Good is Good: Vula Viel Founder Bex Burch on Making Music and Finding Focus During Coronavirus

Curls hanging in her face, Vula Viel founder Bex Burch bounced to the song’s rhythm as she connected her mallets to the wooden keys of the gyil (xylophone) at a March performance at London’s Café Oto. The gyil’s buzzing tones danced and paused between the notes of the accompanying instruments. “Remember who you are…One day, you’ll remember who you are…One day…,” sang Burch as the melody came to a close.

Burch, Ruth Goller on the bass, and Jim Hart on the drums comprise Vula Viel, a band continuing to explore its own unique sound with each new album, including the recent What’s Not Enough About That.

Influenced by Dagaare music of Upper West Ghana, the trio blends elements of jazz, minimalism, and other sounds. Vula Viel delivers kinetic performances with an energy that carries through to their recordings.

Originally from Leeds, Burch only started formally learning percussion at age 15. Three years later, she went on to study at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

“I didn’t have a career path in mind as a teenager,” said Burch. “It was a time of flow for me…It’s how I work best.”

Burch first encountered the gyil when visiting Ghana. She apprenticed for two years with gyil master Thomas Segkura and learned how to build the instrument from the wood of the lliga tree. When she completed her training, she received the name Vula Viel, meaning “good is good.”

Burch put her musical experiences from Ghana into Vula Viel’s first album Good is Good (2015). The gyil runs like a heartbeat through the seven tracks, which showcase the band’s jazz-fuelled take on Dagaare funeral songs and recreational melodies.

“[I]t was about putting down all the Dagaare music that was going round and round my head since moving back to UK,” said Burch. “[It was] the music Thomas taught me, a tradition that is not my own, and figuring out what resonated with me as a white woman from Leeds.”

After Good is Good released, Burch began to write songs, incorporating some elements of Dagaare music and exploring also her own voice.

“Making and putting out albums lets me move on and grow,” she said.

Do Not Be Afraid (2019) released after Burch’s father passed away and it reflects her relationship with him. The songs, at once confident and deeply reflective, mark the band’s first use of lyrics, both in English and Dagaare.

Burch continued to write music, resulting in What’s Not Enough About That, which came out just ahead of the Coronavirus outbreak. The album allowed Burch to gain perspective on her life, concluding that it is enough to be alive, loved, and true to herself.

“I have the space to see a bit more clearly [now] and that much more experience and strength to hear what music wants to come through next,” she said. “I’m just glimpsing my own voice, and I hadn’t even known I didn’t know it before. This is my career. It doesn’t end.”

Like other bands, Coronavirus forced Vula Viel to cancel shows and prevents the band members from meeting. Burch, while acknowledging the emotional strain and feeling of loss, remains focused on the future.

“We are a band,” she said. “Just as we can’t force this crisis to be over, I don’t need to force anything with Jim and Ruth. We’re in touch as always, booking dates, [and] confirming cancellations as they come in…Musically, when the time is right, we’ll start playing together.”

Gathering her strength after the initial flurry of touring and promoting What’s Not Enough About That, Burch is planning the next phase of her career and the band’s touring.

“The focus for me with all the business side of things has always been music first,” said Burch. “…Then I go to sleep, knowing if I fail, it’s not because I didn’t give it my all. And ultimately, everything else is out of my control.”

The recent break in touring has also given Burch the space to write music and to understand the creative connection she has with Vula Viel’s audience. Fans can expect the band to return after the lockdown with renewed vigour, new songs and shows.

“Although I do enjoy playing on my own, performance of any kind is massively important to me,” she said. “It’s part of the exchange, the feedback loop, the seasons…I need that, the music needs that.”

Explore Vula Viel’s music on the band’s website, and on Bandcamp, Facebook, and Instagram.