Admin Lisa Wagner
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Oh and I just had a look in the photo archives from 2009 and found a picture of that very wall that had the words written on it! Dad probably took it! At the time we were just randomly filming impressions of Liverpool, not knowing that 7 years later they’d end up in a music video. Not to mention that we had no idea that we’d end up living here one day. Funny world!
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Hi Rich,
Weeeell, the footage we used in the beginning of the video (the text) to blend with the opening shot (us with the statues) was something we filmed back in 2009 when we visited Liverpool as tourists for the very first time.
The words are (or at least were) painted like that on the walls inside the official Beatles story museum in Liverpool. We were puzzled at the time too, as to why they changed the wording around and whether that was intentional or a mistake. We wonder if it’s still on the walls there (we could actually check it out ;-))
For the video we just thought it looked great and that the words are powerful either way.
So that’s the story behind it 🙂 -
Thanks for posting the pictures, Angelo! Super interesting everything illustrated like that.
And we hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay in Liverpool! Thanks again for making the big trip, it was lovely meeting you in person 🙂
Rock on!! -
Guess what I’m making for dinner tonight 😉
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Hi Angelo! Thanks for the guitar geeky question, I love answering those. So let’s get to it.
1. I believe the exact name of my model is Duo Jet G6128T-DSV. It’s got the Dynasonics pickups which I absolutely adore. It came with a fixed Bigsby that I wasn’t a huge fan of and I also replaced the Bridge with a Custom Compton Bridge. So no, it’s not a vintage instrument but was built in 2010 (Japan). I changed the Bigsby to a Düsenberg tremolo. I loved the look of the Bigsby but I didn’t like the fixed arm and the fact that the whole tremolo wasn’t fixed to the body which, together with the floating Bridge, made an already somewhat temperamental guitar even more of a pain to keep in tune. I tried a Düsenberg at a store and fell in love with its tremolo. So I decided to get rid of the Bigsby and put this one on instead. Best idea ever! I love how the whammy bar feels and how changing strings is super easy now.
To me, it’s now as perfect of a guitar as it can get 😉2. About the amps. When we are giggin on our own we use two AC30 VR – the valve hybrids, just because they are a bit more reliable than something “all valve” and still sound pretty decent.
The models we had at the Cavern were always “all valve” but we used slightly different models throughout the years (whenever one went into maintenance). They had a room in the Cavern that would be filled to the brim with different AC30s. For something like the Beatle Week festival, where they had multiple venues going at once, all those amps would get used whereas throughout the year they provided the two main Cavern stages with whatever gear was in the best condition.3. I’m glad you’d like to come to one of our live shows. As much as we’d love to hit the stage more often we are still on a live playing break. There are so many other projects we’re currently working on that we decided to have live shows take a bit of a back seat for now. But we will be back eventually! The Liverpool show is Mike Massé’s event, he just invited us to join him for a few songs, which we’ll happily do. At the moment it looks like we’ll be doing about 5 songs together.
Hope that answers your questions, thanks for asking them 🙂
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Hi Jung,
My good ol’ Mandolele! No, it is definitely a Ukulele. I too, noticed Billy Butler calling it a Mandolin but refrained from correcting him in that moment. Silly Billy 😉 To be honest I’ve never tried playing a Mandolin though I am very much intrigued by it.
The Uke that I play in the video for “God Only Know”, “I Don’t Know Birds That Well”, “I’ll Follow The Sun” and “Wonderful Christmas Time” is a soprano uke by Lanikai and the first one we ever bought.
In the video for “Daydream” or “She’s Leaving Home” I use a slightly bigger “concert” style Uke, also by Lankai, sent to us by Steve from Miami! It’s also the one I took on the Steve Harley tour.
I love them both! When I went through the videos above to check back on which one I used in which video, I realized just how many appearances the uke has made in songs already. If you’d have asked me on the spot I would have guessed a lot less, haha.
But I like how it’s such a versatile instrument that (especially if paired with a guitar) can really transform a song and give it a brighter, happier feel. I wouldn’t really say it’s either more or less difficult than playing guitar. It depends what you want to play on it 🙂
I basically treat it as if it was a shrunken guitar with the lower 2 strings missing. I transpose the normal song key to the tuning of the uke and then play the same chord shapes I’d use on a guitar.
Not the most sophisticated approach but it works! There is so much more to know and learn about the ukulele when it comes to technique. Maybe I’ll dig a little deeper into that one day.
Since you mentioned the Beatles, I don’t think they ever used one on any of their recordings. But George supposedly was a huge Ukulele aficionado! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJEtLjnO7E
That might also be one of the reasons Paul decided to play “Something” on the Uke at the Concert for George: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JeMufeiYIc
Such a powerful little instrument ♥
Thanks for the question! -
A big fat HELLO and welcome to the Club, David!
If you came here to get clean, we’ve got bad news for you. We’ve got a whole warehouse full of aged, fine MLT vintage stuff waiting to be ditched into the MLT Club while brewing up even more potent new substances that run the possibility of getting you even more hooked. Sorry, David!
We hope you’ll find lots of like-minded people here, and we thank you for the enthusiasm and support! We’re glad to have you on board.
We felt so flattered by the “Time’s Are A Changing” MLT version. Thank you for that!
Remember, if you’ve got any questions, you can ask us over at “Ask The MonaLisa Twins”. Other than that, we simply hope you enjoy yourself here and say thanks again for joining the Club!
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Thank you so much Conan, and WELCOME TO THE CLUB!
We’re glad you like that song in particular. It’s one of those pieces that had its very own, special aura right from the beginning when we started composing and writing it. We took our time tinkering with the chord progressions and mood to musically “translate” the message which is very dear to us. It’s been very different to anything else we’ve done before, and we, too, think that our Dad should play the piano more often 😉
We like that you like it!
Hope you’re having a groovy time here! -
Oh, we were just having a laugh … but I still think I caught Mona’s facial features pretty accurately 😛
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We are sad to hear that your Sweet Lorraine has passed away. To know that our music provided some comfort means an awful lot, thank you for letting us know. And who would have thought that, out of all our songs, “Sweet Lorraine” would be the one 🙂 This seems like one of these moments of synchronicity, of the universe sending a cheeky wink or warm comforting hug.
Michaela, Rudi, Mona and me are sending lots of love and our deepest condolences to you and your family and all of Lorraine’s friends. We hope that she passed away in peace.
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Hi Daniel, In general we don’t use a lot of pedals as there aren’t many that suit the style we’re normally going for . We love our guitars (like the Gretsch or Ricky) for their own pretty distinctive voices and for most of the songs we play, we like to plug them straight into the amp (Vox AC30). On gigs I’ll put a little Vox “ToneLab” Pedal in between and use it for Volume Control, some compression, maybe a bit of chorus but that’s normally it. In the studio I might use a Wah pedal occasionally (like for the White Room cover).
But yeah, in general we like to keep the effects and pedals to a minimum. -
Hello and welcome, Rick!
Thanks for joining us here and for introducing yourself (and for all the nice things you said!). We share the same taste in music pretty much to a T and unfortunately also share your opinion about the state of most of today’s music. We really wish there were more current acts we’d get excited about. But hey, that makes the journey of recreating some of that sound and spirit that we find so invigorating all the more intriguing and fun. Glad to have you on board 🙂All the best to Georgia!
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That would make a cool picture! The only problem is that we’ve got our guitars all over the place, some in Austria, some in the UK, some stored away to keep safe. It’s like having relatives scattered all over the planet 😉 So unfortunately, a complete family portrait will have to wait but thanks for the idea!
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Hi George!
First of all, great job with that “Hush” cover. I think the video is a little bit out of sync but the audio sounds super tight. You have a good feel and nailed those syncopated parts.
I’ll send it to Dad too and will ask him to leave some feedback (he’s the bass man here) but I’ll try to give some helpful thoughts too.Being mainly a guitarist, the first thing I noticed was you using only down strokes on the picking hand which made me feel a little stressed haha. I guess it’s less uncommon with bassists but I feel like you could make it easier on yourself by practising using the “up” stroke to your advantage as well. It would look a bit more relaxed plus you’ll be able to squeeze in twice as many notes in the same amount of hand movement that way 😛
Other than that, I can’t think of anything negative to say about the video! Like I said, you seem to have a good feel for the music. Keep practising, try making it a daily habit and set up some kind of structure and way to measure progress and keep having fun with it. Try songs that seem way out of your league and then break them down bit for bit starting super slow. Before you know it you’ll be playing things you never thought possible.
But it seems like you know what you’re doing and we wish you all the best for your bass journey. “Stay groovy” never seemed more appropriate ;-D