I. The Band (General/Background)
Why is your band name "Meg and Dia" if there are 5 members in the band?Dia's Answer: Good question. When my sister and I first started playing music, we played in many bands. We played in a band in St. George, Utah, called "Jade Harbor" for a little while. Which consisted of Meg and I and our 3 dude friends, Bucky, Justin, and Sunny. Then Meg went off to join a punk/hardcore band in Cedar City, Utah, while I went to Vegas and played in another band I started up through finding random people on the internet. We called it Coward's Courage, a reference from a J.D. Salinger novel. Finally, as our bands disintegrated, and people came and went, Meg and I just started playing acoustically, calling ourselves, "Meg and Dia." We started a myspace as "Meg and Dia" and started playing shows under that name as well. We made our first album, "Our home is gone," under that name as well. Then we met Nick when Meg crashed her car. Meg took her car to a auto shop called Price Auto and there was Nick Price, our future drummer, in his blue jumpsuit and oiled down hands. We got to talking, (he gave us an estimate on Meg's bumper) and then he said that he recognized our names. (We had played at small coffee shops, etc in Draper and Salt Lake, Utah for a bit). That very day we exchanged numbers and went and practiced some songs with Nick. It clicked and then from there we decided to try to form a band once again. We met up with various friends to fill in the spots, many who came and went, and now finally have a solid line up of friends and bandmates: Carlo and Jonathan. Once we started playing with Nick, we just never got around to changing the band name...it just kind of stuck. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but we hoped that people would see it as just a band name and not two girls. Boy were we naive. However, our name is what it is and we are still going to make the same music that we would anyhow so....oh well. How is Meg & Dia officially spelled?Nick's Answer: You can spell it, write it, say it however you want. Meg and Dia were playing as an acoustic duo. Then they decided to form a "band". That's when Ryan and I joined. We changed it to The Meg & Dia Band so that people would know we were a full band and not an acoustic duo anymore. After playing under this name for a while, we decided to change it back to Meg & Dia because now people know that Meg & Dia is not just Meg and Dia, [but] a full band. How long has Nick been playing the drums?Nick's Answer: I started playing in middle school at 13 or 14. I played in a bunch of bands through middle and high school, as well as jazz band, percussion ensemble, and pep band. Right before I met Meg & Dia, I was playing for the University of Utah's Drumline. I'm thinking about doing it again next season.
II. The Band (Personal)
What are your birthdays?Meg - April 3, 1985
Dia - October 2, 1987
Nick - May 27, 1984
Jonathan - July 29, 1986
Carlo - September 1, 1982 What are your ethnicities?Meg and Dia are Korean-American, with the American half being speculated by Meg to be of German/Swedish descent. She says, "My dad is a white dude born and raised in Utah."
Dia's Answer: Meg and I are half-korean (mom) and half-german I believe (dad). Nick's Japanese. Just kidding! Nick's plain white! Jonathan...he's an alien, and Carlo I believe is from the Philipinnes. (Hope I spelled that right, I'm sleepy).
III. The Music (General/Records)
Why isn't "Joey had a Smoke" Up...?Dia's Answer: That song is a Christmas song and will be up around...you guessed it! Christmas time. I think you can still get it off I tunes from the Santa Caus 2 record...all cash taken from it goes to charity...wahoo! I heard that there's an album called Our Home Is Gone that was released before Something Real. Is there a way I can get a hold of that CD?Officially, no. The band had mentioned plans to get the album onto iTunes but has since indicated that legal complications prevent that from happening.
Comment (Dia): Good question...we don't know. We only made 1,000 copies, those of which were all sold mostly in small coffee shops, basement shows, and random shows in Las Vegas and California. They all were sold over a span of time and are now probably floating around in space. However, some songs were put on other EP's, such as "If you're poor, find something to sue somebody for," or "What is it, a fender bender." I also heard that you can find some on I-tunes or ...gulp, illegally downloading them somewhere...so...I dunno. Best of luck to you.
IV. The Music (Song Origins/Meanings)
What is "Monster" about?Meg's Answer: "Monster" is about a book called East of Eden by John Steinbeck. [...] EVERYONE [should] read this book! In it, he explains his own term "monster" which refers to an individual having received no love as a child, which further transformed that person into a rapist or murderer, or some other unexplainable phenomenon. If a child receives no love they will end up a "monster". I could go on and on, but Steinbeck does a much better job of explaining his theory, so go check it out. In "Monster", where does "Hannah's regrets" come from?Meg's Answer: You know, it's funny because a lot of people have asked about that particular lyric. I did write the majority of this song, but bridges of songs are Dia's specialty, so the insertion of that lyric happens to come from her. Hanna is an actual real live person who we have known since before we created this band. So we used her name. "Hanna's regret" is her child that she brought into the world accidently and has no means to take care of or care for. (This didn't actually happen to Hanna!) "Monster" is what happens to people who don't have the love and attention needed to nourish a soul. Illegitimate children never receive that love. What is "Nineteen Stars" about?Meg's Answer: It's about a person giving up on life and feeling like they have nothing left. I think that every person reaches this point at some time or another. I felt like this a lot when I first moved out and went to college. I kind of foreshadows some suicidal tendencies but it's not meant to be depressing. Hopefully it was meant to be uplifting. The chorus urges the individual to fight for life and anything worth living for. When I was growing up, my best friend and I lived right next to each other. There was a fence that separated our backyards. Every night while we were struggling to get through the dramatics of high school we would come out to the fence at the appointed time and make a wish on our special constellation. So 19 stars is the number of stars that make up the constellation that we wished on. However, there isn't any particular constellation that I'm reffering to. 19 is significant, however, but that is one personal secret I'm not willing to tell. What is "Cardigan Weather" about?Nick's Answer: The song is about a girl that catches her guy with another girl, so she poisons him and sews him into her mattress. Then she has "sexual relations" with other dudes on the mattress. Pretty morbid, but thats Dia for you. Haha, she'd do it too!
V. Touring
Are we ever going to go out of the country?Dia's Answer: This next tour [The Spill Canvas] is going to Canada a lot but no where else. We would love to go to Australia, the UK, Japan, Korea, etc. We are just hoping that someday we will have the funds to go over there, and that we can make it happen soon! Keep our fingers crossed.
Update: May 10-11, 2008 at the Give It A Name festival (UK). Do you guys ever plan on touring in Canada?Nick's Answer: Yeah, we didn't do the Canada Warped shows because of our bus situation. We will play in Canada soon, I promise. We're working on some tours that might take us into Canada for a few shows, but nothing is for sure. I would love to tour in Canada with Bedouin Soundclash and Ill Scarlett.
Update: Since this answer by Nick, the band played in Toronto, ON on November 21, 2006 during their tour with Sugarcult.
Update (Nick): Yeah! Most likely in the fall [2007].
Update: With the Spill Canvas October 30, November 1, and November 3, 2007 in Toronto, ON, London, ON, and Ottawa, ON respectively.
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