On January 30th, 2009, Eastscene was fortunate enough to interview the ever so lovely Meg Frampton from the band Meg & Dia on the phone, as they were on their way to Indianapolis for their show there.
EastScene: So my first question is… what was your favorite tour?
Meg: When we went out with Bayside and Anberlin. It must have been a year or two ago.
ES: And what was your favorite part about it?
Meg: Well, most of the time, it’s really awesome because the bands that go out get along with each other and we have a good time. But when we went out on that tour, it’s just… everyone bonded like brothers and sisters. We just got really, really close. And for some reason, I don’t know… we just all really liked each other. We actually got our stuff stolen on that tour and they all helped out with resources and gave us a bunch of money to help us out with the equipment for the next day, just because they cared about us. We just felt really close together.
ES: That’s awesome!
Meg: Yeah, we’re actually thinking about a reunion tour, sometime soon!
ES: Oh really? That sounds good.
Meg: I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, but we talk about it every once in a while [laughs]
ES: I know you guys are doing warped this year, right? Maybe they’ll end up going, maybe they’ll be part of the line up! So another question I have is: You guys are very much a DIY band, what would you suggest for an upcoming band that’s really just starting out? What should be the first step they should take in starting out, like recording and stuff?
Meg: Well, obviously, promoting your music, playing shows and getting your music out there are really important. But if I were able to start over again, I would do the part that people don’t like to do the most, which is practice a lot more than you should [laughs]. Because once you get on stage and once you’re out in front of people, I don’t think that bands/musicians really consider the nervous factor –and maybe some people don’t get nervous–, but it definitely affects your playing.
And I’m a musician, so obviously the music part is really, really important to me; not just marketing or promoting yourself. So I would say: Try to develop yourself as much as you can as a musician and as an artist to the point where you you feel comfortable. Of course you’re not going to be the “perfect” musician and artists tend to be really self-critical, so you’re never get to the point where you think you’re ready. But just try to be as ready as you can. Work as hard as you can before you get out there in front of people, so that you can have the confidence to be able to withstand all the criticisms and the judgments that’s going to happen when you’re first starting out.
ES: And you guys started out really early. I heard that a while back, Dia got a guitar for Christmas and you got a karaoke machine. Is that true?
Meg: Yeah, well, she got the piano and I got the karaoke machine, and we did a little bit of a switcharoo.
ES: Oh ok. So when did you guys start, at what age approximately?
Meg: I was about 18 when I started playing, so I would actually say that I got a late start. But as far as the label believing in what we do and signing us, I think we were lucky and got signed relatively early. Dia must’ve been 16, and she just turned 21… so we’re still young, I suppose [laughs]. I like to think that I’m young, I’m 23 now. I feel like I’m really older but I’m still young [laughs].
ES: [laughs] Well I think it’s never too late to start, so you give us inspiration!
Meg: But yeah, you definitely get enjoyment out of it, no matter what age or level you’re at.
ES: How about your influences? A lot of your song titles are book references. Right?
Meg: Yeah.
ES: Are there any new ones for the new album? What can we expect from your new album?
Meg: Well, Dia wrote a lot of the songs. I mean, she wrote about half and I wrote about half. What I wrote about was the point in life that we’re at: we’re still young, we’re touring a lot and we’re just at a point where we’re learning. And you grow up with convictions and beliefs, but when you’re around different people and around different situations, all of those things that you thought were true are challenged. The whole record’s written about rethinking things, making sure you know who you are and learning and discovering things as you go, being open to new ideas and just becoming your own individual. But basically, it’s an album about us, our music and what we do.
ES: And what about the sound? I know that with your first album, Our Home Is Gone, it was mostly acoustic. And then, with Something Real, you guys re-recorded a bunch of songs from Our Home Is Gone. So are we going to expect the same type of pattern, same kind of sound or are you guys experimenting with new styles?
Meg: Well, Dia’s voice is always going to be her voice. So it’s always going to be similar. We still have a lot of vocal harmonies. Those are always really important. It’s still really poppy. I think the areas that we advanced in would be instrumental. We’re experimenting with new instruments. I wrote a lot of string arrangements, and then cords and harmonica… so we’re adding different instrumentations to add new elements to the music. And arrangement-wise, we’re trying to open up a little bit and just with everything, I think we’ve improved a lot rhythmically and technically. We’re trying to expand our musical chord library. I think with everything, we’ve definitely grown. It’s still going to sound the same but I think it sounds a lot more mature in a lot of ways.
ES: That’s awesome! What about your songwriting process? You mentioned earlier that both of you guys write half of the songs each. How do you write your songs? Do you write individually… like does Dia come up with the melody? How does that work with you guys?
Meg: Usually, on all of my songs, I’ll write everything. Sometimes, Dia will come in and she’s done a lot of help with the lyrics on the songs that I’ve composed. And when she writes, I help write up the instrument parts. Like, she’ll write in the basic chord progession and the vocals, and then I’ll take the chords and maybe make them a little bit more interesting or add a little changes like widen the guitar parts or the piano parts and make it sound like a Meg and Dia song.
So it starts out with our own little ideas and working on it and getting those two points to make a finished product. And then we’ll add in our own touches to each other’s work.
ES: That’s really cool. And you guys have been touring extensively for the past little while. Do you get noticed or recognized when you go out of the country? And how does that feel?
Meg: Well, we get recognized at shows, obviously, because they can see that we played and they’d be like “Oh that girl was on stage, let me go say hi!” [laughs]. But when we go out, just going around, it’s actually pretty rare that somebody would say “I’ve heard of your band”, but when it does, it feels awesome! It feels like an accomplishment. I know that fame is one of those things that a lot of people strive for because it feels good to feel like somebody knows you for what you’ve accomplished or for something that you did. So whenever somebody recognizes one of us –like i said, it’s pretty rare unless we’re at a show–, it’s like a pat on the back, kind of like “Good job! you’ve worked hard accomplishing something and somebody recognized something you’ve done”. It definitely feels good. Out of the country, we haven’t really travelled a lot so I wouldn’t say that there’s a lot of M&D fans out there but we’re working on it. [laughs]
ES: How about your involvement with To Write Love On Her Arms and other charities like that? As a musician, do you feel that it’s something you need to do or is just in your nature to want to help?
Meg: We want to help people. And through our music, it’s awesome that we can help people become more aware. I think one of the best feelings is to know that when you’re struggling, or when you have a problem, that somebody else has been there before you and they got help and worked it out. That gives you the courage and help you to believe that you can make it too. We took part in TWLOHA, and we love working with them. We’ve done two shows, and helped get their message out there.
And I think it’s really important because those organizations really are helping people. We’re going to be touring on the Take Action! tour coming up after Secondhand Serenade, and that’s an organization that doesn’t just help one kind of charity or one kind of problem, they basically do a lot of charities. It’s a tour that helps spread the message to do something, to help any charity or anybody in any way, to go out there and try to make a difference. We’re glad to be a part of that.
ES: That’s really good though. Especially because you guys are musicians, I think it’s really good to see someone step up, you know?
Meg: As a musician, I think people tend to believe what you say a little bit more. Not because you’re above anybody, but just, you know… I would listen to anything that Tom Petty has to say. I’m not saying that I’m Tom Petty [laughs] but if somebody comes to one of our shows and likes our songs and respects us as musicians, they’ll be more apt to listen to what we have to say. And that’s why we think that we can help out by working with different charities.
ES: That’s true. And what about being in a girl band? There’s kind of like that stigma with being a girl in a band. How do you tackle that? Especially considering girl bands or being a girl in a band is a small minority?
Meg: Yeah, at first, I tried to deny the fact that I was a woman and I’d just try to pretend I could do everything that dudes could do [laughs]. Like, they would help me with equipment and I would pretend like all the crude stuff that gets talked about on tour doesn’t offend me but I realized after a short matter of time that I am very feminine [laughs]. I’m female, I like to do all the things that girls do [laughs]. I realize that after having a bunch of girlfriends over, that hanging out with a bunch of dudes after a whole tour, what a relief it is to just talk to girls about girl stuff.
But I’ve learned that guys don’t see it as a threat or something that they need to be afraid of, or weirded out by. I learned that I can just be myself and guys will appreciate that. They’ll be like “oh it smells good, there are girls on tour. That’s awesome”. I think they’re learning to just accept it and now i’m not trying to pretend that I’m anybody else. I’m just a girl, I’m female, I want to do the things that girls want to do. I put up with them and they put up with me, and everyone gets along in the end.
I think there’s a lot more girls now out on the scene and I hope there will be more. Like with every other industry, they just need to learn how to hang out with each other and it’s not hard. I love hanging out with my band and other bands on tour. It’s just once you figure out the dynamics and the differences, then it’s just really easy to have a good time with each other.
ES: Great! So thank you for all of your answers. That’s pretty much all I have for you guys. I really appreciate it!
Meg: Awesome! You’re welcome!
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