[Lisa Wagner]

Our lips are sealed! But your comment actually got us thinking … Those two words, love and time … I mean, try having a passionate conversation about virtually ANYTHING without these concepts popping up. Maybe you just cracked the songwriting code, Howard 😉

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Mike,

Oh how I can relate to that. We usually don’t mind if it happens amongst friends or fellow musicians (depending on the circumstances) but what really grinds my gears is if it happens with strangers or people that wouldn’t have a clue whether it’s something I’m okay with. Get your greasy fingers off my guitar, sir! It always depends on how rude I feel they are, if they’re drunk, etc.

You’re right, the Cavern Club can get very crowded and a bit chaotic at times. Right after finishing our set to go on a break we once had a guy run on stage and grab one of our guitars to pose with it for a photo. Thankfully security sorted it out quickly or he would have had to fight off two livid twins 😉 You wouldn’t go to a dentist and start playing around with the equipment or fix yourself a sandwich in the kitchen of your favourite restaurant, would you? 🙂

Thankfully those incidents were few and far between, and most people are very respectful and polite. Secure backstage areas help too!

[Lisa Wagner]

Surprisingly enough, we still don’t know them well … 😉 If we ever will, we’ll have to write a sequel!

[Lisa Wagner]

You’re very welcome, Steve! Thank YOU for being part of the Club ♥ 

[Lisa Wagner]

That depends on the specific song and if we think we can do the song justice. Although it might look like we have a preference for a certain genre we in fact are quite open to any style. It’s just that we feel some genres fit us better than others.

Live we’ve already had a go at some old R&B tunes like “Hit The Road, Jack” or “Please Mr Postman”. If you mean Motown as a more generic style we can say we even tried a James Brown (who refused to sign with Motown – Gordy’s “…acts were a little too soft for me: too much pop, not enough soul”) tune but the result was rather hilarious. We remember doing „I feel good“ and trying to sound like James Brown at the age of 13 rather unsuccessfully 😉

For now, our main focus lies on our original music again (though we will definitely put out new covers until the next album comes out).

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Howard,

We’re glad you like your new Facebook “badge”! It isn’t something we actively give out but something that Facebook does automatically. We assume that people that comment and “like” a lot of our posts become “top fans”, so if that’s what you did … Thank you very much and please enjoy the Facebook algorithm’s decision 😉 (Though of course all the MLT Club members are top fans in our books!)

Just yesterday we got an upset email from someone that “lost” the Top Fan badge because he thought it’s something we choose to give/take away. After doing some research, we found out that we can’t change this setting ourselves (only deactivate the whole feature or remove badges but not “give” them). Thanks for being active over on Facebook and if you come across anyone else who is confused about the badge, we’d appreciate you passing on this information to help avoid misunderstandings!

[Lisa Wagner]

Thanks for the tips, Howard and your offer to help get us back over to Australia again! Oh how we’d love to do that! But at the moment it’s all a matter of time and we’ve got a bit too many things going on. But we will try to come back for sure one day!

About the photo: Thinking back, I actually don’t remeber using surfboards THAT huge so I think they gave us those for the picture only.

And I forgot to address the German video you guys have dug up. It’s funny how suddenly lots of comments popped up on that old news post from back in 2009 that still included that video. Someone must have found it in the library so it popped back up in the “recent comments” section. You guys are sneaky clever detectives 😉

[Lisa Wagner]

Well, we did try surfing once. It was such a cold day that even the instructor (Mona’s host mother’s brother) refused to go in the water haha. So he roughly told us what to do and then pushed us out into the waves. To no surprise we returned to shore soon after, having spent more time underneath the board than on top.

I felt a few glimpses of the board catching a wave so I could imagine it being fun once you’re good at it but we spent the majority of our time paddling out, trying to get on and off the board and yelling at each other about how cold we were ;-). So it’s definitely not something we were able to cross off our bucket list with a lot of confidence. We’d love to give it a go another time! Maybe next time we visit Australia (fingers crossed!)?

[Lisa Wagner]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts! Great to know that we’re all on the same page here and your stories and enthusiasm are the best evidence of music working its magic.

Richard, we are so sorry to hear about what happened to your friend’s son. That’s just tragic! Music certainly isn’t going to make terrible things disappear but to know that our songs acted as a bit of a comfort blanket is beautiful. How great that melody, lyrics and harmonies can do that! All four of us send their love and wishes to you, your friend and his family. Appreciate you sharing this with us. Big ♥!

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Jung, thanks for the great question, and please excuse my taking a bit of time to get back to your question but I wanted to think about this properly.

I’ve been scanning over the past 10 years with your questions in mind. Weirdly, there isn’t one major event that jumps out to me straight away. It’s more of an overall feeling that I connect with certain memories, some more than others.

There are the obvious things like playing the Cavern for the first time, finishing a new song we’re really proud of, meeting John Sebastian, some unforgettable shows with Steve Harley, holding “ORANGE” in our hands for the very first time, playing Glastonbury, our big London Showcase, the great experiences we had when shooting music videos etc.

But really, the moments I found most fulfilling and “right”, were often reading the emails or comments from people who told us about the effect our music has had on their lives. Some messages literally left us in tears feeling nothing but happiness, gratitude, connection. We sensed that what we were doing was obviously so much more than just something we did because we enjoyed it, and we realised that our music had such a profound positive impact on some individuals out there, people we didn’t even know.

When we were teenagers, for us it has started as the “thing we enjoy doing” but it has now become so much more than that for me. The fact that Dad & Michaela taught us and always believed in pursuing something worthwhile/meaningful over any convenience or fitting-in with the conventional status-quo played a massive part in what MLT has become, and of that I am now super proud. And also, that we’re doing all of that in the face of an industry that is pretty much pushing the opposite of taste, morals and values of what we believe in. So in addition to how great it feels to reach out and connect with people through our music, a big part for me is also HOW we do it that feels very “right” and yep, fulfilling 🙂

It’s a wonderful thing to be part of. It’s everything but a walk in the park, and the pitfalls in the music industry are plentiful beyond belief, but we are trying to add as much joy and value to this planet for as long as we can before we check out 🙂

Thanks for the question, Jung!
Lisa

[Lisa Wagner]

It’s interesting reading everyone’s thoughts on this topic. We wish to say a few more things and also add a bit of our experience about the ESC that isn’t widely known by the general public. Besides our personal taste and opinion about music competition and similar programs as such, our Dad has gotten to know a lot of former participants of the ESC personally, as he was one of Austria’s most successful studio owners and producers. So he’s gotten some first hand experience about the consequences of taking part in this contest that might interest you.

Some of the contestants claimed it has damaged their careers or at least that it was a horrible experience. The ESC seems to have some very particular “rules” that have almost nothing to do with the rest of the music scene and world of art. Therefore artists get presented with a lot of problems that have very little to do with their art but a lot with the ESC:

• They know they have to write and perform a song that fits into the ESC cliche to have a chance to win that is often very different to the original style of the artist.
• There are contracts and clauses involved (possibly different from country/network to country/network) that could seriously harm your artistic freedom and livelihood. We ourselves refused to sign the contract the ORF presented us with for the Radio Wien performance and which even lawyers called unconscionable. Usually, part of these contracts also forbid you to publicly talk about them.
• They run the risk of losing their often hard earned fan base (like some artists actually did) because of appearing hypocritical and inauthentic.
• They have to expose their art to a rather random jury (which is obviously the preferred perverted way to present music these days), that even seems to have more political than artistic criteria in their voting habits.
• The ESC has a certain image that often collides with the artist’s image. Some artists have a lifelong stigma because of that.
• The increase in popularity is rather questionable and often only lasts a short time, even if you win.

All these things are especially unnecessary for artists who have already found a way to reach an audience and gain exposure through other ways. That’s why you hardly see any professional musicians take the risk and hassle of taking part in the ESC. They also know a terrible contract when they see it. It might have been different in the beginning of the contest but it’s certainly the case for a long time.

The win-win situation that Christomir describes in his post above would make a lot of sense in a perfect world. In reality it is neither about the song nor the artist but mostly about politics or what is considered smart politics. Every country wants to win and therefore politics takes over and tells you what’s appropriate and what not. We think the ESC is a good example of what happens when art is guided by political forces. The idea of state-artists never worked very well. It didn’t work in the Third Reich nor in the Soviet Union nor will it work in the Western World because it is fundamentally opposed to the role of an artist.

Amongst songwriters and arrangers there exists the rather loose term “ESC-song”. You could describe it as harmless (at most pseudo-rebellish), inoffensive, “cheerful”, to a certain degree amateurish, catchy or simply cheesy. Extra points if what you do fits the current political agenda or whatever “cause” the media is currently pushing (like Conchita Wurst – Austrian Winner 2014). And it better appeals to the masses.

Here is an article that talks more about the voting politics and problems:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/guide-political-voting-votes-eurovision/

All in all, besides of the reasons above, we feel that the ESC was one of the first events that started the now prevalent rating-mania where everything has to be rated, compared and commented on. To us this simply isn’t what art is or ever should be, and we don’t want to participate in or support that, even if it got us “exposure”.

This in itself is a completely perverted trend in our modern society, or can you imagine Bob Dylan or the Beatles following a two hours ESC televoting to see if they won?

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Michael,

Mona V2 was lovely and great to work with. We’ve not really stayed in touch with her since we moved to the UK but we’re sure we could work together again should we hit her up.
Same with Mario. He only lives 5 mins from our Austrian home so should we for some reason spend more time back home again, we could do something together again.

But as it doesn’t look like we’ll be spending longer periods of time in Austria any time soon though, that’s probably not a video idea we would consider doing, even though it would surely make for an entertaining video. Not so sure it would make for a “happy ending” though 😉

So thank you for the suggestion but it’s not something we could or would want to follow up that way. We’ve got plenty of other videos in the works we want to focus on first as well as concentrate on new original songs.

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Lior,
Please excuse the late reply but as this seemed to have become more of an discussion amongst yourselves that until now we didn’t have time to follow properly. Leaving the majority of follow up comments and various opinions aside, it’s probably best to just answer your original post 🙂

First of all thank you for the question and for actually taking time out of your day to think about ways we could move our career forward, that’s really cool! Personally for us there are too many things about the Eurovision Contest we dislike for it to be something we would consider actively looking to take part in. Sure, it would help us with exposure but there are many ways that would allow us to reach more people quicker that we deliberately don’t do if it clashes with our values or taste.

We’re not a big fan of the format, the underlying politics, the way the show is held and how its contestants or winners are chosen. The idea of taking part in a “contest” itself when it comes to something as subjective as music feels somewhat off to us. Not that we don’t get the entertainment appeal or why people enjoy watching it.

Now IF we should get invited, we might think of an idea of adding our own twist to the format in order to make a point but I don’t see that happening in the first place to be honest.
Also having too many things we’re currently working on and too little time to get them all done as fast as we’d like, trying to get into the Eurovision contest isn’t something we have the time for. But we really appreciate the idea and you guys thinking about ways to help us move our career forward!! Love that 🙂

And lastly just to settle the ABBA argument and what we have allegedly said or haven’t said: Yes, it’s true we aren’t very keen on their music but then again we aren’t very keen on a whole lot of music out there. The only reason ABBA seems to come up somewhat frequently and has led us to express our personal dislike for their music publicly (though I would think in a lighthearted, joking way) is because we get compared to them so much. And like you pointed out, there are a surprising amount of similarities, many of which we weren’t aware of, so I guess it’s no surprise their name comes up so much 🙂

Again, sorry for not getting back to this sooner and we really appreciate all the nice things and supportive words you wrote!

Thanks,
Lisa

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Mike,

We wish we could give a simple answer, as that would mean we‘ve figured out a workable recipe to follow. But to be honest it really has been different with each song so far. Sometimes the catch phrase came first, sometimes the overall groove, sometimes the topic we want to sing about, sometimes the melody, sometimes an interesting chord progression, sometimes a guitar riff and sometimes the words. I honestly can’t say that one of those happened a lot more than others. MAYBE we used the melody in combination with a few words that fit the vocal line as a starting point the most but we certainly tried out every other way too.

Refining and really finishing the words definitely is something that usually happens last.

Every song has its own feel and personality in a way that usually evolves during the recording process. Hardly ever do we go into a recording session with all instrument parts already figured out. I’d say 50% of the arrangement happens while we record and try out different ideas. One of the many advantages of recording at home and having a dad with years of studio experience 😉

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Rick,

That’s something we will add to the Club for sure. We’ve still got a bunch of drawings and doodles lying around that we need to photograph/scan but it’s definitely on the list on things to do for the Club this year. Lots of cool stuff from Mona too! It’s one of those things we‘d do a lot more of if we had the time but at least we have an excuse now if we get to share it here in the Club 😛