[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Robert,
Thank you so much for joining us here, for getting our music and for co-creating the MLT universe 🙂 We hope you’ll have a good time here!

To answer your question … “do you get any time to spend for yourselves?”
We love what we do, so despite not necessarily having a lot of “time off” from MLT related projects, to us this journey is 100% worth it.

All of us have our more personal outlets and hobbies which we follow to get some time for ourselves. At the moment Mona is super into gardening, I love photography and drawing, we both run a lot and enjoy getting out in nature. We get into all sorts of weird and wonderful things that inspire and recharge us.

Again, thanks for joining us here in the Club where we sometimes share more of the weird and wonderful things that aren’t strictly music related. Check out the Specials/Out & About Section in the Club 🙂

All the best,
Lisa

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Howard!

We actually did think about getting out the flute for that song but the blues harp won in the end as we thought it would fit the song much better. Maybe one day the flute will make its debut in a duo session but it would have to make sense musically. 🙂

I’m glad you are enjoying the covers. We’ve been loving the freedom it gives us to explore different songs and styles without making a full 2-week production out of it. There will definitely be more coming soon!

I hope you’re well!
Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Tomás,

Aren’t we all in some way brothers in search of the lost camera menu feature? You absolutely nailed all of the items except the one you were not sure about (the question mark). The filter is a variable ND filter to keep the shutter speed at 1/50 when we want to film with the lens wide open despite bright lighting conditions. I think that should have been built-in since a long time.

All I want is the perfect camera 😉

 

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Kevin! They are the best 🙂  I know they are very proud of us but so are we of them. It’s a great big group effort and we’re glad to be doing this together and to have their immense support and love!

I see why you’d find their take on our whole stories interesting. Maybe in a documentary one day 🙂 ♥

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thank You, Brian ♥ We love subtle key changes, especially when you almost can’t notice them because they flow so naturally with the melody. Like you said, the Beach Boys were masters in that and it’s something we try to incorporate whenever we can. It can be super tricky to make it work. There is always a lot of trial and error involved but we’re glad you notice and appreciate whenever we do get it right 🙂
Modulations and key shifts are a lot easier for us to “imagine” first so when we write songs we usually start with some idea of a melody and then imagine the chords and sounds around it. That’s when the big hunt begins of trying to find the right chords and chord progressions to match the notes and colours in our brains 🙂

I hope that makes any sense!

Best,
Lisa

[Rudolf Wagner]

Oh, that made me giggle! That’s Lisa’s Photoshop skills 😛 She just thought it would be funny to take a screenshot from the “Hair” movie (the scene where they sing that song) and virtually squeeze ourselves into the car with everyone else. Here is the original clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZqb2VVc48

And thank you for the compliments! That song definitely was a bit of a challenge to make it work. It was easy for it to top over to the more cheesy side so we were trying out different arrangements to keep it fun but not too “sweet”. That’s what we came up with. LOTS of spacey harmonies and percussions, sparse guitar leads and harmonica. Oh and did we mention harmonies and percussion. Yeah loads of harmonies and percussion 🙂

[Rudolf Wagner]

After restructuring the menu for a more direct access to certain functions the menu was worse than before on mobile phones. I now had to remove the notification bell from the mobile top menu. It was hiding the logout button in a sub-menu.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Rick,

The Ahhhs in “Time Of The Season” are just me going “Ahhh” – with some reverb added and the treble lifted so it sounds more percussive. Lots of breathing was required! 🙂
We loved the original arrangement and how the Zombies incorporated those vocals like an instrument/rhythm element. Of course we had to keep that!

Dad isn’t singing on that song but maybe he should have been, haha! He definitely could have hit those lower notes much easier than me 🙂

We hope you’re well!

Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Howard!

The duo sessions are actually pretty straightforward to film. Two cameras, one on a tripod and another one on a tripod with a fluid head or on a gimbal that is moving. We shoot a few takes of the girls playing and later decide on the best take. We sometimes use the video footage from a few run-throughs combined.

What is a bit more difficult is the sound recording. It saves time when I get the microphone choice and placement right so it sounds good without having to tweak a lot when mixing.

The other challenge is getting the outfit, scenery and lighting right and this is something where Michaela and the girls do most of the heavy lifting.

There hasn’t been too much interesting “blooper footage” as far as I can remember but we will keep it in mind!

Thanks for the question!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Rick!

With an e-drum kit you can programme your cymbals to sound like whatever you want – a ride, a crash, a duck sound … . The cymbals and toms are basically just triggers that you assign a midi sample (a snippet of sound) to, so when you hit that particular trigger this is what you’ll hear. That’s what makes them so versatile. 🙂

I generally play with a ride cymbal on my right and a crash on the left, which is a very common set-up, so that is what I would do with my e-drum, too.

As a sound module I use a Roland-TD12. The last time we used the kit live was in 2007. I am sure there are much more advanced ones on the market by now but it did a good job back then!

And lastly, the only time I’ve ever used chimes was when I was playing percussions for a Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel performance. There were a couple of songs for which they came in handy so I bought some for the tour. I haven’t used them since though 🙂

Thanks for the questions as always!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Bob!

Thanks for saying hi, for joining the club, for getting our music and all the lovely words! We’re excited to welcome you to the MLT Club 🙂 We hope you’ll like it here!

We’ve just finished the rough cut for next Friday’s video and added some new photos to the Photo Archive yesterday so there’s always something happening around here!

For now, it’s lots of groovy greetings! 🙂

Mona & Lisa

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Jung,
Your stories sound like an absolute dream. Especially now that we’re all stuck at home longing to go out, enjoying live music with like-minded people.

We have had the privilege to experience some amazing concerts over the years. Seeing the Simon & Garfunkel reunion show in Australia in 2009, Tommy Emmanuel in an intimate, personal venue in Manchester and watching 10CC from the side of the stage after playing the same festival, would all be concert experiences that made it into my top 10.

If I had to pick a favourite or the most “significant” live show however, it would have to be the first time we went to see Paul McCartney back in 2011. Everything about it made that show so memorable and impactful. It was our first time seeing Paul live, Mona and me flew to Cologne on our own, we were lucky to get amazing tickets with a great view, the sound was great, the songs the best on this planet … To say that I got teary eyes at some point would be an understatement 😉

The whole show was an experience I don’t think anyone could ever top, including Paul himself, when we saw him again in Liverpool a few years later. Everything about that first show in Cologne was exactly as it should be, at least to our 17 year old selves.

Thanks for the question! I hope you have a gorgeous day ahead,
Lisa

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Michael,

It is so sad that John Prine passed away since you submitted this question. May he rest in peace ♥

Unfortunately, we weren’t very familiar with his music before we heard the bad news, and his work has never been on our radar over here in Europe. Since we still don’t know a lot about his work or have a deep connection to his music, playing one of his songs as a tribute would feel a bit inappropriate from our part. But we do appreciate the suggestion and the fact that you think we would do his music proud.

We send peace & love!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thanks Jacki,
It was mainly Michaela and the girls who did the reorganizing of content to make it more accessible so they will also be happy to read your post.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thanks,

I think we could repair it.

Yes there was a problem with two membership menu items showing up for users that were not logged in.