[Lisa Wagner]

We’ve written a lot of songs over the last few months where occasionally yes, the songs wrote themselves pretty easy, at least in the beginning.
Usually though, writing songs is hard work for us, but we don’t see that as a bad thing.

Even if the initial concept, chords or melody seems to come quickly and out of nowhere, getting the lyrics 100% right and trying out different arrangements until we find the one we like the most is usually not a process we like to rush in any way.

[Lisa Wagner]

That’s an easy debate to settle 🙂 We both take charge about different aspects of MLT and there really isn’t one “taking the lead”. The same goes for the rest of the team, Rudi and Michaela.

It’s all a team effort and where one of us might be less involved in a video production here, they will be taking over the majority of planning for another production there. Same goes for songs and other business aspects.

We all have our strengths and areas we lack confidence or knowledge but that’s why we’re working as a team 🙂

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi David,
Maybe you’ve already seen it but we answered your question in our latest Q&A video (minute 10:30)
https://test4.monalisa-twins.com/music-industry-part-2-q-a/
♥

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Mike,

To keep the rules consistent and the same for all, please do not post your own songs if they aren’t somehow MLT related.
Others have refrained from doing so to comply with the forum rules so it wouldn’t be fair to make exceptions now. If you have formed friendships here with which you’d love to share your music with and possibly collaborate, please do so through other means than the forum.

We think it’s amazing that so many people here are musicians themselves so we’re glad to have this “problem” but we still hope you understand that we gotta have some forum rules to keep things peaceful and topic related 🙂

Thanks!

[Lisa Wagner]

If I am wearing jeans, I always have some spare picks in my back pocket because chances are, I will drop quite a few of them during a live show!

And if I reach back and find that they are empty, the panic stricken look on my face normally results in Mona or our bass player quickly handing me one of their spares. 😉

[Lisa Wagner]

Only today we’ve been talking about how much we’re looking forward to iced coffee and tea again!

[Lisa Wagner]

I love that this song was a collaboration between George Harrison and Ringo!
It’s not a song we would have chosen, or rather … there are a lot of songs out there that we’d rather do 🙂

[Lisa Wagner]

Hi Jacki!

Funnily enough the answer to who we would love to write songs with wouldn’t be much different to who we’d love to share a stage with.
Most of our favourite musicians/singers were also amazing songwriters 🙂

Of course my number one answer would be Lennon & McCartney. The most incredible songwriting duo there ever was. Only yesterday did we tune in to a livestream by Paul McCartney in which he talked a lot about the songwriting dynamic between him and John. How they would balance and regulate each other’s weaknesses and the healthy competitive and collaborative spirit they had going on.

Especially now that we’re neck-deep into writing our own music again, getting a sneak peek into the creation of some of the world’s greatest masterpieces would be amazing. How did it start, what was the original spark and how did these songs develop into what they turned out to be.

[Lisa Wagner]

You just brightened my morning, Jung 🙂
I’m so glad you like the photos we post. It is something that I really enjoy doing and that comes in handy for documenting our adventures and musical journey. But I’m certainly no expert!

Our whole family takes pictures and when we upload a bunch of photos, you can be sure that all 4 of us have taken some of them. So you really shouldn’t give me credit for all of them!
I do like hogging the camera when we go out though 😉

I’ve gotten a lot more into photography in the last few years. There are so many talented photographers on Instagram and YouTube that inspire me but the first person that taught us more specifically about the “art” of photography was our step-grandpa (Michaela’s Dad) Franz, who is an amazing photographer. He has won some of the biggest photography competitions and has got image composition down to a T 😉
When we were early teens, he put together a fun little “photography workshop” for just Mona and me. We ran around their house and garden for a weekend, looking for interesting subjects and compositions while he gave us tips and tricks and little challenges. I call him my photo buddy now and we like to send each other photos of our latest adventures over Skype.

As for educational/entertaining Photography related YouTube channels Peter McKinnon, Thomas Heaton, COOPH, Irene Rudnyk, and Mango Street come to mind. I will check out the book that you mentioned!

I love that you’re getting more into creative photography again! Due to the lack of leaving the house over the last few months I haven’t felt all too eager to pick up the camera recently but reading your message and writing this reply I feel quite inspired again. Maybe I’ll take the camera out for a walk today 🙂

Thanks for writing and for the kind words as always,
Lisa

[Lisa Wagner]

You’re spot on. Mona is playing on our Ludwig drum kit and I did all the guitar fills and solo on our 12 string Rickenbacker. In the original recording, John and George were both playing the solo on a 6 string Stratocaster which makes it sound a little like a 12 string. Which is how I got the idea 🙂

[Lisa Wagner]

That’s one of the most unique compliments we’ve ever received but already one of our favourites! 😉

Wow, you must be full of interesting, crazy stories. To be confronted with the absurd, sad and strange reality of this dark and complicated side of human existence like that every single day … we tip our hats!!

Thanks for allowing our music to play inside your head while you go about your job. That’s quite the honour! ♥

[Lisa Wagner]

Mmmh … let me think. We definitely tended to play more upbeat, louder and more well known songs. “Punchy” tunes by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and contemporary stuff always worked best. Well-known songs with lots of harmonies always caught people’s attention.
Especially when we were playing without amplification (in most cases) intricate finger-picking stuff or quiet ballads pretty much got lost in the noise of the street. Some examples: Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel), Help (Beatles), I’m Yours (Jason Mraz), These Boots Are Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra), …

Busking is a great way of learning what’s effective and what makes songs stand out. In our experience, it is less ideal for working on subtle techniques and complicated details, at least not on busy roads.

Those experiences have taught us a lot plus it was a fun way of earning some extra pocket money 😉

[Lisa Wagner]

Oh Bill, don’t remind us of how long it’s been ???? It was actually released in February of 2012 so it’s been a bit more than 9 years. Crazy to think how much has happened since then but we’re still really proud of this album and the songs we’ve written. We are glad you like it too!!

It was our first original album and the biggest project we had worked on up until then. We weren’t as comfortable in the studio yet as we are now and even with the immense support and experience of our Dad, it still took us a long time to translate the ideas we had in our heads into actual songs. But we did it and wouldn’t want to change anything about those experience. 🙂

Thanks for the kind words about it ♥

[Lisa Wagner]

Gosh, we still hate to hear ourselves talk ???? Weirdly, it doesn’t happen so much when we sing but if we record us talking we sometimes still go “is THAT what I sound like?!”. Like you said, it seems to be a natural thing that you “hear” yourself differently from within your own head than when you are being recorded. The more we do it the more we get used to it though.

When we record ourselves singing it is sometimes that we don’t realise we are pronouncing certain words weirdly, or wrong or with too much of a German accent until we listen back later.

[Lisa Wagner]

I’d say Revolution Number 9 has always been out of question 😉
Other than that I can’t really think of songs that we wouldn’t potentially give a try.