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Publication: Brass Magazine
Date: November 2006
Title: Meg & Dia - Emerging Monsters of Rock
Author: Sarah Higginbotham
Original URL: http://www.brassmagazine.com/articles/stry_temp.asp?aid=173
I hit play. I turn it up. I have to hear it live. When these two sisters from Utah take the stage, it rocks. One of Alternative Press magazine's 100 Bands You Need To Know in 2006, Meg & Dia is accelerating as fast in the music world as their highly charged rock tunes. With a summer on the Warped Tour, a music video on MTV, and a live performance on Carson Daly's Last Call, founders Meg and Dia Frampton have a lot to sing about. They've also got a lot to say about life on the road and a sound of their own you just have to hear...
September 2nd, 2006
I can do whatever I want like you (track 4)
Something great is happening for the Framptons. Last night, their band's music video, Monster, was voted onto MTV. A copy of Teen People just hit the shelves with a spotlight on the sisters. Despite her lady-like dress, Meg, 21, looks like she might kick one of her dirty Converse sneakers in the air and break out her guitar. Nineteen-year-old Dia looks peaceful and almost bored – this is the lead singer who has taken to sliding across the stage on her belly and grabbing Meg's ankles? Just like their songs, there's more to these two than I first thought.
The hard-rocking sisters are expert wordsmiths whose lyrics are inspired by favorite novelists John Steinbeck and George Sand. Their tours are marked by the books they read, not the parties they go to. Aside from Taco Bell wrappers, an iPod, and sleeping bandmates, their van is usually cluttered with books, drawings and journals.
They weave an edgy, but incredibly eloquent sound that refuses to settle into any one genre. Tracks with rapid fire drumming and soul-thumping, catchy refrains are paired with a classically cool piano duet on their recently released album, Something Real.
"It's important to tell the truth," Meg says of songwriting, "but it's also important that you have some freedom to tell it how you want."
This is not pre-packaged, made-to-please pop. You could call it something thoughtful. Something surprising. But at some point you'll have to admit that these two are actually on to something real.
September 14th, 2006
I am no masterpiece (track 5)
Backstage at an NBC television studio in Los Angeles, the band is freaking out. They give each other big hugs and take deep breaths. In a few minutes they will perform on Carson Daly's Last Call for the screaming studio audience and the millions watching at home.
"There are so many bands that are so lucky, and get that deal and blow up," Dia says with a voice she should rest more often between shows. "But I don't think we're really that story at all."
This is not overnight success. This is many nights on the road and too many showers in sinks. On their first tour, self-booked over MySpace in basements and rookie venues, they crammed into a five passenger Infinity and drove as many as nine hours a day. And after tonight, there will still be more van rides and small venues. But right now, in front of their biggest audience yet, they leave any doubt that they are just the flavor of the month on the stage floor with the trampled cords.
September 19th, 2006
Dear artist, you will rise again (track 10)
I catch up with the girls as they make their way through L.A. traffic. Mid-sentence Meg shrieks as their tour manager, Shannon, avoids a crash. Just one of the perils on the road to rock and roll greatness – a road that started farther away than you might imagine.
Meg and Dia didn't grow up in the O.C. They are not from downtown Seattle. And they didn't move to New York City to make it big. Their band is based in Salt Lake City and they grew up in Draper, Utah. Back when the town's population was still under 10,000, Draper had something none of those other cities did: "Absolutely no music scene," Meg says. "My friends and I would have to drive to Vegas to go see a rock show."
What Draper did have was county fairs, old folks' homes, and elementary schools – and they performed at all of them. At an early age, the sisters divided and conquered their future roles on stage. Dia sang during karaoke nights at local ice skating rinks. Meg learned to play classical piano and later the guitar. While the eldest sister has penned at least 300 songs herself, they often collaborate to write the band's music.
"Dia comes up with killer lyrics that I could have never thought of," Meg says. "It's awesome to work with her. She's definitely earned her spot on the songwriting bench."
Throughout the years Meg and Dia played in various bands, pulling together talented musicians they met anywhere and everywhere. But with a new sense of dedication and the right group, their latest effort paid off. In October of 2005 their band, Meg & Dia, signed on with Doghouse Records. They nabbed a spot as the first official MySpace band on the Warped Tour over the 2006 summer, the only band to play every city. Like thousands of other start-up bands, they had tapped into the MySpace music scene.
"We wanted to promote ourselves. We wanted to get people to come to our shows. We wanted to get our music out there," Meg says. "It's a lot easier than going door to door with a CD player. We'd write people personally and say, ‘what do you think about this?' And it kind of blew up from there."
September 26th, 2006
I'll show you what this girl can do (track 8)
Meg and Dia are reading under the only available light in the dark venue before their show. Another glow from a second-hand popcorn machine lights the way to the stage, an old platform that makes Carson Daly seem very far away.
Earlier this morning, I spotted Meg on a corner in downtown Portland, emerging barefoot from their van after a long night driving from California with the band. Behind her was the other shaggy haired Frampton rubbing sleep out of her eyes. In thirty minutes the girls would appear for their photo shoot fresh-faced in stylishly disheveled outfits, smiling behind two large cups: one coffee, one juice. Like the stage, the camera gives them a chance to reveal an honest piece of their individual natures. They performed like pros, then set off to meet up with their band, fill empty stomachs and hope for a spare hour to spend in a book store.
Now, thirteen hours later, they are shaking off the look of exhaustion as they set up the stage. When the first chords of Indiana find my ears, any sign of tension or sluggishness is gone. Under the lights at this late hour, the two girls lose their diminutive stature and their wistful smiles. I watch as two marvelous monsters crawl out from a place inside where their passions, words, and melodies breathe, waiting to be released. All five on stage rise and fall together to a song they have played a hundred times, though they look like they are dancing with an old friend.
The best part of touring is playing the shows, Meg says. "That's what it's all about, right?" It's why they will jump back in the van tomorrow and head for Seattle.
Their hope of playing on bigger stages is something very real. Before long, the sisters and their band will be looking at this road between the small-time and stardom in the rear view mirror. With the echo of their efforts following close behind and a plan for learning as much as they can along the way, I can hear the not-so distant future. It's getting louder and it sounds good. |
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