Admin Rudolf Wagner
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There is something so solemn and calming about Celtic folk music. Thanks for sharing and for the song suggestions. We’ll add them to our long list of potential cover songs 🙂
At the moment we’re putting all our attention to our original music so we probably won’t be recording more covers for a while (we still have plenty of them prepared to share in the weeks and months ahead).We have a soft spot for Donovan’s music so we might give another one of his songs one day. Speaking of the man, have you seen this episode of “What’s On The Table”?: https://test2.monalisa-twins.com/whats-on-the-table-sunshine-superman-donovan/
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While Michaela deliberately isn’t actively involved in the songwriting or recording process, she is just as much a part of the “quality committee”, as any of us 🙂 You could say that she’s the final quality checkpoint in the MLT production line 😛
We always run lyrics and mixes by her and her input is invaluable.
Dad and our brains work quite similarly (genetics?) so it is great to have someone look at things from a slightly different angle and other perspective. She often picks up on things or points out flaws that we would have overlooked. It’s great teamwork 🙂
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Hi Bill,
We would choose a Beatles track over a Wings song probably any time of the day which is why we never did any Paul McCartney solo stuff 🙂 Not saying that we don’t like the Wings stuff (“Jet” is such a fun song!) but there are too many Fab Four songs that we’d rather give a go. -
That is a really interesting question, thanks Brian. Being twins and living and working the way we do definitely brings its challenges but also many, many blessings.
It is still something we are figuring out as times goes on and as circumstances change. We share a lot of the same interests, hobbies, friends and space but we do not spend all of the time together or we would inevitably drive each other insane, despite how much we love each other 😉
However, because our whole family does get on so well and has figured out how to work together and still get the individual space we need, quarantine has been a breeze in that regard, haha.
I feel like for the point we are at in our lives, we’ve got this pretty well worked out and are able to communicate and find the best ways to make this MLT family and music affair work harmoniously 🙂
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Hi Rick,
It’s always a team effort but Dad is definitely the head of the recording and mixing department. We often record our own tracks but he’s the one putting it all together in the end.
When it comes to video it really depends on who’s got the most time to spare/dedicate to each project. We all edit, film, cut, colour grade, etc. I usually do more of the post-production work, while Dad does most of the filming and Mona is great at doing the cut with Michaela giving her 2 cents on story consistency and dramatic composition. But it really is different for each video.
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Hi Darryl,
First off, we’re sorry to hear that your band broke up! I hope that you might play and perform together once playing and performing together will be a thing again 🙂
But great that you’re keeping yourself busy with the bass. Short scale basses are the best. The Hofner is short scale and they are so nice and easy to just pick up and play. Or rather, pick up, plug in and play! Dad plays through whatever is at hand like his Little Mark Tube or even a little Fender 12” monitor whenever we jam together, though he does practice without it being plugged in, too. Not when he plays the Rickenbacker (it’s too quiet) but the Hofner has enough body to be audible without being plugged in.
But yes, whenever we play together or when we record he nearly always uses the Little Mark Tube with a Warwick 15″ bass cabinet.
Hope the floorboards have become loose by now 🙂 Keep them rattling and stay groovy!
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Greetings Nigel, from Mona and me!
We’re glad you joined us here and hope the months ahead will be a fun ride 🙂 We don’t think we’ve ever been to Lancaster itself but we love Lancashire, lots of friendly people!
Thanks and have a groovy day!
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Haha, that’s up to Dad but I feel like that’s VERY unlikely. He very much prefers the version 2.0 😉 We love his old recordings though!
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We saw that video! Josh did such an amazing job playing both guitar lines at the same time. It made me sweat watching him pull that off 😀 I am 99% certain that in the original recording George did an overdub in the studio. It’s one of my favourites so maybe we’ll give it a go sometime … MonaLisa Twins play Beatles & more Vol. 4 maybe? 🙂
First it’s time to finish that original album!
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Hi Refugio!
Glad you’re joining us all the way from Mexico! 🙂 Golden Slumbers is a great song, we’d love to cover that one day!
Buenos días and thanks for being here!
Mona & Lisa -
Hi Chris!
We are fit as a fiddle, thank you! We hope you are too! About your first question …. When we write harmonies it mostly starts out from an intuitive place. We sit around with our guitars and hum melodies, try different intervals, play around a bit.
Once we have a rough idea dad usually gets out the keyboard and we have a look at what notes we’re actually singing, how they fit in the chords, what other options there are, etc.
That part of writing is by far much easier on keys than a guitar because you see everything clearly in front of you. A guitar is too messy for that 😉
A third up is a safe and often beautiful place to start, but there is much more room in both directions so we usually just play around until we find something that fits the mood of the song. We just rely on our ears.About your second question … From time to time we play around with the idea of getting involved with film music one day and we’ve always had an interest in rock operas (we love Tommy, S.F. Sorrow, etc. …) and, to some extent, musicals.
If we ever dabble in it I don’t think we would necessarily be drawn to orchestra oriented Loyd-Webber-esque tracks first, but then again, even that sounds pretty fun. We are not ruling anything out and we can definitely see ourselves exploring that world a little down the line. Great question!
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Hi Lynn!
For Michelle I was copying Paul’s poor pronunciation making it ever poorer 😉 I remember Dad and Michaela trying to help me with it (they both learned French in school) but I don’t think I was convincing any natives.As for Yeah, Yes, Yep, Ja … I never really thought about that. I think we say all those things interchangeable without any reason other than we’ve been saying all these things in German as well (including the yessss). I don’t remember ever saying “Aye” in an un-ironic way but I do like how it makes you sound like an Irish pirate … or the speaker of the British parliament 🙂 I think I’ll have to start adding it to my vocabulary …
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Ohh, that’s a couple of nice suggestions. They are going on our “potential cover songs” list (which is VERY long!). We’ve never heard “Kicks” but that’s a top song!
At the moment we’re recording more original music but we’ll get back to doing more covers next year. Thanks for the suggestions. -
Hi JP!
It depends. When I feel like the fretboard is becoming a biohazard I will take off all the strings to give the fretboard a good clean and oiling. Sometimes I’ll do it like you said and replace them one at a time, especially when I’m changing strings on something with a Bigsby or floating bridges (like my Gretsch) and don’t want the pieces to go flying everywhere.But then, under the tremolo and around the bridge is also where a lot of dust settles that is hard to get rid of without destringing completely.
I’d say for me it’s probably 50:50.
Oh and if I cut the strings with a wire cutter, I ALWAYS loosen them first. Cutting them under tension is terrible for the guitar and potentially even more terrible for your eyeballs 😉 -
For an original song, I’d probably pick “I Wanna Kiss You”. It’s got what feels like a gazillion chord changes and little fills that, whenever we played it live, took quite some time to memorise and make it seem effortless. At the same time it’s got lots of interwoven harmonies which all in all makes it tough to sound tight when performing it on stage.
It’s songs like that which sound rather simple when recorded and that are fun to work on in the studio but become a pain to do live 😉
As for covers, “Time Of The Season” comes to mind with its solo and long outro. I tried to adapt Rod Argent’s organ solo to guitar which was a VERY fun but quite a difficult challenge.
