending songs to us. We started getting some really great, really great tunes from all sorts of different people."

The sister team that bought Australia one of its most memorable songs of all time, When Will You Fall For Me, really can pull some weight when it comes to drawing in a songwriting crowd.

"We had to kind of think, 'Well, what do we want to say," Bull says.

"You know, we're different people. We're strong, but we're still kind of, you know, tender at the same time. You know, tough and tender."

Despite the task's unique challenges, big names like Bernard Fanning and Don Walker stepped up, and the ladies celebrated the wrestling of their unique track list.

"That was the great thing, people like Kasey Chambers. [She] was the first one, and sang Raise Your Hand on the record. And she sort of summed it up in one," Bull says.

"It was perfect. And it kind of went from there. Once we got that song, then it was sort of like, 'Okay, this is how we want the album to sound."

It all comes from and adds to a pedigree that speaks to Australia's cannon of music.

Something the Bulls have participated in since their soaring backing vocals on Chained to the Wheel made everyone know who they were.

"If you're going to be a music lover, you have to go back and study the greats," Bull says.

"You can't just listen to what's current on the radio. You gotta go, 'Hang on a minute. Where did that come from? And why is that like that?'"

In other words, listen and learn.

Vika and Linda play The Canberra Theatre for The Wait tour, Thursday, 7.30pm. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

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