We have interviewed MonaLisa Twins, we have featured these talented women, Lisa and Mona Wagner, before but thought it was time to get their own thoughts in their own words.
Have you always wanted to make music?
Lisa: Music has always been a big part of our lives, so it was a very natural thing for us and a smooth transition into being “professional musicians”. The radio was always on and we were constantly singing, even on car rides or in school. As kids we got easily excited for a lot of things: we had a passion for animals, all kinds of art, we loved books, movies and everything that was fun to do. But music stuck with us the most, so yes, we always wanted to “make” music, since we were always doing it anyways, but the wish, dream and passion to really make it our profession, started growing from the age of about 13.
What are the origins of Mona Lisa Twins?
Mona: Since we’re twins we’ve been living together for 19 years now. That’s quite a lot of time, considering that we’ve spent nearly every single day under the same roof. It’s actually a miracle we can still stand each other, but for some odd reason we do.
When we were younger, our Dad ran a recording studio at home, so we have always been messing around there and recorded cute Birthday songs for family members or friends and the like. Music always meant good times and spending time with our Dad. To this day we still work together with him, write the songs and record them in our own studio.
L: So it was all just a really natural development, we grew up and over the years became better and more certain of where we wanted to head with our music. There was no date or year where it all started, but you could mark a family concert back in 2007 as the first milestone of the musical journey.
How would you describe your sound?
M: When we started out covering lots of songs and later to write our own music, we discovered a great passion for the 60s, especially the early beat music. It was the kind of more sophisticated Rock’n’Roll that we were so in awe of. We loved the easy but somehow very powerful songwriting style of that era and tried to integrate as many of the musical elements in our own songs as possible.
L: After listening to loads of 60s bands we were looking for newer groups who wrote in a similar kind of matter, but were a bit disappointed by the lack of it. So we tried to write the kind of songs that we would enjoy listening to. We incorporated many of the elements that we thought made the whole 60s era so special – mainly focusing on interesting, catchy but diversified melodies in our vocals but also guitars, bringing back the strong harmonies and wiry, bright guitar sounds.
What is your favorite Mona Lisa Twins song?
L: This is nearly like having to pick a favorite child! But well, I could say that for our more upbeat songs, I personally am very proud of “This Boy is Mine”, since it really brings the raw 60s Beat music vibe across we were aiming for.
M: For me “The Wide, Wide” land has got a very special place in my heart. We wrote it for our grandma who passed away of Alzheimer, and we first played it at her funeral together with our cousin. It was such an emotional moment, and people seem to connect very well with this song.
What is your favorite non MonaLisa Twins song?
L: Ah, that’s even harder! It normally is some kind of Beatles song, but there are also so many wicked ones to choose from. One of my all-time favorites would be “You’re Gonna Loose That Girl”. As for more recent songs I’ve been listening to John Mayer’s “Born & Raised” album a lot lately and especially love his song “Speak For Me”.
M: Probably “Because” by the Beatles.
Who is your favorite modern, and non modern artist?
M: As for “modern” artists I would probably say John Mayer. I’ve been going through an unhealthy obsession with his music lately, but I just love the way he puts words together with sing-along melodies. Non modern is easy, the Beatles in my opinion will always be the most mind-blowing band that ever existed.
L: It’s hard for me to pick favorites, but for more “recent” bands I enjoy The Belle Brigade, The Arctic Monkey and Josh Pyke to mention a few. Overall I prefer bands from the past, which next to the Beatles would be Donovan, Simon & Garfunkel and Cat Stevens, but the list goes on and on.
Who inspires you?
M: People who do more than you would expect them to. This doesn’t have to be art related at all, but I just get really excited when I hear about stories where people go out of their comfort zones to reach their goals. Everything worthwhile on this world was done by people who are not afraid to try out something different and new and are not constantly held back by the desire to “fit in”. I think that’s what life is all about.
L: I completely agree with that. And of course that would also be my musical heroes and idols from the past and present.
Describe your style.
L: It’s probably best described as reinvented 60s sound. Bright guitar riffs, harmonies, melodic and catchy, but certainly not trivial songs.
What’s next for you?
M: We are planning to release a Live-CD in spring 2014. We played so many shows this last year that it would be a shame if no one got to hear the songs we performed, except the people who saw the shows. So we figured we put out another live record, before going back in the studio to record new original material.
L: We’ll include live versions of our original songs as well as covers. Our voices changed quite a bit, since we recorded the last album, so it should be interesting for our fans to hear how we perform our music these days. Besides that, we are planning to write many more songs and release them as singles one at a time.