User:SteveL75/MonaLisa Twins

The MonaLisa Twins are a pop rock band, fronted by twin sisters and singer-songwriters Mona (rhythm guitar, percussion, harmonica, flute) and Lisa Wagner (lead guitar, ukulele, cello). They are originally from Austria (born in Vienna, on June 16, 1994) and are currently based in the Liverpool area, in the United Kingdom. Known for their YouTube video covers of songs by The Beatles and other 1960s bands, many of which have been issued on a series of albums, they also have released two albums of original songs.

They have toured with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, performed at the Glastonbury Festival, collaborated with American musician John Sebastian, and held a two-year residency at the Cavern Club.

The band's producer is the twins' father Rudolf Wagner, who also plays the bass and piano, and co-writes and arranges their music. All their music is recorded in the Wagner family's own music studio. Rudolf's wife and the twins' stepmother, Michaela Wagner, is the band's manager and assistant. The family lived in a small village in the Groß-Enzersdorf municipality near Vienna, Austria, until 2014, when they moved to a suburb of Liverpool.

The band typically has a 4-person line-up for live concerts, with Mona and Lisa Wagner mostly playing guitars (and some harmonica and ukulele, respectively) on stage, while being backed up by different bassists and drummers. In 2012 and 2013 (while they were still based in Austria) those were usually Michael Mozeth (bass) and Philipp Wolf (drums). Since 2014 (including the two-year residency at the Cavern Club) they have been backed by several local British musicians.

History
Twins Mona and Lisa Wagner grew up in the family of music producer and sound engineer Rudolf Wagner, and made their first steps in playing and recording music at a very young age, in the professional recording studio he owned in their hometown Franzensdorf, a tiny village in the Groß-Enzersdorf municipality near Vienna. They had their first concert in 2007 in Franzensdorf, at the age of 13, backed on stage by their father Rudolf and their stepmother Michaela Wagner. A live recording of that concert was released later, in the form of the double album Live in Concert 2007, where the family was credited as "MonaLisa & Band". The live album contained 23 covers of songs from different genres and periods of popular music, and one original song, written by the twins. In 2008 they went to the USA to film videos for their EP California Dreaming, which was released during the same year. In 2009 they moved to Australia for half a year, as exchange students, before they decided to quit school and focus on their music career, as an independent family project.

In 2012 they released When We're Together, an album containing only original songs. All 11 songs on it had a strong 1960s music influence, as Mona and Lisa had decided by that point that they wanted to write new music, reviving the pop rock, folk rock, Merseybeat and British invasion styles of the '60s, and inspired by the Beatles etc. They promoted the album in Austria with many live gigs at small venues, open air festivals and a live Radio Concert on the Austrian broadcaster ORF.

Videos Youtube Liveplay, The Hafen Open Air ORF.

2014 MonaLisa Twins Play Beatles & More Base Liverpool. BBC Radio Merseyside Cavern Club residency.

Quotes Peter Noone, John Sebastian, Graham Gouldman Mike McGear Billy Butler Bill Harry"If I was publishing Mersey Beat today, the Mona Lisa Twins would be on the front cover."

Mark Lewisohn

Style
Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys The Mamas and the Papas, The Beatles.

Live-Shows, Internet and Youtube (December 2014: 4,5 Million views) ). No major Record labels or Talent shows.

Discography

 * MonaLisa & Band Live in Concert (2007)
 * California Dreaming (EP) (2008)
 * When We're Together (2012)
 * MonaLisa Twins play Beatles & more (2014)
 * ORANGE (2017)
 * MonaLisa Twins play Beatles & more Vol. 2 (2018)
 * MonaLisa Twins play Beatles & more Vol. 3 (2018)
 * CHRISTMAS (2019)