[Rudolf Wagner]

Who would have thought that I‘d actually get excited talking about working out one day ;-D

We didn’t use to be overly sporty people, especially during our teenage years where our physical activity was mainly constrained to “a little bit of running for 3 weeks after New Years Eve” or a week of skiing in Winter. So yes, we were definitely lucky to have had a high metabolism during those years 😉

However, about 3 years ago when we decided to turn our lifestyle around and take more care of ourselves in that way we started eating a lot healthier and that got us started off doing yoga, then picked up running (a lot!) and eventually weight lifting and more HIIT style training.

We decided to prioritise our health more which didn’t just have a huge physical but also SUCH a positive mental effect. It bleeds into so many aspects of life and helped me getting stronger, more confident and balanced, more creative, calmer, … Just by practicing self discipline and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable 😉

I do a bit more strength training compared to Mona (she‘s doing more yoga and flexibility work) so I’ll give you a rough workout routine for me (given things aren’t too busy to carve out the time).

We normally run about 4 times a week (typically a timed 5k race on Sat, a 10k race on Sun, and two more laid back runs during the week).

Then I do a mix of weight training, HIIT and sometimes Pilates about 4 times a week as well. I normally split the lifting workouts in different muscle groups. These  session hardly last longer than an hour, normally less, and we always work out at home (with dumbbells, bands, pull up bar, etc.) so there isn’t really much excuse not to do it and I always feel amazing afterwards. No gym fees and travels and more flexible with time are some more pluspoints.

It is so much fun seeing yourself improve, building muscle and getting faster and stronger.
I cut my 5k time by nearly ten minutes over the last 2 years 🙂
All that makes me ridiculously happy. Dad is running and working out too and is now in the best shape of his life.

I used to not really „get“ people that were active. I saw myself as only the „musician“ who didn’t really care about something seemingly rather „primal“ as working out. I think I was very wrong about that. Our bodies are meant to move, it‘s part of the „design“. Plus it can be really fun 🙂 And all the better if it gets you outside, if it connects you more to your body and maybe to other people that you’re running or working out with.

Thanks for the question 🙂

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Hubert!

We’re so glad came across our music last week and already decided to join us here, that’s amazing! You’ll find a lot of people here that grew up with the Beatles and love them us much as you (and we!) do.

We’ve been hearing more from people in France lately and would absolutely love to visit one day. So far we’ve only camping-traveled Corsica which was absolutely stunning and is technically France but we feel it doesn’t really count. Mainland France (and Paris in particular) are definitely still on our list.

Merci for your message!
A bientôt,
Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

I remember us being quite picky eaters growing up. Not sure what happened though because these days I don’t think there is much we wouldn’t eat ;-D

I cook a lot and always try to cook really healthy but when we dine out and I want to treat myself I’d probably order ribs and sticky toffee pudding for dessert! Gosh, I love sticky toffee pudding! As far as cuisines go I love Asian food, and Mexican, and Turkish, and Greek, … actually I could just keep going because there are yummy dishes from everywhere.

So I guess I make up for my quite specific taste in music by loving ALL the food 😛

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Bob!
If we’re talking about the last few weeks, with everything going on, unfortunately “technical” practice time had to take a backseat. That doesn’t mean that we’re not creating or playing music most days because we tend to always be working on some recordings.

But when it comes to a more systematic and technical practicing routine, we seem to go through phases depending on what is going on in our lives and what needs to be prioritised at the time. We try to squeeze in our daily vocal and guitar exercises as often as we can.

When we’re working on a bigger project or more challenging record, we focus more on practising the stuff that we’re working on at the time. Also, when we plan on recording different “unusual” instruments we normally practise song-specifically for that instead of trying to master the instrument from scratch. That certainly would be great and a lot of fun, but we normally lack the time.

So I’m far from becoming a flute expert in any shape or form but if we plan on recording another song with a flute part in it you can trust me to practise the hell out of that part until it sounds convincing 😛

I’d love to become a pro flutist one day but not until I’ve mastered the drums and guitar. A girl gotta prioritise 😉

So it’s all the big ole’ balancing and time management act, and our practicing time ranges from many hours a day to weeks without touching my drumset at all.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Oh yeah, we love doing that! I’d say “Baby Mine” from “MonaLisa Twins play Beatles & more Vol. 3” or our version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” for example are pretty drastically different to their original arrangement. Or the song we posted today: https://test2.monalisa-twins.com/early-access-little-drummer-boy-audio/ And we had a hell of a lot of fun doing that 🙂

But the thing is that when we cover our absolute favourite songs (like many Beatles songs) they are already so perfect (in our opinion) that we don’t feel that changing them up too much would improve them in any way. So we just add our little touches and try to do them justice as much as we can.

One of my pet peeves is people changing melodies, chords and arrangements of already great songs ONLY for the sake of changing something but in the progress losing the essence of what makes the song great. We see this on YouTube all the time, and I think you can normally tell if someone understands the music well enough to keep its magic in tact (while making it their own) or if someone believes that changing things up a lot somehow makes it more interesting by default. Of course, there aren’t really any “hard rules”, a lot of it comes down to personal taste, and musicians should make music however they want. That’s just my personal opinion and taste when it comes to covering other people’s music.

So yeah, completely reinventing an arrangement can be super interesting if done skillfully 🙂 And it’s something we’ll definitely continue to play around with, depending on the song.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hallo und Willkommen Frank,

We are glad you’re here and say thanks a lot for joining – have a look around and make yourself at home! 🙂

We’ve got lots of new videos and projects in the pipeline, especially for December!

Groovy greeting and Servus,

Mona

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Michael,

“Did you ever have to make up your mind if touring America with John Sebastian, John Sebastian himself, might work?” Seems like a clever way of dressing up the “When are you coming to America” question ;-P
It’s on our bucket list but for the time being touring isn’t in the cards yet.

In this day and age going on tour and playing live has to be very well financed, planned and executed to be worthwhile. We learned from watching the history of other bands and the current state of the music industry – even the most well-known bands are struggling to break even. We’ll definitely get back on stage eventually but we have a whole lot of things we need to work on before that to make touring a sensible endeavour.

As to John Sebastian. We chatted with him on the phone just a few days ago and he is in the best of spirits enjoying life and music 🙂 It would be less a matter of making up our minds but what makes sense for everyone involved. “Touring America” is something that sounds easy and romantic but in reality looks a bit different, especially for Europeans.

However, in our own interest, we’re trying our hardest and bestest to move quickly and hopefully will get to travel more of the planet when the time is ripe to do so.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Rich!

I’m really sorry for not getting back to this sooner. I actually started typing up an answer weeks ago and it turned from a quick overview into quite the lengthy post that I then didn’t have time to finish yet.

I’m thinking of getting the detailed write up done for a blog post one day as there are so many interesting stories and things to talk about and expand on. So for now I will answer them bullet point style 🙂

How young were they when they picked up an instrument to play and which instrument(s) did they start with?
Dad picked up the piano at 8, Michaela learned how to play recorder, melodica and piano in primary and junior high school. Dad learned to play bass and Michaela the saxophone only in 2007 to be able to accompany us for our first live concert where she also played percussion and for one song helped out on the keys while Dad was on the drums. Both of them also learned guitar basics, you can hear them on our Christmas recording from 2009.

When did Rudi get involved with becoming a professional musician, producer and studio owner?
He formed a prog-rock band in his late teens with which he wanted to build a studio together in order to record their own music. Under the workload of actually building an entire studio from scratch, the band kind of scattered, some got married, moved away etc. So Dad ended up building and finishing it himself which he then turned into one of Austria’s most successful recording studios.

What kind of bands did he play in and what instruments did he specialize on and when did he start writing his own original music?
In his main band he played the keys and was the singer. He also wrote most of the tunes. Back then they were very into Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd and he’d describe what they were going for as progressive rock. During his studio days he worked on some solo projects (when he wrote “No More Worries Company” – back then titled “No More Working Company” for example). It was quite conceptual, sociocritical with a rather big and electronic sound. He signed some major label contracts as artist as well as a producer and gained some experience of working in the industry from both point of views.

Did Michaela study music or mainly play in school band?
Michaela played music in her youth and teens but was more into dance and art (she painted a lot and had her own exhibitions) later on in life. She also worked as a graphic designer for many years.

 

Has she written original music of her own and play a part in the Twins original songs?We often come to her when we’re stuck or struggling with lyrics and to get an opinion on songs we’re working on. She helps us shape and refine and points out blind spots we develop in the songwriting process 🙂

Thanks for the questions!

[Rudolf Wagner]

That’s a good question and something I don’t think we’ve ever talked about much because business and structured workflow is not what many people think of in regards to musicians and art in general.

Like in any successful business or organisation we, too, have to approach our musical endeavours in a structured and organised way, otherwise we wouldn’t get much done on time and feel stressed-out constantly.

Planning and goal setting is key, and we regularly get together to discuss or readjust our plans for the upcoming months/year(s). This is much like you described your work at ad agencies.

Michaela used to work as a project manager in one as well, so she maps everything out into a visual timeline, with sub-projects and deadlines for each of us, from which we then create our personal to-do lists. This gets followed and adjusted along the way.

We all have our own tasks, chores and duties, and over the years we have developed a tried and tested workflow for business and creative projects. Having optimised workspaces and equipment we’ve become quite efficient with the technical and mechanical side of music, photo and video production too.

None of that sounds particularly sexy and artsy but that’s the stuff going on in the background which allows us to make music for you directly and to stay independent and morally uncompromised.

Thanks for the question 🙂

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thanks for the feedback, Jacki and Steve, I will take it all into account for the next collection! Jacki, I would imagine the higher in contrast the better, too?

Mike, this would be a nice band merch item indeed. Who knows, there might be a special edition at some point, I’ll keep it in the back of my head. But for now, we want to focus on music, videos and expanding the MLT Club rather than getting drawn into the merch business too much, especially with shipping costs rising astronomically. The advantage of digital puzzles is that we can enjoy way more and more different photos regularly which is the idea behind the puzzle collections archive. Have you tried one yet? Beware, it’s addictive 😀

Daniel, no worries, we’ll keep adding more …

Enjoy your day!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Yes, it was not what we expected it to be. We thought it would be something like a personal messaging system which it was not and yet made the forum a bit slower. We decided to search for something more appropriate and better performing.

[Rudolf Wagner]

My pleasure, Steve. Actually, I enjoy doing them too, and my excuse for a little puzzle break is that I have to “personally test them” to make sure they’re not too easy or too difficult ;-). By they way, let me know if you guys want to have some more challenging puzzles with more pieces as well, or if you’re happy with the medium 70-100.

[Rudolf Wagner]

Steve, sorry for that and thanks for the notice. I fixed it!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Thanks, Steve and Daniel, for letting us know you dig the jigsaw puzzles. Initially, we’ve put them up as a pastime until we’d have our other Tidbits ready for upload, some of them coming soon. We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on them though, so we decided to follow your suggestion and create this archive for you to go back to, and for new people to discover all the previous puzzles. We’ve included a new collection, too, so have fun with them!

[Rudolf Wagner]

Hi Mike, that’s not really something we worry about to be honest. It’s actually rather hard to come by song titles that NOONE has ever used before, so we just write our songs, write the lyrics and then name the song, like the song wants to be named 🙂 It’s normally quite self evident due to its lyrics, and we definitely wouldn’t change the lyrics just to get a different title. Hope that makes sense 🙂