That drive that you're talking about, it's coming from a world deep within, isn't it? From a deep faith and a deep belief and a deep commitment as well, right?

That's right.

We were raised in the Tongan church.

Every Sunday, mum would take us to church.

Other than that, our upbringing was we were raised in Doncaster.

We're fourth generation Doncaster girls.

It was just, you know, go to school, come home.

Why don't you explore this? Did he become a mentor of sorts and make you feel empowered to take that path on your own?

You

can't help but think what they've been through.

You know, the incredible legacy they leave on the world and their presence is quite, you can feel it.

It's palpable, like especially the Dalai Lama.

He was like sunshine in the room.

He sure was.

And Nelson Mandela was incredibly gracious, very tall and very slender.

Is that how it works?

humbling and –

You can't help but think what they've been through.

You know, the incredible legacy they leave on the world and their presence is quite – you can feel it.

It's palpable, like especially the Dalai Lama.

He was like sunshine in the room.

He sure was.

And Nelson Mandela was incredibly gracious, very tall and very slender.

And so who comes, so you write the songs and then you write the lyrics? Is that how it works?

Like, that was so special." Do those emotions come back when something as big as this happens?

Yeah, I think that's the beauty of the, our job, um, how it's different every single day, and it's never boring.

And some of the, our dreams have come true.

Like recently we opened for Split Enz.

They're so nice.

So I felt like we were immersed in that music.

Something happened when we, when we were playing together.

We, we did it at soundcheck, and even then, Sh- Sharon, Neil's wife, was out in the audience listening, and she came up and said, "That's great."

But.

You know, we were young.

We didn't know that.

We were really young and we just rang around and got gigs on our own.

Yeah.

We negotiated the money ourselves.

We picked up the money on our own.

It is a bit harder now.

[laughs]

I think I came straight out of university.

I wasn't planning on being a singer.

So Vika grabbed me then and said, "Look, you already know the parts.

You already know how to sing harmony." Vika knew how to sing harmony with me, which was like a ma- a very quick, a fix, fix it problem because they needed someone to harmonize with, and if I could already do it with Vika then that was two-thirds of the band, you know, that could work together.

And w- well, I enjoyed it.

I thought, "This is really great fun." So we quickly jumped ship and uh, started our own band and, and then we ran that band.

Mm.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

We've been talking about it.

It, it's a heated discussion in our family.

Our mother is Tongan, our father's Australian.

She immigrated to Australia in 1959.

They're a mixed culture, m- mixed race marriage.

How hard is it to work at that? Like, it just doesn't happen by magic, does it? You guys really work at that.

... well, 'cause you would've played there a few times, wouldn't you?

We have.

Over the years we've played there, oh, we've, we did it, uh, a couple of years ago with Rockwiz, and before that we used to play there with the Black Sorrows when it was, um, you know, way back when.

But, and Paul Kelly.

So with ourselves, we've done it two times, I think, at The, at Thirs.

Yeah.

Uh, they say, "Oh, we didn't expect that," but we, there has been, it's a mood in the room, and I think because the album is, is quite deeply personal, and it seems to have struck a chord with our audience.

So that's very, that's really, that makes us happy.

Was that just crazy for you to look back and count and go, wow, this is the ninth one?

Yeah, it is.

I mean, I just realised yesterday that we've made five records in six years since lockdown.

And prior to that, we hadn't made a record for 19 years.

So it's been a productive period.

But this record, Where Do You Come From, is probably our most deeply personal one because we've written most of the songs on it and collaborated with a few people, but our voice is sort of stronger on this album, I would say.

Would you think?

So when you say it's probably your most personal one, what do you sing about? Is there anything in particular you cover?

Yeah, it

is, Cherilee.

We put a lot more of our personality into the songs.

Songwriting's difficult.

We've always found it that way.

I don't know any songwriters that say it's easy, actually.

But I think personal stories, experience, that we talk about lots of things, single motherhood, addiction, aging parents, looking after them, our love of swimming and how we recover from touring.

would you say, Linda?

Mm.

And, you know, when you grow up, you're sort of the older one leads, s- they speak for you.

Vika was my protector.

Uh, when I was on my own I kind of felt a little bit, like, rudderless, I guess.

But as I've grown older, I've, I've, you know, planted my own feet.

And Vika's always stood by my side.

We have very rare weeks where we, we don't speak or are together.

Mm