[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Howard,

We’re glad you like your new Facebook “badge”! It isn’t something we actively give out but something that Facebook does automatically. We assume that people that comment and “like” a lot of our posts become “top fans”, so if that’s what you did … Thank you very much and please enjoy the Facebook algorithm’s decision 😉 (Though of course all the MLT Club members are top fans in our books!)

Just yesterday we got an upset email from someone that “lost” the Top Fan badge because he thought it’s something we choose to give/take away. After doing some research, we found out that we can’t change this setting ourselves (only deactivate the whole feature or remove badges but not “give” them). Thanks for being active over on Facebook and if you come across anyone else who is confused about the badge, we’d appreciate you passing on this information to help avoid misunderstandings!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thanks for the tips, Howard and your offer to help get us back over to Australia again! Oh how we’d love to do that! But at the moment it’s all a matter of time and we’ve got a bit too many things going on. But we will try to come back for sure one day!

About the photo: Thinking back, I actually don’t remeber using surfboards THAT huge so I think they gave us those for the picture only.

And I forgot to address the German video you guys have dug up. It’s funny how suddenly lots of comments popped up on that old news post from back in 2009 that still included that video. Someone must have found it in the library so it popped back up in the “recent comments” section. You guys are sneaky clever detectives 😉

[Rudolf Wagner]

I would say your assessment is correct! We do love our Ricky and Gretsch and wouldn’t trade them for the world! 🙂

As for acoustic guitars … I like a couple! In terms of sentimental value I will always treasure my EJ 160E the most. It’s nothing fancy, cheap and battered beyond belief but it has been with me to so many places and gigs and is a true workhorse. My second most used acoustic guitar is probably a custom Martin that we got gifted many years ago. Lisa has one too (one dreadnought and one jumbo) and they both sound terrific and don’t look half bad either 🙂

You can see them in a lot of live photos:

 

There are many wonderful acoustic guitars and some work better in the studio than on stage but the two I mentioned would be my immediate go-to picks.

Loved the question!

All the best,
Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Well, we did try surfing once. It was such a cold day that even the instructor (Mona’s host mother’s brother) refused to go in the water haha. So he roughly told us what to do and then pushed us out into the waves. To no surprise we returned to shore soon after, having spent more time underneath the board than on top.

I felt a few glimpses of the board catching a wave so I could imagine it being fun once you’re good at it but we spent the majority of our time paddling out, trying to get on and off the board and yelling at each other about how cold we were ;-). So it’s definitely not something we were able to cross off our bucket list with a lot of confidence. We’d love to give it a go another time! Maybe next time we visit Australia (fingers crossed!)?

[Rudolf Wagner]

His name is Snoop.

He came to us many years ago probably around 2008, during school holidays and we proceeded to take him anywhere for the next 12 months straight. Those were our bonding months and he has refused to leave ever since. He even made it into English class at some point and is extremely sociable and talkative (he squeaks).

These days he just likes hanging out near cameras and creeping around film sets. We think he’s trying to become a movie star but he’s very sneaky about it.

Snoop is a cool cat.

❤

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts! Great to know that we’re all on the same page here and your stories and enthusiasm are the best evidence of music working its magic.

Richard, we are so sorry to hear about what happened to your friend’s son. That’s just tragic! Music certainly isn’t going to make terrible things disappear but to know that our songs acted as a bit of a comfort blanket is beautiful. How great that melody, lyrics and harmonies can do that! All four of us send their love and wishes to you, your friend and his family. Appreciate you sharing this with us. Big ♥!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Mike

There are absolutely songs we prefer to play live more than others. There are the ones that are exciting in the beginning and start to feel a bit old after a while vs some that develop and get more fun over months of playing them live.

Whether or not we particularly enjoy playing a song over a long period of time can depend on the day, the atmosphere, the stage sound, setting etc … Also I’d say the tighter we played and the more prepared we were the more enjoyable the whole setlist would be, regardless of those other factors, so that’s always what we were aiming for.

By the last gig of the day we might have already run through “Johnny B. Goode” twice during this morning’s band rehearsal and once at a show around the corner. Whether you then switch to “autopilot” or keep engaged in what you’re doing I think has a lot to do with why it is you are making music in the first place.

The amount of miserable cover and function bands (or sometimes even well-known acts, in which case it’s even sadder) who just seem to go through the motions each night attest to the fact that even the best job in the world (like playing rock’n’roll to an excited audience ;-)) can become dreadful if you’re doing it for a paycheck alone.

Thanks to our parents we could take a different approach. Even though we usually play a lot of covers we’ve never been a “cover band” and while we did our fair bit of grinding and collecting hours on sweaty, small stages we’ve always done it to hone our craft and experience the dynamics of live playing rather than for the money.

Because of that we have never not been excited about a gig. Whenever we feel like we’ve overplayed a song or we had a harder time getting excited about it we’d drop it after a while or look into how we can make it fun again.

That was a long winded answer to a simple question but I thought it would be worth going into a bit more detail about the subject 🙂

You probably wanted to hear some examples so if I’d have to pick a song I’ve always enjoyed, it was “Revolution”, even though we played it literally hundreds of times. We always added little things over the years and I’ll always love that tune.

The same goes for pretty much all of our originals, though “I Don’t Know Birds That Well” might be one of my favourites to do live.

Thanks for the lovely question and have a good day!

Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Jung, thanks for the great question, and please excuse my taking a bit of time to get back to your question but I wanted to think about this properly.

I’ve been scanning over the past 10 years with your questions in mind. Weirdly, there isn’t one major event that jumps out to me straight away. It’s more of an overall feeling that I connect with certain memories, some more than others.

There are the obvious things like playing the Cavern for the first time, finishing a new song we’re really proud of, meeting John Sebastian, some unforgettable shows with Steve Harley, holding “ORANGE” in our hands for the very first time, playing Glastonbury, our big London Showcase, the great experiences we had when shooting music videos etc.

But really, the moments I found most fulfilling and “right”, were often reading the emails or comments from people who told us about the effect our music has had on their lives. Some messages literally left us in tears feeling nothing but happiness, gratitude, connection. We sensed that what we were doing was obviously so much more than just something we did because we enjoyed it, and we realised that our music had such a profound positive impact on some individuals out there, people we didn’t even know.

When we were teenagers, for us it has started as the “thing we enjoy doing” but it has now become so much more than that for me. The fact that Dad & Michaela taught us and always believed in pursuing something worthwhile/meaningful over any convenience or fitting-in with the conventional status-quo played a massive part in what MLT has become, and of that I am now super proud. And also, that we’re doing all of that in the face of an industry that is pretty much pushing the opposite of taste, morals and values of what we believe in. So in addition to how great it feels to reach out and connect with people through our music, a big part for me is also HOW we do it that feels very “right” and yep, fulfilling 🙂

It’s a wonderful thing to be part of. It’s everything but a walk in the park, and the pitfalls in the music industry are plentiful beyond belief, but we are trying to add as much joy and value to this planet for as long as we can before we check out 🙂

Thanks for the question, Jung!
Lisa

[Rudolf Wagner]

It’s interesting reading everyone’s thoughts on this topic. We wish to say a few more things and also add a bit of our experience about the ESC that isn’t widely known by the general public. Besides our personal taste and opinion about music competition and similar programs as such, our Dad has gotten to know a lot of former participants of the ESC personally, as he was one of Austria’s most successful studio owners and producers. So he’s gotten some first hand experience about the consequences of taking part in this contest that might interest you.

Some of the contestants claimed it has damaged their careers or at least that it was a horrible experience. The ESC seems to have some very particular “rules” that have almost nothing to do with the rest of the music scene and world of art. Therefore artists get presented with a lot of problems that have very little to do with their art but a lot with the ESC:

• They know they have to write and perform a song that fits into the ESC cliche to have a chance to win that is often very different to the original style of the artist.
• There are contracts and clauses involved (possibly different from country/network to country/network) that could seriously harm your artistic freedom and livelihood. We ourselves refused to sign the contract the ORF presented us with for the Radio Wien performance and which even lawyers called unconscionable. Usually, part of these contracts also forbid you to publicly talk about them.
• They run the risk of losing their often hard earned fan base (like some artists actually did) because of appearing hypocritical and inauthentic.
• They have to expose their art to a rather random jury (which is obviously the preferred perverted way to present music these days), that even seems to have more political than artistic criteria in their voting habits.
• The ESC has a certain image that often collides with the artist’s image. Some artists have a lifelong stigma because of that.
• The increase in popularity is rather questionable and often only lasts a short time, even if you win.

All these things are especially unnecessary for artists who have already found a way to reach an audience and gain exposure through other ways. That’s why you hardly see any professional musicians take the risk and hassle of taking part in the ESC. They also know a terrible contract when they see it. It might have been different in the beginning of the contest but it’s certainly the case for a long time.

The win-win situation that Christomir describes in his post above would make a lot of sense in a perfect world. In reality it is neither about the song nor the artist but mostly about politics or what is considered smart politics. Every country wants to win and therefore politics takes over and tells you what’s appropriate and what not. We think the ESC is a good example of what happens when art is guided by political forces. The idea of state-artists never worked very well. It didn’t work in the Third Reich nor in the Soviet Union nor will it work in the Western World because it is fundamentally opposed to the role of an artist.

Amongst songwriters and arrangers there exists the rather loose term “ESC-song”. You could describe it as harmless (at most pseudo-rebellish), inoffensive, “cheerful”, to a certain degree amateurish, catchy or simply cheesy. Extra points if what you do fits the current political agenda or whatever “cause” the media is currently pushing (like Conchita Wurst – Austrian Winner 2014). And it better appeals to the masses.

Here is an article that talks more about the voting politics and problems:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/guide-political-voting-votes-eurovision/

All in all, besides of the reasons above, we feel that the ESC was one of the first events that started the now prevalent rating-mania where everything has to be rated, compared and commented on. To us this simply isn’t what art is or ever should be, and we don’t want to participate in or support that, even if it got us “exposure”.

This in itself is a completely perverted trend in our modern society, or can you imagine Bob Dylan or the Beatles following a two hours ESC televoting to see if they won?

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Mike!

Personally, I am not a huge believer in talent. By that I mean that I think most “talented” people out there have earned that description by working hard on whatever they are good at and interested in and, most importantly, kept up the interest and discipline to go through the tough patches that no doubt occur when learning or creating new things 🙂 Obviously with things like sport, genetics can play a huge rule (I don’t think a basketball career was ever in the cards for me) but personally I try avoiding the word “talent” for that reason.

In our case specifically with singing harmonies I think it was a natural, slow learning curve that came from repetition over many years. Like many other young kids we used to be pretty bad at singing but we always sang at home and in the car and it’s something our parents always encouraged. When we were on car journeys our dad would show us how to sing harmonies to our favourite songs or sing triad chords with us (each one of us took one note).

It was something we did for fun to make car journeys go by quicker and really enjoyed it, so by the time we were teenagers it came quite naturally to us and we had a basic idea on how to find the harmony to a melody by listening alone. These days it comes easy and natural but I don’t think it would have if it wasn’t for those hours of singing with Lisa as little kids and Dad. It didn’t seem like work or effort at all but looking back it definitely was a big part of us being kids. I don’t think we had much talent from the get go. We just sang a lot and got better and stuck to it 🙂

The fact that we are twins and have similar voices I think helps with making our harmonies sounds more … harmonic 😉 Sometimes voices just don’t work together even if everyone is singing in tune, so whenever we sing with someone else it’s a hit or miss whether or not it’s a nice blend of voices. All the sibling bands you mention have that bonus. It’s nearly like singing harmonies with yourself.

I don’t know if we would sound much different if we were merely sisters, not twins, but it would probably be at least similar I’d guess 🙂

Also, I’m sure if someone explained to you the basics of harmonies, and maybe showed you on a keyboard and pointed it out in songs your ears would soon get used to it and you’d have a much easier time with it. It probably wouldn’t even take very long!

Anyway, thanks for the questions! All the best from snowy Liverpool,

Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Rick!

My Ricky is a 350v63 which is like the legendary 325 that Lennon played (same toaster pickups, wood, controls etc.) only “long scale” so the neck is a regular length. I absolutely love it and wouldn’t swap it for any other guitar as my main electric.

I occasionally put flat wound strings on it which give it more of a thuddy sound which get balanced out by the bright, jingly tone that those good old toaster pickups produce. It made it a bit harder to play since they’re usually a bit heavier but during our intensive live playing phase I didn’t play too many solos on it so it worked fine. At the moment I’ve got regular round wounds on, medium gage.

I’ve not really messed around with it in terms of changing pickups, different bridges etc. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it 😉

The only thing we did was that Dad cut out a little carbon plate that goes over the pickup switch and keeps it in place because I used to accidentally knock it while playing all the time which switched the sound midway through a song and would ruin live recordings on a regular basis 😉 Now I control the sound with the dial only which still allows the whole range.

There’s not much else to say, I mainly play it through my AC30 with a tiny bit of reverb and slightly cut treble, depending on the song.

I love the sound, feel, sturdiness, and look and can’t imagine ever giving away that guitar! 🙂

I hope you’re staying very groovy too! All the best to you,

Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Mike!

The “Early Access” page is for all content that we pre-release to MLT Club Members earlier than to the rest of the internet world. So for example, when we plan on publishing a new YouTube video to our channel it will probably be there earlier for members only to watch.

The “Duo Sessions” page is a collection for all music videos (usually acoustic, live or on-the-go) that we exclusively recorded for the MLT Club. With the exception of “Getting Better” which we uploaded to YouTube a few weeks later, all videos there will stay exclusive for now and are recorded with the MLT Club in mind only.

We plan to do a lot more of these “simpler & quicker” videos for the Club that focus more on the music and live playing rather than a high-budget video or a studio arrangement, so we decided to create its own section to collect them all.

Hope that clears it up! 🙂

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Michael,

Mona V2 was lovely and great to work with. We’ve not really stayed in touch with her since we moved to the UK but we’re sure we could work together again should we hit her up.
Same with Mario. He only lives 5 mins from our Austrian home so should we for some reason spend more time back home again, we could do something together again.

But as it doesn’t look like we’ll be spending longer periods of time in Austria any time soon though, that’s probably not a video idea we would consider doing, even though it would surely make for an entertaining video. Not so sure it would make for a “happy ending” though 😉

So thank you for the suggestion but it’s not something we could or would want to follow up that way. We’ve got plenty of other videos in the works we want to focus on first as well as concentrate on new original songs.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Lior,
Please excuse the late reply but as this seemed to have become more of an discussion amongst yourselves that until now we didn’t have time to follow properly. Leaving the majority of follow up comments and various opinions aside, it’s probably best to just answer your original post 🙂

First of all thank you for the question and for actually taking time out of your day to think about ways we could move our career forward, that’s really cool! Personally for us there are too many things about the Eurovision Contest we dislike for it to be something we would consider actively looking to take part in. Sure, it would help us with exposure but there are many ways that would allow us to reach more people quicker that we deliberately don’t do if it clashes with our values or taste.

We’re not a big fan of the format, the underlying politics, the way the show is held and how its contestants or winners are chosen. The idea of taking part in a “contest” itself when it comes to something as subjective as music feels somewhat off to us. Not that we don’t get the entertainment appeal or why people enjoy watching it.

Now IF we should get invited, we might think of an idea of adding our own twist to the format in order to make a point but I don’t see that happening in the first place to be honest.
Also having too many things we’re currently working on and too little time to get them all done as fast as we’d like, trying to get into the Eurovision contest isn’t something we have the time for. But we really appreciate the idea and you guys thinking about ways to help us move our career forward!! Love that 🙂

And lastly just to settle the ABBA argument and what we have allegedly said or haven’t said: Yes, it’s true we aren’t very keen on their music but then again we aren’t very keen on a whole lot of music out there. The only reason ABBA seems to come up somewhat frequently and has led us to express our personal dislike for their music publicly (though I would think in a lighthearted, joking way) is because we get compared to them so much. And like you pointed out, there are a surprising amount of similarities, many of which we weren’t aware of, so I guess it’s no surprise their name comes up so much 🙂

Again, sorry for not getting back to this sooner and we really appreciate all the nice things and supportive words you wrote!

Thanks,
Lisa

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the questions and for posting your answers along with them!

I read or watch movies nowhere near as much as I used to when I was younger, as I never find or take the time to do either. Ever since I’ve found podcasts I pretty much get all my “entertainment” of that kind from audio alone, so it mostly replaced both books and movies for me.

I’ll still try to answer your questions as accurately as possible!

1. What kind of books do you like to read?  Fiction or Non-Fiction? Favorite author and genre.
Our bookshelf is pretty much only filled with biographies (lots of Beatles books and various musicians) and thick, long science-fiction/fantasy based novels with the occasional thriller and some other odd ones like books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón which I love. I don’t read enough to have a qualified opinion on different authors and their legacies but the classics like Stephen King or James Patterson I’ve never had a bad read with.
Generally (and I think I’m speaking for Lisa here as well) I prefer longer, elaborate books that create a whole world and complex people with a variety of relationships over shorter books that are just based on a single story line.

2. What kind of movies do you enjoy watching?  Preferred genre? Favorite movie?
With the roughly 3 movies I watch a year these days, I again find it hard to answer that question in a meaningful way. Maybe one day I’ll get around to catch up on the long list of movie classics I should have seen but I usually gravitate towards interesting, character based movies, comedies or documentaries and again – fantasy / science fiction always peaks my interest (if we’re talking TV series I love Game Of Thrones).

3. If you knew nothing about music and had no interest in it other than maybe listening, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

I’ve been sitting here for several minutes trying to figure out a realistic answer to this question. It’s hard to imagine not having an interest in something your whole life is based on but I appreciate the brain exercise!

My first instinct was to say “probably still something in the creative entertainment world” but the more I thought about it the more I realised that that’s highly unlikely. I love the way we do things with this band, because the approach we have is often deliberately not aligned with many of the regular sides of the “entertainment business”. Without that aspect, I don’t think I’d be drawn much to the regular entertainment world.

Maybe I would choose to work with animals & people or find a way to use my creativity and time to do something beneficial in the social sector? It’s really a tricky question and not something I have a clear answer to but I couldn’t imagine doing something for a living that wasn’t in some way meaningful, beneficial for society, social and creative. Thankfully I feel music ticks all of those boxes! 😉

Hope you’re having a good weekend!
Mona