[Lisa Wagner]

My trusty ol’ Gretsch Duo Jet + Vox AC30 = no need to slash open anything 😉 Love the Dave Davies story though. They were pioneers in many ways!

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Alan and Robert!
Great question and thanks for the compliments. How we come up with the initial idea for each video is a little different every time. For some videos we make whole storyboards and have each scene planned out, for others we just shoot plenty of interesting looking footage and decide on the flow and cut while editing. Sometimes it’s a combination of the two 🙂

We normally stick to simpler ideas for our covers (like filming us in the studio or while performing the song in an otherwise fitting environment), but when it comes to our own compositions we like to think of the video as part of the overall “composition”. When we record a song there is usually some sort of imagery that pops up in our heads that goes with the overall “vibe” of the song. Often we all have slightly different ideas on how exactly a song “looks” to us but the brainstorming part before a video is one of our favourite things.
We throw around ideas until we come up with a visual concept that we all think captures the music best. We also try not to repeat any past ideas. Then we think about what we need to do in order to realise that vision. Do we need actors, hire or buy new equipment, learn new filming techniques? What outfits, probs, venue are we looking for? Etc.

Normally plans still change during that “developing” process as we do our research and planning. But then we get to work with filming and editing the videos until we get sick of looking at our own faces. Hopefully by then, we’re left with a finished video 🙂

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Daniel! It’s quite the monster and it sounds fantastic but I wouldn’t rely on it to stay in tune for a live performance. Or at least, I wouldn’t touch the tremolo during a show 🙂 But in the studio, where you can re-tune after each take, it is perfect for adding some great and totally unique effects Like the intro to “Nothing Is in Vain” for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3JnZBz0Zro
But yes, not the most reliable when it comes to STAYING in tune.

[Lisa Wagner]

We had some guitar and drum lessons for about 5 years during highschool that we enjoyed tremendously. It was great for getting started and for having someone to ask questions and get feedback from.
I’d still say the majority of progress we made (especially on guitar) was self taught but I guess that’s always the case because practise = progress. And no teacher can practise for you 😉 Our teachers never really taught us much theory (and we still can’t read music very well) but they kept music FUN, which was soooo much more important. We had little drum ensembles, learned how to groove and play with other people and that made us look forward to picking up our instruments every day.

And later on in life, YouTube, the internet and our favourite musicians became the main “teachers”. Watching tutorials, practising new techniques and studying the hands of George Harrison and Mark Knopfler 🙂

[Lisa Wagner]

Thanks Tim, for bringing this up and for the others to chime in! We love how much interaction is going on in the forum and how people are sharing their thoughts and opinions so eloquently and friendly 🙂 We love checking in here every evening and catching up on what’s been happening.
Unfortunately we sometimes have days where we’re out and about working all day (like today) when it becomes physically impossible for us to get back to all the new comments straight away. Especially if they are such thoughtful, well-written questions (you guys are good at that!) we want to take our time to get back with some equally thoughtful answers!

We’re aware that that’s certainly a good “problem” to have as we’ll probably always be baffled by the amount of support and friendly curiosity we’ve received from people like you – which makes us terribly happy.

When opening the MLT Club and forum, we wanted to see how it all develops and how we’ll be able to keep up with it. We’re still in the testing and observing phase and will probably make some alterations as time progresses. We’ll work out the best way to run the “Ask MLT” section so that it’s easier for people to scan the answers, spot what’s already been replied to, etc.

For now we definitely don’t mind people writing their comments underneath the “Ask MLT” posts, giving their own opinions and turning it into a discussion. Whether or not that makes it easiest for new members to spot our answers might be a different question. I’ll be discussing it further with the mighty ‘ole team if and what changes to make for the future. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, we’ll definitely keep you all in the loop 🙂 For now, we’ll try our best to answer as soon as we can so the posts don’t get buried.

Thanks for the great participation and the great questions. Hope none of the above came across negative in any way. We LOVE getting back to you guys here and will figure out the optimal solutions for all things MLT Club 🙂 Thank you all for being here!

[Lisa Wagner]

Thanks Donnie. The sight of pumpkins and ghosts garlands (the tackier the better) alone gets us excited 😉 (We LOVE Halloween!)

[Lisa Wagner]

First of all, WELCOME TO THE CLUB Alan! Thanks for joining us here and for leaving a question (and of course for all the kind compliments!). I guess it goes without saying that the absolutely most crucial criterion when picking a song to cover is that we really, really like it 🙂 But on top of that there are a few other “reasons” of why we choose the songs we choose. Like wanting a good challenge, thinking that our voices/style would suit a particular song, wanting to get more comfortable with a particular style of playing, having a good idea for an alternative/slightly altered arrangement, wanting to do something we haven’t done before, covering a specific song for a specific occasion, someone making a great suggestion we haven’t thought of, collaborating with other artists on a song etc.

In short, if we’re excited about it and think we could make something beautiful with it, and if it fits into our schedule, we might give it a go. We’re also focusing a lot on writing our own music again, so sometimes we concentrate less on playing other people’s music but it’s probably something we’ll always do from time to time (it’s just too much fun ;-))

Love your song suggestions! We’ll keep them in mind for … “MonaLisa Twins play Beatles & more” Vol … 4??? Who knows 😀

[Lisa Wagner]

Yes, we approach this on a song to song basis, going with whatever sounds the best for each tune. We always try to serve the song so it doesn’t really matter who wrote it in the first place and thankfully there is never any ego involved 🙂 I tend to sing more of the ballads while Mona is a lot better at “raspy” but then again there have also been many exceptions to that too … I guess there isn’t really a method other than both of us giving a song a try and then simply choosing what sounds best for each song.

[Lisa Wagner]

Einstweilen haben wir keine Live Auftritte geplant (wir konzentrieren uns immer noch mehr auf Studio und Videoprojekte), aber wir haben schon öfter über Live-Streams nachgedacht. Das steht also sicher irgendwann auf dem Plan 🙂 Wir werden dich auf dem Laufenden halten!

[Lisa Wagner]

That’s a fascinating topic and we’d love to get our DNA tested at some point. I don’t really know if anyone in our family has done much genealogy on our “bloodline”. It’s definitely going to be more challenging tracing back us “Wagners” as it is pretty much the German equivalent to “Smith” or “Jones”. Let’s just say there are plenty of us 🙂

There are some quite unique surnames on Michaela’s side of the family though and they have been able to find distant relatives all over the planet. Fascinating stuff! Maybe something we will look into more at another point in our lives.

[Lisa Wagner]

I guess most people would probably expect us to say guitar but have you heard of the nose flute? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj6G0vSrv8c

[Lisa Wagner]

1. That Hotel California Solo was a real challenge at the time. I wasn’t that far into my guitar journey yet but adored this solo with all its layered harmony parts. I wanted to get it spot on for the recording. We spent quite a long time on it in the studio, recording it phrase by phrase until Dad and I were happy with the tone and expression. So I didn’t really learn the whole thing back then but rather practised section for section until I was comfortable enough to hit the record button. Only years later did I actually learn the whole thing by heart. Now that I think of it, I wonder how much I still remember … 🙂

2. Not quite sure what video clip you are referring to specifically but yes, it was probably just a mirrored image. Except she has a talent she hasn’t told me about haha. It would actually make singing into the same microphone (à la John and Paul) or performing on less spacious stages a lot easier (And I’d be left with a lot less bruises on my right arm from Mona bumping into me with her guitar’s headstock ;-))

[Lisa Wagner]

Hardest –  Once Upon A Time, because we changed the whole arrangement around so much. It literally had a Rockabilly guitar lick/groove/vibe at some point! We went from rocky to folky to even more psychedelic than the final version. It was a fun and rewarding process but we definitely spent more time on this fella than any other song.

Easiest – Well, “No More Worries Company” was basically a re-make of a song that Dad had already written back in the 80s (Though then called “No More Working Company”). Ever since we found his old demo tapes we LOVED that track and couldn’t wait to turn it into a full-fledged production. We kept the whole original concept and even used many of the original words. So to answer your question, Dad might have spent lots of time writing it back in the day but adapting it for this album has been a fairly smooth process 😛

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Rick, yes, you’re right. I changed the original Bigsby to a Düsenberg tremolo. I love how they feel and the tuning stability is much better too. Plus it makes changing my guitar strings a whole lot easier 😉

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Jung, been out all day but this is a great conversation to come back to 🙂
As Howard already said, IF we had to pick a favourite Beatles album (which is tricky, because we love them all for different reasons) it would probably be a tie between Revolver and Rubber Soul. If someone told me they wanted to get into the Beatles but didn’t know where to start, I’d probably buy them a shiny new copy of Rubber Soul (or pick up a battered old copy at the charity shop because the songs are going to sound amazing either way ;-)) and give it a few days. If there isn’t anything on there that makes them want to dig further into their catalog … maybe check for a pulse (or see if the old copy you bought for them actually plays ;-))