Vika Bull: At Last! (Interview)

Along with her sister Linda, Vika Bull has been a fixture on the Australian music scene for over 20 years. Most recently, they added their voices to CW Stoneking’s latest album. But Vika Bull will be in Auckland on Friday, November 28 to perform At Last: The Etta James Story at the ASB Theatre. Vika and her big band will tell the story of the legendary singer from her beginnings in the early 1950s all the way to her death in 2012. Along the way you’ll hear classics like I’d Rather Be Blind, Tell Mama, Roll With Me Henry and, of course, At Last. Vika Bull stopped by The 13th Floor along with her guitarist Dion Hirini, to talk about At Last and recording with CW Stoneking.

Click here to listen to the interview with Vika Bull:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: Welcome to The 13^th Floor Vika Bull. You’re here for the At Last show, the Etta James story.

VB: That’s right Marty, yes. It’s lovely to meet you.

MD: And you have Dion who is your guitar player and co-vocalist.

DH: Nice to be here Marty, thank you very much.

MD: Good to have you. Alrighty. So the show is happening in a week or so at the Aotea Center and          you’ve been singing Etta James’s songs for a while now, if I’m not mistaken. I’m wondering what it takes to get into the head of another vocalist like that because you obviously have been doing your own thing for many years as well and now you’re kind of inhabiting the Etta James story.

VB: Well yes. It’s difficult, I mean seeing that Etta was such a great singer, one of my favourite singers ever. But when I started my career, when I was 17, I did listen to Etta James a lot and she was the one person I look to, that I would try and copy and you know, I listen to her every day and go, you know, I’m gonna copy that and do that cause’ I’m a bit of a belter myself. So she was the one that I kind of studied as a singer. So doing the show, not that difficult, the songs weren’t that hard for me because I’ve been singing them all my life really and had included them in different sets that I have sung over years, you know, I’d slip an Etta James song in there somewhere. But, you know, having to do it, tell her story and sing 22 of her songs, it’s a big, big, vocally challenging, it’s very hard.

MD: And you go right back to the beginning to her stuff in the 50s?

VB: Yes we do. Beginning, right through.

MD: And it’s considered or it’s been described as a narrative concert. So maybe you can explain to folks what that entails exactly.

VB: Well we tell Etta’s story from start to finish, from her birth right up to her death, 2012 I think she died. We tell her story and in between the story we sing, we’ll slip a song in that will fit in with that particular part of her life and, you know, that’s basically it really. So our trumpet player Tibor Gyapjas, he also narrates. So that’s basically, we’re not doing any kind of acting, it’s just telling her story, singing her songs.

MD: She went through several kind of phases in her career and different styles and stuff in the 50s is fairly different from what she was doing in the 60s especially when she went down to Muscle Shoals and was recording down there. So does that effect how you approach the singing of the songs because she changed?

VB: Yeah, it does. I try and do it like, sing, I do try and do it pretty close to how, I can’t do everything that Etta does of course, you know, cause’ it’s just impossible, but I try to do it as close as I can and also she had a lot, vocals maybe a richer kind of deeper voice than I do, I tend to, but I try to sort of change with the times, sort of how she held, her voice sort of changed over the years. It’s challenging, you know, but it’s really good fun because every song is a cracker, I really love singing them.

MD: Do you have a favourite?

VB: No I don’t have a favourite, I just can’t pick one. I mean, when I first started listening to Etta James, my favourite song was Roll With Me Henry, you know, I love that, I love Good Rockin’ Daddy, I love I’d Rather Go Blind, I love At Last, I love Take It To The Limit which she did, you know, that Eagles cover, I love Lovesick Blues, Hank Williams cover, I love everything.

MD: That’s a lot of different styles of music all mixed in there. So what are the songs that you sing together?

DH: We sing a song called Spoonful together.

MD: Is that the old blues song, Howlin Wolf?

DH: A spoonful of loving you’re talking about? No, no it’s a different one, yeah. But I think it’s the same sort of subject matter involved. But yeah there’s a lot of different styles throughout the whole show so. I think Etta’s life went for long her career maybe even things came around in circles for her, you know, by the time the 70s came around, she’s probably back to square one, she would have seen things come full circle. You know, so you just try, yeah, just sing the song honestly, whatever it is.

MD: And did you ever get a chance to see her perform herself?

VB: No, I’m so upset about that because all my friends have except for me, you know, went to The States, saw her sing, I would have loved, have you seen Etta sing live?

DH: No.

VB: I would have loved to have seen Etta James live.

DH: Did she come to Australia or New Zealand?

VB: I don’t think she did, no.

MD: So how did you prepare for doing the show then?

VB: Well yeah it took a few months. So trying to get a bit fit, match fit. I mean, you got to be a little bit fit, you know, do a bit of exercise before you start the tour so, and vocally you have to be fit, you have to be match fit cause it’s so, you can’t just get up there and just blurt out all those songs cold. You know, it’s like you like something, like a runner, you know, you do damage. So yeah, there’s a bit of training involved and you got to pace yourself. But yeah a lot of learning, remembering lines cause it’s a, there’s a lot to tell, you know, because she died when she was in her 70s so a long, a big story there to tell.

MD: And I mentioned to you before we started that I’ve seen Mariah Carey the night before and she’s considered quite diva these days as Etta James was back in the 60s. Is that the same kind of thing, do you look at contemporary singers like Mariah Carey or Beyoncé even or folks like that…are they doing the same things at those singers back in Etta’s day were doing?

VB: Oh that’s a good question. I reckon yeah, of course.

DH: I think it’s hard to be, to tell on contemporary artists that are still going today, but yeah, you know, those sort of artists, Mariah and Beyoncé, they’ve been around for a while now. So you know they’ve been through the wringer so to speak but yeah I think time will tell on that one, yeah.

VB: They’ve got those, yeah they do, they have great songs, so many and so many hits which is why they are divas and you know, they sing so well, it’s like yeah you deserve that title but there’s lots of people that don’t but I’d say probably those two do.

MD: Now there’s a guy who was just in town couple of weeks ago who I think you sang on his record, C.W. Stoneking.

VB: Oh yes.

MD: Yeah and he, you and Linda sang background.

VB: Yes.

MD: As did Paul Kelly’s daughters and he seems like quite a character. I talked to him on the phone a little bit and I saw the show. What was that experience like for you working with him?

VB: Well I love C.W. Stoneking just because he’s so authentic, you know, and the way he recorded was that way too. So we went into the studio and basically just sat around one microphone and it was only two tracks so, you know, all in, drums, bass, guitar, singing, we had no headphones, could hardly hear anything we’re singing and it was with the Kelly girls, yeah and the four of us doing BVs and it was a really hard session, but I really loved the end result what he was going for, I mean, there’s a lot of mistakes… oh geez I wish we had another chance to sing that again but it sort of, I kind of liked that, I liked that in a way and I think he’s a really good songwriter too C.W, it’s really catchy songs.

MD: He seems to have studied…gone back and really gone over that stuff from 1920s and 30s all the way through, especially the 50s. So actually the way you were recording with him is kind of similar to the way that Etta was recording back in the 50s, I think they just had pretty much one microphone and lined everybody up in the room and let a rip.

VB: Well that’s true. Its very hard to, you know, copy that sound isn’t it, it’s very hard, you go, I wanted it to sound like that when we, you know, we made a live recording of the show but to do what they did back then you just can’t, you can’t, C.W. comes pretty close I reckon to the way he recorded his album.

MD: So there is a big band involved in the production and yeah, how many pieces?

DH: I think it’s a 7 piece, 7 piece band. 3 horn players, so the horn section, guitarists, piano, bass guitar and drums, yeah and the trumpet player and Vika do the narration and the trumpet player also sings a track as well. So yeah, everyone’s involved.

VB: It’s hard cause Etta had, course she had so many, she had strings, she had horns and so it’s a very expensive.  I mean I’d love to have a strings section on the road but of course, you know, money, but yeah. So just trying to get it as close as we can to the originals, we do our best.

MD: And when you’re done doing this, are you proceeding on with your own recording? What are you up to after this?

VB: Well when I finish this I go on tour with Paul Kelly around the country, yeah for a month and a half. So finish this show and Dion’s got heaps of things that he does and plays his guitar on, so yeah. Always working, we’re lucky, you know, don’t take that for granted being a musician, it’s hard, hard slog.

MD: Well thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate you talking to me and looking forward to seeing it cause’ I’ve never seen Etta James either so, you know, this is the next best thing, I guess.

VB: Well I hope you enjoy it Marty.

Click here for more info about Vika Bull’s show at Auckland’s Aotea Centre this Friday.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjaDqY1ca1Y]