Meg and Dia
Vocalist Dia Frampton discusses her band’s debut release, wrapping up her first Warped Tour, and her thoughts on overcoming the ‘chick band’ classification
By Kelly Mellott
Published: August 17th, 2006 | 11:53am
What’s the difference between girl power and the girl gimmick? For 18-year-old Dia Frampton of female-fronted pop act Meg and Dia, it’s a very fine line. Now after the August 8, 2006, release of their debut album, Something Real, on Doghouse Records and wrapping up their first major tour as the MySpace.com tent house band on 2006 Vans’ Warped Tour, these sisters are ready to show the world what side they’re on.
“We’re four people that like to play music. That’s pretty much it. People get us so confused all the time. ‘Two sisters? Are there three other girls in it?’ No! ‘Is it just you two?’ No! There are drums and guitars. But we are four people; we’re all friends and we just want to be seen as a band. And personally, I want to be seen as a musician. Not a ‘girl musician’ only,” Dia says as she clears away clutter to make sitting room in the back lounge of her band’s tour bus, which was her home for 58 days during Warped Tour. The band — which also includes 21-year-old guitarist-vocalist Meg Frampton, drummer Nick Price, and lead guitarist Kenji Chan — is ready to be heard and recognized as a whole.
Dia says she doesn’t want her band to be classified as a chick band. “I think [the press] almost use that too much. I’d just rather be another band. That’s all,” she says. “I hate it when people listen and they’re like, ‘Oh, there’s two girls. Are there three other girls?’ It just kind of makes me mad in this weird way. I want to say, ‘We play music — whatever. Sorry I’m not a guy!”
Meg and Dia officially formed when the Frampton sisters’ acoustic act was met with the addition of Price and Chan. Before that, the girls had been performing together since childhood after receiving a guitar and karaoke machine as Christmas gifts. They began performing at fairs and retirement homes in their hometown in Utah.
“I used to like country a lot when I was a kid. When I heard that LeAnn Rimes was a 14-year-old singer, I started yodeling,” Frampton says with a slightly embarrassed giggle. “It took me a while to get it through my head: You can write your own songs, you can perform, you can have your own band instead of a karaoke tape behind you.”
And she did just that, teaming up with her older sibling to form their first band when eldest sister Meg was only in the eighth grade. After splitting up so Meg could attend college in Salt Lake City, Dia decided to finish high school in packet form and join her sister in order to pursue their dreams of making music. The band was formed quickly and things took off. After three small tours on the West Coast and Midwest, Meg and Dia was handpicked to be the MySpace.com house band, making them the only band on the 2006 Warped Tour to play every date.
Meg and Dia’s sound comes off as edgy pop with emotionally driven melodies. Lyrically, lead songwriter Meg tends to stick to what she describes as “the two Ls: love and literature.”
Hoping to get as much exposure as possible, the band could be found walking around Warped Tour, headphones in hand, promoting their new album to anyone willing to give it a listen. “Some people didn’t like it and shoved the headphones back in our faces. But maybe someone will go home and listen to it and start crying because they relate with something that happened to them,” Dia says. “Some people just don’t like it and that’s cool. And if it changes someone’s life — even better.”
The young singer also admits the tour had a big impact on how she views herself as a female musician in the industry. Many female fans approached the band giving their support and thanks for representing the gender on Warped Tour and in such a male-dominated industry. Dia describes the feedback as being both inspiring and somewhat unsettling.
“I don’t think it’s healthy to have the mindset ‘I’m doing this because I’m female and I’m going to get it done!’ because that creates this mental picture of how your music has to be and how you have to go about doing things, like you have to prove something,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. “Just go play music! Be yourself and if you’re a girl — awesome. But just go do it!”
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