Admin Lisa Wagner
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Hi Kevin! They are the best 🙂 I know they are very proud of us but so are we of them. It’s a great big group effort and we’re glad to be doing this together and to have their immense support and love!
I see why you’d find their take on our whole stories interesting. Maybe in a documentary one day 🙂 ♥
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Thank You, Brian ♥ We love subtle key changes, especially when you almost can’t notice them because they flow so naturally with the melody. Like you said, the Beach Boys were masters in that and it’s something we try to incorporate whenever we can. It can be super tricky to make it work. There is always a lot of trial and error involved but we’re glad you notice and appreciate whenever we do get it right 🙂
Modulations and key shifts are a lot easier for us to “imagine” first so when we write songs we usually start with some idea of a melody and then imagine the chords and sounds around it. That’s when the big hunt begins of trying to find the right chords and chord progressions to match the notes and colours in our brains 🙂I hope that makes any sense!
Best,
Lisa -
Hi Bob!
Thanks for saying hi, for joining the club, for getting our music and all the lovely words! We’re excited to welcome you to the MLT Club 🙂 We hope you’ll like it here!
We’ve just finished the rough cut for next Friday’s video and added some new photos to the Photo Archive yesterday so there’s always something happening around here!
For now, it’s lots of groovy greetings! 🙂
Mona & Lisa
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Hi Jung,
Your stories sound like an absolute dream. Especially now that we’re all stuck at home longing to go out, enjoying live music with like-minded people.We have had the privilege to experience some amazing concerts over the years. Seeing the Simon & Garfunkel reunion show in Australia in 2009, Tommy Emmanuel in an intimate, personal venue in Manchester and watching 10CC from the side of the stage after playing the same festival, would all be concert experiences that made it into my top 10.
If I had to pick a favourite or the most “significant” live show however, it would have to be the first time we went to see Paul McCartney back in 2011. Everything about it made that show so memorable and impactful. It was our first time seeing Paul live, Mona and me flew to Cologne on our own, we were lucky to get amazing tickets with a great view, the sound was great, the songs the best on this planet … To say that I got teary eyes at some point would be an understatement 😉
The whole show was an experience I don’t think anyone could ever top, including Paul himself, when we saw him again in Liverpool a few years later. Everything about that first show in Cologne was exactly as it should be, at least to our 17 year old selves.
Thanks for the question! I hope you have a gorgeous day ahead,
Lisa -
Hi Michael,
It is so sad that John Prine passed away since you submitted this question. May he rest in peace ♥
Unfortunately, we weren’t very familiar with his music before we heard the bad news, and his work has never been on our radar over here in Europe. Since we still don’t know a lot about his work or have a deep connection to his music, playing one of his songs as a tribute would feel a bit inappropriate from our part. But we do appreciate the suggestion and the fact that you think we would do his music proud.
We send peace & love!
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Hi Nathan,
Thanks for joining the Club 🙂 We hope you’ll enjoy it here and if you need help with anything, let us know.
We LOVE Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young), and their first album is one of my favourite albums of all time. “Hopelessly Hoping” is beautiful and who knows, maybe we’ll give one of their songs a go some day. We’ll keep it in mind for future duo sessions. We used to do “Teach Your Children Well” live a lot!Stay groovy and a big hello from Mona too!
Lisa -
Hi Brian, yes, Mona is a little bit taller than me, about 3 cm (I’m 166cm) but I was born first, by 5 minutes. So the jury is still out on who that makes the “bigger sister” 🙂
Hope you’re doing well!
Best,
Lisa -
Live we both normally just go into a Vox “Tonelab” Pedal for a little bit of compression, chorus and occasionally some other effects like “wah” or more drive. I found it to be one of the few effect pedals that don’t affect the dynamics and original sound of my guitars too much. Then straight into a Vox AC-30.https://voxamps.com/en-gb/product/tonelab-st/
I’ve never been a fan of bringing a bunch of pedals to live shows. First because I don’t need a lot of fancy effects for 99% of songs we play, and second because when the guitar has a good basic sound it rarely gets any better with lots of effects..
I’m not picky about my picks …. but I like a Jazz III (Dunlop) best when playing electric guitar. Something small, thick and pointy 🙂 On the acoustic guitar I will use something bigger, softer but don’t really have a specific “go to” kind.
For strings on my Gretsch, I prefer 10s. I used to do 9s but prefer the sound of a stronger gauge. I feel like 10s are a good compromise of sound and playability. D’addario, Ernie Ball, Gibson are all fine by me. I like “Pyramid” strings (especially the flat wounds on Mona’s Rickenbacker – sounds so vintage!) but they are sometimes hard to come by.
We basically use the same things we do live in the studio too. We also sometimes play around with amp simulations and different digital effects. Whatever it takes to get the best sound for each song.
Any other important equipment/accessories I missed? … Oh, we use the Dunlop 65 Spray and Fretboard oil to clean our guitars … 🙂
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Whoops! Yes, that was a typo. Thanks for letting us know 🙂 Fixed it!
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Hi Dale,
I hope I understood this right. Are you asking whether we choose the key of a song to fit our voices (and vocal register)?
Yes, we do 🙂 For example, I can sing a little higher in chest-voice, Mona sounds better in a lower key or singing falsetto harmonies. So sometimes we move songs around to a key that suits our voices best. Sometimes they work fine as they are (when we’re covering someone else’s tune). Normally we just play around with different keys and vocal parts until we find an arrangement that sounds best. The easiest way to do that is use a capo and move it up and down the neck.
Hope that makes sense.
Best,
Lisa -
Hi David,
90% of the time we choose the key to fit our vocal ranges best. If transposing a song makes it sound just a little bit better for our particular voices, we will always go for it. Since we like to cover a lot of tunes that are originally performed by men, it’s more often than not that we change something 🙂 -
At the moment our personal life is going as usual. The UK is a bit behind in the outbreaks, and measures are not as severe yet as in the rest of Europe. But we’re prepared and well stocked with superfoods to keep our immune systems strong, and apart from going on some runs, we’re spending most of our time at home making videos, recording songs, etc. 🙂
The whole situation is totally surreal, and it’s going to be a time of uncertainty for all of us.
We hope you and your family will manage well!
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Hi Josh, Thank you for thinking of us and we wish the same for you!!
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Hi Josh, We’re probably going to post another one in the middle of April. Lisa
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Hi Jung,
We did have voice lessons for a while (in our teens) but back then we didn’t get much out of it so we stopped them after a few months. We found that the best way for us to improve was just by singing lots and lots rather than focusing too much on technique (though there is certainly a lot to learn there as well).
We never followed a practise regimen but have found that if we’re performing less (as we currently do) doing vocal exercises every other day helps us stay “in shape”.
Next time we go on tour, eg., we would dedicate a lot of time to build more stamina and avoid straining and over singing.
But at the moment we mainly sing for fun, when we record or practise songs and when we throw in the occasional singing lesson (often with the help of this lovely lady 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/user/verbalessons).Thanks ♥
M & L