[Mona Wagner]

Hi John,

Only twice when we filmed that last scene, but that wasn’t by accident 😉

We popped it a few times though, especially on the last day as the whole area there is covered in Gorse bushes which are very thorny. We brought plenty of spare balloons and a helium canister with us on that mountain, so while Lisa and Dad were filming with the drone it was my job to always have a spare one ready.

Hope you’re having a good day! ????
Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Tim,

Michael J. T. asked the dreaming question a while ago, and this was Lisa’s response which stands for me as well: https://test4.monalisa-twins.com/forums/topic/languages/

And have any of our dreams come true? Honestly, I consider my whole life to be a dream come true as sickeningly cheesy as that sounds.

Had you told my teenage self that I would be replying to messages in something called the “MLT Club” while working on our 11th album and releasing independent videos and music to people around the world I would have lost it.

Not everything is always perfect or rosy but my dreams are usually extremely strange too, so even that checks out. ????

Thanks!
Mona

languages

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Deidre,

We have just added the singles to the Download Hub! (at the bottom)

The songs that have been pre-released in the MLT Club but aren’t “officially” out yet will not be included (Like Janitor Joe, Good Morning Starshine etc.) but they only make up a small number.

And yes, ideally all of the songs will be available on an album eventually, that’s definitely the plan. We are prioritising our next original release for now, so some of the covers are currently homeless and just exist as one-off singles but they will all get a home eventually 🙂

Thanks for the kind message!

Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Pascal!

Easy, a big bowl of peanut M&M’s but with the crust peeled off. And no, regular peanuts don’t count, they have to be the ones that used to live inside M&Ms.

Other than that, tap water and I’m good. I don’t need much. 😉
Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Tim!

That’s great that you are going to visit Austria, we hope you’ll enjoy your time there! At this point it has been several years since we have been back so please tell everyone we said “hi”! 😉

We grew up in a town to the east of Vienna and went to school in the capital, so that’s the part of Austria we know really well. It’s beautiful there, however, the western parts of the country are definitely a lot more scenic. That’s where you have the alps with all its wonderfully majestic mountains, quaint valleys and quirky villages.

Amongst other regions, we once spent a summer with our grandparents in East Tyrol which is saturated with picturesque views! If you like you can watch our photo post here. If you don’t want to walk much you can always take one of the many chair lifts or cable cars up a mountain to enjoy the views. If you’re more into cities, then Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and of course Vienna are all worth a visit. There is so much more we would love to explore ourselves one day!

As for local cuisine: Definitely try “Germknödel” if you get a chance 🙂 Everyone always raves about the Viennese Sachertorte (a special kind of chocolate cake that Austria is famous for) but to be honest, there are so many good desserts that we think are much better like eg. Linzer Torte, Cremeschnitte (cream slices) or any kind of Strudel.

You’ll have to let us know what you thought!

Baba, (Austrian for Bye-bye)
Mona & Lisa

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Christopher,

A big (and slightly belated) welcome to our music and this groovy community 🙂 First of all, we love the Beatles song suggestions and agree – any of them would be a fun challenge and a good fit. We’ll try to get to at least one of them eventually!

And regarding the language questions – actually, no, we still speak mainly German on a day-to-day basis. We live together so unless we go out to meet friends or talk to local people we don’t talk that much English.

That being said, the rest of our “world” is pretty much exclusively English. The people we meet, the entertainment we consume, things we read, videos we watch, music we listen to, programmes we use to record and edit our music/videos,… And of course anything we do on the internet is in English.

So our German has kind of morphed into a strange mixture of the two languages where we often mix English grammar or phrases with German words. At this point I often wonder if I can speak either language properly anymore! ????

Groovy wishes to you and thanks for being here!

Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Jim!

Bobby McGee is such a standout song and our granddad’s favourite, which is why we have considered covering it a few times in the past. It never came to be, and I can’t promise we’ll ever do it but it certainly would be tempting. In fact, there are a few songs off “Pearl” that I could see ourselves covering one day.

Janis’ vocals are so perfect for that song, so it would be a little scary taking it on but maybe we will give it a go. It’s a great suggestion! 🙂

Peace & love,

Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Lynn!

Sorry that it took us so long to react to this but we want to say a big thanks for sending us the video link – we know how hard you’ve practised to get from knowing nothing on the uke to doing this cover! That’s awesome and the chords are spot on! 🙂

Hearing covers of our songs is one of the most rewarding things, especially knowing that it perhaps made you stick to playing the ukulele more and discovering this hobby! We also love that you already have a plan for what you want to work on this year (speed and finger picking, as you mention in the video description)! That rocks!

We still remember forgetting to breathe properly during our early days of playing and singing at the same time – especially during live performances! Whenever I got nervous I would get short on breath which I think might be what you’re referring to.

As with all things, the more you do it the easier it gets!

Big thanks and all the best for your continued journey,

Mona & Lisa

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Pascal,

Yes, the recordings are exactly the same. 🙂

Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Rick!

The Ricky and the Gretsch were the first high-end guitars we’ve ever bought, and it took us a long time to figure out which instruments we wanted exactly and then also how to get them.

For example, very few guitar stores in Austria even stock Rickenbacker guitars, so once I considered them as a possible choice for my main electric guitar I didn’t even have any possibility to try and confirm that idea for quite some time. Not until we took a trip to the big annual Music Fair in Frankfurt and subsequently Europe’s largest Music Store in Cologne back in 2011. That was also the same trip that we had filmed While My Guitar Gently Weeps on.

The whole purpose of the journey to Germany was for us to be able to test out and try as many different guitars as we possibly could in order to find “the right ones”. Quite frankly, we were still hoping that we could find that “twang” in a cheaper alternative, so we tested dozens of different guitars at both the music fair and the store.

Well, during our many testing sessions we fell in love with the Ricky 350v63 and Lisa’s Gretsch and ended up ordering them online once we arrived back home. Back then I wasn’t aware that we basically picked the exact Beatles guitars. Of course, they were on our radar for that reason but so were other instruments the Beatles and other 60’s bands had used in that period. So it didn’t click until a few days later 🙂

I still love both those guitars and they get used for so many of our recordings still!

Good question, thanks for asking!
Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Bill & Maddie,

Thanks for the question. To make it easy for everybody to find all the chords of our songs in one place, we made them available for download here:
https://test4.monalisa-twins.com/mlt-club-lyrics-chords/

We hope that helps ♥

MLT Club – Lyrics & Chords

[Mona Wagner]

Thanks Walter,
we’re glad you enjoyed our take on the song and the sound of my 12-string!

I am actually playing my Maton (model: EM425C/12), a guitar we’ve owned since 2009 when we picked it up during our Student Exchange in Australia. “Maton” is an excellent Australian brand that makes amazing instruments and I’ve always loved that 12-string.

We only meant to buy a normal 6-string to play during our time in Adelaide but fell in love with it at the local music store and couldn’t leave it behind.

It really wasn’t cheap, especially in “teenage money” back then, but now I am so glad we made that decision as we still use it a lot on recordings.

And no, we didn’t play the entire concert with Mike Massé but joined him for about 4 or 5 songs, if I remember correctly. It was Mike’s gig at the Epstein Theatre in Liverpool, and he had invited us to join him for a guest appearance.

He put on a great show!

Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Rick,

Whenever we start working on a new song that needs a drumbeat, yes, I usually put down a simple beat or even use a midi-track (from the computer) to get a rough first idea from which we can then build the song in more detail.

Once we have the whole song structure figured out I will then go in and work on the drum track, try different rhythms, fills and breaks until we have something that supports the song in the best way possible.

You’re right, it’s hard to get anything else in place until you have at least a rough idea of what the drums are going to do, it can make or break a song! 🙂

Thanks for the question!
Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Tim,

I’ve never been a huge fan of drum solos unless they somehow make sense within a piece of music. So unless there comes a point in the future where a drum solo is unavoidable I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon, sorry. 😉

I’m also not a very virtuoso drummer so it’s not like you’re missing much. I like playing what serves the songs and I feel that’s what I have become best at. There are so many impressive drummers out there which would be much more entertaining to watch 🙂

I don’t know if you’ve seen this before but may I direct you to this 14-year old drum solo from when I was 14 to make up for my disappointing reply (minute 6:12): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr7acZUaOZs

I hadn’t watched that clip in a decade but your comment reminded me of it and I just laughed out loud several times at my concentrated baby face and those “action” shots with its experimental camera angles.

Thanks for asking though 🙂

Mona

[Mona Wagner]

Hi Simon,

We almost exclusively play AC30s and have a couple of them in our studio. When we played live a lot we used to mainly play through the “VR” version since it’s lighter and a bit more reliable when dragging it from stage to stage (fewer tubes).

At the Cavern Club we played the amps that were already there – AC30s with top boost and reverb.

They have a huge stock of new and vintage AC 30s, and while they all sounded a bit different we could not say the vintage ones were better.

We’ve pretty exclusively stuck with Vox amps over the years and can’t see ourselves switching away from them anytime soon, simply because of the unique sound they produce. Vintage or not, they rock – even the VR versions, the pedals or even the Mini headphone amps.

Thanks for the question!