Admin Mona Wagner
AdminForum Replies Created
-
Hi Angelo and welcome back 🙂
The dark Martin we play in “Wake Up Little Susie” and “June” is a custom build which is why you could not find out the exact model. We think it’s one of our most gorgeous guitars although it is in need of a setup to improve the playability.
Our favourite 12-string? Only a few months ago we sound-tested them against each other to figure out which one to use for the Epstein Theatre gig with Mike Massé, the one you attended.
As you know, I decided to go for the Maton for that performance. It has the most balanced sound, in my opinion, doesn’t sound too piezo like and has a full, clear output. It’s not the most comfortable to play though. The neck is quite chunky and the action is quite temperamental and needs to be adjusted every few months. You can definitely tell that the Australian wood isn’t used to the European climate and likes to bend out of shape! 🙂
The blue nylon guitars … they cost 12£ on eBay and have “Alba” written on them so I guess that would be the brand, although it is not a well-known guitar manufacturer as far as we know. They even came with a strap, tuning pipe and a footrest! We bought them as cheap starting guitars back in the day and for video purposes as they look pretty cool. They are pretty well-manufactured instruments that sound really good. Fantastic for the price!
Hope that answers all questions.
Groovy greetings!
-
Hi Rick!
Sorry, I’m a bit behind answering these Starman questions but they might still be interesting!
Part 1: Yes, that is indeed Papa Rudi hiding (not very successfully as it turns out) behind his hat and the cave right next to us during the drone shots. Michaela was sat in a different cave that was out of frame during all these sequences, guarding all the equipment, guitar cases, etc.
The weather was extremely windy for all the days of shooting so Dad didn’t want to risk flying the drone from a location too far away where he could only rely on the drone camera with no direct line of sight. That’s why he had to stay close by and risk some sharp eyes spotting him on the footage afterward. 😉 Let’s just call it an Easter Egg!
Part 2: I believe Bowie ad-libs this part differently on various versions but in the official record he seems to sing “lotta soul, he said” which is what I did as well. He just sounds cooler saying it. 😉
Part 3: Anything else you missed in the video? We doubt it’s possible to sneak anything into a video that you wouldn’t notice! 😉 We went into a lot more detail about the video shoot in this photo post.
The most memorable of the three days of filming by far was the time when we got caught in a rainstorm on the way down the mountain. It really was like nothing we’ve ever experienced, you could see a black cloud of doom racing toward the filming spot and once it hit us we couldn’t see a single thing, just rain. It’s a shame we couldn’t capture that moment on video but none of our cameras would have made it out alive if they weren’t packed away securely. A great memory though.
Groovy greetings!
-
Hi Paul!
We’ve got yet another musician in the house, how great! Welcome to the MLT Club and thank you for making the decision to stop by and support our music in the process 🙂
Unfortunately, we don’t know an awful lot about Michigan other than its breathtaking lakes and scenery (from pictures) but hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit there one day.
Have a wonderful day, thank you very much for pre-ordering the new album and please say hi to your wife Becky from us too.
Stay groovy,
Mona & Lisa -
Hi Howard
Yes, we have a few things planned for next Friday. 🙂 We can’t believe a year has already passed! We’re super proud of this space and thankful for people like you who are participating and enjoying the work that goes into it.
Bring on year number 2!Truth is we’re giving the MLT Calendar a consideration every year, but it’s always ending with the same conclusion that it’s an item that is too expensive to produce in small numbers and if we don’t sell all of them, we end up with lots of recycled paper, as we can’t stock it. We’ll keep it in the back of our minds though, and who knows …
Groovy greetings,
Mona -
We spent hours trying to come up with potential label names which wasn’t as easy as we thought. We couldn’t believe it at the time that almost all of them were already taken. Often companies or bigger labels buy names and trademarks simply to re-sell them or keep others from using them (greedy bastards ;-)). So we had to think beyond the more obvious choices.
We eventually came up with “Woolgoose” as a loose play on the German expression “eierlegende Wollmilchsau”, which translated means “egg-laying Woolmilkpig”. Basically something that does everything, often used in a “too good to be true” context.
Eierlegende Wollmilchsau would have been a mouthful so we agreed on “Woolgoose”. We also liked the two double o’s.
Lisa drew up a little logo for it, Michaela tackled out the administrative work and voilá, the label was born.
-
Oooops, thanks for making us aware of that 🙂
The Duo Sessions Page was set to only show 6 posts, when “In it for love” was the 7th. It’s fixed now!
♥ -
Hi Tomás,
That 12-string guitar has been on quite the journey, halfway around the world.
You might have read that back in 2009, at the age of 14/15, we had spent half a year in Australia for student exchange. Even before we left for the trip we knew we wanted to buy two acoustic guitars there and bring them back home with us afterward. While roaming the music stores of Adelaide we found this 12-string as well as the other 6-string Maton we own and immediately fell in love with them. We didn’t plan on getting a 12-string but it sounded so great and once we picked it up we couldn’t put it down anymore.
They became our “working horses” for the six months we spent in Australia. We took them busking, carried them to school and back most days and played them a LOT.
We brought both Matons home with us, and it was the only 12-string we owned for quite a few years after. I love the tone of it, it’s full and warm and extremely well balanced even when plugged in.
The action on it is not the best. If we don’t stay on top of it and adjust the neck every few months it gets out of shape, and the chunky neck isn’t helping with the playability. Compared to the other 12-strings we have played and owned since, it might not be the most “finger-friendly” one but the tone, as well as the story, make up for it, and I do tend to gravitate towards it for performances! 🙂 For noodling around at home, I would probably choose a different one though.
Also yes, it does have the Queensland Walnut back and sides which is gorgeous and so different from what you usually see. The model number is EM425C/12 by the way.
We all hope you’re well, thanks for the question and all the best from both of us!
Mona
-
Hi Rick!
I had to go back and look through the footage to make out what guitars were on stage that evening but I think I’ve got it!
So besides the Rickenbacker and Gretsch we are playing, and the acoustic guitar that Mike Sweeney is using, here is what I know about the other ones …
The white Gibson Les Paul (on the right), the black Fender Stratocaster (in the middle) and acoustic Takamine (on the left) all belong to Paddy O’Hare, who was performing after us that night together with Mike Sweeney and their band. It was a double bill that evening! 🙂
We didn’t play any of these guitars, so, unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about them. From what I remember they all sounded solid and well balanced during the gig though. Paddy loves his heavy rock and blues solos and his gear fits his playing style.
The two guitars in the stand center stage are my trusty Epiphone J160E on the right and a nylon string Taylor on the left. You’ll know the Epiphone from a lot of videos, especially our earlier ones like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, When I’m Sixty-Four and God Only Knows.
As far as I can remember we’ve only ever used the Taylor 712ce-N in the video for June. It’s an absolutely stunning guitar!
Hope you’re doing well!
Mona -
The idea makes us chuckle but to be honest, at the moment we wouldn’t consider re-recording any of our original songs in German right now. We can’t see that working all too well 😉
Do you know the story of how George Martin had to personally drag the Beatles to the studio because they initially refused to do these recordings? This story cracks us up every time we read it!
Since we don’t have anyone dragging us anywhere we’ll probably give this one a miss.
When we used to play “She Loves You” at the Cavern Club we sometimes snuck in a German verse in the middle of the song though and it was so entertaining watching the faces in the audience when we made the switch to German.
The hardcore Beatles fans started grinning because they knew exactly what we were doing and the other half of the audience looked totally confused and had no idea what was going on.
🙂
-
Hi Jacki!
We prefer baking over cooking too but it’s a slippery slope once you start having muffins for dinner twice in a row 😉
Both of us are actually quite big foodies (although we’re always trying to keep it on the healthy side) so we love to experiment with different flavours and new dishes. Lisa is more of an expert when it comes to baking and she makes a MEAN lemon cheesecake. I pride myself for my authentic Italian Tiramisu.
In terms of “Culinary of Shame” we assume you mean cooking mishaps?
Personally, I burn things on a regular basis. To the point where it’s become a running joke. For me the stove seems to have two settings – “off” and “level 11” but I’m trying to improve. “Patience” is not one of my fortes as it turns out!
-
Hello, hello Brad!
Thank you so much for this extremely cool introduction. As you can imagine, knowing that our music has become part of someone’s breakfast routine, makes our hearts feel soft, fuzzy, furry.
That’s about as sweet as it gets 🙂
We really enjoy getting these sneak peeks into people’s lives, people who allowed our music to become somewhat part of their lives. And of course, thank you for the compliments and kind words!
We hope you’ll enjoy it here in the Club and really appreciate the support!
Much love from all of us to you and your wife, all the way from Liverpool to Idaho <3See you around!
-
We try to make the message and music of an album flow nicely. What does “flow” mean? We aren’t quite sure ourselves but we know when it doesn’t. 😉
It’s a bit similar to a live show – we probably wouldn’t play a soft ballad, a heavy rock’n’roll song and then a quiet acoustic number consecutively unless there is a conceptual reason to do so, within the message and structure of the songs.
As much as we primarily write in individual songs rather than concept albums we still always have an overarching idea in mind, a story and mindset that ties it all together. So sometimes that requires songs to be in a certain order.
With ORANGE, for example, we always knew we wanted to end with Still A Friend Of Mine so we worked backwards from there. We created “The Future” as an intro to open the doors to an orange experience …
Have a nice evening and thanks for asking 🙂
-
Hi Paul!
A lot of different things factor into which songs we choose to cover, but number one, the song has to connect to us at some level. Meaning that by playing it we can do more than merely repeat the words and melodies written by someone else.
We always pick something that inspires us and that we get excited about; musically, lyrically, conceptually or all three of those things! 🙂
Sometimes we have a good video idea for a particular song in mind, too. Or it could be that we’re travelling somewhere that has a connection to a particular song we like. Or that we’d like to try something we’ve never done before, songs that intrigue or move us.
We still have a very long list of songs we’d like to give a go one day, and a lot of (to us) influential bands that we’d love to pay homage to by playing one of their tunes. And of course, there are still 300+ more Beatles songs … 300+ more of our favourite songs 😉
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” has been on that list for a long time by the way – we love that song. It’s really tempting to have a go at some CSN one day – those harmonies are to die for! If only there were 8, no better 9, 10, 11 days a week 🙂
Thanks for the question!
-
Hi Roger,
Glad you decided to join us here, and as we can see you’ve already started making yourself at home 🙂 It’s lovely to see so many members welcome the newbies and we wanted to add to the “hellos”.
40-some years of playing and 30 guitars! Wow, I bet you and many of your guitars hold great stories.
Both, the EJ160 and 200 are two of my most played acoustic guitars and have accompanied us to countless gigs and radio performances.Two true work horses 😉 As many here already said – please feel free to share some pictures! We’d love to see them!
Also – late Happy Birthday! If you’d have let us known a couple of days in advance we would have prepared a little something for you. But keep an eye on your inbox, it might not be too late yet 😉
Au revoir, je m’appelle Mona (sorry, that’s all I know!) and stay groovy!
-
Hi Paul!
We’re very sorry that we didn’t reply to this sooner – Welcome to the MLT Club! We very much hope you enjoyed your first month here, it’s been a busy one for us with lots of new music … there’s more in the making already 😉
So many people here seem to be musicians themselves or have worked in the field of music which we think is great, so we’re sure you’ll find some like minded people.
Groovy greetings and a big “Hi” from Lisa, Dad and Michaela too,
Mona